In a nutshell

P. M. Freestone is an award-winning fantasy author published in eight languages, and an academic interested in how commercial genre fiction interacts with the real world.

In brief

P. M. Freestone is an award-winning fantasy author published in eight languages, and an academic interested in how commercial genre fiction interacts with the real world. Their debut duet began with Shadowscent: The Darkest Bloom (an Aurealis Awards finalist) and concluded with Shadowscent: Crown of Smoke. Freestone’s short stories for adults and young people have appeared in various print and online venues. They are a Clarion Writers’ Workshop graduate, a Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award winner, and hold degrees in archaeology, history, sociology and global health. From 2021-2023, they served as the founding Programme Leader at Edinburgh Napier University for the world’s first fully online MA dedicated to writing commercial genre fiction. Now, when not writing, they pursue their academic interests as an Adjunct Research Fellow at La Trobe University, and support their literary community as a trustee for Cymera - Scotland’s festival of science fiction, fantasy and horror writing. The rest of the time, you’ll find them cultivating a healthy obsession with gardening, and running The Greenhouse with P.M. Freestone, a newsletter about growing plants, stories and ideas.

In detail

P. M. Freestone spent their formative years in Australia, then worked or studied on every continent except Antarctica (time is running out). Their debut novel, Shadowscent: The Darkest Bloom is a YA secondary-world fantasy first published by Scholastic in the UK and US in 2019. It has since been translated into seven other languages, was named Scottish Book Trust and DIVA Magazine Book of the Month, and was an Aurealis Awards finalist. The sequel, Shadowscent: Crown of Smoke, followed in 2020. The duology is set in a world were smell is queen of the senses, and there was even an award-winning perfume made in its honour by artisan London perfumery 4160Tuesdays!

A graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop (University of California), Freestone’s short stories of imagined pasts and potential futures have appeared in various print and online venues including the MG and YA anthologies Things a Map Won’t Show You and Where the Shoreline Used to Be (Penguin). In 2016, they were awarded a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, in 2018 were selected as one of SCBWI’s Undiscovered Voices, and in 2021 they served as a Scottish Book Trust Schools Writer in Residence, working with LGBT+ student groups at Kilmarnock Academy.

Neither of Freestone’s parents finished high school, but they instilled a love of libraries during their early years. Unabashedly nerdy ever since, they’ve collected a motley crew of university degrees, culminating in a PhD at the intersection of infectious diseases and international development. Before they became a doctor of something philosophical, they worked in archaeology. This led to documenting long-abandoned villages beneath the stony gaze of Easter Island’s moai, wielding a machete through the Belizean rainforest to help map lost cities, and donning a lab coat in the UK to restore ancient Roman armor and treasures from Celtic burial hoards.

Though Freestone has set aside their trowel and theodolite, they remain intrigued with all things historical and speculative. These days, that curiosity is sated by academic research into how popular genre fiction interacts with the real world. From 2021-2023, they served as the founding Programme Leader at Edinburgh Napier University for the world’s first fully online MA dedicated to writing commercial genre fiction. Since, they’ve continued to pursue their academic interests as an Adjunct Research Fellow at La Trobe University, and support their literary community as a trustee for Cymera - Scotland’s festival of science fiction, fantasy and horror writing. They also work as a writing consultant for universities across the globe, where they get to hear about all sorts of amazing research: from cutting-edge genetics to shining a light on little-known Renaissance poets.

The rest of the time, Freestone can be found indulging their love of plants, whether that’s tending their Scottish garden, studying horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, or running The Greenhouse with P.M. Freestone, a newsletter about growing plants, stories and ideas.