Australian Horror Writers Association

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) is a non-profit organisation that commenced in 2003 with the goal of providing a unified voice and sense of community for Australian writers of dark fiction (horror and dark fantasy) and to further the development of dark fiction in Australia. The AHWA was officially launched during the Continuum 3 science fiction convention in Melbourne on July 17, 2005 by author Richard Harland.

The founding committee members were Marty Young (President), Kirstyn McDermott (Vice President), Mick Piemontese (Secretary), Carl Schaller (Treasurer), James R Cain, and Angela Challis.

In 2005, the AHWA established the Australian Shadows Award as an annual literary award to honour the best published work of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian. Other projects established by the AHWA include the Southern Horror Yahoo! Group mailing list for members, an annual flash fiction and short story competition, and a mentorship programme.

The AHWA news service was amalgamated with Brimstone Press's news and review webzine HorrorScope in March 2007. With AHWA news editor Talie Helene joining the HorrorScope editorial team, the combined serviced provided a single, streamlined source for Australian horror publishing news.^[1]