Read our interview with Lauren
Lauren James (founder)
Lauren James is the twice Carnegie-nominated British author of many Young Adult novels, including Green Rising, The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. She is a RLF Royal Fellow, freelance editor and screenwriter.
Lauren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, and on the board of the Authors & Illustrators Sustainability Working Group through the Society of Authors.
Her books have sold over two hundred thousand copies worldwide in six languages. The Quiet at the End of the World was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and STEAM Children’s Book Award.
Her other novels include The Next Together series, the dyslexia-friendly novella series The Watchmaker and the Duke and serialised online novel An Unauthorised Fan Treatise.
She was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. Lauren is a passionate advocate of STEM further education, and many of her books feature female scientists in prominent roles. She sold the rights to her first novel when she was 21, whilst she was still at university.
Her writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly.
Lauren lives in the West Midlands and is an Arts Council grant recipient. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Buzzfeed, Den of Geek, The Toast, and the Children’s Writers and Artist’s Yearbook 2022. She has taught creative writing for Coventry University, WriteMentor, and Writing West Midlands.
Yaba Badoe
YABA BADOE is a Ghanaian-British filmmaker and writer. A graduate of King’s College Cambridge, she was a civil servant in Ghana before becoming a general trainee with the BBC. She has taught in Spain and Jamaica and worked at the University of Ghana. Her short stories have been published in Critical Quarterly, African Love Stories and Daughters of Africa. Her first adult novel, True Murder, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. Her first YA novel, A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars, was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award in 2018 and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Award 2018. The Secret of the Purple Lake, a collection of interlinked fairy stories for children aged 9 to 12 was published by Cassava Republic in October 2017. Wolf Light, her 2nd YA novel, which tackles the theme of the climate crisis, was published by Zephyr in April 2019. Yaba lives in London.
Annemarie Allan
My first novel, ‘Hox’ won the Kelpies Prize and was shortlisted for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards. ‘Ushig’, my third novel, was shortlisted for the Essex Children’s Book Award. My fourth, ‘Charlie’s Promise’, is based on the events of Kristallnacht. In 2020 a new edition of ‘Breaker’ my second novel, was published. It is an environmental thriller set in North Berwick in which Tom, Beth and mad professor MacBlain, together with the mysterious Gaia, come together to save the Firth of Forth from a catastrophic oil spill.
Jay Aspen
Jay writes from experiences in wilderness travel and extreme sports; snow peaks in the Andes, big walls in Yosemite and Baffin Island, sailing the Irish sea to photograph puffins and dolphins. A science degree and training with Himalayan shamans led to an interest in bio-psychology. She lives in the wild Welsh Borders, sings jazz, rides horses.
D.A. Baden
Denise Baden is Professor of Sustainability at the University of Southampton and has published numerous book chapters and articles in the academic realm. She wrote the script for a musical that was performed in Southampton and London in 2016, and has written three other screenplays. This is her first novel. Habitat Man was inspired a real-life green garden consultant who helped make her garden more wildlife friendly. Denise set up the series of free Green Stories writing competitions in 2018 to inspire writers to integrate green solutions into their writing (www.greenstories.org.uk). Habitat Man began as an effort to showcase what a solution-based approach might look like, and then took on a life of its own. In between teaching and research, she is now working on the sequel.
Mark Ballabon
Philosopher, environmentalist and author, Mark Ballabon has been teaching and writing about personal and spiritual development for over two decades. His non-fiction titles include ‘Why is The Human on Earth’ and ‘Courting the Future: Preparing for a Different World’, which features a collection of essays to explore the future in a visionary and practical way – addressing the climate crisis and climate change in the human. During the past four years Mark has been developing an original series of books for teen readers. The first book in the series, ‘HOME: My Life in the Universe’ will be published in April 2022 with illustrations by Grant MacDonald. It encourages reflection on important contemporary issues including bullying, self-belief and the climate crisis, from a philosophical perspective. Mark lives in London with his wife but regularly gives lectures to audiences in Europe, Scandinavia, North America and the Middle East.
Fiona Barker
Wrote Danny and the Dream Dog and Setsuko, a picture book with the Marine Conservation Society. It’s illustrated by artist and marine biologist Howard Gray. When not writing picture books, I can be found out plogging and occasionally blogging about litter and living a life less plastic.
David Barker
The Gaia trilogy is a series of books set in the near future during a world war for water, released by Urbane Publications in 2017-19. I also have a short story included in Nothing Is As It Was, an anthology of Climate Fiction published by Retreat West. I’m a member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and The Society of Authors.
Julie Bertagna
Julie Bertagna is the acclaimed author of several novels for children and young adults, but is best known for her dystopian EXODUS trilogy. She lives in Glasgow, Scotland.
Julie Bertagna is an author with a track record for children’s and YA fiction that is both commercially successful and critically acclaimed. Her dystopian sequence – EXODUS, ZENITH and AURORA has won her a loyal fanbase and garnered many stellar reviews. EXODUS was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year, won the Lancashire Children’s Book of the Year, won a Friends of the Earth Eco Award (UK) and a Santa Monica Green Literature Prize (US), US Booklist’s Top Ten SF/Fantasy for Youth 2008, The List’s Best Books of the 21st Century, and has been translated into many languages.
