Harry Clement Stubbs, more commonly known as Hal Clement, he was born in 1922 in Somerville, MA. He was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. He published over a dozen novels including “Mission of Gravity” published in 1954 which has become a genre classic and can still be found for sale on sites like Amazon.com In addition to writing, he taught for over 40 years.
He was a fixture on the Boskone Program from the first Boskone until his death in 2003 — forty consecutive conventions . He combined a deep knowledge of science blended with wonder and he combined joy in the learning of it with joy in the teaching of it.
After his death, NESFA decided to honor him by establishing the Hal Clement Science Speaker as a memorial. Each year Boskone brings someone who shares his wide interest in science combined with a love of science fiction to speak at Boskone. This year’s speaker is Joan Slonczewski.
A biologist and a science fiction writer, whose novel A Door into Ocean won the John Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. In her study guide for the book, she expresses why she wrote the book as well as discussing the “gender polarities”. She has published five additional books and has a new book in the works for 2011.
Click here to read the first eight chapters of her new book, The Highest Frontier.