Leigh Blackmore

Leigh (David) Blackmore (born 1959) is an Australian horror writer, critic, editor, occultist, musician and proponent of post-left anarchy. He was the Australian representative for the Horror Writers of America (1994–95) and served as the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association (2010–2011). He has been a Finalist in both the Poetry and Criticism categories of the Australian Shadows Awards. He has contributed entries to such encyclopedias as S. T. Joshi and Stefan J. Dziemianowicz (eds) Supernatural Literature of the World (Greenwood Press, 2005, 3 vols) and June Pulliam and Tony Fonseca (eds), Ghosts in Popular Culture and Legend (ABC-Clio, 2016).

According to The Melbourne University Press Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, "His name is now synonymous with Australian horror," and a Hodder & Stoughton press release stated that, "Leigh Blackmore is to horror what Glenn A. Baker is to rock and roll." He has also been recognised as "one of the leading weird poets of our era", and has been nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award. His fiction has appeared in Australia, the US, the UK, France, Denmark and Sweden. Translations of his poetry have appeared in French, Italian and Spanish.

Early life (1959–1976) Leigh Blackmore was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the son of Rod and Beth (James) Blackmore. Education

He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School (1971–1972) and Newcastle Boys' High School (1972–1976). In high school, after reading the science fiction anthology series "Out of This World" (edited by Mably Owen and Amabel Williams-Ellis), he graduated to devouring the works of Ray Bradbury, Peter Saxon, H. Rider Haggard, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Leslie Charteris, and became a keen enthusiast of sword and sorcery fiction as represented by Lin Carter's Flashing Swords anthologies and Thongor series novels, Edgar Rice Burroughs's Martian tales, Michael Moorcock's Elric sequence and others, and horror fiction (especially the Weird Tales school, including Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Donald Wandrei and H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos), discovering their work via anthologies edited by August Derleth, Peter Haining, Karl Edward Wagner (the Year's Best Horror Stories series), and via publications of Arkham House which he special-ordered via Space Age Books (Melbourne), then Australia's only specialist supplier of science fiction and fantasy books.

The Arcane Sciences Society; The Horror-Fantasy Society; Azathoth Productions

While at high school, Blackmore co-founded the Arcane Sciences Society and the Horror-Fantasy Society; the journal of the societies, Cathuria (named after a place in Lovecraft's story "The White Ship"), was banned after three issues by Blackmore's high school principal for quoting in a review four-letter words used by the unleashed monster in Flesh Gordon. With high school friends Lindsay Walker and Michael Blaxland, Blackmore formed a small independent movie house called Azathoth Productions. The only film made was an uncompleted version of Clark Ashton Smith's story The Double Shadow, though Blackmore also penned a screenplay for Lovecraft's story The Music of Erich Zann (never shot). The screenplay appears in his 2024 collection Nightmare Logic. Blackmore and Walker collaborated on a Lovecraftian story called "The Horror in the Manuscript" for submission to Ramsey Campbell for his anthology New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, (Cthulhu Mythos anthology), which did not appear until 1980. The tale was not accepted (though it was also read by Brian Lumley) but Campbell praised the effort and encouraged Blackmore (and Walker) to keep on writing. (This tale finally saw print in Nightmare Logic (2024)).

Early writing, fandom and occultism

Having corresponded with writers and enthusiasts in the field such as Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, Glenn Lord, W.H. Pugmire and Gregory Nicoll, he began (aged 13) to write fiction and speculative poetry in the vein of Lovecraft and C.A. Smith. Fictional juvenilia included "The Last Town" (a Lord Dunsany pastiche), "The Sacrifice" (based on an image of death from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal), and an uncompleted sword-and-sorcery novel, Starbreaker (with Ashley Morris). Several of these juvenile tales were first printed in Charles Danny Lovecraft's fanzine Avatar in the 1990s.

Blackmore was a devotee of horror movies principally from the Hammer horror and Amicus Productions era. Samuel Beckett and William S. Burroughs became lasting literary influences at this time,

In 1983, Blackmore met writer and poet (Danny) Charles Lovecraft through the letter column of Crypt of Cthulhu; Lovecraft would later found P'rea Press which published Blackmore's first poetry collection. He attended Syncon '83, a science fiction convention at which the Guests of Honour were Harlan Ellison and Van Ikin, and where he first met writer Terry Dowling. Blackmore learned the art of first edition book collecting through his association with fan, DUFF-winner and collector Keith Curtis. While attending Sydney University,(1983-84, where he majored in Semitic Studies), Blackmore came in contact with Don Boyd, then editor of (Australian) Futuristic Tales. Blackmore joined R. Alain Everts' 'Necronomicon' amateur press association, contributing several issues of his zines Red Viscous Madness, and Forbidden Dimensions, Nameless Dreams.

