Writing Speculative Fiction as a form of Rebellion

This is one of the festival's Pay What You Can events.

Speculative Fiction work such as fantasy, dystopias, and horror have always been genres that allow a space for writers to discuss and critique real world issues including sexism, racism, and class disparity, but how do you write with these ideas in mind?

Join us for a workshop designed for emerging fiction writers to explore real world issues such as sexism, racism, class disparity, religious persecution, and propaganda in a safe and creative environment.

Across the two-hour session we will first explore how some of the greats have accomplished discussing and critiquing issues in their own work, pulling on examples such as class disparity and capitalism in The Hunger Games, dehumanization in Tender is the Flesh, sexism and propaganda in The Grace Year, and racism in Eragon. We will also discuss how and when to tell a story that draws upon lived experience.

After we will explore world-building and how to create rich, lived-in worlds and brainstorm our own ideas exploring real life societal issues. At the end there will be time to write and the opportunity to share.

Aged 16+.

Mikala Smee is currently working on what she hopes will be her debut novel, with an emphasis on speculative fiction as a form of rebellion. She has a BA from the University of Queensland majoring in Criminology and Writing. In 2025 she was a winner of the Young Poets Network Breaking the Rules Challenge and commended in the Poetry Society x Modern Poetry in Translation Challenge. She was awarded a bursary to attend the 2024 John Hewitt International Summer School and in 2023 was awarded a place in the Express Media Fiction Toolkit program. Her work includes poetry and short stories which have been published in numerous magazines.