You never know where you’re going to find storytelling. The BC (British Columbia) Clinical Genomics Network 2012 conference would not have been my first thought but Tania Katan,author, playwright, and comedic performer, will be giving the keynote address, Using Humor and Storytelling to Help Rewrite our Genetic Code, on Friday, April 20, 2012.

You can find out more about the 2012 conference which is titled, Clinical Genomics: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly here. Oh, local science ‘star’ (am not sure how she’s feel about being called a star), Rosie Redfield (with Stefan Rolando) will be making a presentation titled, Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing, a Personal Account. Here’s the PDF registration form for the conference.

As for the science fiction writing contest, prepare yourself, it’s called L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. For those not familiar with the name, Hubbard founded a religion, the Church of Scientology and was also a science fiction writer. There are many peculiar stories about both Hubbard and the church.

You can read more about the contest here. As these things go, it has a very welcoming approach,

Entrants retain all publication rights
No entry fee is required
All awards are adjudicated by professional writers only
Prizes every three months: $1,000, $750, $500
Annual grand prize: $5,000 Additional!
Opportunity for new and amateur writers of new short stories or novelettes of SF or Fantasy

This year’s annual awards ceremony, Writers and Illustrators of the Future, brings together both the writers and illustrators contest winners on April 15, 2012 and features J. Storrs Hall (from the March 19, 2012 press release on PR Web),

John Storrs Hall PhD will be the keynote speaker at the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards Ceremony, taking place April 15 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, it was announced by Author Services, the ceremony’s organizer. Hall grew up reading science fiction from the genre’s great writers including Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard. In turn, Hall was inspired to transform their science fiction into science fact. And what evolved from there was one of today’s most innovative scientists of cutting edge nanotechnology. He is involved in the field of molecular nanotechnology, is past president of the Foresight Institute, founder and moderator of the sci.nanotech newsgroup for a decade and is known as the originator of the Utility Fog concept.
His most recent book “Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine” (Prometheus Books) has as its cover art a painting by famed science fiction artist and founding coordinating judge of the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest, Frank Kelly Freas.