File:Why We Need Fantasy.webm

English: This event took place at the British Library on Monday 20 November 2023.

One of the leading fantasy writers of our time talks to Roz Kaveney.

Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author and creator of books, graphic novels, short stories, film and television for all ages, including Norse Mythology, Neverwhere, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and The View from the Cheap Seats. His fiction has received Newbery, Carnegie, Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. American Gods, based on the 2001 novel, is now a critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated TV series, and he was the writer and showrunner for the mini-series adaptation of Good Omens, based on the book he co-authored with Sir Terry Pratchett. Gaiman was an Executive Producer and co-showrunner for Netflix’s TV adaptation of his Sandman comic book series, and he is developing the TV adaptation of his novel Anansi Boys. In 2017 Gaiman became a Global Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Originally from England, he lives in the United States, where he is a Professor in the Arts at Bard College.

Roz Kaveney is a poet and novelist living in London. She is perhaps best known for books on popular culture including Reading the Vampire, her verse translation of the poems of Catullus and her Lambda-winning trans novel Tiny Pieces of Skull. She recently finished a five volume fantasy novel Rhapsody of Blood. 

This event accompanies the British Library exhibition Fantasy: Realms of Imagination, 27 October – 25 February supported by Wayland Games and Unwin Charitable Trust.