Journal

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Julie Schwartz Memorial Lecture

About eleven months ago, Julius Schwartz died. (If you're wondering who Julie Schwartz was, go and read http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/03/what-alan-said-about-julie.asp which is Alan Moore's speech that I read at Julie's memorial.)

After Julie died, there were discussions about what would be a good memorial to him. The idea that found favour in the end was that an annual lecture might be a fine way to keep Julie's memory green: an annual talk by an eminent (possibly even preeminent) guest speaker about the things that Julie influenced -- in particular the worlds of pop culture, comics, SF, fandom and the intersection of "high" and "low" culture.

DC Comics have been in talks with Julie's alma mater, but as I understand it, the college in question never really went for the idea, so DC Comics boss Paul Levitz is currently looking for a home for the memorial lecture, and is talking to several organisations and educational establishments, but he feels that the word could be got out more widely. Which is where this blog came in...

So this is by way of getting the word out -- if you know of anywhere that would definitely be interested in, and would actually feel it important to host such an annual event, particularly if you have any influence in this (ie, writing in to say "Dude, what about the university of Florida/Oregon/Chicago etc." isn't particularly useful) drop a line through the FAQ box and I'll see the information gets forwarded to Paul Levitz.