The shortlisted works across all 13 categories of the British Fantasy Awards have been announced! Find out who’s in the mix over on our blog. Winners announced at Fantasycon in October.
For all things fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction
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Announcement:
Meet Ren Hutchings
Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: online@britishfantasysociety.org
Name, including preferred pronouns:
Ren Hutchings (she/they)
Which region are you based in?
London
If you write, which genre:
Sci-fi and fantasy
If you don’t write, what do you do?
I’m primarily a fiction writer, but I’m also a writing mentor and editor. I currently assist in editorial at Stelliform Press, an indie press publishing award-winning SFFH with climate and ecological themes.
Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres?
I’ve always gravitated toward stories that flout a clear genre categorization. Speculative subgenres in particular can be so entwined! I especially love sci-fi with strong fantasy elements or supernatural components, a mystery to solve, and/or a dash of cosmic horror.
Your Influences
Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?
I saw the movie Flight of the Navigator (pictured) when I was about six years old, and it both delighted and terrified me. That scene where the kid comes back to his house and finds out that he went missing years ago – and his little brother is now older than him! – filled me with a fascinated horror.
But something about that story deeply resonated with me, and it was definitely the origin of my interest in time travel stories. So many of my memorable childhood reads all have that element in common: A Wrinkle in Time, A Handful of Time, The Juniper Game, The Starlight Crystal, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy… it was always something to do with time.
I loved exploring all the questions it brought up. What if you could slip through time, either on purpose or without meaning to? What would you see? Could you learn something? Affect something? And what if something changed while you were there? What would that mean for the future? Could you get back? I think those questions are at the root of what pulled me toward speculative fiction writing.
How does that early influence show up for you (in life/writing/agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?
A lot of what I write still involves time weirdness in some way, or strange liminal spaces. In my first published sci-fi novel, Under Fortunate Stars, a history nerd comes face to face with some of her historical heroes via an accidental time travel incident. And my novella, The Legend Liminal, is about a group of roadtrippers who fall out of reality after a stop on the highway, and find that they’re the only people left in an empty world.
I love protagonists who are ordinary people that get dragged into extraordinary situations; characters who have absolutely no training or preparation for the monumental events that come crashing into their lives. And I think that very much tracks back to those early influences as well. I enjoy the journeys where someone becomes a main character by accident, sometimes very much against their will, but they just need to fumble on through and figure things out. And of course, they’re also learning things about themselves in the process.
Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?
I’m inspired by a tapestry of so many things, from art to science to music to philosophy… but I think my biggest inspiration has always come from the question “what if?” That question can be applied to situations, settings, characters, worldbuilding – it feels like the fundamental building block of my creative process. When I’m creating the details of a speculative universe, I’m often mashing up a cool scientific fact with a speculative element. A short story I wrote last summer was inspired by the question, “What if a sentient library worked like a mycelial network, and the books and scrolls were connected by an invisible, magical root system?” and the rest of it grew from there. (You can find that story, The Brightest and Most Remarkable, in the anthology Of Enchantment, Enigma and the Infinite.)
Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?
I think I’d have to go with Ursula K. LeGuin (pictured). She was an enormous early inspiration to me, in ways I didn’t fully understand until many years after I first encountered her work in my early teens. The rich speculative worlds she built, and the specific ways she approached writing about gender, culture and society, were formative for me as a reader and later as a writer. I was fortunate enough to meet her in person once and see her speak, and she was so generous, gracious and encouraging.
Your Work
You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.
I’m an author of stories about space and stars, uncanny liminal places, and the flawed, messy experience of being human. I write non-linear narratives about reluctant heroes and ordinary people who get thrown into extraordinary adventures. Some recurring motifs in my work are unreliable histories, grief and healing, and the push and pull between fate and free will. (And you can expect some weird time stuff in there, because there’s almost always weird time stuff.) All my stories are about a journey of discovery in one way or another. I write characters who are uncertain of their place in the world, and who end up learning surprising things about themselves while they grapple with wild, world-altering situations.
What are you working on right now?
This year I’ve mostly been busy drafting my next standalone science fiction novel! It’s set in a new universe that leans a little more toward sci-fantasy than my previous space operas, with a sprinkling of supernatural elements. I’m looking forward to sharing more about that project soon.
Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?
My sci-fi debut, Under Fortunate Stars, will always have a special place in my heart. I first started writing that story very much for myself, drawing on all the things I love about the genre. I stopped and started and rewrote and reworked the manuscript for several years, then signed with a literary agent in 2018, sold the book in 2020, and finally saw it on bookshop shelves in 2022. That novel’s journey is so tangled up with my own: it’s not only the book that first made me a published author, but it brought me into the community where I met so many friends, critique partners, colleagues, mentors and mentees. I learned so much about every aspect of this process, and that story is woven into a whole era of my life.
Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?
I can write just about anywhere, and my stories have taken shape in a variety of locations from coffee shops (as pictured) to office desks to the sofa at 2am. But I’m always at my most inspired after exchanging creative energy with someone else, whether that’s chatting with a fellow writer about our newest projects, hearing updates about a friend’s current artistic endeavours, or swapping hype and feedback. Shared creative space is so uplifting.
What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?
“Refilling the well” is essential, and it’s crucial to take time to imbibe and enjoy art forms other than the medium you usually create in. Listening to music, experiencing visual art, seeing a theatre production or a movie, playing a video game… all of that is absolutely a part of keeping your creativity flowing, especially if you’re feeling bored or creatively dried-out. It’s very hard to create anything in a vacuum, but if you’re surrounded by things that excite and interest you, you’ll bring that energy back into your own work.
What’s your writing soundtrack?
I make a lot of different writing playlists depending on the project, and they often aren’t anything to do with the story itself, but more to do with vibes/moods. I’ve been listening to symphonic sci-fi movie themes and game soundtrack mixes with this recent draft. I’ve felt really drawn to big, dramatic instrumental crescendos while I hammered out the world-building details for a new sci-fi universe.
The Quick Fire Round
Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Sci-fantasy
Quiet or loud?
Quiet introspection, loud karaoke (this is an extremely accurate description of the books I love as well, lol)
Dark or light?
Dark enough to see the stars
Strict lines or genre blend?
Genre mashups all the way!
Awards or bestseller?
Cult hit with a small but feral following
Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction
Poetry or prose?
Prose
Plotter or pantser?
Absolutely chaotic pantser
Reading or listening?
Reading
Notebook or computer?
Notebook for thoughts-and-feels, computer for drafting-and-editing
Favourite SFFH book of all time?
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
Last book you read?
I recently finished Slow Gods by Claire North, which is an absolutely stunning space opera. I also read an early manuscript of the upcoming Headspace by Jill Tew, which you should slam onto your 2027 TBR immediately if you’re longing for more romance in your sci-fi. (Is there a more perfect tagline for having to mind-share with an ex than “there was only one head?”)
Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
I’m going to shout out a few of my favourite recent debuts here, because I can’t wait to see what they write next: K.M. Fajardo (Local Heavens, 2025), Cate Baumer (The Faithful Dark, 2026) and Jesse Aragon (The Demon Star, 2026). I love discovering a new-to-me author with a huge backlist, but finding a new favourite who’s at the beginning of their career is a special kind of joy. It’s like you were right there when it all started!
Favourite podcast?
I’m such a mood podcast listener that this answer changes day to day. But I’ve recently been loving Writing Worlds with Chris Gregory and Emily Inkpen, where different authors come on to discuss a particular aspect of world-building. Their lively creative conversations have been the backdrop to many of my evening walks during this drafting season. I’ve listened to almost the whole back catalogue now, and every episode is a delight!
The Home Stretch
What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?
The endless festival of inspiration and juicy creative friendships. Connecting with other creators as an author, editor, mentor and peer has been my greatest joy in publishing!
Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.
You can find me on Instagram and Bluesky (albeit inconsistently) at @voidcricket, or visit my website at www.renhutchings.com.
My sci-fi novels Under Fortunate Stars and An Unbreakable World are out from Solaris Books and available in print, ebook or audio. UFS is a standalone space opera with Star Trek energy, snarky banter and high stakes. It’s about accidental time travel, a history nerd to the rescue, and the perils of actually meeting your heroes. AUW is also a standalone (it’s set in the same universe as UFS, but you can read them in either order!) It follows a petty thief with lost memories who gets unexpectedly dragged into a con. There’s lots of galactic lore, old secrets, and character explorations around selfhood, belief, and purpose.
My surreal weird-roadtrip novella, The Legend Liminal, is published by indie press Stars and Sabers. TLL is a contemporary soft sci-fi with Donnie Darko vibes. It’s about a slip out of time and reality, but it’s also about grief and human connection and finding lifelines in others when you’re lost. (Short stories of mine appear in two of the Stars and Sabers anthologies along with a brilliant roster of writers, so do check those out, too!)
I would also love it if you checked out the whole wonderful list of published and upcoming speculative fiction from Stelliform Press. It’s been such an honour to contribute on the editorial side for many phenomenal Stelliform books and authors!
