The British Fantasy Society loves speculative fiction and those who create it. Big or small, indie or trad, want to give everyone a chance to shine, so that’s why we’ve created the BFS Online Library. Hosted on our YouTube channel, it’s a chance for authors to share their work with the SFFH community and give people a little taster of their stories. Who doesn’t need a bigger TBR pile, right?
The Library
Submit Your Reading To The Online Library
We welcome all genres under the SFFH umbrella and all story types: extracts from longer works, short stories, drabbles, poetry, LitRPG. We only ask that you limit your reading to one chapter/story (drabbles and poems up to 5) and a maximum of 15 minutes; however, we recommend videos of around 10 minutes. A brief intro is good but not required.
Our dedicated team of librarians, Robin CM Duncan, Mack McKenna, Matthew Palmer, and Helen Rose Thwaite – thank you, team – review all submissions and can’t wait to dive into yours.
If you are unable to record a video, we can help by meeting with you and recording your submission over Zoom. We also know that some of you hate the idea of reading but still want to share your work. We have a stack of wonderful volunteer readers here to help with that too. Keep reading to find out more about them.
As part of our commitment to accessibility, our library will also feature readings of our blog posts and contain a members’ area for readings of poetry and stories from BFS Horizons and articles from the BFS Journal. If you have a favourite you think should be read out, let us know.
If you’d like the submit to the BFS Online Library, just fill in the form below. You do not need to be a BFS member to take part.
If you have questions, please email PS Livingstone at onlineevents@britishfantasysociety.org.
The British Fantasy Society is here for all things fantasy, horror and speculative, and what could be better than bringing people who love those things together. The British Fantasy Society Online Library is a collection of readings by SFFH authors from all over the world, a breadth of talent to whet your appetite and help you find your next read.
Meet the BFS Online Librarians
Helen Rose Thwaite
she/her/her
Mistress of SFF romance (allegedly). BFS member and librarian. Alto in a musical theatre choir. Crocheter. Nerd.
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Robin CM Duncan
he/him/his
Robin CM Duncan is a Scot born and living in Glasgow. A Civil Engineer by profession, he has written many words since 1980, some of which have turned out to be in the correct order. His first novel The Mandroid Murders was published in 2022; its sequel The Carborundum Conundrum in 2023. The Rigel Redemption is due 2024. His stories feature in Space Wizard’s Distant Gardens, Farther Reefs, and The World of Juno anthologies. His short story “The NEU Oblivion” was long-listed for the 2019 James White Award. Robin belongs to the Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle, Reading Excuses, the British Fantasy Society, the British Science Fiction Association, and volunteers with Glasgow 2024 and Eastercon 2024.
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Matthew Palmer
he/him/his
Matthew Palmer is a University Administrator living in the Northwest. He has had a lifelong interest in fantasy, myth and the strange. He has written film and TV reviews for the BFS website. When he isn’t wrangling his children he spends his time hammering his novels into what he hopes is publishable shape.
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Mack McKenna
they/them/their
Mack McKenna (they/them) lives in the North of England. When not writing or reading or reading about writing, Mack runs an editorial business (www.otherworldsediting.com) and paints fantasy wargaming miniatures.
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Our Volunteer Readers
Want to see your story out there, but hate the idea of being on camera and doing a reading yourself? Our volunteer readers are here to help.
Alvaro Castellino
he/him/his
Alvie Castellino graduated in 2024 from the Fourth Monkey Drama School and is a Professional Actor with a love for fantasy stretching back to his childhood.
Fresh into the industry, he is keen to make his splash with his favourite type of art – fantasy, through mediums like theatre, voice work and even improvisational acting such as in Dungeons and Dragons.
He adores bringing back a spark of childhood through his fictional worlds, that often teach us a surprising amount about our own.
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Corrine Pollard
she/her/her
Corinne Pollard is a disabled UK horror writer and poet, published with Black Hare Press, Carnage House Publishing, Inky Bones Press, Three Cousins Publishing, The Ravens Quoth Press, Raven Tale Publishing, A Coup of Owls Press, and The Stygian Lepus. Corinne writes reviews and the weekly newsletter for The Horror Tree. Aside from writing, Corinne enjoys metal music, visiting graveyards, and shopping for books to read.
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Heide Goody
she/her/her
Heide Goody writes mostly with Iain Grant. They have co-authored 50+ novels together across various genres. Comedy is something they love to include in their writing. Their longest-running series features Clovenhoof, who’s Satan made redundant from Hell and sent to live in Birmingham. More recently, they’ve written a series of time travel novellas where three very different women discover the ability to jump through time and are not deterred by the number of times they mess everything up. They both live in the midlands, and are married, but not to each other.
