Remembrance: Selected Correspondence of Ray Bradbury Available for Preorder

On November 7th, readers will be able to dig deep into Remembrance, Jonathan R. Eller’s 528 page collection of correspondence to and by Ray Bradbury, a rich trove of letters that illuminate the private world of the visionary who moved science fiction into the literary mainstream and inspired generations of writers—and scientists—with his unbounded curiosity.  Although often labeled a science fiction writer, Bradbury’s most potent stories often deal with the sense of loneliness and loss inherent in being human and the desire to connect not only with others, but with the longings of our inner selves.  These letters offer a sustained look at the man behind the pen and typewriter, an inveterate letter writer who took the queries of his readers and aspiring writers seriously, cared deeply about the future and its connection to the past, and was not shy about expressing his opinions.

Bradbury scholar and biographer Jonathan R. Eller is perfectly positioned to curate this collection, having spent much of his career focused on preserving and defining Bradbury’s legacy. Co-founder of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University’s School of Liberal Arts, where he served as director for over a decade, Eller’s access to unexplored documents and his long personal and professional relationships  with Bradbury  and the people who knew and worked with him enrich the selection and organization of what is certain to be an essential addition to any Bradbury collection.

Dr. Eller is Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of English, Indiana University’s School of Liberal Arts. He serves on the editorial board of The New Ray Bradbury Review and is Senior Textual Editor in the Institute for American Thought. His most recent books include the biographical trilogy Becoming Ray Bradbury, Ray Bradbury Unbound, and Bradbury Beyond Apollo (Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2021). He recently served as editor for The Library of America’s two volume set, The Bradbury Collection.

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Festival 451indy to take place in September 2023

Festival 451indy is a celebration of the humanities — a campaign that will encourage lifelong learning through a variety of public programs, collaborative workshops, performances, and other events throughout Indianapolis.

The Ray Bradbury Center at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, will activate its vast collection to connect the larger Indianapolis community to Ray Bradbury’s unbounded imagination, to promote literacy, and encourage a kinder society that shares its gifts and talents for the greater good.

In Bradbury’s dark future of Fahrenheit 451, the authorities will let you ask how a thing is done, but you must never ask why. Festival 451indy encourages us to explore both questions.

Read more at the event’s website

Everything Everywhere All at Once creators win Nebula Award

The writing and directing duo of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheiner have been awarded this year’s Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation for their film Everything Everywhere All at Once.

See the list of all Nebula Award winners

Watch the announcement & acceptance speech

 

Library of America publishes The Illustrated Man, The October Country, Other Stories

This fall,  Library of America published the second volume of its Ray Bradbury edition, The Illustrated Man, The October Country, Other Stories, which brings together two of his most celebrated collections and twenty-seven other stories. The volume was edited by Jonathan R. Eller, the author of the three-volume Ray Bradbury biography (Becoming Ray Bradbury, Ray Bradbury Unbound, Bradbury Beyond Apollo).

Read Jonathan Eller’s Interview about the book

Learn more about Ray Bradbury’s books with Library of America

Featured Artist: Menachem Rephun

Like so many readers, Menachem Rephun discovered Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 in middle school and was hooked by the author’s vibrant imagination and poetic prose. Rephun continued to explore the Bradbury canon and “became an ardent fan.” Reading was an education in itself but he also went on to study literature and creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In Rephun’s former work as a journalist, he often focused on human stories that hit close to home—a beloved rabbi’s eulogy on bitachon and the death of a community elder, the struggles of a neighborhood foodbank. Today, in addition to his own fiction, Rephun writes about literature on his blog, Meditations in an Emergency. His recent article, “A Pleasure to Burn: Revisiting Fahrenheit 451 in an Age of Uncertainty offers his perspective on reading Bradbury during the pandemic.

To read more about Rephun and his Bradbury-inspired take on the power and immortality of words, visit our Legacy page.

American Writers Museum discussion of Bradbury’s Crime Fiction available online

As part of their continuing program for the Ray Bradbury centennial, the American Writers Museum hosted a discussion of Killer, Come Back to Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury with the collection’s editor, Charles Ardai. Ardai, the founder of Hard Case Crime publishing, explores the crime stories that Bradbury published in places as divergent as the pulps of the 1940s to Playboy and McCall’s. Dispelling the idea that the genre is an unlikely departure for Bradbury, Ardai suggests that the dark and strange that is a staple of Bradbury’s fantasy is often just a step away from the stuff of mysteries.  So, too, is the sense of surprise that Bradbury creates when he skillfully treats his readers to worlds they have not imagined or an unexpected turn of events that turns a story like “The Exiles,” originally published in MacLean’s as “The Mad Wizards of Mars,” on its head.

Acai also reveals how the 20 stories of Killer, Come Back to Me, were chosen and arranged, including the decision to anthologize some of Bradbury’s earliest work like the title piece, Bradbury’s first crime story. The 300 page collection offers those who read Bradbury as a science fiction and fantasy author a chance to discover the breadth of his accomplishment and it offers lovers of crime fiction the opportunity to add a new author to their list of favorites.

Charles Ardai, author, entrepreneur, editor, and publisher was the winner of an Edgar for his novelette “The Home Front.”  A man of diverse talents, he is the founder of Hard Case Crime publishing and has short stories slated to appear in two upcoming anthologies.

The program was presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum exhibit Bradbury Inextinguishable, open through May, 2022 for in-person visits at the Chicago museum and in an abbreviated form online.

 

Watch Charles Ardai

Watch more American Writers Museum Bradbury programs

Order Killer Come Back to Me

Joe Mantegna celebrates Ray Bradbury’s birthday and an enduring friendship

Birthdays are a time for celebration and remembrance and actor Joe Mantegna has done both in this video message noting Ray Bradbury’s 101st birthday. Mantegna needs little introduction; his appearances on stage and screen, his long association with David Mamet, and his role as FBI agent Rossi on Criminal Minds have made him instantly recognizable. But the origins of his relationship with Ray Bradbury might be less known. He grew up in Chicago reading Bradbury but his special connection to the author is rooted in his performances for the stage and movie adaptations of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, a story that showcased so much of Bradbury’s joy in life and belief in the transformative power of friendship.

To Bradbury, this story of five men who pool their money to buy a hundred dollar white suit and share its magical properties was less foreign and fantastical than it might seem. Sharing clothes was something friends and family of modest means did in the hard times of the Depression that shaped Ray’s youth: Bradbury famously wore the suit his uncle had been shot in–a bullet hole in one side and out the other–to his high school graduation. The Waukegan of his boyhood had also been a destination for Mexican workers seeking jobs in local industry and when he moved to Los Angeles he found himself living in the midst of the strong ethnic culture that suffused the area around Figueroa Street.  He tapped that experience in works like the touching 1948 New Yorker short story “I See You Never,” the 1950 Collier’s “ The Window,” (renamed “Calling Mexico”)  and the exploration of Dia de los Muertos in the enduring favorite, The Halloween Tree. But nowhere does Bradbury’s personal vision of the resilience of the people he knew shine as it does in the magic realism  of “The Magic White Suit,” originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1957 and then adapted in 1958 as “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” episode for Charles Drake’s TV series The Rendezvous, starring Peter Falk. Bradbury finally reworked it into a play for his Pandemonium Theatre Company.

In 1974 Stuart Gordon, artistic director of Chicago’s Organic Theater Company, mounted a production of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit starring young actors now famous for many other roles: Joe Mantegna, Dennis Franz, and Mensach Taylor. Twenty-five years later, Mantegna and Gordon would reunite to translate the play into film with the help of Roy Disney—a fan of the story ever since he had seen it performed in Los Angeles. Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay himself, relocating the story to the Boyle Heights area to reflect the blossoming of a vibrant  Hispanic community on the Eastside of LA by the time the film was made in 1999. He was present on the set every day: it was a labor of love and a way to ensure that his vision of the friends he first met in junior high would live forever. Mantegna’s birthday remembrance reminds us of who Bradbury was as a friend, and of the gifts he left behind for everyone to enjoy.

