Synopsis
Programmable memories, fatherless reproduction, nano-tech implants, amphibian-powered scar treatment, full body modification, brain-scanning lie-detectors, inter-species reproduction, self-determining synthetic green goo ... Which of these would you wager is pure science fiction, and which currently being developed in the lab? Such is the speed and excitement of today s bio-medical research sprinting from the starting gun that was the Human Genome Project it s sometimes hard to tell. In a unique collaboration, fourteen short story writers have been invited to explore the increasingly grey area between the fantastical and that which is already within our reach. Closely collaborating with scientists and ethicists working at the forefronts of their respective fields, each writer has been tasked with predicting some of the potential ethical side-effects of this groundbreaking work. Not all progress, after all, is progressive. And dark forces are afoot that threaten to hi-jack what many declared would be the century of biology . Supported by the Wellcome Trust.
About the Author
Toby Litt is the author of eight novels Beatniks: An English Road Movie, Corpsing, Deadkidsongs, Finding Myself, Ghost Story, Hospital, Journey into Space and King Death as well as three collections of short stories: Adventures in Capitalism, Exhibitionism and I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay. In 2003 Toby Litt was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 Best of Young British Novelists . He lives in London and is a member of English PEN. He has previously contributed to Comma s Lemistry: A Celebration of the Work of Stanislaw Lem. Sara Maitland grew up in Galloway and studied at Oxford University. Her first novel, Daughters of Jerusalem, was published in 1978 and won the Somerset Maugham Award. Novels since have included Three Times Table (1990), Home Truths (1993) and Brittle Joys (1999), and one co-written with Michelene Wandor Arky Types (1987). Her short story collections include Telling Tales (1983), A Book of Spells (1987) and most recently, On Becoming a Fairy Godmother (2003). She has also contributed stories to The New Uncanny, When It Changed, and Litmus (all Comma) and is currently writing an entire collection of stories for Comma, in collaboration with scientists. Adam Marek is an award-winning short story writer. He won the 2011 Arts Foundation Short Story Fellowship, and was shortlisted for the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. His first story collection Instruction Manual for Swallowing (Comma, 2007) was nominated for the Frank O Connor Prize. His stories have appeared in many magazines, including: Prospect and The Sunday Times Magazine, and in many anthologies including Lemistry, Litmus and The New Uncanny from Comma Press, The New Hero from Stoneskin Press, and The Best British Short Stories 2011. His second collection, The Stone Thrower, was published earlier this year. To subscribe to Adam s blog, Twitter and Facebook updates, visit www.adammarek.co.uk Sean O Brien s latest collection of poems is November (Picador, 2011), a Poetry Book Society Choice. Its predecessor, The Drowned Book (Picador, 2007) won the T.S. Eliot and Forward Prizes. Previous poetry collections include The Indoor Park (Bloodaxe, 1983), The Frighteners (Bloodaxe, 1987), HMS Glasshouse (OUP, 1991), Ghost Train (OUP, 1995) and Downriver (Picador, 2001). His essays have been collected in The Deregulated Muse and his translations include Dante s Inferno, Aristophanes The Birds and Zamyatin s We (for radio). His collection of short stories, The Silence Room, was published by Comma in 2008 and his novel Afterlife by Picador in 2009. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University. Jane Rogers was born in London in 1952 and lived in Birmingham, New York State (Grand Island) and Oxford, before doing an English degree at Cambridge University. She taught English for six years before the publication of her first novel, Separate Tracks. Since then she has written eight novels including Mr Wroe s Virgins, Island, The Voyage Home and most recently The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press), which was longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, as well as original and adapted work for television and radio drama. In 1994 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is currently Professor of Writing on the MA course at Sheffield Hallam University. In 2009 her story Hitting Trees With Sticks was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Prize. Her first collection of short stories was published by Comma this autumn. Simon Van Booy was born in Great Britain and grew up in rural Wales. He is the author of The Secret Lives of People in Love, Love Begins in Winter (winner of the Frank O Connor International Short Story Award) and the novel, Everything Beautiful Began After. His first play, HINDSIGHT, was recently staged in New York City. He teaches at the
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