Tuesday, May 5, 2009




AHWA NEWS DIGEST [#7, 2009]

The following digest of recent horror news is compiled from pieces published to HorrorScope and the Australian Horror Writers' Association website.

Dymocks Southland Bestselling Horror Titles for April ‘09
Dymocks Southland is a general bookshop in Cheltenham, Victoria, boasting an extensive range of genre stock. Click through for the top 10 bestselling horror titles for April 2009. Dymocks Southland also publishes Dymensions, a monthly SF, fantasy and horror newsletter. Click here to subscribe.

Voiceworks magazine call for submissions
The new editor of Voiceworks magazine has issued the following call for submissions: "We're looking for fiction, poetry, nonfiction and visual art by the 17th of May." Visit HorrorScope for EdComm's musings on the POSTSCRIPT theme, or go to the How to Submit page on the Express Media website for guidelines.

The Bullsheet #86
The Australian Science Fiction Bullsheet #86, May 2009 edition is now available. This issue details various publishing news, and an overview of upcoming writing, speculative fiction and fan events.

Leigh Blackmore reading at Live Poets

Leigh Blackmore, highly respected Australian author of horror, weird and occult writing, will be appearing as special guest at the Live Poetry night at Don Bank in Sydney on Wednesday, May 27, 2009. Leigh will be reading poems from his recent collection Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses, and will be featured in a panel discussion with publisher Danny Lovecraft (P'rea Press) and convenor Danny Gardner. The night also features an open mic session, which will include fantasy novelist Margi Curtis. Click through for venue and admission details.

Eclecticism #8

Issue 8 of the quarterly e-zine Eclecticism is OUT NOW. With a theme of 'Conspiracy' - plus an open section - the zine may be downloaded for FREE from the website! Snap up five works of short fiction, three works of poetry, and three art works from the following talented creatives: Dianne Dean, Jacqui Dent, Stefan Fergueca, Emma Furness, Alice Godwin, Clyde Grauke, Nicholas Messenger, Melissa Mercado, Keith Nunes, Peter Tonkin - and the Featured Artist, Demitasse-Lover.

Scary Kisses anthology
Do your kisses have bite? What mischief are the vampires, werewolves, and mummies getting up to now? Romance may be dead, but it’s still walking… Western Australian publisher Ticonderoga Publications has announced the reading period is now open for their new paranormal romance anthology, Scary Kisses, edited by Liz Grzyb (with Russell B. Farr). Seeking your best stories in the paranormal romance vein; submissions with romantic and paranormal or speculative elements. Click through for Submission Guidelines.

SpecFic Course at Olvar Wood Writers' Retreat

Olvar Wood Writers' Retreat is running a speculative fiction course starting 6 July 2009. Taught by award-wining author Nike Bourke, the course is designed for those wanting to develop novel-length speculative fiction work. The course runs 6 July – 14 August. For more information, visit the course website.

A Night Of Horror 2009 Festival Award Winners
A Night Of Horror International Film Festival have announced the winners of the 2009 Festival Awards. For Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay... check out the best of the fest!

'Stephen King: The Non-Fiction'
Australian Horror Writers' Association member Rocky Wood is pleased to announce his new book, Stephen King: The Non-Fiction, is now shipping from Cemetery Dance. The book is co-authored with Justin Brooks. Covering all King's published and known unpublished works from 1959 to mid-2006, Stephen King: The Non-Fiction reveals for the first time dozens of pieces of non-fiction and their appearances that were previously unknown to King researchers. If you've ever wanted to know more about King's amazing and often controversial non-fiction, this is the reference work you must have.

Kim Westwood reading on Terra Incognita podcast
Author Kim Westwood is currently featured on the Terra Incognita Australian Speculative Fiction podcast, reading her story ‘Nightship’. The podcast is presented by Keith Stevenson, and brought to you by Coeur de Lion books.

Call for articles for Aussiecon 4 blog
The following call for non-fiction submissions has been issued by the Aussiecon 4 team: We here at Aussiecon 4 want to make the blog an interesting, fun and informative place for people to come to. To that end, we're looking for articles to post on the blog. What we're looking for are articles that speak to Worldcons, Aussiecons in particular, our Guests of Honour (Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaun Tan and Robin Johnson) and Australian science fiction. For possible topics and submission details, read on...

Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror Vol3 on sale
This anthology is the third installment in the annual dark fiction anthology edited by Angela Challis and published by Brimstone Press. Featuring stories by David Conyers, Sean Williams, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Miranda Siemienowicz, Jason Nahrung, Joanne Anderton, Stephanie Campisi, Martin Livings, Gary Kemble, Richard Harland, Marty Young, and Matthew Chrulew - plus a Ditmar Award winning story from Rick Kennett, and Aurealis Award winning writing from Anna Tambour and Deborah Biancotti! ADFH3 also contains a comprehensive summary of dark fiction in Australia and appendices on dark fiction resources and the major genre fiction awards in Australia. Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume 3 can be purchased from (or ordered through) Dymocks stores and most independents, Indie Books Online, or directly from the Brimstone Press website.

