Fantasycon 2024: Interview with Guest of Honour Bella Pagan

It’s exactly one month until we gather for Fantasycon in Chester, and to celebrate the summoning of SFFH fun we present this short interview with one of our Guests of Honour, Tor UK head Bella Pagan. She chats with BFS Marketing & PR Officer Lauren McMenemy over on the BFS YouTube channel, or watch it below.

Meet Bella

Bella Pagan helps manage Tor UK, Pan Macmillan’s imprint specialising in out-of-this-world science fiction, fantasy and horror. As well as developing Tor UK, her role includes commissioning, editing and publishing fantastic authors and their speculative fiction. As Tor’s Publisher, Bella is proud to have on her list writers making their debuts, as well as award-winners and bestsellers. Before joining Tor UK, Bella commissioned science fiction and fantasy for Orbit, where she worked for almost ten years. She loves plot-driven, page-turning books with relatable protagonists and rich magic systems, where the reader is transported to exciting new worlds.

Her past and current authors include Olivie Blake, Shelley Parker-Chan, Zen Cho, Cassandra Clare, Genevieve Cogman, Peter F. Hamilton, Alix E. Harrow, Lucy Holland, T. L. Huchu, Arkady Martine, Christopher Paolini, John Scalzi and Adrian Tchaikovsky. At the British Book Awards in 2023, she was shortlisted for Editor of the Year, achieving ‘Highly Commended’ in this category.

Bella is online at X and BlueSky as @BellaPagan. And you can find out more about Tor UK here.

Fantasycon will take place at the Queen at Chester Hotel, Chester, from the 11-13 October 2024. Join us for a fun-filled weekend of panels, readings, workshops, the British Fantasy Awards, the BFS AGM, and of course, the eagerly anticipated karaoke! Details and tickets are here. 

Last month we asked BFS members for their tips on making the most of the weekend; get prepped over here.