Steven Paulsen

Steven Paulsen (born 1955) is an Australian writer and editor of science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction whose work has been published in books and magazines around the world. He is the author of the best selling children's book, The Stray Cat, which has seen publication in several foreign language editions. His short story collection, Shadows on the Wall: Weird Tales of Science Fiction, Fantasy and the Supernatural), won the 2018 Australian Shadows Award for Best Collected Work, and his short stories have appeared in anthologies such as Dreaming Down-Under, Terror Australis: Best Australian Horror, Strange Fruit, Fantastic Worlds, The Cthulhu Cycle: Thirteen Tentacles of Terror, Cthulhu Deep Down Under: Volume 3, and Killer Creatures Down Under. His YA historical fantasy novel, Dream Weaver, was nominated for the 2024 Ditmar Award for Best Novel.

Paulsen has also written extensively about Australian speculative fiction in various publications including Bloodsongs, Eidolon (Australian magazine), Sirius, Interzone, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, Fantasy Annual, The St James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers, and The Melbourne University Press Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. In the 1990s he conceived and edited The Australian SF Writer's News, a writer's resource magazine for Australian Speculative Fiction writers, which was later incorporated into Aurealis magazine. He has conducted interviews with a variety of Australian Speculative Fiction writers, and was a judge for 2000 Aurealis Awards.

He has also co-edited two anthologies of horror, fantasy and science fiction short stories with Christopher Sequeira: Nosferatu Unbound (shortlisted for the 2024 Australasian Shadows awards for Best Collected Work); a collection of fiction by contemporary horror writers inspired by FW Murnau's masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema Nosferatu. Into the Cthulhu-Universe: Lovecraftian Horrors in Other Literary Realities; a collection of tales where strange Lovecraftian ideas have spilled into the worlds of characters readers know and love, like Alice's Wonderland, Tom Sawyer, Dracula, John Carter of Mars and more. Not mash-ups, but original stories in other literary landscapes.

Awards and nominations Wins Source:

1990 Eastern Regional Libraries Short Story Competition – Special Local Award for "Talisman” 1996 William Atheling Jr. Award for "The Hunt for Australian Horror Fiction" with Bill Congreve, Sean McMullen, The Scream Factory No. 16. 1998 William Atheling Jr. Award for "Australian Fantasy" with Sean McMullen. 2018 Australian Shadows Awards for "Best Collected Work" for Shadows on the Wall (IFWG Publishing).

Nominations Source: 1997 Ditmar Award nomination for Best Australian Short Fiction: The Stray Cat (runner-up) 1998 William Atheling Jr. Award nomination for Contributions to The MUP Encyclopaedia of Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy 1998 Aurealis Award – Convenor's Award nomination for Contributions to The MUP Encyclopaedia of Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy 2000 William Atheling Jr. Award nomination for The Coode Street Review of Science Fiction with Jonathan Strahan 2000 Ditmar Award for Best Fan Production for The Coode Street Review of Science Fiction with Jonathan Strahan 2024 Ditmar Award for Best Novel for Dream Weaver

1996 Origins Award for Best Game-Related Fiction won by The Cthulhu Cycle: Thirteen Tentacles of Terror edited by Robert M. Price which contained Paulsen's short story 'In the Light of the Lamp' 1999 William Atheling Jr. Award won by Paul Collins for The MUP Encyclopaedia of Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy for which Paulsen was Assistant Editor and primary contributor 1999 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology won by Dreaming Down-Under, edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb (HarperCollins Australia/Voyager) which contained Paulsen's short story "Ma Rung' 1999 Ditmar Award for Best Anthology won by Dreaming Down-Under, edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb (HarperCollins Australia/Voyager) which contained Paulsen's short story "Ma Rung" 2023 Australasian Shadows Award for Best Edited Work won by Killer Creatures Down Under, edited by Deborah Sheldon (IFWG Publishing) which contained Paulsen's short story "The Warrigals"