In 1984, Blackmore published bibliographies on Brian Lumley (Sydney: Dark Press) and H.P. Lovecraft

His first published story was "The Infestation", adapted for graphic form by Gavin O'Keefe and published in the fourth issue of Phantastique (1986), an Australian horror comic which attracted notoriety (questions were asked in Australian Federal Parliament) for being government-funded via an Arts Council grant while containing visceral images and story content.

His first publications outside of Australia included six Lovecraftian sonnets in R. Alain (Randy) Everts' magazine The Arkham Sampler (new series) 3, No 4 (1986) and another in Everts' Weird Tales tribute magazineEtchings and Odysseys No 10 (1987). Blackmore came to be a well-regarded Lovecraft scholar,

Astropop, Post-Mortem and White Stains Blackmore largely abandoned music when Worm Technology broke up, to concentrate on his writing, although Astropop, a short-lived synthpop duo featuring Blackmore and Smith (extending Worm Technology's late emphasis on extended synthesiser-based numbers such as "Samurai") had some success playing electronica including Kraftwerk covers but never recorded. Blackmore drummed for Post-Mortem (1987), a band which featured Ian Walker from Worm Technology, bassist Brian Pember from Sydney Christian new wave band Crossroad/Surprise, and a guitarist only remembered as Colin. There are no extant recordings of Astropop or Post-Mortem. In the mid-1990s Blackmore recorded with the short-lived experimental group White Stains (1990) (named after Aleister Crowley's poetry volume of the same title, White Stains), with illustrator and viola-player Gavin O'Keefe. White Stains released a cassette single "Acid Bath" (Blackmore/O'Keefe") backed with "The Finger", a musical interpretation of William Burrough's story about a man who cuts off his own finger.

The Third Road Blackmore resumed playing music semi-professionally in 2009 with the formation of the Illawarra-based 'popstalgia' trio The Third Road in which he plays five- and six-string bass and shares vocal duties with guitarist Margi Curtis and keyboards player Graham Wykes. The Third Road developed from the band Fedora, a trio featuring Curtis, Wykes and Bruce Greenfeld (later of Damned Fine Gentlemen). Blackmore joined on bass when Greenfeld left. The Third Road has played live in Wollongong at various events including the Thriving Illawarra Festival, Summer on the (Crown St) Mall, the annual National Disabilities Day gig organised by Essential Personnel (sometimes accompanied by singer/guitarist Al Morrison of Riogh), and at the annual Christmas party of the NSW Greens. They have also frequently performed Xmas gigs at Sydney's Royal Automobile Club of Australia. Since 2026, the members of the Third Road have joined forces with Colleen McGloin and Chris Willmore, playing folk music under the name of 'The New Road.'

Later career H.P. Lovecraft Centennial Conference

In 1990 Blackmore travelled via New York (where he met Peter H. Cannon, and interviewed Frank Belknap Long) to Providence for the H.P. Lovecraft Centennial Conference. As one of the Friends of Lovecraft group organised by S.T. Joshi, Jon Cooke and Will Murray, Blackmore contributed financially to erecting the memorial plaque in honour of Lovecraft which was erected outside the John Hay Library. In Providence, Blackmore met such figures as author Les Daniels, cartoonist and author Gahan Wilson, Marc A. Michaud (publisher of Necronomicon Press), critic Will Murray, editor David E. Schultz, Philip J. Rahman (copublisher of Fedogan and Bremer, with whom he made an agreement to act as F&B's Australian distributor), Italian scholar Giuseppe Lippi, critic Steven J. Mariconda, French scholar Jean-Luc Buard, Necronomicon Press illustrators Jason C. Eckhardt and Robert H. Knox, editor Robert M. Price, critic Paul Buhle, and German scholar Kalju Kirde. He attended the world premiere of Re-Animator. Blackmore also spent time with writers Dennis Etchison and William F. Nolan while in Los Angeles.

