How American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler forged a new vision for humanity

A pioneering writer in a genre long dominated by white men, her work explored power structures, shifting definitions of humanity and alternative societies.

Alyssa Collins, The Conversation

· Jul 14, 2022 · 05:30 pm

Steampunk: How this subgenre of science fiction challenges the beliefs of civilisational progress

Steampunk is a response to growing estrangement with the interpretation of modernity and the ruthless rupture from the past as the precondition for progress.

Sumit Bardhan

· Apr 16, 2022 · 05:30 pm

Solarpunk: A new anthology of speculative fiction counters dystopias with hopeful futures

Meet some of the writers featured in the anthology ‘Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures’.

Sayantani Sengupta

· Oct 05, 2021 · 08:30 am

What the Hugo and Nebula award-winners of 2020 are telling us about science-fiction and ourselves

What writers and readers consider the best sci-fi of the year.

Sumit Bardhan

· Aug 28, 2021 · 12:30 pm

How mythology and sci-fi are helping China sell its space programme to the world

The country has made concerted efforts to establish a unique ‘Chinese space culture’ by naming programmes after its traditional roots.

Molly Silk, The Conversation

· Jun 30, 2021 · 05:30 pm

Sci-fi novel ‘Lagoon’ challenges long-held ideas of how sexual identities are considered in Africa

Nnedi Okorafor’s rich body of work matters when it comes to the representation of black lives.

Gibson Ncube, The Conversation

· Feb 19, 2021 · 05:30 pm

Science fiction and pandemics have an unusual link: the focus on a shared humanity

Just look to Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Calcutta Chromosome’ or Ursula K Le Guin ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’.

Mayurika Chakravorty, The Conversation

· Jul 21, 2020 · 06:30 pm

How science fiction can offer solace and build resilience in these strange times

It’s time to question why the genre is so often dismissed as escapist literature meant for ‘geeks’.

Esther Jones, The Conversation

· May 15, 2020 · 05:30 pm

How Satyajit Ray, Premendra Mitra and two others wrote a science fiction story jointly for the radio

‘Sabuj Manush’, or ‘Green Men’, was a pathbreaking experiment in Bengali fiction and drama in creating a futuristic universe.

Soham Guha

· Jul 28, 2019 · 05:30 pm

South Asian science-fiction is finally centrestage, bringing us closer to our own reality

No survey of literature from the region can exclude such a diverse and fascinating body of work.

Nudrat Kamal, Dawn.com

· Jul 20, 2019 · 08:30 am

Don’t listen to the critics – science fiction explores what it means to be human in the truest way

Sci-fi serves as a kind of fodder for rumination, to stimulate the mind, and to kick us out of the everyday, habitual, ways of thinking that we all fall into.

Gene Tracy

· Mar 19, 2019 · 05:30 pm

Why is there so little time travel in Indian fiction writing in English?

Play around with our past in time travel and chances are, you’ll be writing a version of history already imagined and believed real.

Tashan Mehta

· Mar 02, 2019 · 08:30 am