Popping in for a quick announcement! I’m going to be teaching a day course at University of Cambridge this November called ‘Write the one percent: creating diverse, inclusive fiction’. More info here. If you work in a UK state school you can get a 50% bursary on the tuition fee!
During the course of this day-school, we’ll explore the key concepts of diversity in writing and consider why it’s important for writers of all kinds to make their work inclusive. We’ll define some of the most under-represented identities and uncover the common pitfalls in writing about them. How can we avoid stereotypes and inaccurate representation? Thoroughly researching an identity before writing is key, and together we’ll look at how to do that. Through a creative writing exercise, you’ll come to realise to what extent a new perspective and identity can bring real depth and richness to your writing.
Course Programme
10:00 The basics of diverse fiction
11:15 Coffee
11:45 Writing outside of your own experience
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Respectfully writing about sexuality and race in prose
15:15 Tea
15:30 Discussing political and social issues in fiction
16:45 Day school ends
Also, The Quiet at the End of the World was in this week’s Waterstones Weekly newsletter, which I was DELIGHTED by!
And for any speedy readers who have already finished reading The Quiet at the End of the World, I just posted a deleted scene where Lowrie and Shen steal an antique carriage.
Published by Wren James
Wren James is the award-winning British author of eleven science fiction & fantasy novels, including The Quiet at the End of the World and The Next Together (previously published as Lauren James). Their books have sold over 200,000 copies in ten languages, and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was optioned for film by Amazon MGM.
Wren is a story consultant on Netflix’s Heartstopper, which was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Also a RLF Royal Fellow, Wren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League and member of the Society of Authors’ Sustainability steering Committee. They work as a consultant on climate storytelling with a focus on providing optimism and hope.
They have won the Sustainable Story Award and been shortlisted for the YA Book Prize, Carnegie Medal and STEAM Book Award.
Wren’s writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly.
Their latest titles are Last Seen Online, a crime thriller set in the world of fandom, and The Victors, a cosy fantasy graphic novel illustrated by Beth Fuller.
Wren was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, where they studied Chemistry and Physics. They run a Queer Writers group in Coventry. Follow them on Instagram & TikTok at @wrenjameswriter or find out more at wrenjames.co.uk.
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