Terror Australis, the Gargoyle Club and the Sydney Futurian Society With Christopher Sequeira and Bryce J. Stevens, Blackmore co-edited Terror Australis: The Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine (1987–1992) and co-founded the Gargoyle Club: The Sydney Horror Writers and Artists Society, which included Sydney horror writers and artists including Gavin O'Keefe, underground graphic novelists Steve 'Carnage' Carter and Antoinette Rydyr; Rod Marsden, Don Boyd and others. The Gargoyle Club operated in Leichhardt, New South Wales and Petersham until 1992, after which it moved to venues in inner city Sydney and was subsequently joined by writers such as David Carroll and Kyla Ward. The club published two issues of their horror fiction magazine Cold Cuts co-edited by Antoinette Rydyr, Ron Clarke and Don Boyd, Art Director was Steve Carter.

Terror Australis the magazine was followed by the anthology Terror Australis: Best Australian Horror (1993), the first mass-market Australian horror anthology Leanne Frahm's story "Catalyst" from the anthology won the Ditmar Award for best Australian Short Fiction. Blackmore was an invited judge on the Aurealis Award in 1995 and on the George Turner (writer) Award in 1999.

In 1994–95, Blackmore was the Australian representative for the Horror Writers of America under the Presidency of Dennis Etchison. Blackmore featured as the character 'Sydney Deadlocke' in Christopher Sequeira's photostory "Deadlocke and Doc Martin: Occult Investigators" (Too Much Red Cordial magazine, Sydney University, 1995; revised reprint in Sequeira's comicbook Bold Action). 'Doc Martin' was played by Bryce Stevens.

Blackmore often hosted gatherings of the Futurian Society of Sydney (run by sf bibliographer/researcher and secondhand bookdealer Graham Stone) at his Leichardt home. Regular attendees included Kevin Dillon and David Ritchie. Blackmore also acquired the majority of his holdings of Weird Tales magazine via Stone over a period of around a decade.

Anarchism, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, Thoughtcrimes, the O.T.O. and Sydney Zeroist Alliance In the early 1990s, owing to instinctive rejection of methods of social control, Blackmore became involved with the anarchist scene around Jura Books and the squatters collective Jellyhedz in Sydney, though his primary political interests lay in the Situationist International (especially the works of Guy Debord); and the ontological anarchism of Hakim Bey. The Futurian Society of Sydney, to which she had belonged, observed a minute's silence at their meeting of 17 July 2009 for her, and for Locus editor Charles N. Brown, who had also recently died.

In 2001, Blackmore's comic-book story "The Gargoyle Club Gambit" (co-written with Christopher Sequeira) was published in Bold Action, a one-shot special.

Writing, editing, convention appearances Blackmore has been a guest lecturer on science fiction, fantasy and horror for the University of Wollongong's Faculty of Creative Arts. He has guested as an expert on horror literature and film on TV programs in Australia including Ray Martin's Midday (television show), cable TV program The Graveyard Shift and Jennifer Byrne Presents and has been interviewed on Sydney's 2SER radio in the same capacity.

He became the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association, serving from September 2010 until September 2011.

Blackmore is Official Editor (with Scott A. Shaeffer) of the Sword and Sorcery and Weird Fiction Terminus (SSFWT) amateur press association (founded by Benjamin Szumskyj) which has members in Australia, the US, the UK, Sweden and Finland. SSWFT reached its 50th mailing in August 2013. (Blackmore's own contributions can be found archived on www.scribd.com). Blackmore also contributes a regular zine to S.T. Joshi's "Esoteric Order of Dagon" Amateur Press Association. (Some issues can be found housed in Cuyler W. 'Ned' Brooks' fanzine archive. A comprehensive archive of EOD mailings can be found at the John Hay Library H.P. Lovecraft Collection).

He is a frequent panellist at science fiction conventions such as the Magic Casements Festival (Sydney, 2003). the annual Conflux convention in Canberra (where with Margi Curtis he often ran workshops on magick until 2015), and has been a panellist at Constantinople Australian National Science Fiction Convention(Melbourne, 1994), Freecon (Sydney, 2003), Aussiecon 4 (Melbourne, 2010) and Conflux 19: Brave New Worlds (Canberra, 2025).

Blackmore was heavily involved as a speaker and promoter in the June 2019 Australian speaking tour by Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi and lectured on Lovecraft alongside Joshi, Larry Sitsky and others at the ANU School of Music, Canberra and at the NSW Masonic Club in Sydney.