Zillah Bethell
Zillah Bethell was born in the shadow of the volcano Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea. She grew up without shoes, toys or technology; consequently she spent a lot of time in the sea swimming and in canoes – and occasionally, to earn money, she took tourists gold-panning in the highlands of Wau and Bulolo. Zillah’s family returned to the UK when she was ten, and she was eventually educated at Oxford University and now lives in South Wales with her family.
Chris Beckett
Chris Beckett is a former social worker and now university lecturer who lives in Cambridge. In 2009 he won the Edge Hill Short Story competition for his collection of stories, The Turing Test.
Sarah Blake
Sarah Blake is the author of CLEAN AIR, a cli-fi domestic thriller, NAAMAH, a novel reimagining the story of Noah’s ark, and poetry collections, MR. WEST, LET’S NOT LIVE ON EARTH, and the forthcoming IN SPRINGTIME. In 2013, she received a Literature Fellowship from the NEA. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The American Poetry Review, and The Kenyon Review. She lives outside of London, UK.
Carys Bray
Carys Bray is the author of a short story collection and three novels. She won the 2015 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Her work has been shortlisted for the Costa and Desmond Elliott Prizes.
Jeremy Brown
Jeremy Brown is studying for a PhD in climate communication, under the supervision of Denise Baden. After an integrated master’s in Environmental Sciences, he specialized in comic books while studying for a MA in ‘Climate Change: History, Society and Culture’ at King’s College London. While completing his MA, Jeremy managed a team of artists and writers to create a series of superhero comics about the climate crisis – The Renegades: Defenders of the Planet. The three titles were published by DK between autumn 2020 and 2021. His PhD, based at the University of Southampton, is currently focused on exploring the potential for climate fiction comics to inspire readers and creators of climate fiction comics to imitate the fictional role models. Jeremy is also active within local politics, and is keen to encourage climate activists to find creative ways to engage with the democratic process.
Lynn Buckle
Lynn Buckle is the author of two literary novels published by époque press. Her publications also include several short story and poetry anthologies, and literary articles for magazines and The Irish Times. She represents Dublin, Ireland, as a UNESCO City of Literature virtual writer in residence at the UK’s National Centre for Writing, where her work centres around intersections of climate, gender, power and place, from a disability perspective. She teaches creative writing and is founder of the Irish Climate Writers Group at the Irish Writers Centre where she promotes the incorporation of positive climate solutions into everyday fiction. Her second novel, What Willow Says, is an example of this, along with work commissioned during her writing residency.
Interview with Rab Ferguson
Stephanie Burgis
Stephanie Burgis grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, but now lives in Wales with her husband and two sons, surrounded by mountains, castles and coffee shops. She writes fun MG fantasy adventures and has published six so far, most recently the Dragon with a Chocolate Heart trilogy and the Raven Heir duology. She also writes wildly romantic adult historical fantasies, most recently the Harwood Spellbook series. She has had over forty short stories for adults and teens published in various magazines and anthologies.
A. Connors
A. Connors has a PhD in physics and an MA in creative writing and was one of the Undiscovered Voices of 2020. He works for a large tech company and lives just outside London with his wife and two sons, with whom he enjoys making science projects. The Girl Who Broke the Sea is his debut novel.
Anne Charnock
Anne Charnock is the author of Dreams Before the Start of Time, winner of the 2018 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Her debut novel, A Calculated Life, was a finalist for the 2013 Philip K. Dick Award and the 2013 Kitschies Golden Tentacle award. The Guardian featured Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind in “Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2015.” Anne’s novella, The Enclave, won the 2017 British Science Fiction Association Award for Short Fiction. And her latest novel is Bridge 108 (2020). Anne’s writing career began in journalism, and her articles appeared in The Guardian, New Scientist, International Herald Tribune and Geographical. She studied environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia, and holds an MA in fine art from The Manchester School of Art. She was active for over ten years in the Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project in Cheshire, before moving to the Isle of Bute in Scotland.
Michelle Cook
Michelle Cook writes thrillers and dystopian fiction. She lives in Worcestershire, UK with her husband and their two young children.
Her first joyful steps into creative writing were at the age of ten, when the teacher read out her short story in class. A slapstick tale of two talking kangaroos breaking out of a zoo, the work was sadly lost to history. Still, Michelle never forgot the buzz of others enjoying her words.
More recently, she has had several flash pieces published, was longlisted for the Cambridge Prize for flash fiction, and placed first in the Writers’ Forum competition with her short story The Truth About Cherry House. Her debut novel, eco-thriller Tipping Point, was a finalist in the 2022 Page Turner Awards.
Counterpoint, the sequel to Tipping Point, is her second novel.
Sarah Crossan
Sarah Crossan has lived in Dublin, London and New York, and now lives in Hertfordshire. She graduated with a degree in philosophy and literature before training as an English and drama teacher at Cambridge University. Since completing a masters in creative writing, she has been working to promote creative writing in schools. The Weight of Water and Apple and Rain were both shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. In 2016, Sarah won the CILIP Carnegie Medal as well as the YA Book Prize, the CBI Book of the Year award and the CLiPPA Poetry Award for her novel, One.
Ele Fountain
Ele Fountain worked as an editor in children’s publishing where she was responsible for launching and nurturing the careers of many prize-winning and bestselling authors. She lived in Addis Ababa for several years, where she wrote Boy 87, her debut novel. It won four awards and was nominated for nine more, including Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. Her second novel LOST published to critical acclaim earlier this year.
