This event was originally programmed to take place on Saturday 5th June at 5pm, but had to be rescheduled.

Join self-professed Slasher film aficionados Grady Hendrix (The Final Girl Support Group) and Stephen Graham Jones (My Heart Is a Chainsaw) as they discuss their favourite horror tropes on screen and in print, and how they inspire their writing.

About the event:

Chaired by G.G. Graham

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Grady Hendrix writes fiction, also called "lies," and he writes non-fiction, which people sometimes accidentally pay him for. He is the author of Horrorstör, the only novel about a haunted Scandinavian furniture store you'll ever need. It has been translated into 14 languages and is being turned into a movie from the people who made quality films like 1917 and Black Swan. Foolishly, they are paying Grady to write it. He is busy inserting a whole lot of tutus into it right now. His latest book, Final Girl Support Group, is published by Titan.

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of twenty-five or thirty books, his most recent one being My Heart Is A Chainsaw. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favourite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in. He's married with a couple of kids, and probably one too many trucks

In the stunning finale of Becky Chamber’s Wayfarer Series, The Galaxy, And The Ground Within, three strangers do their best to help those at the fringes of the Galactic Commons after a freak technological failure brings all traffic to a halt, while in Stark Holborn’s Ten Low an ex-con ventures on a breakneck race to escape across an alien moon thriving with aliens and criminals.

Two telling tales to remind us that we are not alone in space!

About the event:

Chaired by Laura Lam

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Becky Chambers is a science fiction author based in Northern California. She is best known for her Hugo Award-winning Wayfarers series. She has two new works coming out in 2021: The Galaxy, and The Ground Within (the fourth and final Wayfarers novel), and A Psalm for the Wild-Built (the first of her Monk and Robot novellas). Becky has a background in performing arts, and grew up in a family heavily involved in space science. She spends her free time playing video games, tabletop RPGs, and looking through her telescope. Having hopped around the world a bit, she’s now back in her home state, where she lives with her wife. She hopes to see Earth from orbit one day.

Stark Holborn is a novelist, games writer, film reviewer, and the author of Nunslinger and Triggernometry and has worked on games and interactive fiction such as Shadow of Doubt (Colepowered Games) and Mars 2020 (BBC). Stark lives in the South West UK.

There are many ways to win a fight. From forbidden knowledge to lost magics, a good sharp sword and a well-placed word, the protagonists of these epic adventures must expertly wield their chosen weapons to come out top.

In Anna Stephen's new book The Stone Knife, the fight for freedom takes it all: a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will.

To save the Republic in Matthew Ward's The Legacy Trilogy, three unlikely heroes must set aside their differences, and overcome decades of bad blood.

And Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm is a sweeping tale of violent conquest and forgotten magic set in a world inspired by the pre-colonial empires of West Africa.

About the event:

Chaired by Andrew Lindsay

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Anna Stephens is the UK-based author of the Godblind trilogy, a grimdark, epic fantasy feast concerning gods, religious and political warfare, betrayal, love and the end of all things. The Stone Knife is her latest publication. She has a BA (Hons) in Literature and a Diploma in Creative Writing, both from the Open University. Anna has previously been published in several small presses over the years. She’s currently attempting to be a full-time writer, much to her husband’s amusement. Anna loves all things speculative, from books to film to TV, but if you disagree keep it to yourself as she’s also a second Dan black belt in Shotokan Karate.

Cat-servant and owner of more musical instruments than he can actually play, Matthew Ward is also the author of Legacy of Ash, architect of Coldharbour and Creative Consultant on Vermintide 2. He’s afflicted with an obsession for old places - castles, historic cities and the London Underground chief amongst them. After a decade serving as a principal architect for Games Workshop’s Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 properties, Matthew embarked on an adventure to tell stories set in worlds of his own design. He lives near Nottingham and writes to entertain anyone who feels there is not enough magic in the world.

Matthew is on Twitter.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa is the author of Son of the Storm (Orbit, May 2021), first in The Nameless Republic epic fantasy trilogy, and the god punk novel, David Mogo, Godhunter (Abaddon, 2019). His shorter works have appeared internationally in periodicals like Tor.com, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Strange Horizons, Fireside, and anthologies like Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda and Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. He earned his MFA at the University of Arizona.

Suyi Davies is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Buckle your seat belts as spycraft is up against extermination of humanity: a man’s desperate mission to fix a glitch in a secret and dangerous underground game in Terry Miles’ Rabbits, a private investigator working in London’s magic criminal underworld in Cavan Scott’s Shadow Service and a disgraced world walker and her mother fighting coming up against robotic alien invaders after an inter-timeline coup d’etat gone awry in Charlie Stross’ Invisible Sun. 

About the event:

Chaired by Peter Sutton

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Cavan Scott is a UK number one bestseller who writes novels, comics, radio and TV for both adults and children alike. He has written for a large number of high-profile series including Star Wars, Doctor Who, Assassin’s Creed, Transformers, Back to the Future, Star Trek, Vikings, Pacific Rim, Adventure Time, Pathfinder, Angry Birds, Judge Dredd, Blake’s 7 and Warhammer 40,000. His latest creator-owned comic book series, the supernatural urban fantasy Shadow Service launched in 2020 from Vault Comics, with further creator-owned projects in the works.

Cavan is on Twitter and Facebook.

Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine Computer Shopper and was responsible for the monthly Linux column. His latest book is The Invisible Sun.

Terry Miles is an award-winning Writer/Director/Producer who was born among the wheat fields in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, raised in the plains beneath the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and forged by rain in the deep emerald gloom of the Pacific Northwest. He’s a novelist, filmmaker, podcaster and the CEO and founder of Minnow Beats Whale.

Terry is on Twitter.

Welcome to worlds of endless nights and midnight suns.

The rich mythology and history of the Norse people have inspired the new epic fantasy stories of John Gwynne (The Shadow of the Gods) and Thilde Kold Holdt (Northern Wrath)

Meanwhile, Mike Brooks combines both Northern and Southern settings and cultures to create the truly epic world for his book The Black Coast.

Prepare yourself for vengeful gods, cold shores and epic battles.

About the event:

Chaired by T.L. Huchu

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

John Gwynne is the author of The Faithful and the Fallen quartet and the Of Blood and Bone trilogy. He studied and lectured at Brighton University. He's been in a rock 'n' roll band, playing the double bass, travelled the USA and lived in Canada for a time.

Mike Brooks is the author of The God-King Chronicles epic fantasy series, beginning with The Black Coast; the Keiko series of grimy space-opera novels, DARK RUN, DARK SKY and DARK DEEDS; and various works for Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint, including BRUTAL KUNNIN and ALPHARIUS: HEAD OF THE HYDRA. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, and moved to Nottingham to go to university when he was eighteen, where he still lives with his wife, cats, and snakes. He worked in the homelessness sector for fifteen years before going full-time as an author, plays the guitar and sings in a punk band, and DJs wherever anyone will tolerate him. He is queer and partially deaf (no, that occurred naturally, and a long time before the punk band).

Thilde Kold Holdt is a writer of fantasy novels. Her first series, the Hanged God Trilogy, centres around Vikings and the Old Norse gods. She is on Twitter and Instagram.

Unfortunately Marian Womack is not longer able to participate in this event. It will go ahead with Jael Richardson in conversation with Patrice Lawrence.

Jael Richardson’s Gutter Child and Marian Womack’s The Swimmers both chronicle one young woman’s journey through a fractured dystopian world of heartbreaking disadvantages and shocking social environmental and social injustices.

Can they defy the systems that shapes their worlds?

About the event:

Chaired by Patrice Lawrence

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Jael Richardson is the author of The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lesson, a Father’s Life, a memoir based on her relationship with her father, CFL quarterback Chuck Ealey. The Stone Thrower was adapted into a children’s book in 2016 and was shortlisted for a Canadian picture book award. Richardson is a book columnist and guest host on CBC’s q. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario where she founded and serves as the Executive Director for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). Her debut novel, Gutter Child is a dystopian story of courage and resilience and arrived in January 2021 with HarperCollins Canada.

Marian Womack is a bilingual writer, born by the Atlantic Ocean in a small Andalusian town, and educated in the UK. Her writing is concerned with nature and it features strange landscapes, ghostly encounters, and uncanny transformations through a variety of genres – experimental and hybrid fiction, speculative fiction, gothic and ghostly fiction, and fiction of the Anthropocene. The Swimmers is her latest releae. She is interested in the intersection of storytelling and other forms of narrative, and has participated in art installations, video games, and activist campaigns.

Marian is on Twitter and Instagram.

When your own freedom is at stake, what price are you willing to pay to save yourself and millions around you?

In Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell, the success of an arranged marriage may just decide the fate of a whole empire. And then there is the small matter of the suspicious circumstances surrounding death of the previous spouse …

Meanwhile in Seven Devils by Elizabeth May and Laura Lam, seven resistance fighters are up against a corrupt empire.

About the event:

Chaired by Eris Young

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Elizabeth May is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Seven Devils (co-written with Laura Lam), The Falconer series (The Falconer, The Vanishing Throne, The Fallen Kingdom), and romance novels under the pen name Katrina Kendrick. She is Californian by birth and Scottish by choice, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews. She currently resides on an old farm in rural Scotland with her husband, three cats, and a lively hive of resident honey bees.

Elizabeth is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Everina Maxwell is the author of Winter’s Orbit, a queer romantic space opera about a diplomat who enters into an arranged marriage to save his planet. She grew up in Sussex, UK, which has come a long way from the days of Cold Comfort Farm and now has things like running water and Brighton Pier. She was lucky enough to live near a library that stocked Lois McMaster Bujold, Anne McCaffrey and Terry Pratchett, so spent all her spare time devouring science fiction and doorstopper fantasy. She first took part in NaNoWriMo in 2004 and continues to precariously balance writing, a day job, and watching Let’s Plays of video games she claims she doesn’t have time to play. She lives and works in Yorkshire.

Everina is on Twitter.

Originally from sunny California, Laura Lam now lives in cloudy Scotland. Lam is a Sunday Times Bestselling author whose work includes the near-future space thriller, Goldilocks and feminist space opera Seven Devils (co-written with Elizabeth May). Lam’s short fiction and essays have appeared in anthologies such as Nasty Women, Solaris Rising 3, Cranky Ladies of History, Scotland in Space, and more. Lam’s romance alter ego is Laura Ambrose. Lam lectures part-time at Edinburgh Napier University on the Creative Writing MA.

Laura is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

What makes a place a home? And how far would you go to protect yours?

In Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker, Norah and Arthur are learning how to co-exist in their new little world. Though they hardly know each other, everything seems to be going perfectly - from the home they're building together to the ring on Norah's finger. But survival in this world is a tricky thing, and the earth is becoming increasingly hostile to live in. Fortunately, Easton Grove is here for that in the form of a perfect little bundle to take home and harvest. You can live for as long as you keep it - or her – close.

Set within the high walls of the Western Protectorate, Aliya Whiteley's Skyward Inn, is a place of safety, where people come together peacefully to tell stories of the time before the war with Qita. But when a visitor comes to the Inn asking for help, they bring reminders of an unnerving past, questioning the true outcome of the war, and Earth's future.

About the event:

Chaired by Cat Hellisen

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Aliya Whiteley writes across many different genres and lengths. Her first published full-length novels, Three Things About Me and Light Reading, were comic crime adventures. Her 2014 SF-horror novella The Beauty was shortlisted for the James Tiptree and Shirley Jackson awards. The following historical-SF novella, The Arrival of Missives, was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, and her noir novel The Loosening Skin was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award. Her latest publication is Skyward Inn.

Aliyah is on Twitter.

Caroline Hardaker lives in the north east of England and writes quite a lot of things. She earned her BA (English Literature) and MA (Cultural and Heritage Studies) from Newcastle University, and her main problem is limiting herself to one idea at once, or maybe two ideas, or three…. Caroline’s debut novel, Composite Creatures, will be published by Angry Robot in April 2021.

Caroline is on Twitter.

Stephen Hawking once said that the development of AI could spell the end of the human race. In the new books by Akemi Dawn Bowman and Ben Oliver, we certainly don't have the best of times going up against them. 

In Akemi Dawn Bowman's The Infinity Courts, eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto discovers that the afterlife has been taken over by an AI bent on destroying humanity. Meanwhile, in Ben Oliver's The Block, the sequel to his debut The Loop, Luka goes to war against an all-powerful AI called Happy – once he gets out of prison that is.

About the event:

Chaired by Linda Strachan

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Akemi Dawn Bowman is a critically acclaimed author who writes across genres. Her novels - including her most recent The Infinity Courts - have received multiple accolades and award nominations, and her debut novel, Starfish, was a William C. Morris Award Finalist. She has a BA in social sciences from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and currently lives in Scotland with her husband and two children. She overthinks everything, including this bio.

Akemi Dawn is on Twitter and Instagram.

Ben Oliver began writing creatively at age seven and was promptly placed into the lowest reading and writing group at school. Frustrated by his lack of immediate success, Ben chose to step down from the world of writing. Three years later, he came out of retirement to write a 'What I Did During My Summer Holiday' assignment, where he claimed he saved the world from the apocalypse. Encouraged by an enthusiastic teacher, Ben returned, triumphantly, to writing - The Block is his latest publication.

Ben is on Twitter.

My home is my castle, right? The houses in Such Pretty Things by Lisa Heathfield and The Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward are not what they seem to be:

As Clara and Stephen explore their Auntie’s remote home, they uncover ghosts buried long ago. And every day they spend there, bewildered Clara can feel unknown forces changing her brother.  And something else entirely lies buried inside the last house on Needless Street, lived in by Ted, his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia. 

Goosebumps guaranteed!

About the event:

Chaired by Heather Parry

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Catriona Ward was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. She’s the author of The Last House on Needless Street.

Catriona is on Twitter.

Lisa Heathfield is an award-winning author and a former high school English teacher. She lives with her family in Brighton, England. Her latest publication is Such Pretty Things.

Lisa is on Twitter.

Distracted by mind games, murder and mayhem, can you tell friends from foes?

Arriving in London during a series of attacks at young, brunette women, sixteen-year-old Irish-born Niamh needs to trust her new friends and stay ahead of the attacker in Cynthia Murphy’s Last One To Die. And Kathryn Foxfield’s Good Girls Die First, blackmail has sixteen-year-old Ava facing up to her secrets and deciding how far she is willing to go to survive the night against her peers.

About the event:

Chaired by Tony Jones

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Cynthia Murphy is a YA writer from the North-West of England, though her ‘real job’ is in education. She has a long-standing love affair with all things scary, reading Point Horrors at primary school before graduating to Stephen King in her misguided teens. Classic 90s and 00s horror movies are definitely her pub quiz strong point and her first love may well have been Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Studying for a degree in Art History and Archaeology meant that she developed a thirst for anything old, beautiful and very often dead. She tries to combine this with contemporary settings in her writing to make unique and chilling modern stories. Cynthia is married to her best friend and they share (are ruled by) a Romanian rescue dog called Loli, who loves to steal socks. Her YA thriller Last One To Die is published by Scholastic in the UK.

Cynthia is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Kathryn Foxfield writes dark books about strange things. She blames her love of the creepy and weird on a childhood diet of Point Horror, Agatha Christie and Dr Who. She writes about characters who aren’t afraid to fight back, but wouldn’t last 5 minutes in one of her own stories. Kathryn is a reformed microbiologist, one-time popular science author, cat-servant and parent. She lives in rural Oxfordshire but her heart belongs to London. ​ Her YA thriller Good Girls Die First is published by Scholastic in the UK.

Kathryn is on Twitter and Instagram.

Bonjour in 1930s Paris and God Bless you, England, in the Year of Our Lord 1145. 

