Martin MacInnes is a novelist from the north of Scotland. His work lies at the intersection of science fiction and literary fiction, and is often concerned with relating human experience to wider planetary and even cosmic perspectives. He began publishing short fiction in 2010 and won the Manchester Fiction prize and the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2014. His debut novel, Infinite Ground (Atlantic, 2016), was released to wide critical acclaim and won the Somerset Maugham Award. His second novel, Gathering Evidence (Atlantic, 2020), led to The Times calling him ‘the best experimentalist currently at work,’ and he was subsequently named in the National Centre for Writers’ list of ten writers shaping the UK’s future. His most recent novel, In Ascension (Atlantic, 2023), was longlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Saltire Prize for Fiction, and Blackwell’s Book of the Year. A Times bestseller, it has been translated into ten languages and optioned for film.
Sci-Fi Weekend
How do we live, amid the immensities of time and space? What preceded us, and what – and who – may succeed us? What lies in the unreachably distant corners of the universe, and what might it say about our own life, here on Earth? These are just some of the endless mysteries provoked, and indeed taken on, by Science Fiction – of all genres, perhaps the widest ranging and most open to experimentation and sheer imagination. In this weekend-long course, led by award-winning author Martin MacInnes, you will be taken through many of the key stages of writing Science Fiction. Together, you will work with prompts to generate ideas, discuss how to form a story, and how to develop it over a sustained period of time. You will look at perspective and location, and the importance of finding the right voice to match your ideas. You will discuss creative blocks, approaching your work in new ways, and the importance of drafting and editing. With some reference to other texts, you will look at balancing character writing with extravagant ideas – building both inner and outer worlds. By the end of the weekend – which will feature three 90-minute sessions and one online session led by Aliette de Bodard in addition to a showcase evening and a detailed group question and answer session– you can expect to leave brimming with ideas, know-how, and enthusiasm for your next Science Fiction project.
Bursaries
One £150 bursary space is available for this course. To apply, please complete this application form
Deadline for applications: Sunday 24 August 2025
For further information about the support available, please visit our Financial Assistance page: https://tynewydd.wales/courses-retreats/financial-support/
Tutor
Martin MacInnes
Guest Reader
Aliette de Bodard (Digital)
Aliette de Bodard lives and works in Paris. She has won three Nebula Awards, an Ignyte Award, a Locus Award, a British Fantasy Award and six British Science Fiction Association Awards. She is the author of Navigational Entanglements (St Martin's Press, 2024) a xianxia-inspired romantic space opera and of A Fire Born of Exile (Orion Publishing, 2024). She also wrote Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances (JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc, 2022 BSFA Award winner), a fantasy of manners and murders set in an alternate 19th Century Vietnamese court. Her space opera books include The Tea Master and the Detective (Subterranean Press, 2018) which won the 2018 Nebula Award, 2018 British Fantasy Award, and was a finalist for the 2019 Hugo Award.