In what ways was Mary Shelley prescient? How do the themes of her 1818 novel relate to science fiction in 2018? What issues are being – and should be – addressed by science fiction writers today?
Shariann Lewitt is a novelist and short-story author specializing in science fiction. She is currently a lecturer at MIT.
Vandana Singh, originally from India, is a science fiction author and Associate Professor and Chair of Physics and Earth Science at Framingham State University.
Sarah Smith has won the Agatha (for best mystery) and the Massachusetts Book Award (for best book). Her books are published in 14 languages and have become bestsellers here and abroad. They’ve been named New York Times Books of the Year (twice), London TimesBook of the Year, Village Voice Editor’s Choice, Entertainment Weekly Editor’s Choice, and lots of other cool things. She lives in Brookline, is a Frankenstein devotee, and, sadly, thinks the Boris Karloff movie version is almost as wonderful as Mary Shelley’s.
Cadwell Turnbull is a graduate from the North Carolina State University’s Creative Writing MFA in Fiction and English MA in Linguistics. Turnbull’s short stories have been published in Nightmare, Lightspeed and Asimov’s Science Fiction. His Asimov’s short story “When the Rains Come Back” made Barnes and Noble’s Sci-fi & Fantasy Short Fiction Roundup in April 2018. His debut novel The Lesson is set to be published in Summer 2019 with Blackstone Publishing.
Sonia Hofkosh is Associate Professor in the English Department at Tufts, where she teaches courses in 18th and 19th Century British Literature, feminist theory, science fiction, and the intersection of literary and visual studies. Her publications include a study of the simultaneous commercialization and feminization of literary culture at the turn of the 19th C called Sexual Politics and the Romantic Author, and articles on various topics, such as early women’s magazines; the invention of photography; the everyday; and writing by Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, and Mary Shelley, among others.
Seth Mnookin is Director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing and a Professor of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT. His most recent book, The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy, won the National Association of Science Writers “Science in Society” Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize. He is also the author of the 2006 New York Times bestseller Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top and 2004’s Hard News: The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media, which was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. His 2014 New Yorker piece on rare genetic diseases won the American Medical Writers Association prize for best story of the year and was included in the 2015 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. His essays and reporting have appeared in numerous publications, including Vanity Fair, Science, The Boston Globe, STAT, Smithsonian, New York, Wired, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Spin, Slate, and Salon.com.
Catalyze is a group of science, speculative, and slipstream playwrights based out of Central Square Theater. The Catalyze Playwriting Group is an offshoot of Catalyst Collaborative@MIT (CC@MIT), a collaboration between Central Square Theater and MIT. The Catalyze Playwriting Group writes, workshops, and performs new works of science theatre.