Rate My Professor Octavia Cade

Dr. Octavia Cade serves as the Robert Burns Fellow for 2025 in the Department of English and Linguistics at the University of Otago, affiliated with the Humanities Division. She holds a PhD in Science Communication from the University of Otago, completed in 2015, with a doctoral thesis titled Communicating Science Through Poetry from 1780 to the Present. Her academic journey also includes a Master’s degree in Biology, during which she studied seagrass reproduction, and a Bachelor of Science in Botany. While pursuing her botany degree at Otago, she spent a year researching intertidal seaweed at the Portobello Marine Laboratory. Cade's career encompasses both creative writing and academic scholarship, with previous residencies including the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury in 2023, where she worked on a collection of creative nonfiction about New Zealand ecology; a Michael King Residency in 2021; the Christchurch Arts Centre Residency and Massey University/Square Edge Artist in Residence in 2020.

Cade specializes in speculative fiction, particularly climate-influenced realistic science fiction set in contemporary or near-future New Zealand contexts. She has produced approximately thirty academic papers and chapters, alongside numerous short stories published in markets such as Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Notable creative works include the novellas The Stone Wētā, praised for its feminist perspective on science, and The Impossible Resurrection of Grief, described as uncanny and brilliant. Recently, funded by a Creative New Zealand Arts Grant, she completed a magical realist novel centered on the aftermath of the Rainbow Warrior bombing. As Burns Fellow, she is developing a science fiction novel focused on toxic algal blooms devastating the Otago Peninsula due to warming oceans and nitrate run-off, drawing on her botany research, and a short monograph examining ecological invasion themes in New Zealand speculative fiction. Her contributions have earned seven Sir Julius Vogel Awards, along with various fellowships and grants. Through her hybrid academic-creative approach, Cade bridges humanities and sciences, advocating for accessibility in science communication and highlighting influential New Zealand speculative writers.