April Doyle
April Doyle is a writer, tutor and editor who lives in rural Kent with her husband and two sons. She has been teaching creative writing since 2012. April’s short stories have been published in women’s magazines in the UK and Australia, and her short story Elsewhere was published in an anthology Tales From Elsewhere in 2016. Her short story Rise on the Wings was longlisted for the 2019 Mslexia Short Story competition. Her debut novel Hive was shortlisted for the 2019 Exeter Novel Prize.
Gemma Fowler
Gemma is a children’s author and general space enthusiast whose published titles include YA sci-fi thriller, Moondust, and MG cli-fi mystery, City of Rust. Even though she considers herself to be a complete layman, she has an infectious enthusiasm for science, which she brings to schools in talks and events based around the ecological and societal issues raised in her books. Aside from being a published author, one of her greatest achievements was featuring on Tomorrow’s World saying that she ‘liked peas’.
Interview with Stephanie Burgis
Rab Ferguson
Rab Ferguson is a writer and storyteller. He was born in Scotland, grew up in Cumbria, lived in Yorkshire then the North-East, so generally just describes himself as vaguely from “The North”. He developed his craft through writing short fiction and poetry, and has had work published in various magazines and anthologies over the last decade. His debut, environmental with-a-touch-of-magic YA novel “Landfill Mountains”, is coming out in September 2021. When not writing, he enjoys cycling, cats, and listening to the music of Bruce Springsteen. He has not yet found a way to combine those interests practically.
Read our interview with Hannah
Hannah Gold
Hannah Gold grew up in a family where books, animals, and the beauty of the outside world were ever present and is passionate about writing stories that share her love of the planet. She now lives in the UK with her tortoise, her cat, and her husband and, when not writing, is busy hunting for her next big animal story as well as practicing her roar. The Last Bear is her middle-grade debut.
Phil Gilvin
Phil Gilvin lives with his wife in Swindon, Wiltshire. When his children grew too old to have stories read to them, he turned to writing, winning a number of short story prizes. Truth Sister is his first published novel. His other career is as a scientist (now part-time), and he enjoys walking, listening to classical music and prog rock, and murdering folk songs.
Guinevere Glasfurd
Guinevere Glasfurd is a novelist and activist. Originally from Lancaster, she now lives on the edge of the Fens, north of Cambridge, with her husband and daughter. Her first novel, The Words in my Hand, was written with the support of a grant from Arts Council England and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and longlisted for the Prix du Roman FNAC. Her second novel, The Year Without Summer, a novel of climate crisis, was published in Feb 2020, was shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown. Both novels are published by Two Roads Books (an imprint of John Murray Press). She is a MacDowell Fellow (2017-18) and has been awarded three grants from Arts Council England and the British Council. Her short fiction has appeared in Mslexia, The Scotsman and in a collection from The National Galleries of Scotland. In 2019, she was writer in residence at Wicken Fen, the National Trust’s oldest reserve.
Ruth Hartley
Ruth Hartley is a storyteller, poet, artist and activist who was born in Zimbabwe, educated in South Africa who worked with artists in Zambia for many years, She has retired to France where she writes and blogs every day. Ruth has self-published 3 novels, a memoir, a book of short stories and one of poetry. Her seventh, Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley is about climate change awareness for children. It was published by Gadsden Publishers in Zambia and is available at the Harare City Library. Michael Holman, formerly the Financial Times Africa Editor praises her lean style, authenticity, and acute and sensitive selection of detail as she writes of displacement, politics, people and their environment.
Interview with Tom Huddleston
Vashti Hardy
Vashti Hardy is an author of middle grade fantasies published across the world in several languages. Wildspark won the Blue Peter Book Award ‘Best Story’ in 2020, and Brightstorm was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019 and was also the Independent Booksellers Book of the Season. Vashti has an MA in Creative Writing and was previously a primary school teacher. She has a love of science and invention, and especially enjoys creating positive female STEM characters in her stories, exploring humans’ relationship with animals and nature, and asking mind-bending ‘what if’ questions.
Joan Haig
Joan (Dritsas) Haig was born in Zambia, where she was weaned on avocados and stories. She moved as a teenager to the South Pacific and has also lived and worked in India and Nigeria. Joan’s debut novel Tiger Skin Rug (Cranachan Publishing, 2020) has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2021 and is a finalist in the People’s Book Prize winter 2020/21 showcase. During the 2020 lockdown, Joan edited Stay at Home! Poems and Prose for Children Living in Lockdown (Cranachan Publishing) a free, downloadable anthology by 40 children’s authors living in Scotland, and illustrated by Darren Gate. Joan’s forthcoming book for children is Talking History: 150 Years of Speeches, coauthored with Joan Lennon and the first in a new series imprint for Templar/Bonnier. Her next middle-grade novel, Where the Storm Cats Go, is a response to the increased frequency of cyclones, due to climate change, in the Southern Hemisphere. She recently started blogging for the Awfully Big Blog Adventure.
Read an essay by Tom about writing for politics for kids
Interview with Vashti Hardy
Tom Huddleston
Tom Huddleston is a writer, musician and film journalist best known for his FLOODWORLD series of futuristic, climate-themed adventure stories. He currently lives in London. Tom is the author of several books for children including instalments in the STAR WARS: ADVENTURES IN WILD SPACE and WARHAMMER ADVENTURES series. Published in 2019 by Nosy Crow Books, his novel FLOODWORLD combines thrilling action with themes of ecological disaster and social inequality, and was followed in 2020 by a powerful sequel, DUSTROAD.