In 2020, Blackmore served as convenor and judge on the Poetry category of the Australian Shadows Awards.

In 2026, Blackmore became a board member of the Friends of August Derleth, and received investiture (as "Alan Upway") into the Praed Street Irregulars, the organisation devoted to celebrating Derleth's character Solar Pons. He is a member of The Friends of Arthur Machen.

Award nominations

"Things Invisible: Human and Ab-Human in Two of Hodgson's Carnacki Tales".

"Sandalwood and Jade: The Weird & Fantastic verse of Lin Carter" Antics: A Personal Journal ov Anti-Control.(1993, 3 issues) Mythopoeia: The Newsletter of Dymocks Science Fiction & Fantasy (co-edited with Glayne Louise) (1995–97) Studies in Australian Weird Fiction (co-edited with Benjamin J. Szumskyj, Phillip A. Ellis and James Doig) (2008– ) Issues 1–3 published by Equilibrium Books, W.A. Issue 4 published by Borgo Press. And Then I Woke Up: A Zine About Dreams (co-edited with Chris Postill and Miriam Wells) (Wollongong NSW: Oneiros Dreamzine Collective, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, Oct 2007). Illustrated by Leigh Blackmore. Midnight Echo, No. 5. Australian Horror Writers Association (2011) Tarot of the Time Being by Steve Kilbey and K. P. Buk (White River Junction, VT: Batten Down the Hatches, 2015). Co-edited by Blackmore with Sigrid Lium and Steven J. Kilbey, for trade edition (ISBN 978-1-4951-3981-9, images in black and white). Co-edited by Blackmore with Mark E. Merrill and Steven J. Kilbey, for Special Limited Edition (ISBN 978-1-4951-5941-1, images in colour, Foreword by Donnette Thayer).

Selected critical writings and bibliographies

Reprint in The Fossil 105:3 No, 340, (April 2009).

Revised reprint in The Passenger's Log: Journal of the Sydney Passengers (Sherlock Holmes Society), Vol 19, Nos 3 &4 (2016). Reprinted in The Pontine Dossier (New Millenium edition) No 6 (2025). Blackmore, Leigh.(2003) "Time and Memory: An Interview with Jack Dann.

Reprint in Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature, Volume 20, Numbers 1-2, Whole Numbers 51-52 Special Double Issue: the Early Work of Terry Dowling (2019). Reprinted in Australian Studies in Weird Fiction, No. 4 (Winter 2011). Nominated for the William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism. Reprint in Gafford, Sam and S.T. Joshi (eds) William Hope Hodgson: Voices from the Borderland: Seven Decades of Criticism on the Master of Cosmic Horror NY: Hippocampus Press, 2014. Nominated for the William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism.

. Unexpurgated version at:

Reprint in Lovecraft Annual, No 15 (2021).

Fiction (Script by Blackmore based on his short story; art by Gavin O'Keefe) . Reprint in Too Much Red Cordial zine (Sydney University) (date unknown). Reprint in Bold Action comic number 1 (Sequence Comics, 2002).

. A Deadlocke and Doc Marten story.

. Science fiction story.

Reprint in Aurealis number 38/39 (September 2007)

See Gaslight series.

Poetry Blackmore's weird verse (primarily formalist in style) has appeared variously in And Then I Woke Up!, Arkham Sampler (The Strange Co), Avallaunius: The Journal of the Arthur Machen Society, Beastly (1990s journal of the Ordo Templi Orientis in Australia), Cyaegha, Chris Masters' EOD, The Eldritch Dark, , Etchings & Odysseys (The Strange Co), Melaleuca, Midnight Echo, New Lovecraft Collector (Necronomicon Press), Penumbra, Shoggoth, The Small Tapestry (P.A.N. Inc), Spectral Realms, Strange Sorcery (Rainfall Books), Telmar , and Weird Fiction Review.

Much of Blackmore's weird poetry to 2008 is collected in his first weird verse collection Spores from Sharnoth & Other Madnesses, with a foreword by S.T. Joshi. The US journal Dead Reckonings declared that the collection "at once establishes Blackmore as one of the leading weird poets of our time." A variant edition of this title, omitting the introduction and P'rea Press editors' foreword, and with some poems excluded and others added, under the title Sharnoth's Spores & Other Seeds, was published by Rainfall Books in 2010. In 2020, the title poem of the collection received film treatment by Swedish animator Richard Svensson and can be viewed on Youtube .

