The TriCon
Symposium Series
Part of TriCon’s mission is to keep the conversations sparked at the convention going even after the doors close, and bring them out into the wider world. Towards that end we will be hosting a pair of Symposiums on urgent issues facing the Spec Community. These sessions will take the form of moderated town hall discussions, bringing together like-minded attendees who are interested in turning our collective knowledge into meaningful action.
The Symposiums will be held on Friday and Saturday evening, with a follow up session provided on Sunday morning to facilitate continuing discussion and developing action plans. The Symposiums will be recorded, and discussions from the panel may be used in future literature produced or supported by the TriCon convention.
Collective Power in Self-Publishing
Symposium, Friday May 15th
@4pm, NSCAD Port Campus 2nd Floor Loggia
Towards a movement for collective action within self publishing.
Thesis Statement
Although indie publishing is becoming a more and more viable career model for writers, the Amazon-centric self-publishing model disadvantages indies in many ways. The mercenary nature of the Indie/Self Pub market leaves each individual responsible for work which would be diffused into multiple jobs in the trad market. From writing copy to marketing to formatting to sales–Indie authors must master all these skills with none of the protection traditionally published authors enjoy through centralized distribution, grants and subsidies, legal departments, and more.
How can indie publishing as an industry establish the systems, networks, and leverage needed to compete on equal footing with traditional publishing? Can we develop a standard of rights and protections? Can indie authors move towards autonomous collective organization without competition, dependency on corporate platforms, and without simply recreating the trad pub model?
Moderator
Mark Leslie
Mark Leslie (Lefebvre) has spent more than three decades immersed in the world of books—as a bookseller, bookstore manager, and publishing industry professional who helps authors navigate the ever-evolving landscape of traditional and independent publishing.
Mark is a writer, speaker and podcaster, sharing his passion for narrative and his expertise in publishing with audiences and fellow creators—through non-fiction books for writers and his weekly Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing podcast. He is the former Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations with Kobo Canada.
Whether he’s relaying the investigation of a reportedly haunted location, advising writers on publishing strategies, or spinning tales of things that go bump in the night, Mark brings curiosity, warmth, and a deep love of storytelling to everything he does.
Mark lives in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Theories on Canadian Artistic Identity
Symposium, Saturday May 16th
@3:30pm, NSCAD Port Campus 2nd Floor Loggia
Towards a manifesto for Canadian authors of Speculative Fiction.
Thesis Statement
Towards an articulation of Canada’s unique Speculative Fiction tradition, and creating its new future.
Marshall McLuhan described Canada as a frontier land, not just geographically but also psychologically and informationally. From its position of isolation, capitalist “backwardness”, and proximity to the global hegemon, he suggests that Canada’s unique intellectual voice emerges as observational and deconstructive– A Watcher in the peanut gallery, rather than a hero in its own national mythology. This theory seems to be borne out by how many of our significant voices manifest their art as prescient critiques. While the task of critiquing the global hegemon served a vital role in the culture of the 20th century, current system upheavals mean that this enmeshment either cannot, for purposes of sovereignty, or will not, for reasons of economics, continue.
To this end, Canadian artists must understand our informational landscape and prepare to take some role in changing it. Part of the global polycrisis is a stagnation of imagination in the hegemonic information sphere, “Doomerism”, which has perverted capitalism’s “global village” into a war of all against all. This nihilism preys on passive consumption, and so artists have a responsibility to frame the world actively and consciously. The Canadian artists’ responsibility to the re-imagining of the future is to step back into our place as The Watcher and try to really understand what is going on right now, including what it will mean to actually write about ourselves (implicitly, because of what we avoid when we don’t).
This Symposium will seek to begin the articulation of a progressive, future oriented stance for Canadian Speculative Fiction, with the aim of transforming our discussion into a Manifesto on the Future of Canadian Speculative Fiction.
Moderator
Kerry C. Byrne
Kerry’s been writing since they could string words together, and started building literary community when they were 15 in GaiaOnline roleplay forums. For them, writing has never been a solitary act, and community remains a crucial part of their artistic practice.
Their work has been published in Fantasy Magazine, THIS Magazine, The Temz Review and others. They write fiction and, to their shock, poetry. They have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and were a Notable Writer in the 2021 Best Canadian Fiction anthology. You can see their full list of publications on this page.
In 2016, Kerry drummed up the idea for a little litmag called Augur Magazine. Augur launched in 2017, and has since received nods and nominations from the Aurora Awards, Nebula Readling List, Sunburst Awards, and Locus Awards. In 2022, Kerry also launched Tales & Feathers Magazine, a sibling magazine to Augur that published (quite) short slice of life fantasy fiction.
Starting in 2020, they also became the Co-Director of AugurCon, a Canadian event for speculative fiction. AugurCon received nominations from the Aurora Awards and The Stabby Awards, and will continue on a biannual basis.
When they aren’t editing, writing, or organizing literary events, Kerry is generally found a) cuddling their cats, b) planning endless D&D sessions, and c) binging (and crying over) Kdramas.
Keep an eye on this space for further discussion on 2026’s Symposium topics!