Anna M Holmes
Anna is originally from New Zealand and lives in the U.K. with her Dutch partner. Extensive research and world building are what drives Anna in her writing. WAYWARD VOYAGE, her debut novel about pirate Anne Bonny, was published by The Book Guild. Her screenplay BLIND EYE, an environment-thriller, was joint winner of the 2020 Green Stories screenplay competition, judges saying, “A great success of this script is locating the plight to save forestry in a global context and showing how interdependent we are as a community.” BLIND EYE, novel, was published by The Book Guild September 2021.
Emmi Itäranta
Emmi Itäranta (b. 1976) was born in Tampere, Finland, where she also grew up. She holds one MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from the University of Tampere, and another from the University of Kent, UK, where she began writing her debut novel Memory of Water as a part of her Creative Writing masters degree. She later completed the full manuscript in both Finnish and English. The novel won the Fantasy and Sci-fi Literary Contest organised by the Finnish publishing house Teos. It was published to enthusiastic reviews in Finland in 2012 under the title Teemestarin kirja. In 2015 the English language version, Memory of Water, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick award in the US and the Arthur C. Clarke award in the UK. Translation rights to the award-winning novel have been sold in 21 territories to date. Itäranta’s second novel Kudottujen kujien kaupunki was published in 2015, and it won her the Tampere City Literary Award. In the UK the novel is known as The City of Woven Streets, and in the US as The Weaver. Itäranta’s professional background is an eclectic blend of writing-related activities, including stints as a columnist, theatre critic, dramaturge, scriptwriter and press officer. She lives in Canterbury, UK.
Vicki Jarrett
Vicki Jarrett is a novelist and short story writer from Edinburgh. Her first novel Nothing is Heavy was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year 2013. Her collection of short stories, The Way Out, published in 2015 was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and shortlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her latest novel, Always North, which moves into more speculative territory than her previous work, came out at the end of 2019 from Unsung Stories and was shortlisted for the Red Tentacle (Novel) Award in the Kitschies 2019.
Mitch Johnson
Mitch Johnson is an award-winning writer of children’s books. His debut novel, Kick, was endorsed by Amnesty International UK for its portrayal of children’s rights and has been translated into multiple languages. In 2018, Kick won the Branford Boase Award, a prize given to the most promising children’s book by a debut author. Mitch’s second novel, Pop!, was published in May 2021 and was nominated for the 2022 CILIP Carnegie Medal. His third novel, Spark, was published in February 2022 by Orion Children’s Books. Mitch lives in Norfolk with his family.
RB Kelly
RB Kelly is an author and film theorist. Her debut novel, The Edge of Heaven, is published by NewCon Press and was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award. The sequel will be published in 2022. Her short stories can be found in publications from around the world, including The Best of British Science Fiction, Aurealis, and Andromeda Spaceways Magazine. She has a PhD in film studies and, with film historian Robert JE Simpson, co-runs CinePunked, an organisation dedicated to bridging the gap between film fandom and film theory.
Kate Kelly
Kate Kelly is a marine scientist by day and a writer by night, with short stories published in a number of SF magazines and anthologies, often inspired by her fascination with the sea. Her first novel, Red Rock, a Cli-Fi adventure for young adults, was published in 2013 by Curious Fox. Kate and her family live in Dorset UK and when she is not writing she takes to the sea on her paddleboard, or can be found wandering the remoter stretches of the South West Coast Path.
Angela Kecojevic
Angela Kecojevic has written several books for the Oxford Reading Tree programme (OUP), and is also the author behind the award-winning adventure park ‘Hobbledown’. Scareground, her debut middle-grade spooky novel will be published in the UK in 2023, followed by her YA sci-fi climate fiction Train. Train follows in the footsteps of the Jules Verne classic ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth‘, and highlights a frozen planet.
M. G. Leonard
M. G. Leonard has made up stories ever since she was a girl, but, back then, adults called them lies or tall tales and she didn’t write them down. As a grown-up, her favourite things to create stories about are beetles, birds, and trains. Her books have been translated into over forty languages and won many awards. She is the vice president of the insect charity Buglife, and a founding author of Authors4Oceans. She lives in Brighton with her husband, two sons, a fat cat called Kasper, a dog called Nell, and a variety of exotic beetles.
Laura Lam
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, feminist space opera Seven Devils (co-writtenwith Elizabeth May), BBC Radio 2 Book Club section False Hearts, the companion novel Shattered Minds, and the award-winning Micah Grey series: Pantomime, Shadowplay, and Masquerade. 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.
Josh Lacey
Josh Lacey is the author of many children’s books, including A Dog Called Grk and The Dragonsitter.
Gill Lewis
Gill Lewis is an award winning children’s author who writes about the wild world and our human place within in it.
