Lecturer in Publishing at City, University of London

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I’m completely over the moon to say I’ll be starting as Lecturer in Publishing at City, University of London this September. I feel immensely lucky and excited to be joining the fantastic team at City, and am looking forward to engaging with the future of publishing, creative writing, and literature though teaching and research. Huge, huge thanks to City for inviting me on board!

Meanwhile, I’m entering the final year of my PhD at UEA and continue digging away in my research burrow investigating hope in climate fiction.

Hope you’re all staying safe and cool in this heatwave, and that your garden are surviving through deep-roots and assiduous water re-use!

New ASLE-UKI Podcast ‘Green Listening’ Lands

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Eco-minded friends, wrap your ears around this…

I’m delighted to announce the launch of Green Listening, a new ecocriticism podcast for ASLE-UKI, co-hosted by our PGR/ECR Rep team – Dr Vera Fibisan (who’s spear-headed our first episode), Demi Wilton and myself!

Episode 1 features Dr John Miller from the University of Sheffield and is available FREE here.

We’ll be releasing more episodes in the autumn – watch this space…!

“Culture v. Commerce in the UK Publishing Industry” online roundtable

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On 17th May at 10.30am BST online, I’m delighted to be part of a roundtable at Münster University called “Culture v. Commerce in the UK Publishing Industry”.

Fellow panellists Cat Mitchell, Dr Audrey Laing and myself will give three 15-minute presentations on the tensions within the UK publishing field that have arisen due to the conflict between commerce and culture in 21st-century book publishing. Our presentations will be followed by a discussion and Q&A, chaired by Chiara Bullen.

The event is FREE and open to all, register here. For more info, click here. Hope to see you there!

Co-organising ASLE-UKI Seminar on Environmental Displacement

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I’m delighted to be co-organising the ASLE-UKI Seminar on Environmental Displacement, part of the ASLE-UKI Seminar Series.

Date and Time: 17 March 2022, 5.30 pm
How to Take Part: Register FREE via Eventbrite

Speakers: Jos Smith (University of East Anglia), Charne Lavery (University of Pretoria and the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South project based at WISER, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), Giovanni Bettini (Lancaster University)

What does displacement mean in our warming world? Placing three researchers from the environmental humanities in conversation with one another, this seminar will explore cross-disciplinary approaches to conceptualizing Anthropocenic mobility. How is both human and non-human movement understood in the context of climate change? How do literary and cultural artefacts anticipate displacement? What is the relationship between land and sea in underrepresented areas such as the Global South? Join us 17 March 2022, 17:30 GMT, for a free online ASLE-UKI seminar exploring ‘Environmental Displacement’.

Convenors: ASLE-UKI Postgraduate and Early-career Representatives (Demi Wilton, Jasmin Kirkbride, Vera Fibisan)

You can find more info about the ASLE seminar series here.

Review of ‘Science Fiction and Climate Change’ in ‘Green Letters’

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In all honesty, this review could just have been ‘I freaking loved this book’. But I loved it too much not to go into detail. It’s very much in my research wheelhouse and eloquently said a lot of really on point things.

You can read my review of ‘Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach’ by Andrew Milner and JR Burgmann in the journal Green Letters.

TEMPLE: Haiku in BHS Anthology 2021

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I’m delighted to have a haiku in ‘Temple: The British Haiku Society Anthology 2021’. This annual anthology is a wonderful read and it’s always such a treat to get through the post, what a pleasure to be published amongst so many fellow haiku enthusiasts. Many thanks to the whole British Haiku Society team and especially the editor Iliyana Stoyanova!

‘Sand’ to be in Tor.com Anthology

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🚀 Totally unbelievably exciting news! My short story ‘Sand’, which was published on Tor.com in October, has been selected for their anthology ‘Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2021 Edition’.

❤️ I feel incredibly lucky to have been selected as one of the 22 short stories and novelettes in this collection – what a group of writers to be amongst, my gosh! Thank you Tor.com!

📕 The anthology will be published 25th January 2022 as a free eBook. You can find out more about it here. And don’t forget in the meantime, you can still read ‘Sand’ right here, also for free.

A little rebel: XR publishes landscape piece

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I had a little rebellion, and wrote a piece for Writers Rebel!

‘Lost landscapes and the grief of nature’s tessellations’ is all about grief, hope, and climate change, and it’s FREE to read on their website here.

Huge thanks to the folks at Writers Rebel for publishing this piece – and for all the work they do protecting our world.

Here’s to looking after the world, and the landscapes we love.

Buy ‘Sand’ as an eBook!

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It’s been a busy and exciting fortnight since ‘Sand’ was published – a huge thank you to everyone for your kind words and comments about it, I’ve been really blown away! ❤️

You can also now buy Sand as an eBook for only 71p at your local digital bookseller – the link is on the Tor.com story page.

Excitingly, since the eBook launch, the story’s had a couple of reviews…

⭐ Long and Short Reviews gave it 4 stars, saying it was thoughtful and admirably compassionate.

🪐 Tangent called it bizarre, strange and ‘likely to split reader opinion’ (always an exciting thing to do!)

🚀 It’s also been listed on Rocket Stack Rank with Tor.com’s other October short stories, which is a long-time daydream of mine and feels really nice!

BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK? You can now review the book on GoodReads and on eBooks stores like Amazon. So, if you’ve found the story interesting, think about dropping it a star-rating or written review – it honestly helps the story have a longer, happier cyberspace life!