General poetry has appeared in Melaleuca, Tertangala, and at Australian Reader and Pool online. Blackmore has read his poetry live at various venues in NSW including Live Poets at Don Bank (North Sydney), Yours and Owls Café (Wollongong), Jane's (Wollongong) and Philanthropy Tribe Book Cafe (Wollongong). Blackmore has also recorded readings of many of the poems of Clark Ashton Smith, e.g. "Chant to Sirius".

Over the last decade, Blackmore's poetry has appeared in anthologies and magazines including: Charles Lovecraft (ed) Avatars of Wizardry (Sydney: P'rea Press, 2012) S.T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz (eds) Dreams of Fear: Poetry of Terror and the Supernatural (NY: Hippocampus Press, 2013) Elizabeth R. McClellan & Ashley Brown (eds) The 2014 Rhysling Poetry Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poetry of 2013 (SFPA, 2014). Graham Phillips (ed) Cyaegha No 13 (Spring 2015). Gutiérrez, Juan Julio (ed) Beyond the Cosmic Veil (Horrified Press/Barbed Wire Butterfly Press, 2015). Adam Joffrain (ed) Nightgaunt No 2 (July 2015) [France; collaboration-translation with Adam Joffrain]. Steve Lines (ed) Hallowe'en Howlings. (Calne, Wiltshire: Rainfall Books (UK), Oct 2015). Danny Gardner (ed) Can I Tell You a Secret?: Live Poets at Don Bank's 25th Anniversary Anthology. (Canberra: Ginninderra Press, Nov 2015.) John T. Allen (ed) Songs of the Shattered World: The Broken Hymns of Hastur. (Ticketyboo Press/Green Sun Press [Createspace], Feb 2016) Sam Gafford (ed) Sargasso: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies 3 (2016) Glynn Barrass and Frederick J. Mayer (eds). Anno Klarkash-ton. (Calne, Wiltshire: Rainfall Books, 2017). Joshi, S.T. (ed) Penumbra No 1 (2020) and No 2 (2021) (NY: Hippocampus Press) Frank Coffman (ed) Speculations III: Poetry from the Weird Poets Society (Mind's Eye Press, 2021) Guarelli, Pietro (ed). Zothique Anno V, No 11 (2022) (in English and Italian) Calhoun, Pat (ed). Weird and Wondrous: An Anthology of Fantasy Poetry (P'rea Press, 2023) S.T. Joshi (ed). For the Outsider: Poems About H. P. Lovecraft (NY: Hippocampus Press, July 2023). Includes four poems by Blackmore in tribute to Lovecraft.

Blackmore has collaborated on poems with US poets Richard L. Tierney, Fred Phillips (in English and Italian translation), K.A. Opperman and Ann K. Schwader; with French poet Adam Joffrain; and with Australian poet Charles Lovecraft. His poem "The Last Dream" was a nominee for Best Long Poem in the 2014 annual Rhysling Award.

In Oct 2021, three of Blackmore's weird poems were featured as part of a series of Hallowe'en recorded poetry readings hosted on Facebook by fellow weird poet Scott Couturier. Australian writer Chuck McKenzie has read a number of Blackmore's poems on his podcast.

Reviews, radio and other works Blackmore regularly reviewed horror fiction for over a decade for US critical journal Dead Reckonings. When this journal ceased in 2025, Blackmore began reviewing horror for Penumbra journal. He also reviews horror for Bruce Gillespie's SF Commentary.

His past review work of horror and fantasy fiction includes contributions to AsIF.com, Galaxy Newsletter, Lovecraft Annual, OzHorrorscope (online blog reviews), Prohibited Matter (column – "The State of the Nightmare"), Science Fiction (column – "Darkside"), Shoggoth, Skinned Alive, Spectral Realms, and the Sydney Morning Herald.

His story "Cemetery Rose" was read by the author and dramatized with sound effects for the Writing Show's Six Days of Hallowe'en podcast (cohosted by Australian Horror Writers Association) in 2006. An interview with Blackmore conducted by Writing Show host Paula Berenstein was broadcast concurrently.

His radio play Calling Water was broadcast in late 2008 on ABC Radio National Airplay.

His collage artwork, which is influenced by the Situationist technique of detournement, has been exhibited at the First Australasian Thelemic Conference (Sydney, 1994) and published in various issues of Tertangala magazine.