Kevan Manwaring
Dr Kevan Manwaring (FHEA) is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Arts University Bournemouth. A BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers 2022 finalist, his research focuses on ecology, emergent forms, and Fantasy. He is the author of the interactive novel Hyperion, The Windsmith Elegy (The Long Woman’ Windsmith; The Well Under the Sea; The Burning Path; This Fearful Tempest), Lost Islands, and editor of Heavy Weather: tempestuous tales of stranger climes (The British Library) as well as collections of folk tales for The History Press (Oxfordshire Folk Tales; Northamptonshire Folk Tales; Ballad Tales). His audio dramas include ‘Black Box’ and ‘Sunkenkirk’. He has contributed articles to peer-reviewed journals such as Writing in Practice, New Writing, TEXT, Axon, and Revenant. He blogs and tweets as the Bardic Academic. https://thebardicacademic.wordpress.com/
Charlotte R. Mendel
Charlotte Mendel is the author of Turn Us Again (Roseway/Fernwood, 2013), which won the H.R. Percy Novel Prize, the Beacon Award for Social Justice, and the Atlantic Book Award in the Margaret and John Savage First Book category. Her second novel, A Hero (Inanna Publications, 2015) was shortlisted for the 2016 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and was a Finalist in the 2016 International Book Awards in the General Fiction category. Charlotte’s first YA novel, “Reversing Time” was published by Guernica Editions in 2021.
In addition to her writing, Charlotte is a parent, a farmer, a teacher and an environmental activist. She currently facilitates a Climate Action Game at schools, universities and environmental organizations to spread awareness about the climate crisis. Charlotte has lived in Nova Scotia for 20 years and raised two wonderful children; this year she left her partner of 32 years and moved to England.
N.E. McMorran
N.E. McMorran is a British-Cypriot autistic writer, designer and teacher, who lives with her teen and their rescued dog, Ben. She’s a foodie and loves fixing stuff and helping people. Her special interests are autism, art, natural living, and finding a solution to end homelessness. She previously worked for the BBC as researcher and photographer, taught in London schools, and founded/managed a magazine publishing company. She currently volunteers with the NAS and facilitates the London based Spondylux Press, run by autistic professionals to publish inclusive works celebrating neurodiversity, sustainability and social change.
Interview with Marissa Slaven
Bill McGuire
Bill McGuire is an academic, broadcaster, activist and Amazon UK Top 100 popular science and speculative fiction writer. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, a co-director of the New Weather Institute, a patron of Scientists for Global Responsibility, a member of the scientific advisory board of Scientists Warning and Special Scientific Advisor to WordForest.org. His books include: A Guide to the End of the World: Everything you Never Wanted to Know; Surviving Armageddon: Solutions for a Threatened Planet; and Seven Years to Save the Planet. His current non-fiction book is Waking the Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanoes; ranked at number five in The Guardian’s Top 10 ‘eco’ books. His debut novel, Skyseed – an eco-thriller about climate engineering gone wrong – is published by The Book Guild. Bill is a volcanologist by inclination and training. In 1996, he was a Senior Scientist at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory and in 2010 a member of the Science Advisory Group in Emergencies (SAGE) addressing the Icelandic volcanic ash problem. He was a member of the UK Government Natural Hazard Working Group established in January 2005, in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami, and a co-author of its report: The Role of Science in Natural Hazard Assessment. His later work focused on climate change and its impacts, particularly upon the solid Earth, and he was a contributor to the 2012 IPCC report on climate change and extreme events. Bill now works full-time as a writer and blogger. He writes for many newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The Times, The Observer, New Scientist, Focus and Prospect, and blogs for the New Weather Institute, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Extinction Rebellion and Operation Noah. Bill is co-editor of the anthology, Knock Three Times: Modern Folk Tales for a World in Trouble, published in October 2019. Bill presented two BBC Radio 4 series, Disasters in Waiting and Scientists Under Pressure, and the End of the World Reports on Channel 5 and Sky News. He has also contributed to many other television and radio programmes and was consultant and main contributor for the lauded BBC Horizon films; Supervolcanoes and Megatsunami – Wave of Destruction, as well as for the BBC drama, Supervolcano. Other TV credits include The Big Breakfast, Richard & Judy and The Terry & Gabby Show. Most recently, he was series consultant for the National Geographic series, X-Ray the Earth. He also co-presented Project Doomsday live with comedy duo, Robin & Partridge. Bill lives, runs (sometimes) and grows fruit and veg in the Peak District, where he resides with his wife Anna, sons Jake (12) and Fraser (17), and cats Dave, Toby and Cashew. His new book – SKYSEED – is an ecothriller about geoengineering gone wrong, and the awful consequences for humanity and the planet when everything goes pear-shaped.
Josh Martin
Josh Martin writes and draws his way through life and is currently residing in London. He has aspired to novel writing since he was a tadpole and has since graduated from Exeter University before completing Bath Spa’s Writing For Young People MA. His particular interest in heroines, fantasy, environment, gender studies and wisdom led him to write his first book Ariadnis, published by Quercus Children’s Books in February 2017, and its sequel, Anassa, published in February 2018.
Interview with Jamie
Jamie Mollart
Jamie Mollart runs his own advertising company, and has won awards for marketing. Over the years he has been widely published in magazines, been a guest on some well-respected podcasts and blogs, and Patrick Neate called him ‘quite a writer’ on the Book Slam podcast. He is married and lives in Leicestershire with his family. His debut novel, The Zoo, was on the Amazon Rising Stars 2015 list. His second novel, Kings of a Dead World will be published on June 10 2021.
Paul McAuley
Paul McAuley worked as a research biologist and university lecturer before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of more than twenty novels, several collections of short stories, a Doctor Who novella, and a BFI Film Classic monograph on Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil.
Ian McDonald
Ian is an SFF writer living in Northern Ireland, just outside Belfast. My first novel came out in 1988, my most recent in 2019. He’s a Hugo, John W Campbell Memorial, Sturgeon, Philip K Dick award winer, and been nominated for many others besides. He’s been translated into 15 languages.
