About the book
The first fantasy-writing textbook to combine a historical genre overview with an anthology and comprehensive craft guide, this book explores the blue prints of one of the most popular forms of genre fiction. The first section will acquaint readers with the vast canon of existing fantasy fiction and outline the many sub-genres encompassed within it before examining the important relationship between fantasy and creative writing, the academy and publishing. A craft guide follows which equips students with the key concepts of storytelling as they are impacted by writing through a fantastical lens. These
– Character and dialogue
– Point of view
– Plot and structure
– Worldbuilding settings, ideologies and cultures
– Style and revision
The third section guides students through the spectrum of styles as they are classified in fantasy fiction from Epic and high fantasy, through Lovecraftian and Weird fiction, to magical realism and hybrid fantasy. An accompanying anthology will provide students with a greater awareness of the range of possibilities open to them as fantasy writers and will feature such writers as Ursula Le Guin, China Miéville, Theodora Goss, Emrys Donaldson, Ken Liu, C.S.E. Cooney, Vandana Singh, Sofia Samatar, Rebecca Roanhorse, Jessie Ulmer, Yxta Maya Murray, and Rachael K. Jones. With writing exercises, prompts, additional online resources and cues for further reading throughout, this is an essential resource for anyone wanting to write fantastical fiction.
Format 344 pages, Paperback
Published January 11, 2024 by Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN 978135016692
My Review
I bought this book as part of my continuing campaign to educate myself on the academic side of creative writing, and especially of fantasy as a genre and art form.
This book contains an introduction to the genre and its history, conventions and storytelling skills like perspective and characters. The author is American and works in the U.S., so her perspective reflects that. The guide portion is probably aimed at the undergraduate student doing a module on fantasy and science fiction, or speculative fiction generally. If you’ve done very little creative writing it is a good start. For classroom use, it has questions and discussion points for students to work on. I found inspiration for a short story in one of these. There are notes on my phone for the key points. It’s my next project after I finish my star dragon novella draft.
The anthology is extensive and varied with authors from around the world. I have finished reading them all yet, because I like to dip in and out of anthologies. The short stories in this collection are also accompanied by discussion questions as shown below:
These are the questions that follow Genevieve Valentine’s “From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvellous, Scheduled for Premier at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire)”; this is a story I definitely need to read.
There’s an extensive notes and references section, followed by the index.
I think this book will be helpful for students starting out in creative writing. The anthology provides an insight into the breadth of fantasy today, challenging preconceived notions of the genre.
Further comments
There was an error that desperately needs correction on page 98. When Jeannette Ng won the John W. Campbell award in 2019, she used it to highlight Campbell’s racism and fascism. After that, the award was renamed Astounding Award for Best New Writer. This award is given at WorldCon and administered by the World Science Fiction Society.
Jennifer Pullen states that:
There is no British Fantasy Association; it’s the British Fantasy Society, of which I am also member. The John W Campbell award is not a BFS award and never has been. Jeannette Ng won the Best Newcomer award in 2018 and was also shortlisted for the Best Fantasy novel in the same year. A year before she won the John Campbell award. Considering the Hugos, Astounding Stories and WorldCon generally are very much a U.S. project, even if they did have WorldCon in Glasgow in 2025 and even if they call themselves ‘World’, Jennifer Pullen should have known the John W. Campbell Award was a WSFS award. I knew just by looking at the award name that it was wrong.
If the author hadn’t checked, the editors should have done. It’s part of their job. It made me question other information shared by the author. My concern is that those who don’t know about the different awards will assume that we’d have an award named after an American fascist.
How very insulting! If we’re going to name an award after a fascist, they’d be a British one.
As far as I know, none of the BFS Awards are named after fascists.
By the way, I have been a juror for three different BFS Awards since I joined in 2021. I’m going to my fifth BFS Awards in 10 days (Saturday 1st November), and my first World Fantasy Awards at World Fantasy Con a week on Sunday (2nd November). After that, I’ll be sharing posts about the category I judged, and both sets of Awards in general.
In one week I’ll have spent my first full day in Brighton. I’ve never been to Brighton before and I’m planning to visit the Brighton Museum and Gallery, swim in the hotel pool, and try different food. There’s a BFS meet up on Wednesday evening too. I get one holiday a year and always structure it around FantasyCon. I’m already packed. My taxi to the station is booked. I am so excited! I’m also on my first two panels this year, covering my two interests in fantasy – the Neurodivergent and the Queer. Can’t wait!
And here’s my banquet dress for the Sunday:
Everything Is Better With Dragons 