—Research
Mark Williams' research interests are in fantastic fiction, particularly fantasy and science fiction, and its relationships with politics and experimental literatures such as Modernism and Surrealism. He has presented widely at conferences on a variety of cultural topics relating to this and has strong interests in Horror, early twentieth century Weird fiction, contemporary fantasy, graphic novels and superhero comic books, and New Weird fiction. His recent research looks at the emergence of New Weird in the late 1990s as a response to the 1960s "New Wave" of Science Fiction that emerged from New Worlds SF magazine under the editorship of Michael Moorcock.
In 2008, Mark worked with Martyn Colebrook to organise 'The New World Entropy: A Conference on Michael Moorcock' at Liverpool John Moores University, and in 2014 he organised the conference on 'The Science Fiction "New Wave" At Fifty' in collaboration with Jacob Huntley and Matthew Taunton at the University of East Anglia.
Mark has published on contemporary fiction in the anthologies Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010 (Liverpool University Press, 2011), Reading Marechera (James Currey, 2013) and The 1970s: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2014). He has chapters forthcoming in London in Contemporary British Fiction: The City Beyond the City (Bloomsbury, 2015), The 1990s: A Decade of Contemporary Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2015), China Miéville: Critical Essays (Glyphi, 2015), and in The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime (University of Mississippi, 2015).
He is also a contributor to Alluvium journal of 21st century literature, The Literary London Journal, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, and Critical Engagements: Journal of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies (UKNMFS). — Background
Originally from the UK, and resident in New Zealand from 2011 to 2013, Mark has worked as a parliamentary reporter for Scoop Media and a Tutor at Victoria University of Wellington, and has taught as an Associate Tutor at the University of East Anglia (UK) in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing.
He studied literature at the University of Hull, contemporary literature and culture at the University of Warwick, and received his doctorate from the University of East Anglia for his thesis ‘Radical Fantasy: A Study of Left Radical Politics in the Fantasy Writing of Michael Moorcock, Angela Carter, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and China Miéville’ (2011).