Harold Washington Library Center
Harold Washington Library Center
In our current special exhibit, on display now, embark on a thrilling adventure into the world of game writing and explore the role of narrative and storytelling in gaming, from the 1970s to today. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, Level Up enriches your understanding of writing through fun and interactive formats, inspires young people to try a new form of writing, and encourages exploration of the worlds created through games. Experience the magic of game writing and plan your visit today!
Ray Bradbury is perhaps best-known for writing Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and The Illustrated Man. He was much more than those stories though: a screenplay writer, a friend to Walt Disney, and an amateur painter, just to name a few. From a young age, Ray was obsessed with finding a way to live forever. He will certainly be remembered for his writing, but his influence elsewhere may surprise you. This special exhibit, now online, was on display at the AWM from May 2021-September 2022. Explore the virtual exhibit today!
Watch this thought-provoking panel discussion with various scholars who explore how religion is depicted and experienced in narrative games. Presented in conjunction with special exhibit Level Up: Writers & Gamers.
View more past author talks and panel discussions on the Science Fiction & Fantasy playlist on our YouTube channel!
Throughout the years we’ve hosted many science fiction and fantasy writers for public author talks. Check out some of our favorite episodes below, and stream all AWM Author Talks episodes here.
Annalee Newitz
The Future of Another Timeline
“I wanted to tell a hopeful story. I wanted to tell a story about how people can suffer setbacks and really, really horrific things and still be resilient and still find allies and change things slightly for the better.“
J. Michael Straczynski
Becoming Superman
“The role of science fiction is to look over the horizon and ask, do you like what’s coming at you?“
Elliot Ackerman & James Stavridis
2034: A Novel of the Next World War
“The joy of writing fiction that I’ve discovered is that you throw off that straight jacket of nonfiction…and you paint with the brush of imagination on an enormous canvas.”
John Scalzi
The Consuming Fire
“One of the things they like to tell you about writers is that when a writer is looking out a window, they are writing. It’s not always true, sometimes we’re just looking at a squirrel.“
Get these books for the young readers in your life and listen to the writers talk about their work!
Survive the Dome
by Kosoko Jackson
The Hate U Give meets Internment in this pulse-pounding thriller about an impenetrable dome around Baltimore that is keeping the residents in and information from going out during a city-wide protest.
The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez
Adrianna Cuevas
In this magical middle-grade debut novel, a Cuban American boy must use his secret ability to communicate with animals to save the inhabitants of his town when they are threatened by a tule vieja, a witch that transforms into animals.
Burn Down, Rise Up
Vincent Tirado
Mysterious disappearances. An urban legend rumored to be responsible. And one group of friends determined to save their city at any cost. Stranger Things meets Jordan Peele in this acclaimed novel from an incredible new voice.
Woven in Moonlight
Isabel Ibañez
A lush tapestry of magic, romance, and revolución, drawing inspiration from Bolivian politics and history.
Watch these videos recorded live at the 2022 American Writers Festival for insights into their craft and the science fiction and fantasy writing community.
Writers discuss their contributions to the anthology The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry. The panel includes editors and contributors Tara Betts, Mallessa James, Len Lawson, Cynthia Manick, and Craig Stevens. Moderated by Eve L. Ewing.
Acclaimed science fiction author John Scalzi discusses his recent book The Kaiju Preservation Society and the science fiction genre with fellow award-winning science fiction writer Michi Trota.
Check out some Q&As and op-eds from science fiction and fantasy writers we have worked with in the past, and access all of our blogs here.
“The ways in which capitalism encourages us to use programs like ‘AI’ reflects our deeper societal issues with viewing everything and everyone around us as things to exploit rather than seeing the world around us as worth connecting with respectfully and empathetically.”
“There is something so beautiful about writing a story that many people can relate to or cherish. I want to be a writer because I want to live in my imagination, and not in any kind of structure. Writing allows me to access the well of my creativity and it often surprises me.“
“I write constantly so I don’t have to wait for inspiration – writing is a daily discipline. There’s always enough going on out in the world to write about; the point of me writing daily is to keep in practice. It’s like a musician doing scales or the artist sketching. It’s exercising the muscles, as it were.“
“This novel is my love letter to discovery science, which applies to fields like biology and physics, where there are phenomena out there in the world — like the human body, or time itself — that we are learning about as we use them.“
