Brave New Words

Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror wants to offer a platform for emerging and newly published writers to read their work in front of our audience. Our readers will appear just before some of our main events.  


Alex Penland

Supporting Anna Cheung, Rhiannon Grist and A.M. Shine

Alex Penland is a former museum kid. They spent their childhood running rampant through the Smithsonian museums, which kicked off an early career as a child adventurer. Alex has worked in the field with NASA scientists, Smithsonian linguists, and acclaimed photographers. Now a Pushcart-nominated author, Alex currently lives in Scotland while studying for a PhD. Their work has been internationally published in The Midwest Review, Orion’s Belt, and through Flame Tree Press.

Alex will be reading an excerpt from The Little Angler, which was published in the Strange Lands anthology.

Find Alex on their website, or on Twitter and Instagram.


EM Faulds

Supporting C.J. Cooke, Cat Hellisen and Francesca May

Beth, writing under the name EM Faulds, has been writing since I was old enough to hold a pen and make it do what I told it. She grew up in Australia and now calls Scotland her home. She writes speculative fiction in short stories and books. This includes the genres of science fiction and fantasy, among others.

Beth will be reading from her collection Under the Moon.

Find Beth on her website, on Twitter or on Instagram.


Eris Young

Supporting T.L.Huchu and Charles Stross

Eris Young is a writer and editor of speculative fiction. Their work has appeared in venues including Escape Pod, Fusion Fragment and Metastellar, and their short story 'All That Water' won first prize in the 2021 British Fantasy Society short story competition. They are the fiction editor at Shoreline of Infinity science fiction magazine. In 2020, they were awarded a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award for fiction.

Find Eris on Facebook and on Twitter.


Gus Harris-Reid

Supporting J. Dianne Dotson, Gareth L. Powell and Adrian Tchaikovsky

Gus Harris-Reid is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer working in aerospace & defence (radar, lasers & advanced targeting). No, he doesn’t work for Stark Industries unfortunately... The Marshals of Rhea trilogy, a 'Gundam meets Game of Thrones' techno-fantasy adventure featuring mech-riding noble houses in a Mad Max-style wasteland, is his debut novel series. Gus was born in London, grew up in Devon, and now lives and works in Edinburgh.

Gus will be reading from House Omega, the first book in his Marshals of Rhea trilogy published by Aethon Books.

Find Gus on his website and on Twitter.


Hannah Kaner

Supporting CL Clark, Laura Lam and Tasha Suri

Hannah is a Scotland based writer from Northumberland. She lives and works in Leith, in Edinburgh. Hannah will be reading an excerpt from her debut fantasy novel, Godkiller, which will be out with Harper Voyager in January 2023

She can be found on Instagram and via her website.


Kate Dylan

Supporting Ken MacLeod, Adam Oyebanji and Harry Josephine Giles

Kate is a video editor by day, science fiction and fantasy author by night. Her passion for writing sci-fi novels is fuelled by a love of banter, snark, and all things Marvel, and is supported by her long-suffering boyfriend and their thoroughly indifferent cat. Kate's UK debut, Mindwalker, releases September 1st, from Hodder & Stoughton.

Kate will be reading the opening to Mindwalker.

Kate can be found on her website, on Instagram and on Twitter.


Lyndsey Croal

Supporting C.A. Fletcher, Neil Williamson and Lorraine Wilson

Lyndsey is an Edinburgh-based writer of speculative and strange fiction. She is a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, and her work has been published in several anthologies and magazines, including with Shoreline of Infinity and Mslexia. In 2021, her debut audio drama was produced by Alternative Stories & Fake Realities, and she is currently working on a number of longer projects.

Lyndsey will read an excerpt from her short story First Blood which was published in Mslexia's Best Women's Short Fiction 2021.

Find Lyndsey on Twitter as @writerlynds or via her website.