Contributor(s): Toby Litt, Patrick Parrinder, Samantha Shannon | Our panel of authors and experts discuss the history of the utopian genre in literature and its present state. Toby Litt (@tobylitt) is a bestselling and prize-winning writer, whose ten novels to date include Finding Myself and the science fiction Journey into Space, an innovative contribution to the utopian genre. His most recent book is Life-Like, which has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2015 and long listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is also Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College. Patrick Parrinder is Emeritus Professor at Reading University and a leading authority on the work of H G Wells, one of the historical founders of the utopian novel. He co-edited The Reception of H G Wells in Europe and was overall editor of the Penguin multi-volume series of H G Wells’s fiction. His most recent publication is Utopian Literature and Science: From the Scientific Revolution to Brave New World and Beyond. Samantha Shannon (@say_shannon) is author of The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first instalment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels which is now to be filmed. Its first sequel, The Mime Order, was published in 2015, and she's currently working on edits for the third book in the series, The Song Rising. Her books represent examples of distopian fiction acclaimed for their originality. The LSE Language Centre (@lselangcentre) reflects the specialist nature of the School itself, namely, a world class institution where the quality of teaching and research is paramount. LSE is not just a multi-national university but also a multi-lingual one.