There’s no place like home — especially when your home is an underwater, apocalyptic castle full of ghosts…
All stories need a sense of place, but in speculative fiction, boundaries are only set by the author’s imagination. Meet three Canberra writers creating fantastical words and spaces to hear about their favourite imaginary places, and how they bring their own worlds to life on the page.
Featuring Sam Hawke (City of Lies), Leife Shallcross (The Beast’s Heart) and participating chair Kaaron Warren (The Grief Hole).
Tickets: $15 (includes a complimentary glass of house wine or juice)
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Sam Hawke has wanted to write books since realising as a child that they didn't just breed between themselves in libraries. Having contemplated careers as varied as engineer, tax accountant and zookeeper Sam eventually settled on the law. She married her jujitsu training partner and they live in Canberra raising two small ninjas and two idiot dogs. Her debut epic fantasy, City of Lies, came out in 2018 with the sequel, Hollow Empire, due for release in 2019.
Leife Shallcross’ debut novel, The Beast’s Heart, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in May 2018. Her award-winning short fiction has been published in Aurealis, Daily Science Fiction and several anthologies. She’s also edited an anthology of short Australian speculative fiction, A Hand of Knaves, with Chris Large. Ever since she can remember, Leife has been fascinated by stories about canny fairy godmothers, heroic goose girls and handsome princes disguised as bears. She is currently working on two more new novels.
Shirley-Jackson Award Winner Kaaron Warren was Guest of Honour at World Fantasy Convention in 2018 and will be Guest of Honour at Stokercon and New Zealand’s Geysercon in 2019. Her stories have been shortlisted for the Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award and have appeared world-wide. Kaaron has published five novels, with Tide of Stone the most recent, and seven short story collections, including her most recent, Primer to Kaaron Warren.