Along with Joe Mantegna, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit stars Edward James Olmos, Esai Morales, Gregory Sierra and Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez and features inspired moments of broad comedy from Sid Caesar, Howard Morris, and Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez. Mantegna and Bradbury, two sons of Illinois, remained friends and it is clearly through such friendships, as well as his writing, that Ray Bradbury continues to live on at 101.

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Stephen Graham Jones receives Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction

Stephen Graham Jones was awarded the 2021 LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction for his novel The Only Good Indians. This is the second year for the prize sponsored by the Ray Bradbury Foundation. This year’s LA Times Book Prizes were awarded in a live streamed ceremony kicking off the LA Times Festival of Books, whose exciting and edifying week of literary events remains available to watch online.

Jones, a prolific author who spent the last year working on 2 new novels, television & movie scripts, short stories, and a few essays, often draws on his Blackfeet Nation roots. But although The Only Good Indians tapped Jones’ experience as a hunter committed to respecting his prey, he denies that he writes social commentary. Instead, he insists perhaps disingenuously, he simply throws real people onto the page and lets them tell their own compelling stories–before they meet their fates.

The Only Good Indians, a beautifully written and taut psychological thriller as well as a horror story, follows four men of the Blackfeet Nation stalked by the spirit of a pregnant cow Elk slaughtered, along with a herd of bulls, a decade before. The need to fill their family freezers and the prospect of an impressive kill had convinced the young friends to venture into restricted lands of Nation elders. When they are caught in the act, they must abandon most of the meat–dishonoring the sacrifice of the animals’ lives. In the years that follow the ill-fated hunt, all four work to build good if different lives and families inside and outside the Nation but that atonement does not appease the spirit of the slaughtered Elk or eradicate their lingering guilt.

Jones’ great talent for creating a nuanced balance of complex, likable characters, engaging fantasy, and stark horror capable of upending reader expectations rightly made him this year’s winner of the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, an award named for a writer who prided himself on doing something similar in short stories that found horror in suburban basements and humanity in supernatural beings and creatures on Mars. The Only Good Indians was also a finalist for the 2021 Locus Award for horror novels and received this year’s Shirley Jackson Award for best novel.

Stephen Graham Jones, the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder, is the New York Times bestselling author of science, speculative, crime, and horror fiction. He has published 27 novels and novellas including The Only Good Indians, Mongrels, Mapping the Interior, All the Beautiful Sinners, and Demon Theory; 7 short story collections; and has works in numerous anthologies and online publications. Among his many awards are the Bram Stoker Award, four This is Horror Awards, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the 2020 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel (The Only Good Indians) and best novella (Night of the Mannequins). His newest novel, My Heart is a Chainsaw, will be available August 31.

 

Read more at the LA Times

Watch the Book Prize announcement 

Listen to an excerpt of The Only Good Indians

Purchase The Only Good Indians

Creator of The Good Place receives the Ray Bradbury Nebula Award

In a speech that mirrored the ironic style he is known for, Mike Schur accepted the Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation awarded to The Good Place. The popular series tracks the progress of souls working their way through the afterlife. The flawed and not always likable characters manage to change in a testament to the ever hopeful claim that no one, including the most wretched demon, is denied the possibility of spiritual progress and redemption.

Like Bradbury himself, Schur rejected being pigeonholed. The series was his first foray into fantasy and science fiction after a successful career producing the highly acclaimed workplace sitcoms The Office and Parks and Recreation.

Founded in 1992, the Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). It was designated an official Nebula award in 2019 and is chosen by members of SFWA.

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Christie Hefner talks about Fahrenheit 451 and Playboy Tuesday, May 24 at 6:30 PM CT

On Tuesday, May 25 at 6:30pm ET American Writers Museum in Chicago continues their National Endowments for the Arts Big Read online exploration of Fahrenheit 451 as Christie Hefner discusses Playboy Magazine and its connection to Bradbury’s now famous science fiction novel. As Chairman & CEO of Playboy Enterprises for 20 years, and the daughter of Playboy’s founder,  Christie Hefner is well placed to offer insight into the intersection of politics, culture, art, and personal interest that created what some thought an unlikely relationship between Bradbury, Hugh Hefner, science fiction, and Playboy magazine.

Playboy’s inaugural issue in December, 1953 featured a controversial Marilyn Monroe centerfold. With science fiction often relegated to the “pulps” as inferior literature, some thought the March 1954 issue of Playboy almost as daring: it featured the first installment of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a relatively unknown novel about futuristic firefighters who burn books for a livingTwo more installments would follow in April and May.  Playboy paid just $400 to serialize the book but the exposure promised to introduce Bradbury to a new audience–and burnish the reputation of Hugh Hefner’s fledgling magazine. It was a win-win arrangement: Bradbury was never comfortable being pigeonholed into one particular genre and the book’s defense of freedom of thought appealed deeply to Hefner, who was also a sci-fi fan. It was the first of over 30 times Bradbury’s stories would appear in Playboy.

The American Writers Museum’s NEA Big Read is presented in partnership with Arts Midwest as a way to foster community involvement and broaden understanding through the experience of sharing good books.

Register for free Christie Hefner program

Watch Hugh Hefner and Bradbury discuss Fahrenheit 451

View the Bradbury Indistinguishable online exhibit

Explore other American Writers Museum exhibits

39 Years ago today: Revisit Ray Bradbury at the Library of Congress

39 years ago on April 26, 1982, Ray Bradbury presented Beyond 1984, what to do when the doom doesn’t arrive,a lecture and reading at the Library of Congress.

Bradbury’s energetic performance traces his transformation from a young child whose love of books, dinosaurs, space travel, and writing sets him apart from his peers to a celebrated author who translates his passions into fiction that delights and inspires others. A consummate storyteller in person as well as on the page, Bradbury guides the audience through the serendipitous process of turning the germ of an idea into a finished story and provides a rare reading of “That Son of Richard III: A Birth Announcement.” First published in 1974 and then collected in the 1977 book Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns, the poem was inspired by Bradbury’s experience writing the screenplay for Moby Dick and explores William Shakespeare’s influence on Herman Melville.

Bradbury’s joy in sharing what he loves with others is palpable in this hour long recording. His own answer to the question, “What to do when the doom doesn’t arrive?” is clear: follow your heart and write!

Bradbury’s presentation is among the recordings offered online by the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature in the Library of Congress. Other programs feature Audre Lorde, Denise Levertov, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, and Ralph Ellison. The Archive is a treasure trove of nearly two thousand recordings from over 80 years of programming on Capitol Hill or at the Library’s Recording Laboratory. As the LOC digitizes more of these priceless materials, they will make them accessible online.

Listen to Ray Bradbury

 

Bradbury Foundation sponsors discussion of speculative fiction Tuesday, April 20 at LA Times Festival of Books

The Bradbury Foundation, sponsor of the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, will present the panel discussion Speculative Fiction: The Real and Unreal on Tuesday, April 20, at 7pm PST during the LA Times Festival of Books virtual celebration running through April 23.

Stephen Graham Jones, this year’s recipient of the Ray Bradbury Prize for his novel The Only Good Indians, will be part of the multitalented panel moderated by author Kelly Link, co-founder of Small Beer Press, recipient of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, and one of the judges for this year’s Bradbury prize. Other participants include Megan Giddings, feature editor at The Rumpus and author of he critically acclaimed Lakewood; Max Gladstone, author of numerous short stories, Ruin of Angels, and the interactive fiction game Choice of the Deathless; and Amal El-Mohtar, a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning poet and writer of speculative fiction who also serves as the science fiction and fantasy columnist for the New York Times Book Review.

