University
Genre Writing
Highlight Event "Women's sci-fi writing and dark inspiration"
During the North London Story Festival, we were lucky enough to interview leading UK sci-fi writers Sammy HK Smith, with her novel Anna from Rebellion Publishing, and Susannah Wise, with her novel This Fragile Earth from Gollancz. Our main interviewers were Lolita Parekh and Olga Kalinska (students of BA Creative Writing and Journalism)!
Kendare Blake, celebrated author of Young Adult (YA) fantasy and fiction, is an alumna of Middlesex University. She has written and published a range of titles, including the Three Dark Crowns (2016) series with HarperCollins, and she is a #1 New York Times best-selling author.
Renowned British horror writer James Herbert was an alumnus of Middlesex University. His first novel,
The Rats (1974), sold out the 100,000 copies of its first print run in just three weeks! He published 23 novels in total during his career (selling 54 million copies globally), including The Secret of Crickley Hall (2006), which was adapted for the popular BBC tv series of the same title aired in 2018. In 2010 Herbert was honoured with the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, presented to him by Stephen King.
Middlesex University teaches horror writing as a part of its BA English and BA Creative Writing and Journalism degrees. In addition to that, the university has a strong tradition in researching the wider genres of horror and the gothic. For example, Clive Bloom is Emeritus Professor of English & American Studies at Middlesex University and a best-selling author and academic, with successful titles such as Gothic Horror: A Guide for Students and Readers (2007) and Victoria's Madmen (2013).
Middlesex University also has a strong tradition in the researching, teaching and publishing of both fantasy and science fiction literature. Academic Farah Mendlesohn won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Related Work for
The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, and her book The Rhetorics of Fantasy (2008) won the BSFA award for best non-fiction book in 2009. Current lecturer Adam Dalton publishes both academic and creative works relating to the genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror. And our visiting lecturer Mark Kirkbride writes both sci-fi and horror.
Middlesex University also teaches other genres, including magical realism, detective fiction, true crime, romance, erotic fiction, historical fiction and alternate history. Indeed, in terms of the MA Novel Writing and the PhDs we offer in English and Creative Writing we supervise as many students interested in genre fiction as we do students looking to specialise in literary fiction.
If you would like to access some free learning materials related to genre writing, please find them here.