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We have six readings from a range of authors – fantasy, science fiction and horror – to help you find your next book (or add to that beautiful TBR pile). Bring your favourite tipple and enjoy some first-rate readings from the SFFH community.
Readings from Carl Bayley; Anna Tizard; Stephen Frame; Ayida Shonibar; Yvonne Battle-Felton, and Somto Ihezue. Find out more about them below.
Carl Bayley (he/him): Tax writer turned storyteller, Carl Bayley, moved to Scotland in 1997 and fell in love with its landscape and history. The country ignited his creative passion and a desire to tell timeless stories that weave together the past and present. Pausing a mere quarter of a century to write a series of popular tax guides, he developed a skill for explaining complex concepts in simple everyday language. Now, he combines skills and passion to produce a series of fantasy novels unlike any other. And, don’t worry… tax is only mentioned once! Find out more about Carl on his website. Or connect on Facebook or LinkedIn. Grab his book here.
Anna Tizard (she/her): Anna Tizard writes wildly imagined fantasies spiked with unexpected, metaphysical themes. Guided by the beams and shadows of the human psyche and with a touch of the surreal, you might call it “deeply weird”. Inspired by the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse, which she plays on her podcast, Brainstoryum, each unique story is based on random word combinations for a bizarre and enlightening journey into the imagination. Play the game, hear your words turn into stories. Subscribe, and be privy to secret tales. Who knows? You may even inspire the next one in The Book of Exquisite Corpse! Find out more about Anna on her website or follow her on Twitter.
Stephen Frame (he/him): Stephen Frame lives in the far north of Scotland. At an impressionable age, he picked up the first issue of 2000AD, the galaxy’s greatest comic, which is as much explanation as he’s giving for everything that happened next. He’s keen on anything with elves or robots or both. His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies. The Festival of Hungry Ghosts is his debut novel. Away from writing, he helps to look after his local forest, where his principal tools are a positive attitude, enthusiasm and a colourful array of swear words. Learn more about Stephen on his website or connect on Twitter. Read reviews of Stephen’s book on Goodreads and buy a copy here.
Ayida Shonibar (she/her/they/them): Ayida Shonibar writes dark and wistful speculative fiction about misfits, monsters, mischief-makers. A Lambda Literary Fellow and previous We Need Diverse Books mentee, they’ve also received support from the Horror Writers Association and Dream Foundry for their writing. Spanning genres and age categories, their short stories, essays, and poetry appear in various publications, including Silk & Sinew (Bad Hand Books), Heartlines Spec, The Skull & Laurel, Worlds of Possibility, Wilted Pages (Shortwave Publishing), Luminescent Machinations (Neon Hemlock), Nature Futures, Asian Ghost Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing), Night of the Living Queers (Wednesday Books), and Transmogrify! (Harper Teen), among others. Connect with Ayida on Bluesky or Instagram. Or find out more on their website.
Yvonne Battle-Felton (she/her): Yvonne Battle-Felton is an author, academic, editor, podcaster, host, creative producer, and writer. Her debut, Remembered was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2019) and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize (2020). Yvonne has six titles in Penguin Random House’s Ladybird series; and writes creative nonfiction essays, short stories, and stories for children; and novels, short stories, personal essays, and short scripts for adults. She is Senior Commissioning Editor at John Murray Press (UK) and the academic director of creative writing at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education. Curdle Creek is her second novel. Connect with Yvonne via her website, Twitter, Instagram, or Bluesky. Click here for Yvonne’s books.
Somto Ihezue (he/him): Somto Ihezue (He/Him) is an Igbo writer, filmmaker, and editor. He is an MFA fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. His works have appeared, and are forthcoming in Clarkesworld, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Diabolical Plots, Podcastle, Poetry Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Flame Tree Press, and others. His work has been shortlisted for the ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award, the British Fantasy Award (Sydney J. Bounds Awards), the Nommo Awards, the Afritondo Short Story Prize, the Utopia Awards, and others. He has received residencies, fellowships, and grants from Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Tin House, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Clarion West, Horror Writers Association, Ora Lerman: Soaring Gardens Retreat, The Sitka Center, and Milford SF. He is the assistant editor of the Publishing Taught Me anthology (SFWA & National Endowment for the Arts sponsored), and co-editor of Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology. Find out more about Somto on his website. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.