Traditionally one of the year’s most widely attended literary festivals, the LA Times Festival of Books, has moved online due to the pandemic, making the offerings available to audiences worldwide. Fiction and non-fiction programming geared to authors and readers of all interests and ages can be found at the Festival’s virtual hub, including a new Children’s Stage featuring over 20 on demand videos of authors like LeVar Burton, Monica Brown, Matt de la Peña, and Dr. Omerine Aseh reading their work.

 

Read more

Register for the free discussion

Explore other sessions

Visit the LA Times Festival of Books

American Writers Museum previews Ray Bradbury: Inextinguishable April 14

On Wednesday, April 14 at 4pm CDT/5pm EDT, the American Writers Museum will offer a sneak peak of their newest virtual exhibit, Ray Bradbury: Inextinguishable and release details of special programs on Bradbury and his classic novel about apathy, censorship, and the power of ideas, Fahrenheit 451. The live YouTube presentation is part of the preparation for the museum’s physical reopening on May 14. Viewers can participate in trivia contests and win prizes and Experience Museum packages.

The Ray Bradbury: Inextinguishable exhibit will include material from the museum’s own holdings and the The Center for Bradbury Studies alongside the expertly curated information that has made the museum so popular.

Located in Chicago, just miles from Waukegan, Ray Bradbury’s hometown and the inspiration for his imaginary Green Town, the American Writers Museum is the only national museum dedicated exclusively to American writers and their work. It honors the influence of the past, explores and promotes accomplished authors of the present, and acts as a resource and inspiration for aspiring writers interested in exploring their craft. The museum provides state of the art interactive programs for all ages and has remained available to patrons through its virtual hub of online exhibits and presentations.

Learn more

Register for the free event

Writer’s Workshop with author T.J. Martinson on April 1st

There’s still time to register for the writer’s workshop with author T.J. Martinson on April 1st at 6:30pm CST. The free workshop is hosted by the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies.

Martinson’s critically acclaimed debut novel, The Reign of the Kingfisher, was published in 2019 by Flatiron Books. Set in a reimagined Chicago still suffering the loss of a local superhero, The Reign of the Kingfisher defies easy genre classifications. Martinson combines elements of the graphic novel with classic crime and mystery fiction in an exciting and elegant prose that will hook any reader who appreciates a good story and compelling characters.

Register

March’s Featured Artist: John Randall York

John Randall York, an American artist, designer, illustrator, cartoonist, watercolorist, and musician, loves to bring the whimsical  places and creatures of imagination—and memory—to life.  Known for capturing the unseen world of fairies, witches, dragons, and spirits in lush watercolors, his popular jack-o’-lantern filled Halloween tree prints evoke both the joy and the foreboding that Ray Bradbury captured in his perennial favorite, The Halloween Tree.

To read more about York and the fantastical worlds in his illustrations, visit to our Legacy page.

Winners of 2021 Scholastic Ray Bradbury Award for Science Fiction & Fantasy announced

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers has announced the National Medalists of the 98th annual 2021 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. For the first time, students will be recognized with the Ray Bradbury Award for Science Fiction & Fantasy.  Sponsored by the Ray Bradbury Foundation in recognition of  Bradbury’s enthusiastic  support for young artists seeking to follow their passions and improve their craft, the award provides $1,000 scholarships to six students whose entries emphasize supernatural, magical, futuristic, scientific, and technological themes.

The inaugural recipients are Samuel Franklin, New York, NY; James Lee, Northbrook, IL; Elena Luo, Flemington, NJ; Mia Naccarato, Wexford, NJ; Chinonye Omeirondi, Cypress, CA; and Sofia Schaffer, New Haven, CT.

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards recognizes students across the United States in grades 7–12 with exceptional artistic and literary talent. Regional award winners move on to the national level where they can access opportunities to have their works evaluated, exhibited, and published. Teachers of regional winners can apply for a two week GOLDEN Educators Residency summer program. Past Scholastic Art & Writing Award recipients include Ken Burns, Kay WalkingStick, Andy Warhol, Luis Jiménez, Charles Wilbert White, Stephen King, Paul Chan, and Amanda Gorman.

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The Los Angeles Times announces finalists for the Ray Bradbury Prize

The Los Angeles Times has announced the finalists for the 2021 Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, part of the 41st annual L.A. Times Book Prizes.  Last year’s inaugural Bradbury prize went to Marlon James for his  fourth book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf.

This year’s Bradbury Award finalists:

The L.A. Times Book Prizes honor the best books of the preceding year in one of the preeminent literary festivals in the United States.  Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a  reimagined awards ceremony will be held virtually on Friday, April 16.

See all L.A. Times Book Prizes Finalists

Phil Nichols launches Bradbury 101 video series

Dr. Phil Nichols, creator and curator of Bradburymedia, has posted the first video of his new series, Bradbury 101. Nichols’ current program continues the same fresh focus on all things Bradbury that characterized the Bradbury100 podcast introduced to celebrate the 2020 centennial of the author’s birth. Bradbury 101 moves into video with a maiden episode that offers a roadmap for pursuing  an interest in Bradbury’s writing, films, and life story. All episodes of both series are available on YouTube and at Bradburymedia.

Nichols is a perfect guide. Internationally recognized for his study of Bradbury’s own screenplays as well as others’ adaptations of Bradbury’s work for film and television, Nichols also serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University and the Editorial Board of The New Ray Bradbury Review.  He teaches at the University of Wolverhampton in England.

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Ray Bradbury’s The Machineries of Joy turns 57

This February marks 57 years since Ray Bradbury published his short story collection The Machineries of Joy. A mixture of the bizarre and everyday, these twenty stories are a mirror of the author’s own joys: his love of small town life and large dinosaurs, his capacious curiosity, and his steadfast insistence on embracing the things we love despite the obstacles.

In the title piece, two priests debate the value of exploring the unknown universe. “Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar,” first published as “Come Into My Cellar” in the 1962 October issue of Galaxy Science Fiction and later the basis for Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ disquieting adaptation, “Special Delivery,” follows young boys who respond to the allure of mail order science projects and unknowingly begin spawning space invaders in the cellars of suburbia. Two other stories revisit the Mexican customs illuminated in The Halloween Tree while the often forgotten “The Illustrated Woman” entwines the fantastic, the frightening, and the truly human in classic Bradbury style.

Buy The Machineries of Joy

Watch “Special Delivery” on Peacock

Read “Come into My Cellar”

Watch Moby Dick, now available on YouTube Movies

Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck is now available through YouTube Movies. In 1954 Ray Bradbury spent six months in Ireland working on the screenplay for the film directed by John Huston. It was Bradbury’s first screenplay for a book he hadn’t written himself but Huston, impressed with the lyricism of Bradbury’s writing and the command of sea lore shown in the short story “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,” had sought Bradbury out to bring Herman Melville’s American classic to the screen.

The relationship with the notoriously difficult Huston was not without its drama and Bradbury eventually reworked the short stories and plays that fictionalized his experience in Ireland into the 1992 novel Green Shadows, White Whale. With the success of Moby Dick and the reception of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury found himself in demand in Hollywood’s film and television industry, soon adding scriptwriting for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Playhouse 90, and The Twilight Zone to his already impressive resume.

Read an excerpt from Jonathan Eller’s Bradbury Unbound dealing with Bradbury’s time in Ireland.