Anna McKerrow
Anna McKerrow is the author of YA, adult and children’s fiction as well as poetry. Her work explores magic, nature and environmental issues. She also writes for adults as Kennedy Kerr.
Moira McPartlin
Moira McPartlin made a big impact with The Incomers, her debut novel set in Fife. It was shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award and was a critical success. Her speculative fiction Sun Song Trilogy novels, Ways of the Doomed, Wants of the Silent and Star of Hope set in 2089, reflect many issues we are living with today. In September 2019 her short play A Handful Of Glaur was included as part of the UNESCO Cities of Literature Short Play Festival in New Zealand and in 2020 she will take up a writing fellowship at Hawthronden Castle. She is also a prolific writer of short stories and poetry and has been published in a variety of literary magazines. Moira is currently working on a fairytale graphic novel about irresponsible tourism. She lives in Stirling.
Read our interview with Simon
S. J Morden
Gateshead-based Dr Simon Morden trained as a planetary geologist, realised he was never going to get into space, and decided to write about it instead. His writing career includes an eclectic mix of short stories, novellas and novels which blend science fiction, fantasy and horror, a five-year stint as an editor for the British Science Fiction Association, a judge for the Arthur C Clarke Awards, and regular speaking engagements at the Greenbelt arts festival.
Simon has written ten novels and novellas. The wonderfully tentacular Another War (2005), was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award, and 2007 saw the publication of The Lost Art, which was shortlisted for the Catalyst Award. The first three books starring everybody’s favourite sweary Russian scientist, Samuil Petrovitch (Equations of Life, Theories of Flight, Degrees of Freedom) were published in three months of each other in 2011, and collectively won the Philip K Dick Award – the fourth Petrovitch, The Curve of the Earth, was published in 2013. In a departure to the usual high-tech mayhem, 2014 saw the arrival of Arcanum, a massive (and epic) alternate-history fantasy, which not only has flaming letters on the cover, but the story inside is “enthralling”, “intelligent”, “impeccably rendered” (Kirkus), and “engrossing”, “satisfying” and “leaving the reader craving for more (Publishers’ Weekly). Which was nice.
The Books of Down are a very different fantasy, where what you are is what you become: Down Station tells the trials and triumphs of Down’s latest refugees on the run from a disaster that might just have destroyed all of London, and The White City their continuing story to unravel the mysteries of their adopted world.
Read our interview with Joanne
Joanne O’Connell
Joanne O’Connell is a journalist whose inspiration sprang from a year-long column she wrote for the Guardian called ‘Goodbye Supermarkets’, during which she met food waste campaigners, such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and eco-chef Tom Hunt, and presented a short video about taking her children foraging on a Scottish Island. She has written for The Observer, The Times, The Daily Express, The Independent and various glossy magazines, and is the author of The Homemade Vegan, published in 2016. She occasionally appears on television and radio, most recently on BBC Breakfast and Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
Tọlá Okogwu
Tọlá Okogwu is a British-Nigerian Author, Journalist and Hair Care Educator. Born in Nigeria but raised in London, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. Through her books and wider writing, she constantly seeks to create ‘mirrors and windows’, allowing children the opportunity to read books that are reflective of their own experiences and other cultures. Her self-published picture book series, DADDY DO MY HAIR is a firm family favourite. Tola’s new middle grade series with Simon & Schuster is set in a futuristic Nigeria, powered by solar energy, fed by vertical farms and where re-greening initiatives are thriving. The first book, ONYEKA AND THE ACADEMY OF THE SUN will be published in June 2022. Tọ́lá also writes as Lola Morayo and the first book under this name, AZIZA’S SECRET FAIRY DOOR will be published by Pan Macmillan in June 2021. Tọ́lá lives in Kent, England with her husband and two daughters.
Jim Pearce
Jim Pearce has been an oil driller in Saudi and Venezuela and a geologist in a gold mine in Ghana. Now he helps energy clients try to be more sustainable. He enjoys writing first thing in the morning at home in Surrey or enjoying the views in the south of France. He likes to transport readers to unexpected places where survival is a challenge and friendships tend to triumph despite individuals’ flaws. He is married with three boys.
Nicola Penfold
Nicola Penfold was born in Billinge and grew up in Doncaster. She studied English at St John’s College, Cambridge. Nicola’s worked in a reference library and for a health charity, but being a writer was always the job she wanted most.
Nicola writes in the coffee shops and green spaces of North London, where she lives, and escapes when she can to wilder corners of the UK for adventures. She is married, with four children and two cats, and is an avid reader of children’s books.
Clare Rees
Clare is the Head of English in a Berkshire school. She has enjoyed a varied career so far, including spending two years teaching in Ethiopia and seven years in inner London comprehensives. She loves working with teenagers and is particularly keen on the aspects of her job which involve the promotion of reading and writing for pleasure.
Clare holds an MEd in International Education and an MA in Late Medieval Literature, and has had educational resources published by Pearson, AQA, Teachit and Zigzag. These have included co-authored books, lesson resource collections and teaching units. She has also written education articles for The Independent and ‘Secret Teacher’ blogs for The Guardian. She has a particular interest in, and has carried out research into, the development of literacy skills across the curriculum.
Jelly is her first novel and was published by Chicken House in August 2019.
