This is a dialogue with Gail Jamienson a polyvalent person from the Republic of South Africa Science Fiction and Fantasy domain.
Darius Hupov: Present yourself to our readers (information about yourself and your activity in SciFi)
Gail Jamieson: My name is Gail Jamieson and I have been reading SF since I was able to read. I joined the then Science Fiction South Africa club in 1973 and have filled all of the positions on the committee from Secretary to Treasurer to Chairman and have been the editor of the club magazine for about 1/3 of the 196 issues to date.My husband and I have been to 5 worldcons, 2 in Glasgow, one in Baltimore, 1 in Toronto and 1 in Japan. I am now retired and my most recent project along with fellow member Gary Kuyper was the 4th collection of stories from the Nova competition. It is called 50 Science Fiction Tales and can be found on AMAZON
Please try to make a brief introduction on the South African SF history.
I can attach an article I wrote that is used as an introduction to our published „50 SF Tales from the Nova short story competition”. You can use what you need from it.
Our club is 54 years old.
Which are the most popular SF magazines and fanzins (printed and online) in South Africa?
As far as we know we are the only printed and online SFF clubzine is our magazine PROBE.
You might like to look at the Nigerian publication „Omemana” issue 24. this is a South African focused issue
Which are the SF&F Clubs that have regulare meetings?
And we are the only club in the country that holds regular monthly meetings. We have liteary as well as scientific speakers, mostly from an academic background
Which are the most important local and national SF&F associations?
And once again, we are the only South African SF&F association
Which are the printing houses that publish mainly SF and Fantasy?
Most local SF&F is self published, although JonathanBall has now started to print a local author. Shamee Patel Papathanasiou. Most other SA authors are published in the USA and UK
Which are the most popular SF&F conventions in South Africa? What are their main attractions?
We have not held a convention for some time. Covid-19 stopped face to face meeting and we wwnt onto Zoom. We have only recently started having our meetings in person again.
Who are the main author names in today’s South African SF&F?
Lauren Beukes, Charlie Human, Sarah Lotz, Andrew K. Miller, Fred Strydom, Mohale Mashingo, Masande Ntshanga, Shanice Ndlovu, Mia Arderne, Alastair MacKay, Andrew Skinner, Gary Kuyper, Henriettre Rose-Innes, Resoketswer Manenzhe, Masande Nkomo, VH Nchube, Jarred Thompson, Shamee Patel Papathanasiou, Dave Freer.
Give us some names of SF&F South African graphic artists.
The only one I know is Gary Kuyper
What makes South African SF original?
We come from a country that was sharply divided in the past and even now the percentage of people who read at all is very small and those who read SF&F is even smaller. We founded our club in order to encourage the writing of local speculative fiction. We have been holding a short story competition for almost 50 years and the winning stories have been published in our magazine PROBE for more than 50 years.
We have contact with SF&F groups around the world.