Watch Moby Dick

 

January’s Featured Artist: Ron Koertge

Award winning South Pasadena Poet Laureate Ron Koertge recently penned a poem to accompany the stained glass window installation in the Bradbury meeting room of the South Pasadena Public Library. Koertge’s acquaintance with Bradbury, however, began some forty years ago: he and Bradbury frequented the same writer’s conferences and the famous author was a regular at South Pasadena Library events. Koertge and others often joined Bradbury afterwards for coffee. With “In Memoriam,” Koertge sets Bradbury’s desire to “live forever” through his work against the advice the author once offered at one of those sessions: “Mess around after you get your work done.”

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Inauguration poet Amanda Gorman discovered the poetry of words in Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine

“Poetry is good because it flexes muscles you don’t use often enough.”
– Ray Bradbury, Zen and The Art of Writing

Ray Bradbury believed his writing was successful because he had a strong sense of metaphor. The best of his prose works are celebrated for their lyrical power and Bradbury would have been pleased to know that his love of language inspired Los Angeles poet Amanda Gorman, the youngest person to pen and deliver a presidential inaugural poem. Gorman read her 713 word poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at the presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2021. The 22 year old, who graduated from Harvard last year, says she discovered the power of poetic language when a third grade teacher read Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine to her class. Although she does not recall what metaphor sparked her interest, she remembers what it felt like: “it reverberated” inside her.

As Gorman explained, she has a speech impediment that makes it difficult to pronounce certain sounds and found the ability to shape and manipulate words in a way that moved others empowering. The Hill We Climb, her second poetry collection, and Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem, a children’s book illustrated by Loren Long, will be available in September, 2021.

Watch “The Hill We Climb” or read more about Gorman by clicking below.

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Student artwork from Spain explores Fahrenheit 451

As part of their study of Fahrenheit 451, Year 12 students at the British School of Barcelona, Nexus, had the option to design covers for Bradbury’s dystopian novel. Ranging from pencil drawings to a realistic full color rendering of fireman Montag against a background of flames, students took the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the book in images rather than words.

Interested in seeing more Bradbury-inspired artwork? Check out The official Ray Bradbury twitter account for our weekly Artwork Wednesday series featuring artists from around the world!

Sue Granquist recalls how Bradbury’s story of a Christmas wish gave her the best present of all

Readers who know Ray Bradbury as a science fiction and fantasy writer may forget that his writings have long appealed to a broad audience and appeared in magazines from Playboy to McCall’s.

When Sue Granquist was nine years old, she discovered the magic of Ray Bradbury in the December 1973 issue of Women’s Day. It was a difficult Christmas season, for Granquist had recently lost her grandfather to a heart attack and felt like she was now losing her father to his own deep grief. But something changed when her father, normally “more of an evening news man” read “The Wish,” a Bradbury short story nestled between cookie recipes and needlework patterns. Granquist’s mother had put the magazine into her grieving husband’s hands as he sat, stoic, on the living room couch and it seemed to move him to tears. Granquist watched as her father soon seemed “more himself” and, after reading the story herself, she began “devouring anything written by Ray Bradbury.”

“The Wish,” written after the death of Bradbury’s own father, describes an hour of Christmas night magic that revealed the salve for loss and despair: expressions of love. First published in Woman’s Day and later collected in Long After Midnight, it is one of Bradbury’s few Christmas stories.

Bradbury’s friend and former publisher Peter Schneider, now of Hill House Press, came upon Granquist’s remembrance of that 1973 December on the Black Gate magazine website and wanted her to have his copy of “The Wish,” a limited edition he convinced Bradbury to publish in 2006. You can read more about Granquist’s discovery of Bradbury on the Black Gate blog.

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December’s Featured Artist: Esteban Cánepa

Esteban Cánepa, a professional illustrator, storyboard and concept artist, and human rights activist based in Argentina has been a lifelong Ray Bradbury fan. “I’m an avid reader of science & science fiction & a tremendous admirer of Ray Bardbury’s humanistic & poetic works.”

In a work of art based on The Martian Chronicles, “The Fog Horn,” Fahrenheit 451, and others, Cánepa celebrates the timeless appeal of Bradbury’s exploration of love, curiosity, and the human desire to reveal the unknown.

Read more about Cánepa and his work by clicking below.

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Experience a virtual tour of Unbounded exhibit

Unbounded, an exhibition curated by the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, dives into the rich life and contributions of Ray Bradbury, a master storyteller, champion of creative freedom, space-age visionary, and guardian of the human heart. The exhibition offers a broad and immersive  experience featuring a gallery guide, QR code captions, a 3D Animation of “The Halloween Tree” through the Artivive app, and a scavenger hunt. You can experience a virtual tour of the exhibition by clicking the button below.

The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies seeks to fully document, preserve, and provide public access to its large and diverse collection that includes more than 100,000 pages of Bradbury’s manuscripts, his personal office and working library, correspondence, and a lifetime of his awards and mementos.

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Ray Bradbury Visiting Writer Series hosts Kathryn H. Ross

The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies and the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute hosted writer Kathryn H. Ross as part of the virtual 2020 Ray Bradbury Visiting Writer series. Ross first discovered Bradbury’s poetic prose as a child when she borrowed her mother’s copy of Golden Apples of the Sun and still considers Bradbury a major influence on her writing. Ross’ articles, short stories, poetry, and fiction explore themes of race, identity and faith, as does her 2019 essay collection, Black Was Not a Label.  In a wide ranging discussion, Ross discussed Bradbury, the writing process, and the personal journeys that shape her writing.

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South Pasadena Public Library illuminates stained glass tribute to Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury has long illuminated the human heart and our dreams for the future. Now South Pasadena Public Library has illuminated a stunning trio of stained and fused glass windows that will stand as a permanent tribute to the author who believed that libraries were the center of the community. The windows depicting Bradbury and scenes from some of his best loved works, like Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and Dandelion Wine, are part of the library’s celebration of Bradbury’s centennial.

Conceived by South Pasadena glass artist Tim Carey and completed in partnership with the world renowned Judson Studios, the windows grace the Ray Bradbury Conference Room that looks out onto the majestic Morton Bay Fig “Library Tree,” a city landmark. As residents gathered beside the tree for the illumination, Library Director Cathy Billings suggested the windows would be a visible reminder of “the joy, wonder, and imagination that Bradbury embodied” and continues to share each time a patron borrows one of his books.

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The Halloween Tree pairs history lessons with suburb writing

Although many of Ray Bradbury’s works draw on memories of his childhood in the small midwestern town of Waukegan, Illinois, The Halloween Tree was written specifically for a younger audience. This holiday classic shines with all the polish and lyricism of Bradbury’s best prose. The story follows a group of trick-or-treaters who must place themselves in the hands of a ghoulish guide and learn the history of Halloween before they can save their ill friend, Pipkin, from death.

In an insightful article for the horror website, Bloody Disgusting, Brian Keiper explores Bradbury’s artistry with language and his ability to weave information into an evocative and emotional tale that excites the senses and touches the heart. For Keiper, Bradbury’s abilityto make what is essentially a history lesson so riveting, so enchanting, and so artistic is a feat that borders on miraculous.”

