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talks

My talks focus on writing, editing, publishing, organizing for change, and the intersection of these themes. I speak in many formats including seminars, panels, podcasts/media interviews, interactive workshops, and public readings. Please submit invitations through the Contact Form.

1. Fiction as Science Communication: The art and benefits of featuring your scientific discovery in a story.

2. Hard Science Fiction: What is it and when can/should you break the rules?

3. A Self-Publishing Case Study: How a student-led club created Caltech's first science fiction anthology.

4. Writing Revolutionary Fiction: What I've learned about how to change the world from labor and tenant organizing, and how I use this in my writing.
5. Writing as Activism: The power of optimistic science fiction to inspire readers to fight and win in the real world; why utopian fiction is more motivating than dystopian fiction.
6. Curing SFF's Hero Complex: The challenges and rewards of writing stories in which complex characters solve problems through collaboration and collective action.
7. Co-writing: Benefits and best practices for writing short stories or novels with a co-author. 

8. Writing Disabled Characters: Disability justice in fiction.
9. Editing and Co-Editing: The interactive art of giving constructive feedback.

10. Ecologically rich world-building: How to design realistic and immersive alien ecosystems.

11. The Student Labor Movement: How students are rejecting the status quo and winning better pay and treatment, including the unique advantages of organizing on college campuses.

If you are interested in having me speak on a topic not described above, please don't hesitate to ask!

 

featured events

2024

 

Guest speaking @ University of Denver:

  • Editing & Publishing Course

  • DU Writing Club

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Colorado Springs Science Fiction Convention (COSine), Panels:

  • Hard Sci-Fi

  • Writing Disabled Characters

  • Women in Tech

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Photo courtesy of DU Writer's Club, used with permission. 

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Rachael Kuintzle (far-left) moderating a Q&A with panelists Tatyana Dobreva, Richard Doyle, Ashish Mahabal, Olivia Pardo, and Ann Bernath (left to right) at the Caltech anthology launch event in Beckman Auditorium.

2023

 

Host, Caltech Anthology Reading and Q&A at the Historic Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, CA (Aug 22)

 

Host, Caltech Anthology Launch Event (May 20):

INNER SPACE AND OUTER THOUGHTS Reading + Q&A

View event recording on Youtube

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Host, Virtual Town Hall on Disability Justice in Higher Ed, presented by the Graduate Student Action Network at the 36th Annual National Association of Graduate & Professional Students (NAGPS) National Conference (Feb 25).

View event recording on Youtube

 
 
 

2022

 

Podcast guest on The Higher Ed Geek, recorded at the Panel on Graduate Student Wellbeing at the Times Higher Ed (THE) Campus Live US Conference (Nov 9)

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MC, Caltech Rally for Reproductive Justice (Oct 6)

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Panelist, Youth Organizing @ the Day Without Us National Teach-In (Sep 30)
View event recording on Youtube

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Day Without Us National Teach-In, Panel on Youth Organizing.

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