That’s right: Barbara Stevenson’s The Dalliances of Monsieur D’Haricot and Lavie Tidhar’s The Hood will take you on a history lesson you won’t forget….

About the event:

Chaired by Justin Lee Anderson

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Barbara Stevenson has a background in veterinary medicine and subsequently, animals feature in many of her stories – some with outspoken things to say about humans. She studied creative writing as part of an Open University BA(Hons) degree and has had a novel and short stories published. In 2014 her humorous sketch ‘Commonwealth Conundrum’, about Martians trying to join the Commonwealth, was performed in the Tron Theatre, Glasgow. In 2016 she won the Scottish Association of Writers’ Livingstone scholarship trophy and the Castles in the Air Trophy for a short story in the fantasy genre. She lives in Orkney, where she finds inspiration for her writing.

Lavie Tidhar is the World Fantasy Award winning author of Osama (2011), Seiun nominated The Violent Century (2013), the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize winning A Man Lies Dreaming (2014), and the Campbell Award and Neukom Prize winning Central Station (2016), and Locus and Campbell award nominated Unholy Land (2018), in addition to many other works and several other awards. His latest novels By Force Alone (2020) and debut children’s novel Candy (2018 UK; as The Candy Mafia 2020 US). He is also the author of the comics mini-series Adler. New novel The Escapement is forthcoming in 2021.

In this workshop you will learn tips, tricks and techniques to take your mastery of POV to a new level. Learn how to intensify reader experience, extend your imagination and explore new possibilities in your storytelling.

Georgina Bruce is a writer and teacher. Her short stories have been widely published in magazines and anthologies, and have been longlisted for the Bridport and Mslexia short story prizes. In 2017, her story “White Rabbit” won the British Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. Her 2019 debut collection“This House of Wounds” was nominated for a British Fantasy Award.

Running time: 90 minutes

Tickets: £6/ £4 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This workshop is supported by Write Gear, purveyor of the Writer’s Notebook and creators of The Page One podcast

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from Ry Herman

What lengths would you go to to keep an empire?

In Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, Emperor Chandra's attempt to burn his own sister Malini as a sacrifice to the gods is only the start. Imprisoned in exile, Malini plots revenge, and her newly acquired servant Priya and her strange magic may just be the key to Chandra's downfall.

In Andrea Stewart's debut The Bone Shard Daughter, Lin, the Emperor's daughter, vows to reclaim her birthright by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic. But the mysteries behind such power are dark and deep, and wielding her family's magic carries a great cost. When the revolution reaches the gates of the palace itself, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her throne - and save her people.

About the event:

Chaired by Elspeth Wilson

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This event includes a Brave New Words reading from Ry Herman

About the authors

Andrea Stewart is the daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. Her parents always emphasized science and education, so she spent her childhood immersed in Star Trek and odd-smelling library books. When her (admittedly ambitious) dreams of becoming a dragon slayer didn't pan out, she instead turned to writing books. She now lives in sunny California, and in addition to writing, can be found herding cats, looking at birds, and falling down research rabbit holes. She is the author of The Bone Shard Emperor, published by Orbit.

Andrea is on Facebook.

Tasha Suri is the award-winning author of The Books of Ambhaduology (Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash) and the upcoming epic fantasy The Jasmine Throne, published by Orbit. She is an occasional librarian and cat owner. She has won the Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds) Award from the British Fantasy Society and has been nominated for the Astounding Award and Locus Award for Best First Novel. When she isn’t writing, Tasha likes to cry over TV shows, buy too many notebooks, and indulge her geeky passion for reading about South Asian history. She lives with her family in a mildly haunted house in London.

Tasha is on Twitter and Instagram.

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from M.E. Rodman

Caught between morale, politics and love, how can you be sure what to fight for?

In C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken, two women clash in a world full of rebellion and espionage and are caught between colonialism and revolution in a story rife with familial, political and romantic tension.

The Burning God, the exciting final volume in R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War trilogy, combines the history of 20th-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating, enthralling effect.

About the event:

Chaired by Katalina Watt

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This event includes a Brave New Words reading from M.E. Rodman

About the authors

Cherae C. L. Clark is the author of The Unbroken, the first book in the Magic of the Lost trilogy and editor of the British Fantasy Award-winning PodCastle. She graduated from Indiana University’s creative writing MFA and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Fellow. She’s been a personal trainer, an English teacher, and an editor, and is some combination thereof as she travels the world. When she’s not writing or working, she’s learning languages, doing P90something, or reading about war and [post-]colonial history. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in FIYAH, PodCastle, Uncanny, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies

C.L. Clarke is on Twitter.

Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award nominated author of the Poppy War trilogy. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.

Rebecca is on Twitter.

Brian Catling and Oliver Langmead are true masters in creating dreamlike plot sequences set in surreal worlds:

Brian Catling’s Hollow is an epic odyssey following a group of mercenaries hired to deliver a church’s ultimate power as the decadence of carnival gives way to the gravity of lent and the mystic landscape grows ravenous. 

And Oliver Langmead’s Birds of Paradise is a fantasy about the Biblical Adam recovering the lost pieces of the Garden of Eden, determined to save the pieces of his lost home from Mankind and rebuild Paradise.