Thanks again for all the gorgeous feedback and encouragement – you’re the loveliest readers in the world! xXx

‘SAND’ ARRIVES ON TOR.COM 

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🚀 My new short story, ‘Sand’, has just been published on Tor.com. It’s ‘a heart-wrenching tale about generational trauma and healing’ – and you can read it here for FREE.

🪐 To say I’m excited about this is a huge understatement – this is a dream come true. Huge thanks to the Tor.com team and particularly my lovely editor Lee Harris. I’m over the moon and Saturn and Betelgeuse!

📕 Also a huge thanks to the illustrator Juan Bernabeu, who’s done such an incredible illustration for the story. If you would like to buy an eBook version for 99p with this s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g cover, you can by following the link.

❤️ Hope you enjoy reading! x

Haiku in upcoming BHS anthology

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Some lovely poetry news arrived in my inbox this morning: I’m pleased to say I’ll be getting a haiku published in Temple: British Haiku Society Anthology 2021, coming out later this year.

I haven’t had any poetry published in a while, and it’s been such a joy diving back into the form in recent weeks. For any other haiku (or tanka, haibun, etc.) enthusiasts, I thoroughly recommend joining the British Haiku Society. It’s a safe, fun space in which to explore the form – and it’s a very, very rewarding form!

Pond Tales fun!

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For fun, I’ve created a free weekly mailing list of stories from my Little Garden. It’s called Pond Tales. 🌺

If you’d like to read them subscribe now to get ‘Ch.1: Arrival of the Young Great Diving Beetle’ this coming Friday! 🐸🍃

The website also has sneak peeks of upcoming stories and ramblings about BBC Gardeners’ World!

CHASE Summer Reading Series

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I’m excited to be taking part in the CHASE Summer Readings series. The first event is tonight, Monday 19th July, chaired by myself and featuring readings from Petra McQueen from University of Essex, Caroline Millar from University of Kent, Kaja Knudsun from University of East Anglia and Susannah Dawes from University of Essex.

Then, next week on Monday 26th July, it’ll be my turn to read, along with Cat Conway from University of Goldsmiths, Gillian Laker from University of Kent, and Daniel C Jeffreys from University of Essex. We’ll be chaired by the lovely Ashley Barr.

These are private events for researchers at CHASE institutions – if you’re at one, tune in online from 7pm, the invite will be in your inbox!

UEA LDC PGR Symposium

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I had a great time at the UEA LDC PGR Symposium today – what a way to end the academic year. Huge gratitude to all the amazing speakers, Rosalind Brown, Suzanne Solomon, John Steciuk, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir and Kotryna Garanašvili – totally blown away by your presentations. Very proud and humbled to be an LDC postgrad right now.

Organising this was my last hurrah as LDC PGR Rep. It’s been an amazing and connective experience during the past two years – thanks to LDC and the Grad School for making room for our voices and listening to us so well during the pandemic. Sending out the University of East Anglia love!

‘Journey Around Our Rooms’ with Uni of Kent

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Dialling back in a time a bit to share this one!

A few weeks ago I was on the ‘Writing the Anthropocene’ panel at the UEA CW50 EACWP Conference. As part of that I wrote (and painted!) a little thing about my dear study at home for the Journey Around Our Rooms project with the University of Kent. Here’s a little extract:

“I spent the autumn and winter building a nest, plaiting moss and twigs to my shape. I still can’t believe it stays together when the once-sea winds pelt across the Norfolk flats.

“My study was the first room I finished, two days after moving, just in time for term to kick back in. The painting makes it look bigger than real life. But the things that make us free are always larger in our mind’s eye. Six years freelance, with my job sharing the same psychic space as my bed, but I’ve finally built a border between work and life. That unassuming door makes a hang of a difference – and just in time. Since I moved in, my whole world’s been on this desk: social life; paralegal, editing and teaching work; research; writing… I built a border, but that doesn’t mean I can balance it. The pandemic didn’t help, collapsing the geographical telescope. Still, I was lucky it locked me down in here…”

You can read on for free right here.

Chairing Hallie Rubenhold Keynote in June

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Between 11:30-12:30 on Thursday 24th June, I’m thrilled and honoured to be chairing Hallie Rubenhold’s keynote at the CHASE Virtual Encounters conference 2021 .

Historian Hallie Rubenhold is the author of three works of non-fiction and two novels, of which two, The Covent Garden Ladies and Lady Worsley’s Whim, have inspired television dramas – Harlots (Hulu/Amazon) and The Scandalous Lady W (BBC2). Her debut book, The Covent Garden Ladies, captured the imagination of millions when it brought to public attention the history of the Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, an infamous 18th century guidebook to sex workers. Alongside her writing, her extensive experience extends to presenting TV documentaries, advising on period dramas, teaching, lecturing and curatorial work. You can find out more about her here.

Hallie will be talking about her book The Five, research methodology, and history as something live and relevant, incorporating the conference themes of ‘futures’ and ‘community’. 

For more information about the conference, and to register, click here.

Authorship Conference 2021

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I had so much fun running Authorship Conference 2021 for UEA LDC yesterday. It’s the third year running & the conference is going from strength to strength!

Huge gratitude to our generous sponsors HW Fisher and to the fantastic and insightful speakers from ALCS and Society of Authors as well as authors Paul Howarth, Ben Pester, Tiffany Atkinson, Ben Musgrave, Siân Evans, Helen Smith & Andrew Cowan.

Attendee numbers were through the roof this year – we got over one hundred bookings! Big thanks to everyone who came – see you at next year’s conference…

…And all that newsletter Jas!

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💌 So, if you’re interested in my stories, don’t let social media algorithms get in the way, stay in touch the reliable way – via email!