Dr Ben Smith

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing (E&R)

Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and a published novelist and poet, specialising in environmental and speculative literature, focusing on future landscapes, climate change and the Anthropocene.

As a writer and researcher I have a particular interest in interdisciplinary practice and a strong track record of working with natural and social scientists to develop projects exploring the role that creative writing can play in tackling major environmental and social issues. I have been a member of the steering committee of the Royal Society's ‘UK Future Earth Early Career Network’ and I was a contributing author on the first Global Tipping Points Report (2023).

My debut novel Doggerland uses the lens of speculative fiction to engage with pressing contemporary issues such as renewable energy, ocean waste, climate change and the scale-effects of the Anthropocene. I use the setting of a North Sea windfarm and a flooded landmass to explore these issues, drawing on research in Environmental Humanities, Cultural Geography, Archaeology and Marine Science. It was published by 4th Estate in the UK, Atlas Contact in the Netherlands and Liebeskind in Germany, and was selected as a Guardian Book of the Year 2019.

I regularly work with artists and filmmakers to develop books, exhibitions and films exploring environmental issues and I welcome new opportunities for collaborative practice.

I am currently working on an AHRC-funded fellowship A History of Storms: New Approaches to Climate Fiction and Climate Literacy, through which I will be developing my second novel, drawing on stories from the Met Office archives, and working with the team at the UK Met Office to develop their new climate literacy strategy.

I teach across the Creative Writing BA and MA curriculum and have experience supervising a wide range of Creative Writing PhD projects.

Research

My main research interests are:

Environmental Literature - Climate Fiction, Ecopoetry and New Nature Writing.
Speculative Fiction.
Collaborative practice across written forms, film and visual art.
Climate Modelling and Earth Systems Science.
The Anthropocene and its renamings and reframings.
Representations of future landscapes and seascapes.
Materiality and Global Systems.
Environmental History and historic climate change.
The evolution of Climate Science and environmental thought.

I have a particular interest in interdisciplinary practice and fostering connections between the Arts and Sciences. I have worked on a number of projects with researchers in environmental and climate science to explore ways of working together and communicating our research to the public. I have been a member of the steering committee of the Royal Society's ‘UK Future Earth Early Career Network’ and I was a contributing author on the first Global Tipping Points Report (2023).

Doggerland was published in 2019 as a lead fiction debut by 4th Estate in the UK, Atlas Contact in the Netherlands and Liebeskind in Germany, receiving reviews in a wide range of national and international newspapers and journals, including The Guardian, The Observer and NRC Handelsblad. It was a Guardian Book of the Year 2019 and won the inaugural ASLE-UKI Book Prize, for best work of creative writing on an environmental theme. It is currently taught on Creative Writing and Environmental Literature modules at a number of universities.

I am currently working on an AHRC-funded fellowship, A History of Storms: New Approaches to Climate Fiction and Climate Literacy (AHRC Research Development and Engagement Fellowship (ECR Route)). This two year fellowship will allow for the completion of a new work of 'historical climate fiction' which will engage with both cutting-edge climate science and little-known documents from the Met Office archives that chart the history and development of this science. It will take as its starting point the human stories that emerge from the Met Office archives, asking what these stories can tell us about the discourses, structures and foundational narratives that underpin modern science, and how they might be adapted to engage with our changing world.

Central to this fellowship will be a sustained process of interdisciplinary collaboration, through a programme of creative workshops at the Met Office. These workshops will engage scientists with the ongoing research and practice of this fellowship and will be used to develop and test ideas which will inform a work of fiction as well as the Met Office's new 'climate literacy' strategy. In this way, the fellowship will not only generate new fictional narratives to engage the wider public, it will also show the potential for creative writing to help shape policy and practice at a major scientific institution, providing an exciting and innovative model for future interdisciplinary work that puts Arts and Humanities research at the centre of the strategic response to climate change.

Supervision

I am very happy to work with PhD candidates interested in creative or critical projects in the following areas:

Environmental Literature - Climate Fiction, Ecopoetry and New Nature Writing.
Speculative Fiction.
Creative and theoretical approaches to the Anthropocene.
Representations of future landscapes, environments and worlds.
Materiality and Global Systems.
Environmental History.
New approaches to environmental philosophy and ecological thought.

I particularly encourage applicants interested in working across disciplines, forms and genres.

If you only have vague ideas in these or related areas, please feel free to get in touch. I may be able to suggest something that would build on your interests.

Research students

As Director of Studies:

Emily Spicer (PhD in Creative Writing) - The Deep Sleep of Skara Brae: Climate Change, Archaeology and the Literary Imagination.
Reo Lewis (PhD in Creative Writing) - Decolonising Speculative Linguistics through Diasporic Speech in Science-Fiction and Fantasy.
Sylvia Linsteadt (PhD in Creative Writing) - Motherlands: The matriline as narrative device in modernist-era reworkings of myth by H.D. and Evangeline Walton.
Aidan Gant (PhD in Creative Writing) - When the Wild Things Call: An Exploration of the Implications of Genre for Affective Reader Responses in Environmental Fiction.

