LIGHT ACADEMIA – Roundtable Interview Women in SFF
Dark Academia has been whispering down the halls for some time now, but with the rise of Cosy Fantasy we’ve seen an emergence of stories that have bridged the two and been coined “Light Academia”.
We’re thrilled you could all join us for this round-table interview on the genre.
To begin with, can you briefly describe your story in three sentences or less?
India Holton (IH): The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love – Rival professors race through Europe and England in search of a rare magical bird.
Heather Fawcett (HF): Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies – A professor specializing in the Folk finds more than a research project when she ventures to a cold Nordic island and ends up entangled in faerie intrigue alongside her dangerously charming frenemy.
Sylvie Cathrall (SC): A Letter to the Luminous Deep – Two inquisitive, isolated people begin a correspondence, fall in love, and vanish into the depths of the sea. Their respective siblings hope to solve the mystery of this disappearance by reading lots of old mail.
Can you tell us a bit about your main character? What kind of personality do they possess?
IH: Professor Beth Pickering is a well-mannered and rather introverted lady, obsessed with birds. She’s very polite and obliging, which isn’t necessarily a helpful thing to be in the cut-throat world of ornithology.
HF: Emily Wilde has a brilliant mind but struggles with interpersonal interactions, preferring to focus on her research rather than her personal life. She is also bold, daring, and somewhat ruthless when the situation calls for it.
SC: I have four main characters across two time periods, so I’ll try to keep their intros brief! E. Cidnosin is passionately curious about the ocean around her, even if her obsessive-compulsive disorder makes it difficult to leave home. Her sister, Sophy, is a cartographer who believes research can solve any problem. Scholar Henerey Clel lives and breathes natural history, but his social anxiety makes him feel out of place in academia. His brother, Vyerin, is a serious-minded navigator who’d probably prefer if I left it at that.
How well do you think you’d fare in your fantasy world?
IH: My story is set in late Victorian England with the inclusion of magical birds, and I must admit I would miss all the modern conveniences we have now, but at the same time I would enjoy birdwatching (from a safe distance!)
HF: I agree with India; I like my modern conveniences, so I would prefer not to be sent back in time to the 1910s, even the alternative version of the Emily Wilde series, which is more advanced than our world was then in terms of social issues and equality.
SC: My vaguely historical, vaguely futuristic ocean society does have some comforts and conveniences, but it also rather terrifies me! Though I reckon I’d do all right working in an art gallery on one of the Intertidal Campus’s artificial islands, there’s no way I could live underwater like the Cidnosin siblings.
Did you create mood boards to help set the atmosphere of your story? If so, what did your mood board consist of?
IH: I had some pictures to help me visualise clothing and other details from the era, but otherwise I leave moodboard creation until after the story is written.
HF: I don’t actually do mood boards!
SC: I typically turn to art history when developing fictional settings. My main visual inspiration for this book was Edward Moran’s The Valley in the Sea from 1862, and I also gazed wistfully at nineteenth-century underwater photography while drafting. (I only turned all this into a formal moodboard later on, though.)
Can you tell us what defines the Light Academia fantasy genre for you?
IH: For me personally, in terms of my particular book, it’s a story set in an academic milieu or framework but with a light tone and humour.
HF: I would say two things: an atmosphere of coziness or warmth (often connected to a physical place, such as a cottage or library, but it could also come from a found family dynamic) and stakes that are not world-altering (though they may seem that way to the protagonist!)
SC: I struggle with wrapping my head around subgenre definitions, but here’s how I think it manifests in my writing – the characters share a love of learning (even when they’re outside of a formal scholastic setting) and the story is ultimately whimsical and hopeful (even if there’s real emotional intensity at times).
What drew you to write a Light Academic story? Did you start your story with this aim in mind, or did the label come after?
IH: I started the story ages ago, and when I returned to continue it I realised the Light Academia aesthetic would fit well with it, so I kept that in mind as I wrote.
HF: I wasn’t aware there was such a thing as light academia when I began the Emily Wilde series; I was inspired primarily by cozy fantasy, such as The House in the Cerulean Sea.
SC: That makes three of us, then! I also started writing this book without subgenres in mind. (I wasn’t even sure which genre fit it best.) Years later, I learned that it aligned with light academia and cozy fantasy.
If you could study anywhere (fictional or real), at any time, where and when, and why?
IH: I’d love to study at Oxford because I love the university, and preferably in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, if that was permitted to women, because of the atmosphere and because it seems like it would be a really exciting time to be a scholar.
