Connie Willis' experience with Dr. Jack Williamson (MA 57, BA 57), Eastern New Mexico University's "Grand Master" of science fiction, began when the two met at a Mile Highcon Convention in Denver, Colorado, in the late 70s.
Connie, winner of 11 Hugo and seven Nebula writing awards, has been writing science fiction since 1970. After their first meeting, she was honored that Jack asked her to be the guest of honor for the Jack Williamson Lectureship in Portales, New Mexico. The two bonded immediately.
"I came down and loved Portales and him [Williamson]... and everybody," she said.
As Eastern celebrated an Out of This World Homecoming in 2024, Connie found the road to Portales once again to read from her story "Non-Stop to Portales." The work is named after Williamson's novelette Non-Stop to Mars, first published in 1939.
Willis' story references Jack's work several times and is intertwined with his roots in eastern New Mexico.
“Science is the doorway to the future, scientification, the golden key. It goes ahead and lights the way. And when science sees the things made real in the author’s mind, it makes them real indeed.” — Jack Williamson, 1928
In the story, an inventor and agricultural salesman, Carter Stewart, finds himself seeking employment in what he considers a "dead-end" stop in Portales. While looking for something to appease his boredom he has a chance encounter with a bus tour from beyond time and space. Steward discovers a wealth of treasures hidden right in front of him among the dusty plains of Eastern New Mexico. Strange shifts in the space-time continuum turn out to be the remnants of Jack Williamson's futuristic vision.
Jack Williamson famously said, "No one can predict the future, [they] can only point the way."
However, Williamson did, in fact, predict the future. In his voluminous body of work, he invented many cultural and scientific innovations that proved true and are now part of our everyday vernacular, including 'androids' and 'genetic engineering.'
"There's no way to adequately describe his influence on the field [of science fiction]," Connie said.
Among the many terms Williamson coined, one may have been closer to home than others: terraforming.
In a covered wagon at the turn of the century, Jack Williamson arrived in Portales with his family.
Sharecropping was their goal. The landscape they found looked unwilling to share much of anything except possibly its other-worldly view. They were challenged to coax fertile crops from the harsh elements, in essence, becoming early 20th Century terraformers.
While we don't know the exact route Jack and his family braved in their covered wagon to find Portales, the chances are high the asphalt highway on which Connie Willis returned at 70 miles per hour was similar.
Her road back to Portales and her deep relationship with the legend Jack Williamson was certainly out of the world — however, in keeping the mystery of the story "Non-Stop to Portales," it is worth at least wondering — was she actually here?