The Science Fiction Club of Athens, Hellas (ALEF) was founded in 1998. The inaugural meeting took place on Valentine’s Day of the same year, following a call by Stavroula Ventouri, Vasilis Karavolas and Christodoulos Litharis; the club’s name was proposed by the latter. The first official event took place on the 5th of April and it was a presentation by founding member and architect George Katsavos. Its theme was “Pulp Sci-Fi Magazine Covers”. From then on, the club has organised numerous events on a fortnightly basis, which include short story readings, movie screenings, lectures and presentations, and so forth.
Two of the club’s most important activities, which continue until today, are the creative writing workshop and the publication of ALEF’s biannual magazine Φανταστικά Χρονικά (Fantastic Chronicles). The first workshop took place in 1999 and it was an initiative of George Goulas. Initially it was an annual event, however, due to its success, soon it became biannual. The workshop’s current organisers are Vasso Christou and Kostas Charitos. Several stories that have been presented there have found their way to the printer’s, either in personal short story collections of the participants or have been included in our anthologies.
The first issue of Φανταστικά Χρονικά was released in 2003, and the idea belonged to Christodoulos Litharis, who was the first editor-in-chief. Over the years, different people have been involved in its production, with Dimitri Arvanitis being solely responsible for the layout since 2006.
Another important activity which has been sadly discontinued was the International Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Festival SFF-Rated, conceptualised and directed by member Alekos Papadopoulos (2006-2013 under the auspices of ALEF; it continued for one more year organised solely by Papadopoulos, with ALEF as a sponsor).
ALEF has also participated in several other activities (conferences, festivals etc.) organised by other entities (e.g., Stegi, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). Its members are authors, translators, artists, scientists or mere lovers of science fiction and speculative fiction in general.
The club has also released or participated in several anthologies, either published by ALEF itself or in cooperation with other publishers. For more details, see relevant page.