Australian science fiction

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Australian science fiction grew in 1960s and became a notable field around 1980s. Many Australian sf writers are writing for the international market.

David G. Hartwell noted that while there is perhaps "nothing essentially Australian about Australian science-fiction", many Australian science-fiction (and fantasy and horror) writers are in fact international English language writers, and their work is commonly published worldwide. This is further explainable by the fact that Australian inner market is small (with Australian population being ~21 million), and sales abroad are crucial to most Australian writers.

Contents 1 History 2 Critical contributions 3 Writers 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

[edit] History

Early (pre-Second World War) Australian sf was often what today one could consider racist and xenophobic, fueled by contemporary worries about invasion and foreigners. But by the 1950s Australian sf, just as that in the United States and pretty much anywhere else, became influenced by the issues of technological progress and globalization. Australian science-fiction became a notable field of world's science-fiction literature around 1960s. In 1966 Australian Science-Fiction Review was first published; in 1969 it was joined by SF Commentary and the Ditmar Awards, given to the best SF in the world and Australia, were established. The first Australian World Science Fiction Convention (Aussiecon) was held in 1975 in Melbourne; that year also Paul Collins begun publishing the science fiction magazine Void. The number of authors and publications grew, particularly with the field of short fiction becoming established by mid 1980s. The first professional australian sci-fi magazine in was published that decade ('Omega Science Digest); in the 1990s it was joined by the Aurealis: The Australian Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and The Journal of Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy.

[edit] Critical contributions

Donald H. Tuck, an amateur scholar from Tasmania, has written the first major encyclopedia of SF, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, in three parts (1974, 1978, 1983), receiving the 1984 Hugo Award for his contribution. Another Austrian, Peter Nicholls, got a Hugo on 1980 and a shared one in 1985 (for a revised version) of a similar critical review of world's sf, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

[edit] Writers

Notable Australian sci-fi and fantasy writers include:

• Damien Broderick
• Simon Brown
• Peter Carey
• Isobelle Carmody
• A. Bertram Chandler
• Paul Collins
• Cecilia Dart-Thornton
• Sara Douglass
• Greg Egan
• Jennifer Fallon
• Rob Gerrand
• Lee Harding
• Traci Harding
• Margo Lanagan
• Fiona McIntosh
• Sean McMullen
• Garth Nix
• Joel Shepherd
• Lucy Sussex
• George Turner
• Sean Williams

[edit] See also

• Australian National Science Fiction Convention
• Category:Australian science fiction writers
• Category:Australian science fiction awards

[edit] External links

• A list of SF bookshops, publishers, authors, writers and artists
• THE AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE FICTION FOUNDATION
• The Best Australian Science Fiction writing - review of
• Australian Science Fiction Information (archival version of the site, now offline)
• Aurealis, Australia’s major SF/fantasy magazine

[edit] References

• Damien Broderick, Introduction, in David G. Hartwell, Damien Broderick (ed.), Centaurus: The best of Australian science fiction, Tor Books, 1999m ISBN 0312865562, p.10.21 and David. G. Hartwell, The other editor's introduction, ibid., p.22-25