Author Guest of Honour
Holly Schofield
Holly Schofield is a British Columbia science-fiction writer whose work combines hard-won hope, careful research, and a lively affection for the strange possibilities of technology. Based on Galiano Island, she has published dozens of short stories in venues including Lightspeed, Analog, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Unlikely Story, and Canadian anthologies such as Tesseracts 17 and Clockwork Canada.
Schofield’s fiction is often interested in people who build, adapt, and find possibility under pressure. Her acclaimed steampunk story “East Wind in Carrall Street,” set amid the Chinese communities of 1890s Victoria and Vancouver, centres on a young maker and a clockwork lion. The story reflects a characteristic balance in her work: serious attention to historical and social realities, paired with a genuine delight in invention. For that piece alone, her research file included roughly 60 articles, photographs, and reference documents—ranging from friction welding and the Chinese zodiac to salmon-curing methods.
A long-time reader of science fiction and fantasy, Schofield cites writers from James Tiptree Jr. and Ursula K. Le Guin to Connie Willis and Lois McMaster Bujold among her influences. She is especially drawn to science fiction with strong character arcs, and brings a practical, craft-minded approach to writing: she works out the ending and a road map before drafting, while continuing to challenge herself with each story.
Her work also reaches beyond steampunk into environmental and optimistic speculative fiction. Interested in alternative energy and back-to-the-land living, she has spoken warmly of solarpunk’s blend of technological imagination and environmental awareness. At the centre of it all is a belief that speculative fiction can make room for fresh starts, mutual support, curiosity—and, naturally, very cool clockworks.
Find her at hollyschofield.wordpress.com.