About the event:

Chaired by Jim Taylor from Lighthouse, Edinburgh’s Radical Bookshop

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Brian Catling is a poet, sculptor, painter, and performance artist. He makes installations and paints portraits of imagined Cyclops in egg tempera. Catling has had solo shows at the Serpentine Gallery, London; the Arnolfini in Bristol, England; the Ludwig Museum in Aachen, Germany; Hordaland Kunstnersentrum in Bergen, Norway; Project Gallery in Leipzig, Germany; and the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England. He is the author of The Hollow.

Oliver K. Langmead lives and writes in Glasgow. His long-form poem, Dark Star, featured in the Guardian’s Best Books of 2015, and his new book, Birds of Paradise, is arriving March 2021. Oliver is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Glasgow, where he is researching terraforming and ecological philosophy, and in late 2018 he was the writer in residence at the European Space Agency’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne.

Join the journey and discover your destiny!

In Caroline Logan’s The Cauldron of Life a war between Heaven and Earth is brewing, the lines between good and evil are blurring, and Ailsa must decide where she stands.

And the forces of light and darkness clash once again in Katy Rose Pool’s As The Shadow Rises - can the approaching Age of Darkness be stopped or will it be unleashed?

About the event:

Chaired by Eleanor Pender

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

Caroline Logan is a writer of Young Adult Fantasy. Her debut novel, The Stone of Destiny, is the first in The Four Treasures series. Caroline is a high school biology teacher who lives in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland, with her fiancé and dogs, Ranger and Scout. Before moving there, she lived and worked in Spain, Tenerife, Sri Lanka and other places in Scotland. She graduated from The University of Glasgow with a bachelor’s degree in Marine and Freshwater Biology. In her spare time she tries to ski and paddle board, though she is happiest with a good book and a cup of tea.

Caroline is on Twitter and Instagram.

Katy Rose Pool was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in history, Katy spent a few years building websites by day and dreaming up prophecies by night. Currently, she resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she can be found eating breakfast sandwiches, rooting for the Golden State Warriors, and reading books that set her on fire.

Katy Rose is on Twitter and Instagram.

Meet the two kick-ass priestesses at the heart of these two fantastic debuts. In A.K Larkwood's The Unspoken Name, Csorwe defies her god to make her own destiny, following a wizard who promises her a life beyond sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Hessa, the warrior priestess in Hannah M. Long's The Hall of Smoke, disobeys her goddess, which not only puts her on a path of great loss and struggle but also embroils her in the ultimate conflict, the war between gods.

About the event:

Chaired by Eleanor Pender

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

A. K. Larkwood studied English at St John’s College, Cambridge. Since then, she has worked in higher education & media relations and is now studying law. She lives in Oxford, England, with her wife and a cat. Her debut novel, The Unspoken Name, has been published by Tor in 2020.

A. K. Larkwood is on Twitter.

Hannah M Long is a Canadian writer who loves history, hiking, and exploring the world. She inhabits a ramshackle cabin in the wilds of Muskoka, Ontario, where she writes books and tames squirrels. However, she can often be spotted snooping about European museums or wandering the Alps with her husband. Hannah is the author of numerous books, including Hall of Smoke and Temple of No God. ​ She also writes fantasy set in the 18th century, Edwardian period, and science fiction.

Hannah is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from Joanna Corrance

Authors rarely stick to one genre, but few are as prolific, diverse or successful as Cassandra Khaw and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Her horror series Gods and Monsters and Person Non Grata gained Cassandra Khaw as much of a following as her work in games and tabletop writing. Her first SF novel The All-Consuming World, an exploration of humans and machines, is out this summer, with new horror novel Nothing But Blackened Teeth following in the autumn. Not to mention the plethora of award-winning short fiction.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s new book Shards of Earth, a high-stakes space-based adventure story, is the start of a new space opera, but only one of at least six books out in 2021. From Bear Head, the follow-up to Dogs of War, to novellas One Day This Could All be Yours and The Expert System's Champion, 2021 has already been an excellent year for his fans - and it’s barely April.

About the event:

Chaired by Ruth E. Booth

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This event includes a Brave New Words reading from Joanna Corrance.

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, and headed off to university in Reading to study psychology and zoology. For reasons unclear even to himself, he subsequently ended up in law. Adrian has since worked as a legal executive in both Reading and Leeds and now writes full-time. He also lives in Leeds, with his wife and son. Adrian is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor. He has also trained in stage-fighting and keeps no exotic or dangerous pets of any kind – possibly excepting his son. Adrian is the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series, the Echoes of the Fall series and other novels, novellas and short stories. The Tiger and the Wolf won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel – and Children of Time won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Adrian is on Twitter.

Cassandra Khaw is an award-winning game writer, whose fiction work has been nominated for several awards. You can find their fiction in places like F&SF, Year's Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Tor.com. Their next book Nothing But Blackened Teeth is coming out in 2021.

Cassandra is on Twitter.

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from C.F. Barrington

In Ben Aaronovitch's police procedural series Rivers of London, it is usually Peter Grant and his boss Thomas Nightingale that investigate supernatural goings-on in London. In his latest novella, What Abigail Did That Summer, Peter's cousin Abigail sets out to solve the mystery of teenagers going missing around Hampstead Heath, with the help of some talking foxes.

