PUBLICATION DATE: EARLY 2026
The Routledge Anthology of Global Science Fiction Origins
I have taught science fiction literature many times during my career, and here are two truths I have discovered. 1. There are excellent anthologies of contemporary global science fiction. 2. There are anthologies that show the earliest stirrings of science fiction, but these are focused on the usual suspects (generally USA, UK, and France). It has always bugged me that I could not find an anthology that would combine these two areas, and so I set out to assemble a book that would show the origin stories for science fiction in as many language and culture traditions and I could find. My book, The Routledge Anthology of Science Fiction Origins will be out by the end of this year. It combines stories from all over the world—many of then in their first English-language translation—as exemplars of the first moments where technology, industry, globalization, colonialism, genre pioneers, and other forces collided to inspire the first wave of science-fiction authors at particular places and times.
The Routledge Anthology of Global Science Fiction Origins
I have taught science fiction literature many times during my career, and here are two truths I have discovered. 1. There are excellent anthologies of contemporary global science fiction. 2. There are anthologies that show the earliest stirrings of science fiction, but these are focused on the usual suspects (generally USA, UK, and France). It has always bugged me that I could not find an anthology that would combine these two areas, and so I set out to assemble a book that would show the origin stories for science fiction in as many language and culture traditions and I could find. My book, The Routledge Anthology of Science Fiction Origins will be out by the end of this year. It combines stories from all over the world—many of then in their first English-language translation—as exemplars of the first moments where technology, industry, globalization, colonialism, genre pioneers, and other forces collided to inspire the first wave of science-fiction authors at particular places and times.
PUBLICATION DATE: OCTOBER 7, 2025
Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) is best known for her groundbreaking and accessible studies on Christian mysticism: over forty books and hundreds of articles and lectures on spiritual practices, including her most famous work, Mysticism (1911). Yet even the most avid Underhill reader does not know that she spent her youth writing some seriously weird fiction: supernatural short stories that H.P. Lovecraft might have enjoyed. Here for the first time is a collection of short stories, poetry, and an essay written by the foremost Christian mystic of the twentieth century. Furthermore, Underhill’s brief fiction career represents an important step in her mystical and spiritual development. Understand these stories and you go a long way toward understanding how Underhill became the transformational thinker and mystic the world knows her to be.
“With this illuminating collection of Evelyn Underhill’s early short fiction and poetry, Bill Gillard and Robert Stauffer shine a light on a key period in the development of one of mysticism’s foremost advocates. Combined with Underhill’s revealing essay ‘A Defence of Magic,’ these works channel some of her first eclectic explorations along the border between mundane and spiritual experience. Gillard’s and Stauffer’s perceptive and accessible commentaries offer readers insightful guidance while helpfully situating Underhill in the esoteric milieu of her time.” --James H. Thrall, Knight Distinguished Chair Emeritus for the Study of Religion and Culture at Knox College; author of Mystic Moderns: Agency and Enchantment in Evelyn Underhill, May Sinclair, and Mary Webb
"Sometimes it’s only in retrospect that we can recognize patterns that now seem self-evident. In this well-chosen collection, William Gillard has assembled a provocative collection of stories that ― from our own precarious perch on the edge of climate catastrophe ― now seem eerily prophetic. A richly rewarding compilation for anyone interested in the powerful legacy of climate change on the development of literature and human culture." — McKay Jenkins, Author of Food Fight: GMOs and the Future of the American Diet
The Routledge Anthology of Climate Fiction brings together key works from the Bible to the twentieth century, in an accessible resource for students and teachers alike. With a robust variety of works, including H. G. Wells, Clare Winger Harris, H. P. Lovecraft, Leslie F. Stone, and Arthur Conan Doyle, The Routledge Anthology of Climate Fiction offers vital new perspectives and critical introductions all the way back to humanity’s earliest surviving literary texts.
The Routledge Anthology of Climate Fiction brings together key works from the Bible to the twentieth century, in an accessible resource for students and teachers alike. With a robust variety of works, including H. G. Wells, Clare Winger Harris, H. P. Lovecraft, Leslie F. Stone, and Arthur Conan Doyle, The Routledge Anthology of Climate Fiction offers vital new perspectives and critical introductions all the way back to humanity’s earliest surviving literary texts.
“A wonderful, indeed sense-of-wonder-full, collection of classic speculative fiction: some famous pieces, some less well known to day, but all brilliantly readable and illuminating. There’s not a dud in the whole. Not only is this anthology a delight to read, it also establishes a fascinating and original throughline into Modernism as such, reframing how we think about that movement. Highly recommended.”— Adam Roberts, author of The History of Science Fiction
Speculative modernists--that is, British and American writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror during the late 19th and early 20th centuries--successfully grappled with the same forces that would drive their better-known literary counterparts to existential despair. Building on the ideas of the 19th-century Gothic and utopian movements, these speculative writers anticipated literary Modernism and blazed alternative literary trails in science, religion, ecology and sociology. Such authors as H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft gained widespread recognition--budding from them, other speculative authors published fascinating tales of individuals trapped in dystopias, of anti-society attitudes, post-apocalyptic worlds and the rapidly expanding knowledge of the limitless universe. This book documents the Gothic and utopian roots of speculative fiction and explores how these authors played a crucial role in shaping the culture of the new century with their darker, more evolved themes.