Barbini, Francesca T
Entry updated 7 July 2026. Tagged: Author, Critic, Editor.
(1976- ) Italian teacher, author, editor and critic, now in Scotland, where she took an MA in religious studies at New College, Edinburgh, and in 2015 founded the Small Press Luna Press Publishing. This specializes in sf, fantasy, dark fantasy and related critical texts and anthologies, the latter normally in the publisher's Academia Lunare series. The first of these nonfiction Original Anthologies edited by Barbini was the Gender study Gender Identity and Sexuality in Fantasy and Science Fiction (anth 2017); others include The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction (anth 2018), Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction (anth 2021) – winner of a BSFA Award as best nonfiction – and Follow Me: Religion in Fantasy and Science Fiction (anth 2023) (see Religion).
In the lively Tijaran Tales teenage/Young Adult sequence opening with White Child (2014), the young protagonist is accepted at age 12 into the Zed Lunar Academy on the Moon, whose syllabus includes Spaceship pilot training and development of his Psi Powers; world-threatening complications soon intrude, not without Humour, and subsequent volumes deal with his successive years at the Academy. All six books are assembled as Tijaran Tales: The Complete Series (2020). [DRL]
Francesca Tristan Barbini
born Rome: 1976
works (selected)
series
Tijaran Tales
- White Child (Toronto, Ontario: Oloris Publishing, 2014) as F T Barbini [#1: Tijaran Tales: pb/]
- The Oracle of Life (Toronto, Ontario: Oloris Publishing, 2014) as F T Barbini [#2: Tijaran Tales: pb/]
- The Nuarn Rift (Toronto, Ontario: Oloris Publishing, 2014) as F T Barbini [#3: Tijaran Tales: pb/]
- Tijara's Heart (Toronto, Ontario: Oloris Publishing, 2014) [#4: Tijaran Tales: pb/]
- The Guardian's Trail (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2016) [#4: Tijaran Tales: pb/Jay Johnstone]
- The Girl from the Sky (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2017) [#6: Tijaran Tales: pb/Jay Johnstone]
- Tijaran Tales: The Complete Series (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2020) [omni of all the above: Tijaran Tales: pb/]
works as editor
- Nova Hellas: Stories from Future Science (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2021) with Francesco Verso [anth: pb/]
nonfiction works as editor
- Gender Identity and Sexuality in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2017) [nonfiction: anth: Gender: in the publisher's Academia Lunare series: pb/]
- The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2018) [nonfiction: anth: in the publisher's Academia Lunare series: pb/]
- A Shadow Within: Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2019) [nonfiction: anth: in the publisher's Academia Lunare series: pb/]
- Ties That Bind: Love in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2020) [nonfiction: anth: in the publisher's Academia Lunare series: pb/]
- Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2021) [nonfiction: anth: in the publisher's Academia Lunare series: pb/]
- Not The Fellowship. Dragons Welcome! (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2021) [nonfiction: anth: J R R Tolkien: in the publisher's Academia Lunare series: pb/]
- Follow Me: Religion in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press, 2023) [nonfiction: anth: Religion: in the publisher's Academia Lunare series: pb/]
links
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