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Dark Worlds Quarterly celebrates Bradbury’s pulp stories in Weird Tales

Many of the stories Ray Bradbury would later collect into books or rework into novels like From the Dust Returned saw their start in the pulp magazines that served as the entry into publishing for many science fiction writers in the 1940s and 50s. G.W. Thomas, author and editor at Rage Machine Books, revisits the stories Bradbury published in Weird Tales with this article from Dark Worlds Quarterly. With twenty-five full page illustrations from artists like Fred Humiston, A. R. Tilburne, or Boris Dolgov, and links to replicas of the original editions of Weird Tales, Thomas’ piece also acts as an anthology that allows readers to enjoy early gems like “The Black Ferris,” the germ of Dark Carnival, or “The Ducker” and “The Poems,” pieces that may be new even to Bradbury fans.
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National Review looks at the world Ray Bradbury foresaw

Ray Bradbury never lost the joy in life he developed as a boy exploring the sights, sounds, and people of the small midwestern town of Waukegan, Illinois. He spent a lifetime of words convincing readers to stay in touch with the curious, open child within who knows how to discover something extraordinary in the mundane of the everyday.

Arts and culture critic Peter Tonguette believes that Ray Bradbury’s writings are just as instructive now as the day they were written and can help us deal with the challenges of modern life. Will we take the opportunity to recreate the world of Dandelion Wine by rediscovering breadmaking, reading to our children, gardening, and thinking for ourselves? Or will we, like the characters of Fahrenheit 451, allow our fascination with a parade of flickering images to supplant genuine connections to the people and places beyond our couch? Bradbury often said that he wrote about the future to prevent it. Tonguette suggests that although Bradbury did not prevent the dangers he foresaw, his stories about the pleasures of human connection continue to show us how to navigate them.

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Marlon James, winner of the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, to be interviewed by Tananarive Due for the LA Times Book Festival

On October 26, from 6pm to 7pm PDT, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Stories & Ideas will feature Marlon James, whose Black Leopard Red Wolf received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, in conversation with Tananarive Due, award winning author, screenwriter, and prominent voice on Black horror and speculative fiction. Expect a lively discussion between two authors whose works range between the historical and the fantastic.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, a mainstay of the West Coast literary calendar for a quarter of a century, has been reimagined as an expanded 4 week virtual event  for readers around the world. Beginning Sunday, October 18 and continuing through November 13, the LA Times Festival, in partnership with the University of California, will offer free readings, panel discussions, and other events highlighting stories and ideas from the best authors, filmmakers, musicians, and artists of our times.
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Festival Schedule

Anthology explores Bradbury’s Elliot family stories and the supernatural

Fans of Ray Bradbury’s “Autumn People” can read more about the fantastical family of ghosts, mummies, vampires, witches–and one human boy–that the author visited and revisited for almost sixty years in a series of short stories. Those tales of the weird and wonderful, published in periodicals, included in The October Country, and eventually knit together as the 2001 novel From the Dust Returned, are the focus of Exploring the Horror of Supernatural Fiction in Ray Bradbury’s Elliott Family.

Authors and editors Miranda Corcoran and Steve Gronert Ellerhoff have selected twelve critical essays that explore the power of Bradbury’s gothic tales to capture the bittersweet adolescent experience of being different, the difficulty of balancing the desire for individuality with a longing for family and community, and the emotional and ecological costs of unchecked technology.

Hear an interview with Miranda Corcoran on Phil Nichol’s Bradbury 100 Podcast: Listen now

Discover Bradbury’s enduring contributions to the traditions of gothic and horror literature.

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Celebrating Banned Books Week

Founded in 1982,  Banned Books Week promotes an author’s right to express a variety of  viewpoints and the public’s right to access them.  As part of its celebration of Banned Books Week, Simon & Schuster is highlighting Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury’s first novel is one of the nation’s most ironically censored books since it is, itself, a warning about losing the freedom to read.

To learn about Banned Books week or discover resources for schools, libraries, and organizations, visit the Banned Books Week website or The American Library Association’s site for Banned and Challenged Books

Library of Congress Book Festival features discussion and Q&A on “The Ray Bradbury Effect”

The 20th Library of Congress National Book Festival explored “The Ray Bradbury Effect” during its celebration of the nation’s most gifted authors in a reimagined virtual festival, designed for readers of every age and interest, from September 25-27, 2020.

Bradbury biographer and director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies Jonathan Eller  moderated a discussion of Bradbury’s enduring influence on literature, space exploration, and our collective curiosity with Ann Druyan, documentarian and author of Cosmos: Possible Worlds  and Leland Melvin, NASA engineer, astronaut, educator, and author of Chasing Space: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace and Second Chances.

The panel presentation is available online via the Festival’s online platform and YouTube. Eller, Druyan, and Melvin also participated in a live Q & A on Saturday from 4pm to 4:30pm EDT.

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Bradbury’s Galaxy magazine stories available on the Internet Archive

356 issues of Galaxy, one of the most prestigious science fiction magazines of the 1950s, can be found online in the Internet Archive. Ray Bradbury’s early version of Fahrenheit 451, “The Fireman,” published in the February 1951 issue, and his 1962 short story,  “Come to my Cellar” are just two of the gems to be discovered alongside the works of Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl and many others. It’s not surprising  that Bradbury’s work ended up in Galaxy. Editor H.L. Gold  hoped to develop a new science fiction audience by publishing stories that focused on ideas and employed a humorous or satiric treatment of psychological and sociological themes.

View the Collection

Ray Bradbury’s speech at the 1986 World Science Fiction Convention now available online

Anyone who reads Ray Bradbury experiences the result of the boundless enthusiasm and love the man poured into his writing. That same excitement and generosity of spirit shone through in person. In August, 1986 he regaled the audience at the 44th ConFederation (Worldcon) in Atlanta, Georgia with stories of his career–how he pursued the loves of his life, whether it was space, dinosaurs, or enduring friendships with those whose hearts were as wide and deep as his own. If you have only read Bradbury, watch and listen to the man behind the typewriter for a better appreciation of the passion that drove him to share the life he experienced, the worlds he imagined, and the futures he hoped he could inspire others to create for themselves and the universe.

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Bradbury’s classic horror story “The Screaming Woman” adapted for graphic anthology

Richard Chizmar and Legion of Superheroes’ artist Dennis Calero have translated  Ray Bradbury’s “The Screaming Woman” into a graphic story for Chizmar’s anthology Seasons of Terror.  Bradbury’s tale of a young girl, whose insistence that mysterious screams are coming from the woods near her house is dismissed by her parents, has a long history of adaptations. It debuted as a 1948 radio play for Suspense before it became a short story in Today, was anthologized in S is for Space in 1966, and then adapted for Ray Bradbury Theatre in 1986.  Chizmar, who hopes to engage a new generation of readers with classic horror, has paired Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Robert McCammon with different illustrators to create a unique visual take for each of the four comics included in the anthology.
The book is available for pre-order now.

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National Air and Space Museum geologist recalls inspiration from The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury fans can be found in many places: libraries, English classrooms, science fiction conventions, and, of course, NASA and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Dr. John Grant, a geologist with the Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies who has worked on the Curiosity Laboratory, the Mars 2020 rover and the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, first discovered the red planet when he read Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.

In his remembrance of Ray Bradbury’s influence, Grant recalls how reading stories of ancient Martian civilizations at the same time the Mariner 9 and Viking missions were actually reaching Mars inspired an interest in planetary geology that took him from imagining Martian craters as he played outside to working on missions that land exploratory vehicles in the real thing.

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South Pasadena Poet Laureate Ron Koertge pens poem honoring Bradbury

South Pasadena Poet Laureate Ron Koertge has written a poem to accompany the stained glass window installation planned for the Bradbury Conference Room of the South Pasadena Public Library. With “In Memoriam,” Koerte recalls the advice the author once offered over a cup of coffee after a long day of conference presentations: “Mess around after you get your work done,” Bradbury suggested. 

Koertge’s poem and the stained glass window designed by Tim Carey Studios are just two ways the library continues to honor Ray Bradbury. They also hold a significant collection of memorabilia and photographs related to the author, who frequented so many of the libraries near his home in Cheviot Hills.

