Creative Futures

Inspirational and thought-provoking collection of short stories imagining future crises and solutions, uniting the spheres of creative storytelling and real-life resilience building.
We’re going to change the world.
Science Fiction writers spend their lives thinking about what will happen in the future. In this anthology, a select group bring imaginative thinking to the challenges the world will face in the next century.
This anthology is a collection of works that draw inspiration from the Creative Futures Research Project, a partnership between Coventry University and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), the UK Ministry of Defence’s science and technology organisation. The writers involved in the project created stories that imagined some of the future crises that we may have to resolve and the ramifications of our choices on the generations who come after us.
Edited by author, lecturer and researcher Allen Stroud, who had a leading role in the research project, this anthology not only entertains and inspires, but also reminds us of the immense value of the imagination and creativity of science fiction writers in helping us plan for future crisis management and resilience.
The full list of featured authors in this book is: Allen Stroud, Gavin Smith, Kieran Currie Rones, Stewart Hotston, Emma Newman, Stephen Oram, Tiffani Angus, Adrian Tchaikovesky, Adeola Eze, Gareth L. Powell, Stark Holborn, and Sophia McDougall.

Allen Stroud (PhD) is a university lecturer and Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror writer, best known for his work on the computer games Elite Dangerous and Phoenix Point. He was the 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023 Chair of Fantasycon and was Chair of the British Science Fiction Association from 2019 to 2025.