BSFA - The British Science Fiction Association

People

Pat Cadigan - President

Renowned SFF author Pat Cadigan is the author of myriad of novels and short stories, and considered a formative voice within cyberpunk in particular. Long-serving Vice President of the BSFA, Pat became our President in 2020.

Tade Thompson - Vice President

Tade Thompson writes books, short stories and screenplays. He's a south London boy who now lives in Hampshire.

He is no longer sure if he's a doctor who moonlights as a writer, or a writer who daylights as a doctor.

Allen Stroud - Chair

Lecturer at Coventry University. He worked on the computer games Elite Dangerous (2014), Chaos Reborn (2016) and Phoenix Point (2019), developing world backgrounds, plot and fiction. He has written short stories, novels and music. His new science fiction novel, Fearless came out in September 2020.

Farah Mendlesohn - Treasurer

Farah has lost track of all the things Farah has done, but most recently they included securing a PGDip in Charity Accounting. Although the BSFA is not a charity, this seemed a reasonable qualification for taking on the role of Treasurer.

Luke Nicklin - Membership Officer

After becoming a dad, Luke returned to the UK after four years in Japan to continue teaching English as a foreign language and pursue writing. Luke loves stories from any medium, board games, puzzles/mysteries, painting miniatures and making music.

Francis Gene-Rowe - Councillor

Francis Gene-Rowe is an sf scholar who works on Philip K. Dick, William Blake, Ursula K. Le Guin, tabletop gaming, ecocriticism, sf poetry and goblin futures. He codirects the London Science Fiction Research Community and is one of the Science Fiction Research Association's UK Representatives. He also serves on the editorial board of Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy's A New Canon series. In his spare time he plays, writes and sometimes designs tabletop games.

Eugen Bacon (you-gin) - Councillor

The artist sometimes known as Eugen Bacon is non-android, full-blooded with two masters degrees and a doctorate in computing and writing respectively. The said qualifications do not endear this artist to editors any more than other artists. With much grovelling, repeat submissions, and sometimes fierceness, the artist has managed to secure publications in literary, scholarly and speculative fiction journals or magazines worldwide. Her novella Ivory’s Story was shortlisted in the 2020 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards.

Ali Baker - Diversity Officer

Ali Baker is a lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and Primary Education at University of East London, and a researcher writing working on class children in children’s fantasy fiction. She has a learning disability (dyspraxia) and is bisexual. She has volunteered at many SFF cons and was co-chair of programme at Ytterbium (Eastercon 2019) and will repeat that role at Reclamation (Eastercon 2022).

Yen Ooi - Councillor

Yen Ooi is a writer-researcher whose works explore cultural storytelling and its effects on identity in science fiction. Yen is the author of the game Road to Guangdong, the novel Sun: Queens of Earth, and A Suspicious Collection of Shorrt Stories and Poetry, along with various articles and papers. Yen is also a lecturer, mentor, and consultant.

Gene Rowe - Councillor

Gene Rowe should not be confused with fellow councillor, Francis Gene-Rowe, who is an entirely different human being with a freakishly similar name. This Gene is an academic who has published many 'worthy' non-fiction articles, but is most proud of his first sci-fi novel (The Greater Game, White Cat Publications, 2021). When not scribbling, Gene can usually be found propped against a bar, nursing a pint of IPA.

Terry Jackman - Writing Groups Officer

Terry is a SFF fiction writer, who co-ordinates the Orbit groups, a series of online writing groups open to all BSFA members.

Polina Levontin - Vector Editor-in-Chief

Polina has co-edited Vector, the critical journal of the BSFA, since 2018. She is also a science researcher in environmental policy, with particular interests in communicating risk and improving decision-making in complex multi-stakeholder situations.