North London Story Festival
Climate fiction (cli-fi) panel
Date: Tuesday 21 March
Time: 18:00-18:50 UK time
Location: online/zoom – register below
Join this free event with our celebrity guest speakers, who will be presenting on their work and taking part in a Q&A.
Sammy HK Smith is the author of the smash-hit SF novel Anna, as well as In Search of Gods and Heroes, and has contributed stories to the anthologies The Nun and Dragon and The Book of Angels. She lives and works as a police detective in Oxfordshire, specialising in domestic and sex abuse and also co-owns Grimbold Books and runs the imprint Kristell Ink. Sammy says: 'I published The Last Horizon cli-fi collection - and I'm taking part in this panel - to discuss 'The Future of Storytelling' because I don't believe we'll be around to tell stories anymore if we don't sort out our relationship with the environment pretty smartish! Storytelling about the environment has become urgent and even changed the sort of stories we're now telling, the emergence of the cli-fi sub-genre proof positive of that.
Matt Beeson (he/him) is a husband and father. He is also a professional risk engineer, focused on the transition to clean energy, and wind turbines in particular. He has published short stories in The Book of Witches, The Book of Demons and most recently cli-fi anthology The Last Horizon, which he also co-edited. He was once a musician and hopes to be one again someday. Until then there is always chocolate and coffee. He is occasionally to be found on Twitter (@Phaeduck).
Boe Huntress is a writer, musician and facilitator. Her short story ‘Seaweed City’ was recently published in The Last Horizon. With a completed MA in Novel Writing and a PhD in the works, Boe is currently writing a queer, feminist cli-fi/sci-fi novel on future utopia, and how we get there from here. Boe has toured the world as a singer/songwriter and appeared on Whispering Bob Harris’ BBC2 show, as well as being the ‘Artist in Residence’ at Union Chapel, Islington. She facilitates groups exploring archetypes, amongst other things, and is training in Group Analysis with the Institute of Group Analysis.
Nadege Rene: Generational trauma
Date: Tuesday 21 March
Time: 19:00-19:50 UK time
Location: online/zoom – register below
Recipient of the London Writers Award 2022, Nadege Rene explores generational trauma in her writing, along with the parallels between collective and individual experiences of overcoming. Her novel looks at the trauma and emotion we inherit racially, linguistically, and relationally. In her talk, she will discuss how our ancestral wounds can show up in our daily adult lives, and what can happen when we meet our inherited trauma with creativity.
Nadege started writing when she was sixteen and living in a hostel in Birmingham. Through writing, she made sense of the things happening around her. Writing led her to London, to a degree in creative writing and philosophy, to teaching young people marginalised from mainstream education, to a deep love of singing. She currently works as a Careers Consultant for St Mary’s University and is a Visiting Project Associate for Young Vic Taking Part.