We were lucky to catch up with Gareth Powell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gareth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

As far back as I can remember, I have wanted to be a storyteller. I studied creative writing at University and was fortunate to count Diana Wynne Jones and Helen Dunmore as early mentors. I always wrote, but real life and its accompanying financial pressures stopped me from pursuing writing as a career until the turn of the millennium, when I realised I was turning thirty and entering a whole new century. If I was ever going to give it a go, now was the time.

Once I’d made that decision, it took ten years until my first novel saw publication. Since then, I’ve written another eleven published novels, three short story collections, three novellas, and a non-fiction guide to life as an author.

Writing takes a lot of hard work and it helps if you’ve amassed a lot of experience that you can draw on to make your work authentic. I guess sometimes you have to put a few miles on the clock before you can write about the journey.

Gareth, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a full-time novelist. I was born in the UK from mixed English and Welsh heritage, and I’m married to the LA-based author Jendia Gammon.

I’m probably best known for The Embers of War trilogy, The Continuance Series, The Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy, the novella Light Chaser (written with Peter F. Hamilton), and About Writing, my guide for aspiring authors. My work is primarily science fiction, but with elements of thriller and horror thrown into the mix.

I have twice won the prestigious British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel (previous winners include J. G. Ballard and Arthur C. Clarke) and have become one of the most shortlisted authors in the award’s 50-year history. I have also been shortlisted for the Locus Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Seiun Award, and the Canopus Award. As a result, my work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Russian, Czech, Catalan, and Croatian.

I believe in giving back to the literary community, so I spend a lot of time online, giving advice and support to aspiring authors. I’ve hosted numerous writing workshops at universities and schools in the UK and US, and I’m also a tutor for The Bestseller Academy.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Back in 2016, I made the decision to try to make social media a better place. I’m a big believer in the idea that you get back what you put out. I started trying to be helpful, supportive and positive. Sometimes, we have to be the kindness we want to see in the world. So, I typed, ‘Can I help anyone with anything today?’ That simple question became the first in a regular series of Q&A sessions I ran on the platform (and more recently on Threads and Bluesky) for aspiring authors with questions about writing and publishing.

Helping people, giving back to the community like that, is extremely fulfilling and has earned me a lot of goodwill. I started to attract other writers and readers, and people started checking out my books because they liked the positive energy I put out.

For those just starting out, I’d suggest just being helpful and kind, and the type of person with whom other people enjoy following and interacting.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

If you tried to describe my career goals pictorially, it would be a Venn diagram with two overlapping circles. The first would be stories I enjoy writing, and the second would be stories that are commercial enough to sell. I’m aiming for that sweet spot where they intersect. I want to write novels that entertain me, the kind of books I enjoy reading, but I also want them to find an audience. I want to reach people. I write about the experience of being human, and I’d like to share that with as many people as possible. Art is communication, after all. And a writer’s got to eat, so finding a balancing act between ART and FINANCE is the challenge that drives me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.garethlpowell.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garethlpowell/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethlpowell/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/garethlpowell
• Other: https://www.threads.net/@garethlpowell https://bsky.app/profile/garethlpowell.bsky.social