Worldbuilding is a skill used across the speculative genres, but at what point does it move from words on the page to a place in the reader’s mind? Join this workshop with Allen Stroud to learn more.

Allen Stroud is a lecturer and researcher at Coventry University. Stroud completed a Ph. D. at the University of Winchester entitled An Investigation and Application of Writing Structures and World Development Techniques in Science Fiction and Fantasy. He leads the Creative Futures project, a conversation between science fiction writers and the UK Ministry of Defence about the challenges our world will face in the next century.  He has work published as novels, short stories and in computer games. Stroud has worked on the computer games Elite Dangerous (2014) and Chaos Reborn (2016), Phoenix Point (2019) and Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023).

Stroud’s science fiction novel, Fearless (2020), published by Flame Tree Press, was praised as “hard sf, offering glimpses of a vividly plausible future for humanity as it colonises the solar system.” This was the first in the Fractal Series. The sequel, Resilient, was published in 2022, with a set of six Fractal Episodes: Europa (2023), Ceres (2023), Lagrange Point (2023), Terra (2023), Luna (2024), and Jezero (2024). He has also composed music as part of the series.

Stroud was chair of Fantasycon 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023, the annual convention of the British Fantasy Society, which hosts the British Fantasy Awards. He is the current Chair of the British Science Fiction Association.

The workshop will be recorded for catch up viewing by ticket-holders.