Supernatural crimes are also at the centre of C.S. Green's new novel Sleep Tight, the first in the Rose Gifford series. When DC Rose Gifford is called to investigate the death of a young woman suffocated in her bed, she can't shake the feeling that there's more to the crime than meets the eye. Enter DS Moony - an eccentric older detective who runs UCIT, a secret department of the Met set up to solve supernatural crimes. Moony wants Rose to help her out - but Rose doesn't believe in any of that.

About the event:

Chaired by Bryan Burnett

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Ben Dylan Aaronovitch is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the Rivers of London series of novels. He also wrote two Doctor Who serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from Doctor Who and Blake's 7. His latest publication is What Abigail Did Last Summer.

Ben is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

CS Green is an author of fiction for young people and adults and has had eight books published so far, four as Caroline, four as Cass. In 2021 she will have a new series coming out under the name CS Green, the first one being Sleep Tight. As well as writing books, she loves to teach creative writing, working both with young people in schools and teaching adults and also does prison visits.

Caroline is on Twitter and Facebook.

Unfortunately Ramsey Campbell is no longer able to take part in this event. Fellow collection contributor Matthew Holness is joining us in his stead.

Join us for a behind the scenes look at The New Abject: Tales of Modern Unease, a new horror anthology by award-winning publisher Comma Press. 

Editor Ra Page and contributors Matthew Holness and Sarah Schofield will discuss their take on the horror of the abject. Prepare to be horrified.

About the event:

Chaired by Jim Mcleod of Gingernuts of Horror

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors

Ra Page is the founder and Editorial Manager of Comma Press. He’s the editor of numerous anthologies, including The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories (Penguin, 1999), co-editor of The New Uncanny (winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, 2008) and Litmus, voted one of 2011’s books of the year by The Observer. Between 2004 and 2013 he was also the coordinator of Literature Northwest, a support agency for independent publishers in the region (until it formally merged with Comma). He also coordinates Comma Film, an ongoing film adaptation project which regularly commissions filmmakers and animators to adapt short literary texts (poems and short stories). He is a former journalist, having been Deputy Editor for City Life magazine, and a former Director of Manchester Poetry Festival. His critical work has been published in The Journal of the Short Story in English, and he’s been a producer, co-writer and co-director on a number of short film projects. He read Physics and Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford and has an MA in English from the University of Manchester.

Sarah Schofield’s stories have been published in Lemistry, Bio-Punk, Thought X, Beta Life, Spindles, Conradology and The New Abject (all Comma Press), Wall: Nine Stories from Edge Hill Writers, (EHUP) Best of British Short Stories 2020 (Salt), Spilling Ink Flash Fiction Anthology, Back and Beyond Arts Publication, Litfest’s The Language of Footprints, Synaesthesia Magazine, Lakeview International Journal, Woman’s Weekly and others. She has been shortlisted on the Bridport and the Guardian Travel Writing Competition and won the Orange New Voices Prize, Writer’s Inc and The Calderdale Fiction Prize. An excerpt from her story ‘The Bactogarden’ featured on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book. Sarah is an Associate Tutor of Creative Writing at Edge Hill University and runs writing courses and workshops in a variety of community settings. Her debut short story collection is due out in 2021 with Comma Press.

Sarah is on Twitter

Matthew Holness is a writer, director and actor. He created and starred in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace for Channel 4 and his short films include A Gun For George, The Snipist and Smutch. His stories have appeared in Phobic, The New Uncanny, Protest (all Comma), and Dead Funny. In 2018 he directed his first feature film, Possum, based on his contribution to The New Uncanny. As an actor he has appeared in numerous films and TV series, including The Haunting of Bly Manor, We Are Lady Parts, Free Agents, Toast of London and Year of the Rabbit.

Matthew is on Twitter

Come along for an informal chat with award-winning author Laura N. Mauro

About the event:

Running time: 30 minutes

This event is free but ticketed and will be live on Zoom.

About the author:

Laura Mauro was born and raised in London and now lives in Essex under extreme duress. Her short story ‘Looking for Laika’ won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction in 2018, and ‘Sun Dogs’ was shortlisted for the 2017 Shirley Jackson Award in the Novelette category. Her debut collection, ‘Sing Your Sadness Deep’ won the 2020 British Fantasy Award for Best Collection, and her short story ‘The Pain-Eater’s Daughter’ won the 2020 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. She likes Japanese wrestling, Finnish folklore and Russian space dogs. She blogs sporadically at lauramauro.com

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from Jim Alexander

Fantastic(al) worldbuilding is at the heart of the work of Shona Kinsella and Alex Pheby.

In Shona Kinsella’s novella The Flame and The Flood, one child in a hundred is born with an affinity: a magical link to an element, able to shape and use it as they choose. If they are lucky they will become a master craftsman, able to command high prices; if they are unlucky, the factories always demand new wielders, kept as slaves and worked to exhaustion.

Alex Pheby’s Mordew is a city built on the dead body of a god, where strange creatures are born out of the mud. In the slums of the sea-battered city a young boy called Nathan Treeves lives with his parents, eking out a meagre existence by picking treasures from the Living Mud. Until one day his desperate mother sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew. The Master derives his magical power from feeding on the corpse of God. But Nathan, despite his fear and lowly station, has his own strength - and it is greater than the Master has ever known.

