Author Talk: T. Kingfisher

About the speakers:

Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher, is the author and illustrator of far more projects than is probably healthy. She has written more than 50 novels for both children and adults, an epic webcomic called “Digger,” and various short stories and other odds and ends.The daughter of an artist, she spent her youth attempting to rebel, but eventually succumbed to the siren song of paint (although not before getting a degree in anthropology.) Ursula grew up in Oregon and Arizona, went to college at Macalester College in Minnesota, and stayed there for 10 years, until she finally learned to drive in deep snow and was obligated to leave the state. Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in New Mexico, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her husband, her garden and his chickens.

Daniel Winkler grew up collecting and eating wild mushrooms in the Alps and is sharing his enthusiasm as a mushroom educator, photographer and guide. The Puget Sound Mycological Society, which he joined in 1996, was instrumental in exposing Daniel to mycology and inspiring him to bend his career towards mushrooms. Daniel served on the PSMS board, as vice president and is spearheading PSMS’s Bridle Trails State Park Funga study. Daniel published his “Fruits of the Forest – Field Guide to Pacific Northwest Edible Mushrooms” (available at mushroaming.com ), a product of a lifetime of mushroom hunting, the last twenty-nine years in the PNW. Previously, he published a series of fold-out field guides: “Edible Mushrooms of the PNW”, “Edibles of California” (both Harbour Publishing), “Amazon Mushrooms, and Medicinal Mushrooms of North America”, as well as MycoCards “Boletes of Western North America”. As an ecologist and geographer Daniel focused on High Asia towards researching Tibet’s enormous fungal economy. His ethno-mycological Cordyceps research has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, The Economist, NPR, BBC World Service, etc. In the last decade, Daniel started exploring neotropical fungi. With his travel agency MushRoaming, Daniel is organizing mushroom focused eco-adventures since 2007, current destinations are Bhutan and Colombia.

Dominica Phetteplace attended Clarion West in 2007 and currently sits on the board of directors. She is a writer and futurist and her work has been featured in publications such as Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Analog, Lightspeed, Uncanny and many others. She appears on Fiction Science, a podcast she cohosts with Alan Boyle. She is the author of “Sword & Spore”, a fungal Arthurian novelette featured in Reactor.

Thanks to our partners Clarion West and Red Wombat Studio.

Thanks to our sponsor  The Seattle Public Library Foundation.

Thanks to media sponsor  The Seattle Times.

Free and reduced access supported by  4Culture.

Registration is required. Register  here.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Event begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a book signing.

Clarion West incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1986, with workshop alumni and other interested members of the science fiction community forming its first Board of Directors. With the help of many dedicated volunteers and a core of committed professional staff, Clarion West has produced some of science fiction and fantasy’s top writers and editors. Graduates have received every major form of recognition in the field, including the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.