Writing the Future: Essays on Crafting Science Fiction edited by Dan Coxon and Richard V. Hirst

(Dead Ink, 2023)

Reviewed by Nick Hubble

I work as an academic within what is now called a Division of English and Creative Writing, which began life illegitimately (just ask ‘Quality Assurance’ about the provenance of the paperwork and the insufficiently distinct ‘learning outcomes’) and has gradually transformed into a marriage of convenience. Once sharp distinctions and hierarchies have blurred over the years as the balance of power (i.e., relative student recruitment rates) has shifted and changes to the way universities are managed in recent years mean that virtually no one outside the Division has a clue what any of us do or that there ever was a binary divide between us. We all write stuff and do research that other academics don’t consider to be real research. As a result, we and all our equivalents across the UK HE sector melted together into a primordial gloop some years ago and strange new hybridised creative-critical forms have been lumbering forth, monster-like, ever since. Writing the Future is part of a growing body of evidence that this new species is now fertile and populating in the wild.

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Review from BSFA Review 23 - Download your copy here.