Read Emma’s essay on bats
Emma Reynolds
Emma Reynolds is an illustrator and author based in Manchester, UK.Her debut author-illustrator picture book ‘Amara and the Bats’ about bat conservation and finding hope in the face of climate anxiety, is due for release July 20th 2021 with Atheneum – Simon & Schuster. Passionate about storytelling and creating unique characters, Emma is the illustrator of ‘Rescuing Mrs. Birdley’, out now with Simon & Schuster. Emma started the #KidLit4Climate illustrated campaign, bringing together over 3,000 children’s illustrators and authors from over 50 countries in solidarity with the youth climate strikes. In May 2020 she shaved her head to raise money for Bat Conservation Trust.Emma’s favourite food is pizza. She is inspired by nature, animals, adventure, and seeing the magic in the everyday. She loves bats, cats and bears, walking in the wild and exploring the world.
Manda Scott
Novelist, columnist, blogger, podcaster, broadcaster and red-green activist, Manda Scott’s novels have been shortlisted for an Orange Prize, nominated for an Edgar and dived into the endless iterations of TV adaptations. She’s currently host of the THRUTOPIA MASTERCLASS which is helping a whole generation of writers to craft plausible, generative, thriving, near-term futures we’d be proud to leave to our children – and map the routes to get there.
Her latest novel, A Treachery of Spies weaves a contemporary crime thriller with the courage and heroism of the Special Operations Executive in WW2.
She’s written a Thrutopian TV series and is working on a Thrutopian novel. Because we have the answers to a flourishing future, we just haven’t created the visions that will draw people towards them.
When not writing, she is host of the Accidental Gods podcast, and runs a horticultural smallholding, which one day will feed the local community.
Emma Shevah
Emma Shevah is half Thai and half Irish, and was born and raised in London. She holds a BA Honours in English and Philosophy from the University of Nottingham and an MA with Distinction in Creative and Professional Writing from Brunel. She is the author of Hello Baby Mo!, an early reader published by Bloomsbury, and four Middle Grade novels published by Chicken House: Dream on Amber (2014 – winner of the Odyssey Award), Dara Palmer’s Major Drama (2016 – optioned by CBBC), What Lexie Did (UK)/Lexie’s Little Lie (US) 2018 and How to Save the World with a Chicken and an Egg (2021). She has also published a number of features in newspapers and magazines, and is working on a non fiction book for adults based on a journey to Newfoundland to find her namesake. She currently lives in Brighton with 50% of her four children and is Head of Year 13 at Roedean.
Nicky Singer
Nicky has written four novels for adults, two books of non-fiction but most of her recent work is for young people. Her first children’s novel Feather Boy won the Blue Peter ‘Book of the Year’ Award, was adapted for TV (winning a BAFTA for Best Children’s Drama) and then commissioned by the National Theatre as a musical with lyrics by Don Black and music by Debbie Wiseman. Her new novel The Survival Game is a migration road-movie about a girl with a bullet-less gun and what she’s prepared to risk – or sacrifice – to stay alive in a climate ravaged world. If you want to join the conversation about how to keep our planet beautiful and our future bright, check the #ChooseLovetoSurvive campaign.
Lauren St John
Lauren St John grew up surrounded by horses, dogs, cats, a warthog and a pet giraffe on a farm and game reserve in Zimbabwe, the inspiration for her bestselling White Giraffe, Laura Marlin and One Dollar Horse series. Kat Wolfe on Thin Ice, her third Wolfe & Lamb mystery, will be out in January 2021. Lauren is an Ambassador for Born Free, a Patron of Mane Chance Animal Sanctuary and the founder of Authors4Oceans, a coalition of children’s authors campaigning against plastic pollution and dolphins in captivity.
Interview with Chitra
Chitra Soundar
Chitra Soundar is an internationally published author of over 50 books for children. She is also an oral storyteller and writer of many things. Chitra writes picture books and fiction for young readers. Her stories are inspired by folktales from India, Hindu mythology and her travels around the world. Her books have been published in the UK, US, India & Singapore and translated into Chinese, German, French, Japanese and Thai.
Read Anthea’s essay ‘Young activists – to be encouraged!’
Anthea Simmons
Anthea Simmons lives in Devon with her polydactyl cat, Caramac. After a successful career in the City and a spell of teaching, she finally knuckled down to write at the insistence of her son, Henry. She is the author of Share, The Best Best Baby, I’m Big Now, Lightning Mary and Burning Sunlight. She is editor in chief for online citizen journalism paper, West Country Bylines, and campaigns on a range of issues including electoral reform and rejoining the EU.
Ray Star
Ray’s passion for writing comes hand in hand with a passion for animals and the environment which prompted the creation of the Earthlings trilogy. Earthlings is Ray’s debut novel with a prequel to follow shortly after the trilogy is complete. It is Ray’s dream to open The Peridot Animal Sanctuary and Wildlife Reserve in England and that dream inspired the Earthlings trilogy to life. When Ray isn’t writing, she is happiest spending time with her children, partner, family and friends or walking with her dogs spending time in nature. Often found star gazing with a tarot deck in one hand and a strong cuppa in the other underneath a full moon. As a Climate Fiction author, Ray’s books are published on recyclable paper where possible and Ray also intends to plant 1 tree per book sale, whilst founding the #READGREEN campaign, petitioning Amazon KDP to switch recycled paper printing.