Anomalous Appetites anthology

New Zealand publisher Preshrunk Press has released its horror and science fiction poetry anthology Anomalous Appetites. Of the anthology, editor John Irvine says: "For those readers who like their horror and sci-fi sautéed slowly with garlic and served up on fine china, then this anthology is for you. Do not expect axe hacking, explosions, bug eyed monsters or crudeness. Do expect fine and subtle poetry augmented by exquisite art … This is a collector’s anthology, created for those who are a little more discerning in their speculative tastes. We offer two hundred and nine pages of the best speculative poetry and art you will ever see from poets and artists from all corners of this creative planet." Anomalous Appetites can be ordered from Lulu.

Studies in Australian Weird Fiction Issue #3

With the third installment of Studies in Australian Weird Fiction (SiAWF), the critical journal of Australian horror and weird fiction, the journal continues to deliver in-depth essays, articles, and symposium debates, and is an invaluable reference on Australian writers of the dark and weird. Articles in issue #3 range from studies on the works of William Sylvester Walker, L. Furze-Morrish and J. Filmore Sherry to John Brosnan, poet Hugh McCrae, and musician Nick Cave. SiAWF also has interviews with Kim Wilkins, Margo Lanagan, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Cat Sparks, Neil Cladingboel, Lyn Battersby, Graeme Flanagan, and outgoing editor Benjamin Szumskyj, as well as an insightful study of Australian horror films by Robert Hood. Copies can be ordered from Equilibrium Books.

Semaphore Magazine
Semaphore Magazine is a speculative fiction publication from New Zealand founded in December 2007 that is open to submissions of dark fiction from writers Down Under. Editor-in-Chief Marie Hodgkinson says: "We do not publish works with explicit violent or sexual content - instead, we want suspense, atmosphere, brilliant storytelling, and the sort of writing that lets those breakable young minds imagine their own fascinating terrors without having it spelled out for them." Further information on the magazine is available at the Semaphore website.

2009 Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction Awards

Entries are now being accepted for the 2009 Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction Awards, an annual writing contest hosted by Perth's KSP Writers Centre. Entries close on 29 May 2009 and writers of all ages are invited to submit their work. Stories must be between 1500 and 3500 words, and all forms of speculative fiction are welcome. Further information is available from the KSP website.

Kaaron Warren joins Angry Robot
Fiji-based Australian dark fiction author Kaaron Warren is among the first authors to be published by HarperCollins UK's edgy new SF/F/Horror imprint Angry Robot. Kaaron's award-winning short fiction has appeared in Year’s Best Horror & Fantasy, the Poe and Haunted Legends anthologies, Fantasy magazine, Paper Cities, and many other venues in the US, Europe and Australia. Her short story “A Positive” has been made into a short film called Patience, and her first ever published short story “White Bed” was dramatised for the stage in Australia. Her novel Slights (the first of three novels to be published by Angry Robot) is to be published on June 26 (UK) and September 1 (Australia, USA, Canada, and elsewhere).

2009 Bram Stoker Award finalists
The finalists for the 2009 Bram Stoker Awards, issued by the international Horror Writers Association to celebrate superior achievement in horror fiction, have been announced. Click through for the gory details.

2008 Australian Shadows Award winner

Lee Battersby's novelette "The Claws of Native Ghosts" (The Beast Within, ed. Matt Hults) has won the 2008 Australian Shadows Award. The Australian Shadows Award is the pinnacle award for horror fiction in Australia. The award was established in 2005 by Altair Australia on behalf of the Australian Horror Writers Association. The judges reports are here and an interview with Battersby has been posted on ABC's Articulate.

Submitting News
 
If you have news about Australian and New Zealand Horror publishing and film, or news of professional development opportunities in the field, feel free to submit news to Talie Helene, AHWA News Editor. Just visit HorrorScope, and click on the convenient email link. (International news is not unwelcome, although relevance to Antipodean literary arts practitioners is strongly preferred.)

For information on the Australian Horror Writers' Association, visit australianhorror.com.

This AHWA NEWS DIGEST has been compiled, written, and republished in select Australian horror haunts by Talie Helene. Currently archived at the
AHWA MySpace page, Southern Horror, and Darklands, and hosted by AHWA members Felicity Dowker, Brenton Tomlinson, Scott Wilson, and Jeff Ritchie (Scary Minds).

If you would like to support the AHWA News effort by hosting a copy of the AHWA News Digest on your blog or website,
contact Talie to receive a fully formatted HTML edition of the digest by email.

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