SF and F Roundtable

Next Up: April 2021

I was only in second grade when the Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. The night of his launch—April 12, 1961—I went out onto the front porch and stared up at the stars, trying to see his capsule passing overhead. Like millions of others, I was enthralled by the idea of space exploration and have been ever since.
Paul Allen

Next Up: March 2021

Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.
William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale

Next Up: February 2021

Now winter nights enlarge
This number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
And cups o’erflow with wine,
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Thomas Campion

Next Up: January 2021

“A sad tale's best for winter: I have one of sprites and goblins.”
William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
But, nonetheless, Happy 2021.

Next Up: December 2020

It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas. December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers. But there were cats.
Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales

Next Up: November 2020

The blown leaves make bat-shapes,
Web-winged and furious.
Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems

Next Up: October 2020

We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.
H. P. Lovecraft

Next Up: September 2020

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
Albert Camus

Next Up: August 2020

Authorship, according to the spirit in which it is pursued, is an infancy, a pastime, a labor, a handicraft, an art, a science, or a virtue.
August Wilhelm Von Schlegel

Next Up: July 2020

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
Neil Armstrong