Granite Noir 2024: A Damaged World

Granite Noir 2024: A Damaged World

Chaired by Katalina Watt

Kate Simants’ gripping thriller of obsession, murder and revenge Freeze follows a group of reality TV contestants trapped on an Arctic ice-breaking ship  as they are picked off one by one. Is this imagined reality our future?

Edited by Lauren James and featuring Oisín McGann Future Hopes is rooted in real-world science and technology, the stories offer a roadmap for a future where our planet can thrive.

Does fiction offer insight to our future? Is it hopeful or bleak? How does reading about the perils we face and how we might face them leave us feeling empowered or powerless?

https://climate-fiction.org/

Kate Simants

Kate Simants was shortlisted for a CWA Debut Dagger for her first novel, Lock Me In, and won the UEA Literary Festival scholarship to study for an MA in Crime Fiction where she graduated with distinction. Her second novel, A Ruined Girl, won the Bath Novel Award. Her third novel, Freeze, was a Sunday Times Book of the Month and a Times Book Club pick. Before writing full time, Kate worked as an investigative undercover journalist for Channel 4 and the BBC. Her experiences undercover partly inspired the plot of Freeze, as well as her expertise behind the camera. She lives near Bristol with her family.

Lauren James

Lauren James is the Carnegie-longlisted British author of many Young Adult novels, including Green Rising, The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. She is a RLF Royal Fellow at Aston University and the story consultant on Netflix’s Heartstopper (Seasons 2 and 3).

Lauren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, and member of the Society of Authors’ Sustainability Committee. She works as a consultant on climate storytelling for museums, production companies, major brands and publishers, with a focus on optimism and hope. She runs a Queer Writers group in Coventry.

Katalina Watt

Katalina Watt (she/they) was Longlisted for Penguin Write Now 2020 and received a 2021 Writers Grant from Ladies of Horror Fiction. Her short fiction has been published in various magazines and anthologies including Haunted Voices, Unspeakable, and Extra Teeth. They have appeared at festivals and literary events including Edinburgh International Book Festival, Cymera, and FIYAHCON. Katalina is represented by Robbie Guillory at Underline Literary Agency.

Katalina is Literature Officer at Creative Scotland and Audio Director for khōréō, a speculative fiction magazine for immigrant and diaspora authors.