Author Archives: Wren James

Rab Ferguson talks to Stephanie Burgis about her new book The Raven Heir, which is out now. I’ve just finished The Raven Heir, and I loved it. There’s so much I want to talk to you about in this wonderful middle grade novel! But before we get into it, how would you describe the bookContinue reading “Real-world Issues in a Fantasy Setting”

Nabeel Ismeer talks to Claire Datnow about his new upper Young Adult novel, The Hunter’s Walk, which is published by Penguin Random House on 31st August. Generations of prolonged drought and hunger have allowed the harsher voices of the Zarda tribe to set edicts of discrimination against their fair skin members. Ghar, a dark skinContinue reading “A stone-age climate novel”

I remember reading, twenty-five years ago, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy about the colonization of the red planet. The idea that we humans could, over many decades, terraform an inhospitable, deadly atmosphere into something living seemed very cool. Back then I had no idea that our own planet’s atmosphere might become hostile in my lifetime.Continue reading “Geoengineering – what is it, and why should we be worried? by David Barker”

Author Bren Macdibble interviews Emma Reynolds about her new picture book. Hi Emma! Can I just say Amara and the Bats is a bit of a debut masterpiece. It’s a picture book that’s a visual feast, and it’s also a heartwarming story packed with information that’ll have kids examining it more closely and reading itContinue reading “Creating picture books”

The original prototype for my novel America City was a short story I wrote in 2012 about an American politician called Stephen Slaymaker.  I wanted to write about global warming, and the context of the story was an America in about a hundred years’ time, that was already almost completely closed off to climate refugeesContinue reading “Good guys and bad guys: a writer’s perspective by Chris Beckett”

Give me Hope, Jones. Bijal Vachharajani talks to Josh Lacey about his Hope Jones Middle Grade series. When I was studying climate change in Costa Rica, one of the things that stuck with me amidst all the doom and gloom we knew to expect, was that hope is what keeps the world spinning. Because withoutContinue reading “John Lacey talks about Hope Jones”

As I am writing this in the early days of July 2021, Kevo weather station at the northernmost tip of Finland has just registered the second-hottest ever temperature measured in Finnish Lapland since records began, and the hottest in over a century. Sweden and Norway have (once again) seen some record-brushing temperatures for June; newsContinue reading “The Arctic on Fire: A Nordic Perspective on Climate Fiction by Emmi Itäranta”

League members Kate Kelly and Jamie Mollart discuss his new book, Kings of a Dead World, out now with Sandstone Books. The Earth’s resources are dwindling. The solution is The Sleep: periods of hibernation imposed on those who remain with only a Janitor to watch over the sleepers. In the sleeping city, elderly Ben strugglesContinue reading “Jamie Mollart discusses Kings of a Dead World”

Picture books are powerful – they are often human’s first experiences of stories, and as such they have the power to literally shape who we are, and we carry these stories and messages into adulthood. They are also a chance for bonding between a child and their adult, often read at bedtime snuggled up togetherContinue reading “Using bat illustrations to write about big issues for young children by Emma Reynolds”