2020 CLARKE AWARD SHORTLISTED AUTHOR R B KELLY JOINS JJLA

 

RB Kelly Headshot
The Arthur C Clarke Award-shortlisted author RB Kelly had joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency. Her debut novel, Edge of Heaven, has just been shortlisted for this year’s Arthur C Clarke Award and is published by NewCon Press. The sequel will be published in 2022. Her short fiction has appeared in a variety of publications, including Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Aurealis, and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Her new novel is All The Stars of Summer:

Fresh off the interplanetary InterRail, the sun-kissed, semi-aquatic world of Vel feels like paradise to eighteen-year-old Stella. With its blossom-drenched streets and laid-back party atmosphere, it seems like the perfect place to work out where she wants adult life to take her. But she’s about to discover that some things really are too good to be true. An unsettling incident on her first day prompts questions that Stella can’t ignore, and will lead her and her found family of fellow travellers down a dangerous path. Vel may be paradise, but there are dark secrets in its history that certain people will kill to protect. Stella’s going to have to make a choice: is she prepared to stand up for her ideals at any cost? Even if that cost is her life?
Rachael Kelly has a PhD in film theory and her first published book was doctoral thesis – Mark Antony And Popular Culture, published by IB Tauris in 2014.

She co-runs an organisation called CinePunked, which aims to bridge the gap between film fandom and film theory. She was awarded an Artists Career Enhancement Scheme award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to support the writing of her second novel (the follow up to Edge of Heaven) and was mentored in that writing by the brilliant SF writer Ian McDonald.

Her short story Pineapples Are Not The Only Bromeliad is in The Best of British Science Fiction 2020, which is due to be released later this month.

RB Kelly is a member of Women Aloud NI, which aims to raise the profile of women writers from Northern Ireland; Otherworlds NI, which aims to do the same for speculative fiction writers from Northern Ireland; and the Society of Authors.

John Jarrold said: ‘I’d already read and loved Edge of Heaven – and I was delighted when Rachael got in touch. She is simply an outstanding writer. Her new novel, All the Stars of Summer, is remarkable – deeply hilarious and dark by turn, with a wonderfully-engaging narrative voice, a fascinating cast of varied alien races, and the different aspects brought together seamlessly. I’m working editorially with Rachael, before submitting to major publishers.’

• July 7th, 2021 • Posted in News