BFS Online: Writing Your Way – POVs

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POVs: A conversation about different points of view and what they do for your book. Are we leaving enough room for the reader? Is the scope of the book limited by the POV you choose? Do we secretly all want to play God and write omniscient?

Moderator Eleanor Pender chats to panellists Rien Gray, Nadya Mercik, and Tao Wong to answer these questions. Find out more about our panel below.

Rien Gray (they/them): Rien Gray is a nonbinary author of fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction. They have short stories published in several anthologies, including Neon Hemlock’s Baffling Magazine and Opulent Syntax, as well as an ongoing sapphic fantasy series inspired by Arthuriana. They have lived in Dublin and Chicago. Find out more about Rien on their website or follow them on Twitter and Instagram. Pick up a copy of Valerin the Fair, Martis the Brazen or Seure the Tempered.

Nadya Mercik (she/her): Nadya Mercik is a London-based writer and literary translator as well as the assistant editor of the BFS Horizons magazine. In the past she worked with Russian publishers translating science fiction and fantasy books into Russian. She is publishing her flash and short fiction on her website and is completing her first novel. In her spare time she learns the art of Japanese swordsmanship, knits and crochets, and studies yet another foreign language. Nadya and her work can be found on her website. You can also follow Nadya on Twitter and you can read her short story in Luna Press’s anthology The Utopia of Us.

Tao Wong (he/him): Tao Wong is a full-time author in the scifi and fantasy genres, writing predominantly in the LitRPG and xianxia sub-genres. A multiple times international Amazon bestseller, he is best known for the System Apocalypse and A Thousand Li universes, with over 40 full-length novels and numerous shorter works published. Tao was a finalist for the Kindle Storyteller UK Award in 2021. Find out more about Tao on his website and his indie publishing company, Starlit Publishing. You can follow Tao on Twitter or Threads.

Eleanor Pender (she/her): Eleanor has worked in the creative industries for over 10 years. Her first event chairing on a stage was with Patrick Ness at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2015. Since then she has gone on to host in-person and online events at events across the country, at the Young Adult Literature Convention (YALC), Cymera Festival, Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Bristol Women’s Literature Festival, Forbidden Planet and Waterstones Bristol bookshop events and more. Highlights include chairing V.E. Schwab at Cymera Festival in 2019 and interviewing V.V. James over Instagram Live from her back garden. When not chairing, Eleanor lectures at The University of the West of England, Bristol. As a writer, Eleanor has had stories published by Jurassic London and other anthologies, and she is currently working on her second novel. Follow Eleanor on Twitter or Instagram.