The post-apocalyptic novel seems to be having something of a moment. Edan Lepucki's California may be the most talked-about, but The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen is also receiving critical praise. Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake, meanwhile – a post-apocalyptic novel set 1,000 years in the past – has just been longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

The third novel by American writer Sandra Newman is the latest to explore what happens following a catastrophe of planetary proportions. Like Kingsnorth's, her book The Country of Ice Cream Star is also written in a new vernacular – in Newman's case, one inspired by African-American English.

Here, Newman, whose debut novel – 2004's The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done – was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award, discusses language, youth culture, and her life-long passion for science fiction.