Science Fiction, Canada, and I (5 July 2026)
This piece, here slightly revised, was originally presented orally as my Keynote Address as Scholar Guest of Honour at the Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy (ACCSFF), at York University, Toronto, 8-9 June 2024.
Gone To Look for America: June-July 1976 (7 July 2026)
An account of my two-month journey, by Greyhound Bus and thumb, around the USA during its Bicentennial summer of 1976. It was a time of renewed American optimism after dark days, and the mood was strikingly different from that of the Semiquincentennial that has just passed. That said, in many ways Americans haven’t changed in the past fifty years.
Coming to Canada: 1974-75 (16 July 2026)
A feckless youth aged 21, I landed in Canada on 8 September 1974, intending to stay for no more than a year. I thought that by coming here I could postpone having to face the problem of what to do with myself for the rest of my life. Having arrived, I quickly came to believe I’d made a terrible mistake. Fifty-odd years later, I’m still here. So, what happened?
Holmström Ruddick 