About the event:

Chaired by ABS

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This event includes a Brave New Words reading from Jim Alexander

About the authors:

Alex Pheby was born in Essex and moved to Worcester in his early childhood. He currently lives with his wife and children in London, where he teaches at the University of Greenwich. Alex’s second novel, Playthings, published by Galley Beggar Press in 2015, was shortlisted for the 2016 Wellcome Book Prize. His third novel, Lucia, published in 2018, went on to be the joint winner of the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize. Alex’s fourth novel, Mordew - the first in an epic fantasy trilogy - was published by Galley Beggar in August 2020.

Alex is on Twitter.

Shona Kinsella is an author of speculative fiction who lives in the West of Scotland, near picturesque Loch Lomond. She has a degree in Law and has worked in varied jobs, from acting to the civil service. Shona is an avid reader with a love for language and is most often to be found with her nose in a book. Shona lives with her husband and three children. When she's not writing, doing laundry or wrangling the children, she enjoys cooking, geocaching and nature walks with her family.

Shona is on Twitter and Instagram.

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from Lorraine Wilson

From the ashes of the old world, a new one rises.

In Claire North’s Notes From the Burning Age. destruction gave way to an era of peace, humanity finding harmony with nature and each other, as new cities rose from the ruins of the old.
Ven used to be a holy man, a guardian of ancient archives. Sorting secrets from sacrilege, he studied the past so that we might never repeat it. But some ideas never fade, and as a new war brews, fuelled by old knowledge and older ambitions, Ven must decide how far he's willing to go to save this new world, and how much he is willing to lose.

And in Radio Life by Derek B. Miller, The Commonwealth, a post-apocalyptic society on the rise, is locked in a clash of ideas.

About the event:

Chaired by Heather Parry

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This event includes a Brave New Words reading from Lorraine Wilson

Catherine’s first novel, Mirror Dreams, was completed when she was 14 years old. The book was published in 2002 and garnered comparisons with Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman. She went on to publish a further seven young adult novels under her own name, earning her extensive critical acclaim and two Carnegie nominations. While studying International History at the London School of Economics, she wrote an urban fantasy series for adults, writing as Kate Griffin. On graduating LSE she went to the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts to study Technical Theatre and Stage Management. Throughout her training, she continued to write, and while working as a lighting technician at the Royal National Theatre wrote her first Claire North novel, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which became a word-of-mouth bestseller and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Catherine currently works as a live music lighting designer, teaches women’s self-defence, and is a fan of big cities, long walks, Thai food and graffiti-spotting. She lives in London.

Claire is on Twitter and Facebook.

Derek B. Miller is an American novelist and international affairs professional. He is the author of Norwegian by Night; The Girl in Green; American by Day; and the forthcoming Twilight Crimes. He is a full-time writer or tries to be. It really depends on the day. Here he is happy in Mallorca on a motorcycle trip (2018). Other times, he grows a goatee and mopes.

Derek is on Twitter.

Join Cian McCourt, commissioning editor at Verso Books,  and translators Polly Barton and Helen O'Horan as they discuss the challenge and joy of bringing the work of Japanese author Izumi Suzuki to the English-speaking world for the fist time.

Izumi Suzuki is described as a "legend of Japanese science fiction" and a countercultural icon. She worked as a model and an actor, and produced numerous essays, works of short fiction and novels, before taking her own life in 1986. 

Commenting on Terminal Boredom, McCourt said: "When a friend doing post-graduate work found a short snippet about Izumi Suzuki's fiction in a footnote and sent it my way, I was intrigued enough to do some digging. My early enthusiasm was bolstered when a reader's report arrived full of notes such as  'argumentative pyjama scenes abound' and 'the subtle wordplay suggests Gertrude Stein at her most playful'. This is a collection of seven pitch-black and punky pleasures, as charming as they are unsettling."

About the event:

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

Join master storytellers Jean Bürlesk (The Pleasure of Drowning) and Lynda Clark (Dreaming in Quantum and Other Stories) as they guide you through the fantastic worlds created in their short fiction collections: disappearing wives and people attempting to clone themselves are only some of the marvels you are sure to encounter.

About the event:

Chaired by Scott Lawrie

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Jean Bürlesk is a storyteller. He writes, he reads, he acts, he makes jokes nobody understands. He would sing and dance, but he has no sense of rhythm or melody. Sometimes he still sings and dances. As a Luxembourger and a lover of words, he expresses himself in five recognizable languages, as well as the usual nonsense. He’s a terrific guide unless of course he’s not and people just don’t have the heart to tell him. ​ His debut short story collection 'The Pleasure of Drowning' won the Prix d’Encouragement de la Fondation Servais 2019 and he was awarded a Chrysalis Award at Eurocon 2020.

Lynda Clark is an author and creator of interactive fiction. Her short story, “Ghillie’s Mum” won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Europe and Canada in 2018, and was shortlisted for the BBC Short Story Award in 2019. Her debut novel, Beyond Kidding, was published by Fairlight Books in October 2019, her most recent publication is Dreaming In Quantum And Other Stories.

Lynda is on Twitter.

Two intergalactic tales about courage and passion, about diplomacy and hostility, about expansion and exploration – in a nutshell: two spectacular space operas, primed to become the talk of the galaxy!

In A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass, still reeling from the recent upheaval, need to prevent their space’s destruction and millions of deaths in an endless war. Or create something far stranger?

In Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts, a spaceship carrying a crew of five arrives at a distant planet and discovers an enormous artificial mountain, a tower that soars into the sky. Can this be the end of their journey?