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Elizabeth “Mattie” Matter
they/them/their, any
Mattie is a writer, performer, and mixed media artist. They studied literature and film at Leeds University, LMU Munich and Newcastle University. Originally from Nottingham, they now live in south-east Northumberland with their cat.
Mattie’s areas of interest include RPGs, queerness, magical realism and portal fantasies.
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Claire Cronshaw
she/her/her
Claire Cronshaw of Cherry Edits is an experienced fiction editor dedicated to helping indie authors produce books that readers will enjoy. She provides manuscript assessments, line editing, copy editing and proofreading services to SFF, romance and women’s fiction authors. Beyond editing, Claire provides coaching, guiding authors to develop their craft. In talks to author groups, she shares writing craft, editorial and indie publishing insights. Claire lives in northern England with her husband Jon, their son, and their dog. When she’s not editing, she’s reading, baking, doing Pilates stretches, or walking along the prom.
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Ellen Proctor
she/her/her
Perhaps best described as a curious enthusiast, Ellen loves folklore, fairytale, and myth. When she’s not reading, you can often find her scrabbling in the garden, dabbling in the studio, or scribbling in a notebook. Or you might not be able to find her because she’s off doing something interesting like listening to music, at a museum or library, wandering around somewhere with (or without) her camera. When at home, she’s in Illinois, USA – nowhere near Chicago – just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri, with her very large cat, Goliath.
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Anna Rose James
she/her/her
Anna (she/her) is a queer, bisexual actor-writer of mixed British and Asian heritage, based in North Yorkshire. As well as poetry, she writes short stories, fiction, memoir and scripts for stage and screen. Her existing works include Unknown (Stairwell Books, 2021); Little Irritants (Analog Submission Press); Love, Alberta; Wayside; 100 Friggin’ Poems; It’s OK To Fall For Camp Boys (self-published). Her work has also been featured at The Best New British and Irish Poets Anthology 2019-2021 (The Black Spring Press Group), Writing East Midlands Writers’ Conference 2021, Alpha Female Society, Dissonance, Enclave, Mookychick, Prismatica and Thirst Aid Kit podcast.
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Anna Drew
she/her/her
Alongside her day job in PR and communications, Anna is a trainee Church of England vicar at an inclusive church in Kent. She’s a reader (rather than a writer) of all genres, but particularly loves sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian fiction and ghost stories. She lives in Medway with her husband and son and loves baking, crochet, Eurovision and unnecessarily complicated boardgames.
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Matt Wood
he/him/his
Matt Wood is currently the co-owner, with his wife, Kim, of a 30 Minute Hit franchise fitness studio – a women’s-only kickboxing, boxing, and high-intensity interval training circuit-based gym. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, he worked for The Walt Disney Company, and even served as an infantryman in the United States Army for 21 years in postings all around the world. He has spent time as a radio personality and narrated numerous graduations and ceremonies. Originally from New Hampshire, he and his wife live in central Florida with three of their four children and two very dapper tuxedo cats.
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Zoe Cunningham
she/her/her
Zoe Cunningham was born into a fantasy world. She spent her childhood immersed in books including Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov and Ursula Le Guin. She continued to evade the real world by studying science – physics, chemistry and eventually a mathematics degree at Cambridge university, before taking a job as a computer programmer at a startup. Real-life finally caught up with Zoe when she became Managing Director of the software firm in 2012, and quadrupled the turnover of the business. Acting in SFF is Zoe’s return to the fantasy land she wishes she never left, although sadly she still retains excellent financial and management skills.
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Mira Manga
she/her/her
Mira Manga is a London-based writer, editor, and YouTuber known for her heartfelt contributions to the sci-fi and fantasy genres. She is an editor for 28 Magazine and Trench Crusade and a writer and regular columnist for Wyrd Science magazine. On her YouTube channel, Mira connects with her community through book clubs, (including one with @arbitorian), reviews and in-depth interviews, often featuring authors from the Black Library. She also serves as a trustee for Game Therapy UK. Proudly self-described as a “grimdark adventurer with a unicorn heart,” find her roaming the Fantasy section of a local library near you!
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George Clarke
he/him/his
Born in Rochester, George read Classics at Cambridge University before working as a filmmaker and photographer in the charity sector, and currently for the Church of England. He is an enthusiastic gardener and trained in horticulture in 2023 with a focus on wildlife-friendly planting in an urban context. His passion for fantasy and storytelling is reflected in a lifelong love of reading and filmmaking, and his favourite book is Pillars of the Earth.
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