As 2nd Supervisor:

Victoria Ortiz (PhD in English) - New Visual Languages in Comics, 1980-2020: Fantagraphics and Alternative Comics and Graphic Novels in North America

External Examinations:

Jasmin Kirkbride ‘Recollecting the End’ (critical) and ‘The Last Expedition’ (novel). PhD in Creative Writing, University of East Anglia. 2023

Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2023 | 2019 | 2014 | 2013 |

2023

Smith B. (2023) Endless Roads, Speculative Nature Writing an Anthology, Guillemot Press, 243-253.

2019

Smith B. (2019) Doggerland, HarperCollins UK.

2014

Smith B. (2014) Sky Burials.

2013

Smith B. (2013) Beating the Bounds: mapping the borders of self and landscape in the work of John Burnside and Tim Robinson, Green Letters, volume 17, no. 1, pages 67-76, DOI:10.1080/14688417.2012.750848. [PDF]

External impact and engagement

I have over ten years’ experience organising and delivering workshops and public events, in conjunction with local schools and organisations such as Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the Woodland Trust and the National Trust.

I am particularly interested in working with film-makers, artists and scientists to communicate issues around changing landscapes and climate. Here are a few of the projects I have been involved in:

2020 - Guest editor – The Literary Platform (No.3) Climate Change Special Issue.

Working with the creative arts organisation Stranger Collective I co-edited a special issue of The Literary Platform exploring the relationship between literature and climate change, included presenting an episode for the Lit Platform podcast and running a public writing competition.

2017 - Crosscurrents: Poetry and Marine Science Project

Working with Plymouth Marine Laboratory, I co-organised this interdisciplinary project, bringing poets and marine scientists together to share their research and deliver public events.

2017 - Port Eliot Festival Newspaper.

I helped to organise and deliver a student-run newspaper for the Port Eliot Literary Festival, giving students the opportunity to work with local publisher Guillemot Press to produce a high-quality newspaper, which was be written, edited, printed and distributed onsite during the festival.

2012-2017 - The Clearing.

In 2012 I co-founded The Clearing, an online magazine publishing innovative writing about landscape, environment and place. By 2017 it had reached a monthly readership of 5000 and become a key publication in the discovery and promotion of emerging voices in environmental writing in the UK.

Contribution to discipline

External Examiner for Bath Spa MA in ‘Travel and Nature Writing’ (2023-Present).
Peer Reviewer for Routledge Literature monographs and Comparative American Studies Journal.
Steering Committee Member, UK Future Earth ECR Network (2020-2024).

Media

Film Work

2016 - The Wet Desert.

Working with an award winning film maker and production company Fat Sand films I scripted and narrated a short film exploring the environmental history of Dartmoor. The film has reached over 39,000 viewers on Vimeo and has been screened at film festivals in the UK and US.

Public Events

‘A History of Storms’ Met Office Research Seminar Series (Nov 2022).
‘Environmental Intelligence Grand Challenges Event’ University of Exeter (July 2022)
‘Time and Tide: Resilience, Adaptation, Art’ University of Exeter (May 2022).
‘Climate Science and Creativity’ Exeter Customs House (April 2022).
‘Writing the Anthropocene’ Flanor Literary Society, Groningen, Netherlands (May 2021).
‘Doggerland Book Talk’ Charles Causley Festival (July 2020)
‘What Might a Better World Look Like?’ Plymouth University (Nov 2019).
‘Climate Change and the Novel’ Het Grote Gebeuren, Groningen, Netherlands (Nov 2019).
‘Finding Your Story Through Landscape’ Novel Nights public workshop (Oct 2019).
‘Crimes Against Nature: Expert Panel’ Noirwich Crime Writing Festival (September 2019).
‘Stories from the Sea’. CAST Helston (July 2019).
‘Doggerland Book Talk’ Port Eliot Literary Festival (July 2019).
‘Debut Fiction Salon’ The Riff Raff, London (May 2019).
‘Poetry and Environmental Activism’ New Networks for Nature (Nov 2018)

Interviews

‘Ben Smith’s Doggerland’ Little Atoms podcast interview (Sept 2019).
‘Innhentet av Havet’ Bokvennen Litteraer Avis (Norway) Interview (June 2019).
‘Stories from the Sea’ BBC Radio Cornwall (July 2019).
‘Doggerland’ Open Book BBC Radio 4 (23rd May 2019).
‘The First Book Interview’ The Guardian (9th May 2019).

Teaching

I teach and lead modules across the BA and MA Creative Writing curriculum, but specialise in poetry, fiction and environmental literature.

I have a particular interest in supervising BA and MA dissertations in ecopoetry, speculative fiction, climate change and Anthropocene literatures.

Modules taught

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