Welcome to the
official site of Australian
speculative fiction writer Sean Williams.
Author of seventy published short stories and
twenty-seven novels, nominated for the Ditmar, the Aurealis and the prestigious Philip K Dick Award for Saturn Returns,
his work has been published around the world in numerous languages, on-line,
and in spoken word editions. His current
projects include Astropolis, a
gothic-noir gender-bending space opera trilogy, and The Broken Land, a
dark fantasy series for children set in the same fantasy universe as the Books of the Change. He has also written the novelisation of the
computer game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,
which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in August.
His fifth collection of short fiction, Magic Dirt: the Best of Sean
Williams, was launched earlier this year.
Sean's work in the field of science fiction has been
likened to that of the "Three Gregs" (Benford, Bear and Egan) while his
fantasy has garnered comparisons to Peter Carey, China Miéville and Ursula K. Le Guin. His novel The
Crooked Letter was the first fantasy novel in the history of Australian
speculative fiction to win both Ditmar and Aurealis Awards. The fourth instalment of the Books of the Cataclysm, The Devoured Earth, was released in
Australia in September, 2006.
With collaborator Shane Dix, he produced the Evergence, Orphans and Geodesica series and co-wrote the Star Wars: New Jedi Order:
Force Heretic
trilogy. Together, they have been called
"the new Niven & Pournelle
for the 21st century".
Sean Williams has written reviews, music (for which he won a Young Composer's
Award in 1984), a stage play, and the
odd haiku (including "hairku"
for 2007's Movember). Occasionally he makes up new words.
You can find his journal,
where he posts news and thoughts on a regular basis, here.
news appearances faq LibraryThing
publishing overview bibliography awards LiveJournal
fiction on-line opinions cover blurbs & reviews
biographical material favourite music photos
snailmail
mail@seanwilliams.com
Sean lives with his wife and family in Adelaide -- a city
once portrayed by Salman Rushdie as "an ideal
setting for a Stephen King novel" and by Jules Verne as the prettiest in
Australia -- where he completed a Masters in Creative Writing
at Adelaide University in 2005. (He is
currently a PhD candidate at the same institution.) He is a founding board member of the
award-winning Big Book Club Inc.,
a judge in the Writers of the Future
contest, and (until recently) Chair (for his fourth year) of the SA Writers' Centre. He has been a peer assessor for the
Literature Board of the Australia Council
and currently chairs the Literature Advisory Board of Arts SA.
He is a former judge for the Aurealis Awards, a
tutor for Clarion South (2005 and 2009), and an
honorary member of the International Golden Key
Honour Society. He has been a
guest of all the literary festivals of Australian capital cities (some of them
more than once) and various National SF Conventions. His name appears on the Celebrity Atheist List. He is
occasionally confused with fellow Australian speculative fiction author and
musician Sean McMullen, to
hilarious results.
He DJs and cooks curries less frequently than he used
to, but still likes mentioning them in his bio.
Sean
Williams is a supporter of Australians Against
Racism and Adelaide PEN. He is a member of SFWA, IAMTW and the Australian Society of Authors, and is the
current Chair of the SA Writers' Centre. His English language publishers include HarperCollinsAustralia,
Del Rey, Ace, Pyr, Swift,
Orbit, MirrorDanse,
MonkeyBrain, Altair Australia, and Ticonderoga.
(This site is generously sponsored by Chariot Internet.)
©
Sean Williams 2008
(Last updated 15.10.08)
(Author photo: Beth Gwinn)