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Scholastic Art & Writing Awards now accepting submissions for The Ray Bradbury Award for Science Fiction & Fantasy

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for creative teens, is now accepting submissions from students across the country in grades 7–12 for the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award for Science Fiction & Fantasy. 

The award is sponsored by the Ray Bradbury Foundation in recognition of  the author’s dedication to encouraging young writers to explore their craft. Up to six students will receive $1,000 scholarships for writing that uses supernatural, magical, futuristic, scientific, and technological themes as a key element of the narrative. Their educators will receive $250.

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Learn More About the Award

NPR Marks the Centennial of Ray Bradbury’s Birth

Authors Marjorie Liu and Mary Robinette Kowal spell out the eternal messages in Ray Bradbury’s stories and discuss his influence on their own writing with Petra Mayer on Morning Edition. For Liu, who recently completed a reading for the Ray Bradbury Read-A-Thon of Fahrenheit 451, now streaming online, the genius of his science fiction is that it captures what it means to be human, no matter the time or space.

Mary Robinette Kowal believes Bradbury’s brilliance comes from an ability to make the stories that draw on his small town childhood reveal the truth about a larger world. “He’s writing his own very specific experience. But I think sometimes the more specific you are, the more universal themes can come out of something,” Kowal notes.  The authors diverge on the most essential Bradbury, however. Kowal recommends  the classic story of book burning and authoritarianism,  Fahrenheit 451, while Liu prefers Something Wicked This Way Comes, a tale about how the love of a young boy destroys a carnival of evil threatening his town and family.

Listen to NPR Interview

University of South Carolina acquires extensive Bradbury collection from author’s long-time friend, Anne Farr Hardin

Ray Bradbury had a knack for making friends with people who, like himself, pursued their passions with enthusiasm. In honor of Ray Bradbury’s 100th birthday, Dr. Anne Farr Hardin, the author’s longtime friend and an avid Bradbury collector, has gifted the University of South Carolina Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections with her extraordinary collection of Bradbury books, fanzines, magazines, personal correspondence, photographs, and memorabilia. Many items were presents from Bradbury, while others are rare items that Hardin, a fan as well as a friend, picked up during trips and conferences, or located in unexpected places across the country. As Hardin explained in interviews with Michael Weisenburg at the Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, she was on a mission to tell the story of Bradbury’s development as a writer by locating the pieces he published in fanzines, pulps, and slick magazines; writings often ignored or thought lost to history–until now.

A virtual exhibit, Ray Bradbury Now and Forever: The Anne Farr Hardin Collection, showcases selections from this extraordinary acquisition until physical exhibitions resume. The Anne Farr Hardin Collection is also accessible to visiting researchers by appointment with the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.

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View the Collection
Watch Anne Hardin’s Interview

KCRW Radio remembers Bradbury’s influence on the Los Angeles community

Ray Bradbury moved to Los Angeles when he was 14, and although he is most often remembered for his expansive body of literary work, his desire to recreate the best aspects of small town life on a grander scale, detailed in a 1970 LA Times article, left an indelible mark on Los Angeles’  architecture and  urban development. In this episode of public radio station KCRW‘s Greater LA, host Steve Chiotakis commemorates the 100th birthday of the famous Angeleno with colleagues Frances Anderton of  the weekly broadcast DnA: Design and Architecture, and KCRW host and librarian Eric Lawrence.

Atherton’s stories of Bradbury’s collaboration with noted architect Jon Jerde and other developers in Hollywood reveal how Bradbury made some of his visions for a better future a reality.

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Historian Ty Rohrer to speak on Ray Bradbury and his Waukegan influences

Interested in what influenced a young Ray Bradbury? Join historian Ty Rohrer on Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 7:00 pm CDT for a virtual presentation hosted by the Woodbridge Public Library.  Rohrer, director of the Waukegan History Museum in Bradbury’s hometown, will illustrate this free Zoom lecture with photographs selected from the Historical Society’s rich collection. The event is free, but registration is required.

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Zócalo Public Square, Fowler Museum at UCLA, & ZYZZYVA host discussion: “Are We Living in a World Ray Bradbury Tried to Prevent?”

Ray Bradbury never lost the abiding curiosity about humanity’s future on earth and in space that began when he was a child reading Flash Gordon comics and the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs. On August 27, Zócalo Public Square, Fowler Museum at UCLA, and ZYZZYVA will bring together author Lilliam Rivera, Arizona State University Center for Science and the Imagination professor Michael Bennett,  and Jonathan R. Eller, Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University for a virtual discussion. The panel will discuss the lessons Bradbury’s work offers about a present that has surprising and sometimes sobering similarities to the futures he imagined in his fiction. Oscar Villalon, managing editor at ZYZZYVA, moderates.  ZYZZYVA will be publishing  “The Pedestrian,” the 1951 short story inspired by the same late night encounter with police that grew into Fahrenheit 451, in their fall issue.

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Celebrate Bradbury’s 100th birthday by watching the Fahrenheit 451 Read‑A‑Thon

The Ray Bradbury Read-A-Thon of Fahrenheit 451 premiers Saturday, August 22 at 4:30pm EDT, on what would have been Bradbury’s 100th birthday. Celebrate with people across the world as you watch librarians, authors,  actors, and students read the story that has captured the imagination of generations who find a timeless message in this cautionary and uplifting tale from one of the most celebrated storytellers of our time.

Bookended by the opening and closing readings from Neil Gaiman and William Shatner, the special includes commentary by Ann Druyan, director and co-author of Cosmos, an afterword by Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book, and a special appearance and reading by former NASA astronaut and administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr.

Available to stream from 4:30pm EDT, August 22 until midnight, September 5, 2020.

John Scalzi writes about meeting the “wizard” Ray Bradbury

John Scalzi, science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, offers his remembrance of how Bradbury’s stories and his magical use of language  helped him understand what it was to be a writer or, as his twelve year old self saw it, a wizard of words. In honor of what would have been Bradbury’s 100th birthday, Scalzi celebrates Bradbury’s power to awaken the emotions with words that “have weight and rhythm and pace and form.”

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Rolling Stone promotes Fahrenheit 451 Read-A-Thon with William Shatner, Neil Gaiman, Susan Orlean and Others

Rolling Stone recommends tuning in to the Ray Bradbury Read-A-Thon on Saturday, August 22 at 4:30pm EDT to watch a diverse group of people–from Neil Gaiman, William Shatner, Marjorie Liu and Susan Orlean, to your local librarian or high school student–read the entirety of Ray Bradbury’s beloved Fahrenheit 451. Reporter Daniel Kreps notes that reading Fahrenheit 451, a story about the importance of books, is an especially appropriate way to celebrate what would have been Bradbury’s 100th birthday. Bradbury felt libraries had been a gift to him throughout his life, saying, “I’m completely library-educated. Libraries are absolutely at the center of my life.”

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“Ray Bradbury, A Master of Science Fiction” on BBC Radio’s The Forum

The Forum, BBC’s flagship radio program of discussion and commentary, celebrates the centenary of Ray Bradbury’s birth with the program “Ray Bradbury, a Master of Science Fiction.” Award winning broadcaster and writer Rajan Datar moderates a thoughtful and informed exploration of Bradbury’s varied and voluminous body of work with a panel of Bradbury scholars: Jonathan Eller, Chancellor’s Professor of English and Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University; Miranda Corcoran, specialist in science fiction and the gothic at University College Cork; and Phil Nichols, who focuses on Bradbury, media, and film production at Wolverhampton University. You can listen to the program by clicking on the “Listen” button below.