About the event:

Chaired by Dr. Anna McFarlane

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors:

Adam Roberts is commonly described as one of the UK’s most important writers of SF. He is the author of numerous novels and literary parodies. He is Professor of 19th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, London University and has written a number of critical works on both SF and 19th Century poetry. He is a contributor to the SF ENCYCLOPEDIA.

Arkady Martine is a speculative fiction writer and, as Dr. AnnaLinden Weller, a historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner. She is currently a policy advisor for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department, where she works on climate change mitigation, energy grid modernization, and resiliency planning. Under both her names she writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda, and the edges of the world. Her first novel, A Memory Called Empire, won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Arkady grew up in New York City and, after some time in Turkey, Canada, Sweden, and Baltimore, lives in Santa Fe with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw.

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from C.C. Peñaranda

Will the protagonists in Victoria Aveyard’s Realm Breaker and Kesia Lupo’s We are Bound By Stars accept the card they have been dealt or will they change their fortunes?

The first tale has Corayne starting a desperate journey to complete the impossible task of saving the world from destruction after a surprising encounter and the latter sees Livio and Beatrice attempting to stop a deadly revolution in a thrilling, plot-driven adventure. All carry the fate of their worlds on their shoulders…

About the event:

Chaired by Eleanor Pender

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This event includes a Brave New Words reading from C.C. Peñaranda

About the authors:

Kesia Lupo studied History at Oxford University and Creative Writing at Bath Spa. She lives in Bristol with her husband and works as a children's book editor, writing in the mornings before work. Her debut YA novel, We are Blood and Thunder, and its follow-up We are Bound By Stars are published by Bloomsbury.

Kesia is on Twitter.

Victoria Aveyard is an author and screenwriter, born and raised in a small town in Western Massachusetts. Both her parents are public school teachers, as well as avid film, television, and literature fans. Victoria grew up on a steady diet The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and LOST. She pursued a degree in Writing for Film & Television at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. After graduating college in 2012, Victoria moved home from Los Angeles and began writing the manuscript that would become Red Queen. She has since published four #1 New York Times bestselling and USA Today bestselling books, two New York Times bestselling novellas, a New York Times bestselling short story collection. She lives full-time in Los Angeles and is hard at work on her next young adult fantasy series. The first instalment, Realm Breaker, publishes in 2021.

Victoria is on Twitter and Instagram.

May it be by outsmarting the enemy and outrunning the galaxy in an attempt to save the Earth during an intergalactic warfare - as in Charlie Jane Anders’ Victories Greater Than Death - or by hopping through the galaxies and returning treasures that have the power to stop (and start) wars - as in SM Wilson’s The Infinity Files, there are many ways to save the universe, sometimes from itself!

About the event:

Chaired by Sarah Barnard

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

About the authors

Charlie Jane Anders' latest novel is The City in the Middle of the Night. She's also the author of All the Birds in the Sky, which won the Nebula, Crawford and Locus awards, and Choir Boy, which won a Lambda Literary Award. Her story "Six Months, Three Days" won a Hugo Award, and her story "Don't Press Charges And I Won't Sue" won a Theodore Sturgeon Award. Charlie Jane also organizes the monthly Writers With Drinks reading series, and co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct with Annalee Newitz.

S.M. Wilson lives on the west coast of Scotland with her fiancé and two sons. Her day job is as a nurse in public health – and her dream job is writing fiction. Her love of YA fiction started as a teenager and has never stopped. She wrote The Extinction Trials to try and infect her sons with the same love of reading that she has – watch out, she’s hoping it’s contagious!

This event starts with a Brave New Words reading from Ian Green

Dragons are the ultimate fantasy creature – great in a fight, comfortable to ride and handy if you have forgotten your firelighter. 

In RJ Barker’s The Tide Child Trilogy, people have even built ships out of the bones of supposedly extinct dragons, while Mark De Jager takes a more undercover approach in The Chronicles of Stratus. Buckle up for a wild ride!

About the event:

Chaired by EM Faulds

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: £3 / £5 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be live on Zoom.

This event includes a Brave New Words reading from Ian Green.

About the authors:

Mark De Jager is a fanboy, reader, writer, gamer and self-confessed pizza addict. Aside from that, he’s also a fantasy author. His debut novel, Infernal, is being published by Del Rey on 11th August. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, he now lives in south London with his wife Liz (herself a published author) and their sometimes loony but always lazy dog in a house that is equal parts library and home.

Mark is on Twitter.

RJ Barker lives in Leeds with his wife, son and a collection of questionable taxidermy, odd art, scary music and more books than they have room for. He grew up reading whatever he could get his hands on, and has always been 'that one with the book in his pocket'. Having played in a rock band before deciding he was a rubbish musician, RJ's fourth novel, The Bone Ships, won the 2020 Robert Holdstock best novel award. His first trilogy The Wounded Kingdom (Age, Blood and King of Assassins) was nominated for the Gemmel award the Kitschie Award, The Compton Crook and the British Fantasy Society’s Best Debut and Robert Holdstock Best novel. His latest trilogy is the critically acclaimed, and pleasingly alliterate, Tide Child Trilogy: The Bone Ships, Call of the Bone Ships and The Bone Ships Wake.

RJ Barker is on Twitter and Facebook.