Speculative Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology

(Hardback)

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In a time defined by uncertainty, change and inequality, speculative fiction is fast-becoming the genre of the 21st century. Straddling genres such as fantasy, science fiction, dystopia, alternative history, and horror, this book is a comprehensive introduction to the art of writing in this imaginative, fluid, and inclusive mode. An all-in-one textbook combining a craft guide with an extensive, diverse anthology, Speculative Fiction explores the multiplicity of influences that the genre has consumed and incorporated, digs into techniques specific to speculative writing, and gives writers exercises and prompts to begin their own works.

In addition, Speculative Fiction features:
- Annotated stories to showcase speculative techniques in practice
- Interviews with authors about the use of craft in their speculative work
- Detailed exploration of techniques from world-building to creating characters to plots and conflict in a specifically speculative mode
- Exercises engineered to allow readers to master a broad range of techniques
- Reader response sections from speculative writing students with critical feedback
- Chapters on finding a speculative writing community and workshopping writing within the genre
-Notes for the novelist in every chapter

Featuring the works of such authors as George Saunders, Joyce Carol Oates, Rebecca Roanhorse, Carmen Maria Machado, Sofia Samatar, and many more, this book gives writers the resources to write boldly, differently, and freely as they embrace stories that defy, undermine, and subvert traditional visions and points of view.

Reviews

Benjamin Warner and Ron Tanner's Speculative Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology is an accessible and charming student centered introduction to the pleasures and possibilities of both the creative writing workshop and genre bending fiction.This book is sure to find a place in many classrooms and bookshelves. * Jennifer Pullen, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio Northern University, USA; Author of Fantasy Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology. *

Author Bio

Benjamin Warner is Lecturer in the English Department at Towson University, USA. He is the author of the speculative novels Thirst (2016) and Fearless (2023) and his fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Salon.com, The Washington Post Magazine, and Punchnels, among others. His website is benjaminwarner.net.

Ron Tanner is Professor Emeritus in the Writing Department at Loyola University, Maryland, USA. He is the author of five books, most recently Far West: Stories (2022), which was winner of the 2020 Elixir Press book prize. Other awards for writing include a Faulkner Society gold medal, a Pushcart Prize, a New Letters Award, a Best of the Web Award, and a James Michener/Copernicus Society Fellowship. His website is https://www.ronaldtanner.com/