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“I, Rocket” awarded Retro-Hugo for best short story

Jason Aukerman, managing director of the Center for Bradbury Studies, accepted the 1945 Retro-Hugo award for Ray Bradbury’s “I, Rocket” at the virtual CoNZealand WorldCon convention. The Retro-Hugo honors works published in years when no Hugo awards were awarded. In 2019, Bradbury’s “King of the Gray Spaces” from R is for Rocket received the 1944 Retro-Hugo for best short story.

Published in 1944, “I, Rocket” was Bradbury’s first sale to the iconic science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. Narrated by the rocket itself as it lies alone and broken on some distant planet after a lifetime of service, “I, Rocket” offers an uplifting story of the love of work and others. Surprisingly,  this award-winning story was not anthologized in Bradbury’s own collections but it can be found in Amazing Science Fiction Anthology: The War Years 1936-45.

Read “I, Rocket”
(Amazing Stories)
Read “I, Rocket”
(EC Comics)

I Saw it at Ray’s House, virtual exhibit at Soho Photo Gallery opens August 1

Artist Elizabeth Nahum-Albright’s exhibit of over 70 photographs, I Saw it at Ray’s House, will open online August 1 at sohophoto.com. Nahum-Albright knew Bradbury from the time she was a child: her father, Donn Albright, was Bradbury’s close friend, editor, and bibliographer. That personal connection gives her a unique visual perspective on the author’s relationship to both the house he lived in for over 50 years and the treasures he collected and looked to for inspiration. Nahum-Albright’s unique exhibition includes photos taken of the house when Bradbury lived there as well as bittersweet photos of items being packed up and shipped to their new home at the Center for Bradbury Studies.

Visit Soho Photo Gallery

Killer, Come Back to Me, new collection of Bradbury crime fiction, available for pre-order

In Killer, Come back to Me, Hard Case Crime brings together twenty of Ray Bradbury’s finest works of crime fiction, including “The Small Assassin,” “The Whole Town’s Sleeping,” and the title story–Bradbury’s first published mystery. A joy to look at as well as read, this collectible first edition from Penguin Random House features original cover art from a painting by Paul Mann and eleven never-before-published illustrations by Robert Gale and Deena So’Oteh. Pre-order Killer, Come Back to Me now for an August 18th release, just in time for Ray Bradbury’s 100th birthday on August 22nd!
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Phil Nichols launches Bradbury 100 podcast

The Bradbury 100 podcast launches July 25th!  Each episode will delight fans and scholars alike as Phil Nichols, a film and literature specialist with a focus on Ray Bradbury, engages with a different aspect of the celebrated author’s work and interviews people Bradbury inspired. Listeners can expect to discover new perspectives on forgotten works and little known details about the last century of Bradbury as they prepare for the next. Check out  Nichols’ website, bradburymedia.co.uk, for even more information about all things Bradbury and media.

Follow the podcast on Facebook for updates on the show’s guests and content.

Click on the button below to listen to the Bradbury 100 podcast.
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Comic-Con Souvenir Book celebrates Ray Bradbury Centennial

The 2020 San Diego Comic-Con souvenir book typically handed out at the physical convention is now available to download as a PDF! The book honors Bradbury during the centennial of his birth with a stunning cover designed by internationally acclaimed artist William Stout, whose paleontological art previously graced Bradbury’s 1983 short story collection Dinosaur Tales. Inside, over 30 pages explore the Bradbury legacy, including essays by Jonathan Eller, whose Bradbury Beyond Apollo is now available for pre-order, and Phil Nichols, whose Bradbury 100 podcast debuts Saturday, July 25.

The 2020 San Diego Comic-Con celebration will open online on at 9:00 am PDT on Wednesday, July 22 and, unlike the events in years past, this one is FREE, with over 350 panels and programs and the 2020 Eisner Awards hosted on YouTube, 700 online exhibitors, Amazon Virtual-Con, cosplay, and more! Information on how to get your souvenir books and plan for Comic-Con is available here.
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South Pasadena Library Will Honor Ray Bradbury with Stained Glass Windows

South Pasadena glass artist Tim Carey has teamed with Judson Studios to create a stunning set of stained glass windows for the South Pasadena Public Library conference room named for beloved author and longtime library supporter Ray Bradbury. The windows of the Bradbury Conference Room will depict scenes from Fahrenheit 451, The Halloween Tree, The Martian Chronicles and other classic Bradbury tales.

Those interested in helping the library meet their $24,000 project goal are invited to contribute to the Friends of the Library.
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Irish Times recalls Bradbury’s “Irish Connection”

Irish author and academic George O’Brien marks the 100th anniversary of Ray Bradbury’s birth with an Irish Times article recalling the world renown writer’s storied time in Ireland.  In 1953, director John Huston hired Bradbury to write the screenplay for Moby Dick. Huston was living in County Kildare so Bradbury, his wife, and two daughters boarded a ship to Ireland and took up residence at Dublin’s Royal Hibernian Hotel. For the next seven months, he sat at his typewriter all day, tapping out his retelling of Herman Melville’s classic novel. At night, he would call a cab and take the pages to Huston for review. Bradbury’s memories of that time gave birth to a series of lyrical autobiographical vignettes that began with “The First Night of Lent,” originally published in Playboy’s March, 1956 issue. Thirty-five years of writing about Ireland was eventually brought together in Bradbury’s 1992 novel, Green Shadow, White Whale.
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Buy the Moby Dick Screenplay

Alta selects Fahrenheit 451 for Best West Coast Science Fiction list

Alta has named Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 one of its top ten works of West Coast Science fiction to read. Sparked, in part, by a late night encounter with the police when he was out on a walk, Bradbury wrote the classic novel in the basement of the UCLA library on a rented typewriter over just nine days in 1952.  Over half a century later, author and  editor David Ulin suggests that, like all good science fiction, Fahrenheit 451 shows “us where we are and where we might be headed.”   Read about Fahrenheit 451 and nine other books whose writing and messages have stood the test of time by clicking the button below.
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All of Me Is Illustrated featured in Alta Magazine

All of Me Is Illustrated was highlighted in this month’s issue of Alta. It is the first book to feature Ray Bradbury’s timeless stories “The Illustrated Man” and “The Illustrated Woman” together alongside the most stunning tattooed bodies of today. In her feature article, visual artist and writer Kim Eisele explores the  intimate connection between storytellers and tattoos, suggesting that both can help us redefine our relationship with ourselves and the world as we “step a little differently into the future.”
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De Moines Public Library awarded NEA Big Read Grant for Fahrenheit 451 program

The Des Moines Public Library has received a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant to fund programs, community activities, and discussions centered around Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Set in a future where books are burned and observation has replaced experience, Fahrenheit 451 offers timely messages from a world that The New York Times suggests “bears many alarming resemblances to our own.”

The Des Moines Library chose the book because it explores themes that are “still relevant today on the conflict between free expression and censorship, the value of authentic human interaction, the role technology plays in people’s lives, and more.”
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Announcing the Bradbury Read-A-Thon on August 22, 2020

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ray Bradbury’s birth, the Bradbury Centennial, in partnership with libraries large and small, will bring people from across the United States together to take part in a live streamed reading of Fahrenheit 451 on August 22, 2020. Honoring Bradbury’s life-long love of libraries as welcoming places that expand the mind and spark the imagination, writers, scholars, and readers of all ages will bring the fantastical worlds of his timeless stories to life.

