PulpFest is very proud of the many popular fiction writers who will be attending our 2021 convention. “Back in the day,” the authors who labored for the rough paper industry liked to call themselves scribes, word-slingers, penny-a-worders, and, perhaps the most favored term of all, fictioneers. Join PulpFest as we celebrate today’s fictioneers — the authors writing contemporary genre fiction! On both Friday and Saturday afternoons, we’ll feature four authors reading from their works and talking with their audiences.
Author Readings on Saturday, August 21
1:00 – 1:25 PM — Christopher Ryan.
Christopher Ryan has been an award-winning journalist, teacher, podcaster, actor, producer, and director, but mostly he writes fast-paced stories with humor and heart. For over three decades, Chris has been a close collaborator of author Alex Simmons. The two discuss all things creative on their TELL THE DAMN STORY podcast. An accomplished independent author and publisher with over a dozen books to his name, much of Chris’ work is focused on detectives Mallory and Gunner. The stories are set in a modern urban interpretation of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.” A regular contributor to the PulpFest website, Christopher will be one of our New Fictioneers on Saturday afternoon, August 21. You can learn more about Christopher Ryan and his work at www.chrisryanwrites.
1:30 – 1:55 PM — J. Manfred Weischel.
J. Manfred Weichsel is a teller of tall tales filled with thrilling action, skin-crawling horror, and subversive humor. He is the 21st-century inheritor of the mantle of Lucian, Rabelais, Jonathan Swift, and Lawrence Stern, only much more exciting! A regular contributor to Cirsova: The Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense, he is the author of several critically acclaimed, highly original pulp novels including JUNGLE JITTERS, FIVE MAIDENS ON THE PENTAGRAM, EBU GOGO, EXPEDITION TO EDEN, among others. Please welcome J. Manfred Weischel to PulpFest.
2:00 – 2:25 PM — Evan Witmer.
A tall, Pennsylvania writer, Evan Witmer posts many of his short stories to the Odd Fiction website. They’re mostly surrealist fantasy with elements of horror and comedy. He has published two short story collections to date — PAGES FROM THE PIZZA CROWS and DIGEST: TEN SHORT STORIES BY CONVICTED & PLAUSIBLE PEOPLE-EATERS. He’ll be reading from his work on Saturday afternoon, August 21.
2:30 – 2.55 PM – William Patrick Maynard.
William Patrick Maynard was born and raised in Northeast Ohio. An avid reader of vintage thriller fiction and a keen student of film and comic art, he has been writing fiction since childhood. Since 2009, he has been authorized by the Sax Rohmer literary estate to continue the Fu Manchu series. In addition to his novels, Bill also writes mystery and science fiction short fiction and screenplays. He has authored nearly 300 pop culture articles and has contributed DVD commentaries for classic films of the last century. In 2018, Bill joined the PulpFest marketing department as a writer. Since then, he has contributed significantly to our website. He is the convention’s assistant director of marketing and director of afternoon programming. He will be reading from his contribution to the anthology OCCUPIED PULP on Saturday, August 21.
PulpFest 2021 will begin on Thursday, August 19, and run through Sunday, August 22. Join PulpFest at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry, just north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We’ll be celebrating “Love in the Shadows,” saluting the anniversaries of two trend-setting Street & Smith rough-paper magazines. Both LOVE STORY and THE SHADOW MAGAZINE played significant roles in the evolution of American popular culture and genre fiction. We’ll also have presentations on pulp artist Margaret Brundage, bestselling writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, actress and covergirl Eva Lynd, and artists Earle K. Bergey and Enoch Bolles.
Our New Fictioneers author readings and discussions for Saturday, August 21, will begin at 1 PM. The appearances will last for 25 minutes. A new author will appear on the half-hour.
The general public is welcome to attend our author readings. To learn more about our entire programming schedule, please click the Programming button at the top of this page.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the Registration button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry. They’re going fast!
Our featured image for this post is a photograph of an Underwood Portable typewriter from 1931. Writers believed to have used Underwoods — which “established the stereotype of a typewriter until the introduction of the IBM Selectric” — include Ray Bradbury, William S. Burroughs, Raymond Chandler, Daphne DuMaurier, Arthur Conan Doyle, William Faulkner, Erle Stanley Gardner, Robert A. Heinlein, Ernest Hemingway, Robert E. Howard, Sinclair Lewis, Henry Miller, Damon Runyon, Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclair, James Thurber, and Orson Welles.
