Dr Una McCormack is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling science fiction writer of more than twenty novels, plus many audio dramas and short stories.
An associate fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge, Una’s academic interests include feminist science fiction, transformative works, and creative writing practice and methodology. She writes and broadcasts regularly on these and other topics on local and national radio. She is on the editorial board of Gold SF, an imprint of Goldsmiths Press aimed at publishing new voices in intersectional feminist science fiction.
Una lives in Cambridge with her partner and daughter, a full-sized Dalek, and many, many books.
SCIENCE FICTION
Una is well known for her TV tie-in work. She has published more than a dozen novels set in franchises such as Doctor Who, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Discovery. Her audio work with Big Finish has been set in licensed properties such as Doctor Who and Blake’s 7.
Her shorter-form science fiction has appeared in anthologies edited by Gardner Dozois and Ian Whates. Her story ‘Taking Flight’ (2017) was shortlisted for the BSFA award for short fiction, and her novel Star Trek: Discovery – The Way to the Stars for a Dragon Con Award. In 2017, she was a judge for the Arthur C Clarke Award; in 2019 she delivered the Guest of Honour speech to the Tolkien Society AGM.
To learn more about Una’s science fiction writing and editing, see her Frequently Asked Questions.
SPEAKING AND AUDIO APPEARANCES
Una is available as a speaker about science fiction, women’s writing, Doctor Who, Star Trek, and many other topics.
Una often features in podcasts and on national and local radio, including BBC Front Row and BBC Free Thinking. She has spoken at festivals including the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, the Bradford Literature Festival, Chipping Norton Literary Festival, and numerous ComicCons. She has guested on the Backlisted podcast, discussing diverse authors such as Anita Brookner, Georgette Heyer, JRR Tolkien, William Golding, Noel Streatfeild, and Terrance Dicks.
You can learn more about her interviews, Radio BBC appearances, podcasts, and online appearances here.
TEACHING AND ACADEMIC WORK
In a previous life as a university lecturer, Una taught creative writing for many years at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She supervised creative writing PhDs (including a novel set in the MCU), and continues to mentor writers, particularly helping people working on their first novel-length project. She has run creative writing seminars and events at many institutions, including CERN.
Her academic work includes a monograph on the Doctor Who story ‘The Curse of Fenric’ (Obverse Books, 2018), a study of women’s reparative readings of Tolkien (in Perilous and Fair: Women in the Life and Works of JRR Tolkien, ed. Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie Donovan, Mythopoeic Press, 2013), and co-editing a volume of essays on Lois McMaster Bujold, Biology and Manners: the Worlds and Works of Lois McMaster Bujold (Liverpool University Press, 2020, with Regina Yung Lee).