William Sutcliffe
William Sutcliffe is the author of thirteen novels, including the international bestseller Are You Experienced? and The Wall, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He has written for adults, young adults and children, and has been translated into twenty-eight languages. His novel Whatever Makes You Happy was filmed by Netflix under the title Otherhood (starring Patricia Arquette and Angela Bassett). The Gifted, The Talented and Me was chosen by The Sunday Times as the 2019 Children’s Book of the Year. His latest novel, The Summer We Turned Green, was published in July 2021.
Mimi Thebo
Mimi Thebo is a Carnegie-longlisted author for children and teens. Her work has been translated into twelve languages, adapted for a BAFTA-winning BBC film, illustrated in light and signed for deaf children by ITV. Born in the USA, she is based in South West England, where she is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol and a Royal Literary Fellow. She writes about recovery from trauma and our connection to the endangered natural world.
‘…movingly explores the interconnectedness of our minds, bodies, spirituality and physical environment…’ BookTrust
Isabel Thomas
Isabel is the author of more than 150 books about science, nature and the environment for young audiences. She was awarded the 2020 AAAS Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books, and has previously been shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize. Isabel also writes for children’s science magazines and works with organisations such as Wellcome Trust and University of Oxford to create outreach resources, inspiring children from diverse backgrounds to pursue STEM careers. Isabel holds an MA in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford, and an MPhil in Educational Research from the University of Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge, UK, with her husband and three young sons.
Piers Torday
Piers Torday began his career in theatre and then television as a producer and writer. His first book for children, The Last Wild, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. The sequel, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Other books include The Wild Beyond and The Death of an Owl (with Paul Torday.) His adaptation of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights opened at Wilton’s Music Hall in 2017. He lives in London with his husband and a very naughty dog.
Chris Vick
Chris writes books for young people about the sea, danger and the wonder of magic and stories. He spent years working in whale conservation and a lot of time surfing before enrolling on the Bath Spa MA in Writing for Young People. He has written four books, published in several countries.
Kook, published by HarperCollins in 2016, was longlisted for the Branford Boase Award and shortlisted for the prestigious Andersen Award in Italy.
Girl. Boy. Sea, was published by Zephyr in 2019 and shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie medal. It won the Iris Award (an award voted for by international schools across Europe), and was nominated for the Sakura Award in Japan.
The Last Whale is published in hardback by Zephyr in August 2022. From killers to conservationists, it tells the story of three generations of the Kristensen family, their history as whale hunters and later their mission to save the great whales and our planet.
Chris has appeared at many festivals including Hay, Bath Children’s Literature Festival and Mare di Libri (Sea of Books) in Italy and has written blogs/features for the Guardian and Bustle.com. on YA issues. He lives near Bath, with his wife and daughter.
David Thorpe
David is an award-winning writer of scripts, novels and non-fiction. A Marvel comics writer, the Doc Chaos tv and comic series was followed by his prize-winning SF novel Hybrids (HarperCollins) was called “stunningly clever” by The Times. He co-founded the London Screenwriters Workshop and has taught 1000s of hours of script and creative writing, and published a book on the subject. Stormteller led to his presence on the first two Hay Literature Festival climate fiction panels. He’s worked on a number of short films and written over a dozen books and 1000s of journalistic articles on environmental sustainability and renewable energy.
Interview with Venetia
Venetia Welby
Venetia Welby is a writer and journalist who has lived and worked on four continents. Her debut novel Mother of Darkness was published by Quartet in 2017 and her essays and short fiction have appeared in The London Magazine, Review 31 and anthologies Garden Among Fires and Trauma, among others. She lives in London with her husband, son and Bengal cat.
Read our interview with Laura
Laura Wood
Laura Wood is the winner of the Montegrappa Scholastic Prize for New Children’s Writing and the author of the ‘Poppy Pym’ and ‘Vote for Effie’ middle-grade series and YA novels, A Sky Painted Gold and Under a Dancing Star.
She loves Georgette Heyer novels, Fred Astaire films, travelling to far flung places, recipe books, Jilly Cooper, poetry, cosy woollen jumpers, Edith Nesbit, crisp autumn leaves, Jack Gilbert, new stationery, sensation fiction, salted caramel, feminism, Rufus Sewell’s cheek-bones, dogs, and drinking lashings of ginger beer.
Nick Wood
Nick Wood is a disabled South African-British clinical psychologist and Science Fiction (SF) writer, with a collection of short stories (alongside essays and new material) in LEARNING MONKEY AND CROCODILE (Luna Press, 2019). Following AZANIAN BRIDGES (2016), Nick’s latest novel is the BSFA shortlisted WATER MUST FALL (NewCon Press, 2020).
Marian Womack
Marian Womack is 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. Her debut short story collection, Lost Objects (Luna Press, 2018), was shortlisted for two BSFA awards and one BSF award. Marian’s new novel, The Swimmers (Titan Books, 2021) is a near-future fable set in a luscious gothic Andalusia after an environmental catastrophe. She have also published one gothic/environmental fiction mystery, The Golden Key (Titan Books, 2020). Marian is the first Spanish graduate of the San Diego Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and she has recently graduated from her PhD in Creative Writing, focusing on the ways weird and gothic fiction portray environmental anxieties. She teaches on the Oxford University writing postgraduate programme, and she is an enthusiastic collage and pamphlet maker, and wild swimmer.
Climate Fiction Writers League 