The SIMETRIA FC & F association emerged as a consequence of the first Encounters of SF & F, held in Cascais, in September 1996.

How did the idea of its founding come about? A group of Portuguese writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy developed the habit of meeting informally over periodic dinners, in which they discussed the themes and news about Science Fiction and Fantasy which naturally were of most interest to these authors. The original group was made up of João Barreiros, José Manuel Morais, Luís Filipe Silva, Maria de Menezes, Daniel Tércio, António de Macedo and David Prescott, and later extended to include others, not all writers. Those "second generation pioneers", if one may call them this - those of the first generation would have had Romeu de Melo or Mário Henrique Leiria as their paladins - had the idea of creating an SF & F Convention in Portugal, somewhat like that which has been the case for many years in several countries, and the absence of which in Portugal, particularly in the nineties, was a grave cultural gap which it was necessary to fill.

They drew up an outline of a proposal for a Convention and presented it to the Cultural Department of Cascais Town Council, which accepted the idea and agreed to sponsor the first event of this kind in Portugal: the 1st Cascais International Encounters of SF & F, which took place between the 26th and 29th of September 1996. These Encounters were as successful as they were remarkable, which led this informal group of writers to found, in January 1997, a thematic association - SIMETRIA - not only of authors, but also of readers and fans of SF & F.

Since then SIMETRIA has established a protocol for collaboration with the Cascais Town Council for the holding of further Encounters, which have been held annually.

Besides the annual holding of the Encounters of SF & F, SIMETRIA also carries out other activities, ranging from publishing - every year, at the time of the Encounters, a bilingual (English/Portuguese) anthology is published with short stories by the best Portuguese authors and some foreign writers, besides a periodic fanzine, "Paradoxo" - to educational training activities, workshops, the organization of a specialized library, creative writing workshops, a game and multimedia library, fortnightly literary gatherings on the most wide-ranging subjects in this field, the showing of films, debates, literary and poster competitions, etc.

SIMETRIA also has a page on the Internet with up-to-date information, an on-line fanzine, publishing of short stories in the Web Fiction section, links to publishers and booksellers, and with other Portuguese and foreign associations of SF & F, etc.