HF: That’s such a fun question. I might say Oxford as well, or Cambridge, because that’s always been a fantasy of mine. Assuming we as a species are able to survive climate change, I would opt to study there in the future, at least a century or two from now. I’m a big Star Trek fan and I always loved the episodes set at Starfleet Academy (actually, maybe I just want to study at Starfleet Academy).
SC: My weirdly obscure choice is the Waterfall City Library from James Gurney’s Dinotopia books. It apparently contains millions of years of knowledge (thanks, dinosaurs) and also just seems immensely cozy.
Just for fun, how would you pitch your book as a 1-star review?
IH: “People running all over the place twittering on about birds.”
HF: An unlikeable protagonist sitting around in cottages scribbling in notebooks. DNF!
SC: Due to the love-it-or-loathe-it nature of the epistolary genre, I imagine “It’s all just letters!” could be a one-star or a five-star review of my book. (And fair enough, either way!)
Who are the most significant women in SFF who have shaped and influenced your work?
IH: I have been profoundly inspired and influenced by Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Ursula le Guin, Diane Wynne Jones, Anne McCaffrey, and many more!
HF: Also Ursula K Le Guin for me, and Diana Wynne Jones. I loved Susan Cooper when I was younger, and was particularly obsessed with a book called The Boggart, which is perhaps why I put boggarts into my books whenever I have a chance.
SC: I’m excited (but not surprised!) that we all have beloved authors in common. I learn something new about writing every time I reread books by Patricia McKillip or Diana Wynne Jones. If I may also venture outside the realm of novels, Cicely Mary Barker’s fairy poems and illustrations helped my younger self’s imagination blossom.
If you were to have your story adapted, what medium would you choose—anime, Netflix series or feature length film? Who would you cast for your main character?
IH: I’d love to see The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love as a movie, but I don’t know enough about actors these days to suggest casting. Maybe Hannah Dodd?
HF: I think like most of the fantasy authors on the planet, my ultimate dream is a Studio Ghibli adaptation of my book. If it was a film with live actors, I feel like Emily Blunt or Aubrey Plaza would be perfect as Emily.
SC: I’m also dreaming of an animated movie—by Studio Ghibli or Cartoon Saloon. The latter made the breathtakingly beautiful Song of the Sea, and I often imagine the ocean outside the Deep House in their style! (Otherwise, my live-action vision would at least involve Morfydd Clark as E. and Himesh Patel as Henerey; Sophy and Vyerin TBD!)
Editor: Love both Cartoon Saloon and Morfydd so excellent suggestions there Sylvie!
What is your favourite subgenre to read, and do you have any recommendations? Any hidden gems?
IH: I don’t really have a favourite subgenre, I read any and all things!
HF: I like cozy fantasy and high fantasy (anything Lord of the Rings-y). I adored Fonda Lee’s Untethered Sky and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Elder Race (though the latter is sort of high sci-fi-fantasy). Cozy sci-fi is good too–I recommend anything by Becky Chambers.
SC: I very much enjoy historical romances and fantasy of manners, but my ultimate comfort reads are gently magical MG graphic novels! Some of my favorites are Aquicorn Cove and The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill, and Tidesong by Wendy Xu.
Finally, how do you hope your readers will feel after finishing your novel?
IH: I hope so much they’ll feel happy and light-hearted, and will believe just a little bit in magic.
HF: I only ever have one hope for my readers, which is that they have a good time!
SC: I would be thrilled if readers felt slightly more hopeful and/or slightly less alone.
Thank you so much for joining us for Women in SFF!
IH: Thank you for inviting me! 🙂
HF: Yes, thank you!
SC: It’s been a delight – thanks!
India Holton – The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love – 25th July 2024
India Holtonlives in New Zealand, where she’s enjoyed the typical Kiwi lifestyle of wandering around forests, living barefoot on islands, and messing about in boats. Now she lives in a cottage near the sea, writing books about uppity women and charming rogues, and drinking too much tea.
India Holton | Pre-Order | Add to Goodreads
Heather Fawcett – Emily Wilde series: Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales – 11th February 2025
Heather Fawcett is the New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times bestselling Canadian author of books for adults, kids, and teens, including Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Even the Darkest Stars, Ember and the Ice Dragons, The Grace of Wild Things, and more. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and somehow all include dragons in one form or another. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature and a Bachelor’s in Archaeology. She lives on Vancouver Island.
You can follow Heather on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to her newsletter for updates.
Heather Fawcett | Pre-Order | Add to Goodreads
Sylvie Cathrall – A Letter to the Luminous Deep – Available now
Sylvie holds a graduate degree in odd Victorian art and has handled more than a few nineteenth-century letters (with great care). She married her former pen pal and lives in the mountains, where she dresses impractically and dreams of the sea.
Sylvie Cathrall | Available now | Add to Goodreads