Lauren C. Teffeau

Accelerated Growth Environment, Lauren’s first publication with Shiraki Press, releases on March 3, 2026!

Lauren C. Teffeau is a speculative fiction writer based in New Mexico. Her work focuses on environmental issues, examines the role of technology in our lives, and centers women’s voices through fantastical adventures and immersive worlds, including her environmental fantasy A Hunger with No Name (2024, University of Tampa Press) and her novel Implanted (2018, Angry Robot), which was a finalist for the 2019 Compton Crook award for best first SF/F/H novel and named a definitive work of climate fiction by Grist. Over 20 of her stories have appeared in venues like Sunday Morning Transport, DreamForge Magazine, and the Stoker Award-nominated Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror.

To learn more, please visit her website: www.laurencteffeau.com

Follow her on Instagram, Bluesky, Goodreads, Amazon.com, and Pinterest (https://linktr.ee/teffeau)

Photo credit: Kim Jew Photography Studios

Shiraki Press Author Questionnaire

What’s your favorite reading format?

Paper almost exclusively, but both paperback and hardcover formats kinda stress me out. I try to be very careful and not crack the spine of my paperbacks. There’s less danger of that with hardcovers, but I always set aside the dust jackets so I don’t damage them while reading. But I’ll take the feel, the smell, the risk, of them any day over screens.

Favorite contemporary author? / Favorite historical author?

Argh…I hate these kinds of questions because my answers are so mood-dependent and change over time. Right now, I’m really enjoying the Slough House series by Mick Herron. Sarah MacLean’s historical romances are always an autobuy for me. Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper’s work were hugely influential when I was growing up, as was LeGuin’s writings.

Who do you wish you could read one more story by?

I wish I could read another story by my friend and colleague John Jos Miller, who unfortunately passed away a few years ago. Once you know how the sausage is made so to speak in publishing, you realize how much creative work goes unsung, lost to someone’s dusty harddrive, never to see print. He was working on two amazing stories that he left unfinished I wish could have had a wider audience.

What story do you wish you could read again for the first time?

There are a lot of stories I’m scared to re-read because I read them before my author-brain was fully formed. It’s disconcerting to find whatever magic is there is because I, as the reader, put it there, not because of the story or the authors’ skills. It’s a little like learning Santa Claus isn’t real. But I’d love the chance to read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None again without knowing the ending.

What character do you wish was real?

Amelia Peabody from the series of Egypt-set historical mysteries by Elizabeth Peters. I read them ages ago, so I’m not sure how they hold up, but Amelia struck me as someone who always knew what to do, and I would love to have an adult I could trust to have my best interests at heart and advise me on the indignities of modern life with a strategic cup of tea and a few encouraging words whenever I needed them.

What fictional world do you wish you could inhabit?

I’d love to be able to fly on mechanical wings like the characters of Fran Wilde’s Updraft trilogy. Or live in the underwater cities of Jenn Reese’s Above World series. Or enjoy the post-scarcity, post-mortality world of Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe series. Or maybe all of them, swapping between them Matrix-style.

What are your favorite qualities in a story?

I love action, adventure, and romance stories that have something bigger to say about our world. But ultimately I look for compelling writing that gives me the confidence, no matter how out there the story, it’s all going to come together at the end and makes me care enough to get there. A tough ask, and one I strive for in my own stories.

What’s your go to reading snack/drink?

Some sort of tea, preferable green or herbal, since I get all my caffeine from my morning cup of coffee. I like the deliberateness tea requires to set up, which pairs well with the purposefulness of reading. The best part is when the tea goes cold because the story you’re reading is that compelling.

Where do you like to read?

Sitting in my bed with the afternoon sun streaming in. The golden light makes everything feel possible, where I can get lost in the pages of a book or just as easily slip into a dream and a story of my own creation if whatever I’m reading doesn’t grab me.

What story fundamentally changed you?

I was deeply affected by the idea of true names in Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea and how knowing the true name of things gave people power. I guess as a writer, I’ve taken that idea to a literal extreme in crafting my stories and giving names to my characters. But I can’t unsee it in the real world either as I watch those in power decide who gets to name mountains, congressional bills, and what is and is not news, facts, or fascism.

What genre would you like to write in that is outside your comfort zone?

I have an idea for a far future detective series that I’d love to write, but I worry about managing the technical side of writing a compelling mystery, which is hard enough before you include a culture with advanced technology. The problems just cell phones and the internet pose to present-day mystery plots gets compounded exponentially once you add in all the stuff that’s possible in the future. But I’m hopeful my brain will figure it out if given enough time.

What’s your favorite sentence or quote from this (your Shiraki Press) story?

“You run the habitat.” Kaysar made a fist with her hand, mimicking the sphere. “I run the rest.” She drew a circle with her index finger. “Everyone else is subordinate in some way.” She held up her hand, palm out, and then let it fall to her lap with a delicate twist of her wrist.

What’s your idea of happiness?

As I get older, the more I want balance. A day that has room for rest and rigor both. Same with making and creating, which scratch different parts of the brain. Movement, yes, but also quiet moments, and music. But you can never have enough love and laughter.