Last June I was commissioned by the West Midlands Readers Network to meet with Warwickshire Pride’s book club and quiz them about what they’d like to read the most. I then went away and wrote a short story to fit their demands!
They wanted to read about trans+, poly characters in their twenties and thirties, and requested ‘vampire smut’ and spooky elements. I ended up writing a story about a group of trans housemates living in a Victorian terrace which is haunted. The story, T-Boys, has been published in an anthology FIVE STORIES.
This project was funded by Arts Council England. Thanks to David and the Warwickshire Pride Book Club for their enthusiasm and excellent ideas!
I’m also very excited that Future Hopes is a Book Trust Spark reading pick! The 15 titles were picked by a panel of librarians and teachers to represent the best of modern fiction for shared reading in KS3 students.
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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Wren James 