The Participating Partners: Library of Congress, Los Angeles Public Library, and Alliance for Young Artists & Writers

Contributing Libraries and Institutions: Anchorage Public Library (Alaska), Athens Regional Library System (Georgia), Boston Public Library (Massachusetts), Broward County Library (Florida), Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY (New York), Center for Ray Bradbury Studies (Indiana), Central Arkansas Library System (Arkansas), Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (North Carolina), Columbus Metropolitan Library (Ohio), Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, Texas A&M University Libraries (Texas), Des Moines Public Library and Library Foundation (Iowa), Indian Valley Public Library (Pennsylvania), Pima County Public Library (Arizona), San Francisco Public Library (California), South Pasadena Library (California), The Friends of the Venice Library (California), The Seattle Public Library (Washington), University of Alaska Anchorage Consortium Library (Alaska), University of Iowa Library Special Collections (Iowa), University of Kansas Libraries (Kansas), University of Pittsburgh Library System (Pennsylvania), and the Waukegan Park District and Library (Illinois)

Attend the Virtual Dandelion Wine
Arts & Music Festival

There’s something for the entire family to enjoy at the virtual Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine Arts and Music Festival on Saturday,  June 13.  In celebration of Bradbury’s centennial year, the Waukegan Park District will begin its first online festival at 10am CDT as fans from across the globe, including master storyteller Megan Wells and Bradbury scholar Phil Nichols, come together to read Waukegan native Ray Bradbury’s novel, Dandelion Wine on Facebook. The reading and all of the other performances are free.

Learn more by visiting the event’s Facebook page
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Want to know more about Bradbury and the hometown experiences he drew on to write Dandelion Wine?   Watch Ty Rohrer,  manager of Cultural Arts at the Waukegan Parks District, present “Ray Bradbury: Waukegan’s Influence on a Visionary.”   The hour long presentation was part of Waukegan Historical Society’s centennial tribute to Ray Bradbury.
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Rocketman now available through Amazon Prime

Rocketman, the Elton John biopic, is now free to Amazon Prime members. Elton John’s longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin, took his inspiration for the 1972 hit song “Rocket Man” from Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Rocket Man.” Taupin said the song came to him in the middle of a long drive and he had to repeat it over and over for two hours to make sure he did not forget the song before he could get it down on paper.

Watch Rocketman by clicking “watch” below.
Watch
Interested in reading the Bradbury short story that struck Bernie Taupin with inspiration? Click “Read” below.
Read

First Fandom Experience publishing The Earliest Bradbury

To celebrate the Centennial of Ray Bradbury’s birth, First Fandom Experience will publish The Earliest Bradbury, a treasure trove of Bradbury’s articles, stories, and drawings dating back to when he began publishing in fanzines as a teen. The works are reproduced in full facsimile form and readers will have the opportunity to experience material that has not been available to the public since it originally appeared in the 1930s and 1940s. This is an incredible opportunity to watch Bradbury’s development from a science fiction and fantasy fan to one of the most celebrated authors in the genre.

This 160+ page, lavishly illustrated hardcover will be initially issued in a limit printing of 100 copies.

Pre-order

Fahrenheit 451 a top pick on Ezvid Wiki’s Best American Literature List

Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 has been ranked #2 on Ezvid Wiki’s 10 Best American Literature Books. The dystopian story about freedom of thought and action was originally published in 1953 but could not be more relevant today.

The list’s editor praised the book, remarking that “It’s a quick read at under 300 pages and accessible to those in their early teens, it’s loaded with symbolism and boasts deep treatments of heavy themes. [Fahrenheit 451] explores what life is like when technology begins to erase what it is to be human and the powers that be keep people ignorant of art and expression.”

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Tomorrow’s Child, an immersive online audio experience

Vertigo Theatre and Ghost River Theatre present Tomorrow’s Child, a one-of-a-kind performance based on Bradbury’s short story of the same name. This award winning performance designed as a blindfolded theater production has been adapted as an immersive online audio experience. Using 3-D audio and binaural technology, the show uses the sense of hearing to create a  “landscape of sound” that places the audience in the futuristic world of the story.

Performances run June 4 – 6, 11 – 13, 2020.

For more information and to purchase tickets, click the button below.
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Neil Gaiman Wins Ray Bradbury Nebula Award

Neil Gaiman won the 2019 Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation yesterday for episode three of Good Omens, “Hard Times.” Watch Neil Gaiman give his acceptance speech by clicking the button below.
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The entire series of Good Omens is available on Amazon Prime. Click below to watch.
Watch Good Omens

Celebrate the NASA and SpaceX Dragon launch with a reading of “If Only We Had Taller Been”

As NASA and SpaceX launch the Dragon and Falcon 9 to send astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley off to the International Space Station, watch Ray Bradbury read his inspirational poem about the desire to explore the universe, “If Only We Had Taller Been.”

Watch

Jonathan Eller’s Bradbury Beyond Apollo available for pre-order

Bradbury Beyond Apollo, Jonathan Eller’s final book in the acclaimed trilogy on the life of Ray Bradbury, is available for pre-order. The book, which draws on interviews with Bradbury, personal papers, and private collections, chronicles the later half of Bradbury’s life and explores Bradbury’s expanding interest in nonfiction, public speaking, and entertainment productions. The book will be released on the 100th anniversary of Bradbury’s birth, August 22, 2020.

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Fahrenheit 451 Recommended as
Essential Reading

Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book, recommended Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 as her dystopian novel of choice in the LA Times “Essential end-of-the-world reading list.” For more book suggestions by authors like Emily St. John Mandel and Wil Wheaton, view the full list by clicking the link below.

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Wil Wheaton Reads “Luana the Living”

Actor & writer Wil Wheaton (Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, and Stand by Me) read Bradbury’s “Luana the Living” on an episode of his podcast, Radio Free Burrito. Wheaton describes this story of an explorer’s harrowing experience in the jungles of India as “*exactly* the kind of book I would have picked up from the spinning rack of fifty cent paperbacks in the drugstore.”

Published in 1940 in the fanzine Polaris when Bradbury was 19 years old, “Luana the Living,” offers a rare glimpse into the writers’ earliest works.

Listen to “Luana the Living” by clicking the button below.

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World Book Day

World Book Day offers us a chance to celebrate the delight reading brings. Over one hundred countries observe World Book Day, highlighting the opportunities that lie within the pages of the books we read to ourselves or share with others.

Whether you read to increase general knowledge, understand other cultures, or escape into new worlds of possibility, books stimulate our minds and open our hearts.

In a time when physical distancing keeps many people apart, reading books strengthens the bonds between different generations and communities: share a book with someone you know to discover what you have in common and share a book with a child to open windows into worlds they have never seen.

Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Book Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction: Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy Book 1), Riverhead

The Los Angeles Times in partnership with the Ray Bradbury Estate announced that Marlon James was the winner of the inaugural Ray Bradbury Book Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction for his book Black Leopard, Red Wolf.

1945 Retro Hugo Awards Nominees Announced

Ray Bradbury’s “I, Rocket”, has been nominated for the 1945 Retrospective Hugo Award for best short story. Bradbury’s “King of the Gray Spaces” (later retitled “R Is for Rocket”) won the same award in 2019. This year’s Hugo Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in the science fiction world, will be presented online at CoNZealand’s virtual convention, July 29–August 2, 2020, on a date to be determined.

“Ray Bradbury Understood the Narrative Power of Tattoos” by Anna Felicity Friedman

A selection from Interdisciplinary scholar Anna Felicity Friedman’s introduction to the newly released book All of Me Is Illustrated appears on Lithub. Friedman explores the power of Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man by tracing the history of tattoos, from Bradbury’s first exposure to tattoos in the sideshows of the 1930s to their popularity today. A historian and longtime collector of the form, Dr. Friedman explains tattoo’s timeless ability to express complicated narratives and striking artistic visions.

Friedmans’s complete introduction can be read in All of Me Is Illustrated, the first  book to feature Ray Bradbury’s treasured stories “The Illustrated Man” and “The Illustrated Woman” together alongside the most stunning tattooed bodies of today, available for purchase here.