Eugen Bacon
Eugen Bacon is an African-Australian computer scientist and author of speculative fiction.
She has won or been nominated for national and international awards, including the SFWA , , , Philip K Dick Award, , , Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, , British Science Fiction Association Award, Bridport Prize, Aurealis Awards, Australian Shadows Awards, Ditmar Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and Nommo Award for Speculative Fiction by Africans. She also writes nonfiction. She is a professional editor registered with the Institute of Professional Editors, and has been a judge in various competitions including the Aurealis Awards, , Norma K Hemming Awards and Australian Shadows Awards.
Early life
She was born Eugen Matoyo in Tanzania, and she speaks English and Swahili. She lived in the UK before moving to Melbourne, Australia.Education
Eugen Bacon has a Master of Science with distinction in distributed computer systems from the University of Greenwich, UK. She also holds a Master of Arts in creative writing and a doctorate in writing, both from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. She worked in ICT in a service provider role before becoming a writer.Writing
She has published short fiction and novels in various genres within the literary speculative fiction field, including black speculative fiction and afrofuturism. She also writes nonfiction including essays, scholarly articles, book chapters and books.Novels
- ''''
Novellas
- '. Stars and Sabers Publishing. 2025
- . Meerkat Press. 2025
- '. Luna Press Publishing. 2023
- Ivory's Story. NewCon Press.
Short fiction
- '
- Black Moon: Graphic Speculative Flash Fiction 2020)
- '
- '
- '
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
| Human Beans | 2022 | Bacon, Eugen. Life Beyond Us. European Astrobiology Institute. | ||
| The Devil Don't Come With Horns | 2022 | Bacon, Eugen. Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology. Mariner | ||
| Naked Earth | 2022 | Bacon, Eugen. Phase Change: Imagining Energy Futures. Twelfth Planet Press | ||
| The Failing Name | 2021 | |||
| When the Water Stops | 2021 | Bacon, Eugen. Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | - | - |
| A Visit in Whitechapel | 2021 | Bacon, Eugen, London Centric: Tales of Future London , NewCon Press | - | - |
| Baba Klep | 2021 | Bacon, Eugen, The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction , Jembefola | - | - |
| Unlimited Data | 2021 | Bacon, Eugen, Cyberfunk!, MV Media | - | - |
Anthologies (edited)
- Bacon, Eugen; Rowe, Gene. '. BSFA, finalist Aurealis Awards
- Bacon, Eugen; Rowe, Gene. '. BSFA
- Bacon, Eugen. . Bloomsbury Academic, winner of the 2025 Ignyte Award for Outstanding Creative Non-Fiction.
Poetry
- Texture of Silence: An Illustrated Collection of Prose Poetry, with Steve Simpson
- Saving Shadows ''
- Speculate: A Collection of Microlit, with Dominique Hecq
- Frame of Reference
- Black Moon
- Her Bitch Dress
- It's Folking Political''
Non-fiction
- '
- '
;Collections
- Crafting Stories within a Story 2013
- Peaches and Lemons – Peter Temple and Michael Ondaatje 2016
- The Writer 2013
- Hang Him When He's Not There 2016
- Chewing Over the Trials of Unemployment 2011
- Crossing genre - exemplars of literary speculative fiction 2017
- What is AfroSF? 2018
- Writing and Reading Speculative Fiction 2019
- The Rise of Black Speculative Fiction 2020
- Dark Fiction 2020
- Southerly review 2014
- Journaling - a path to exegesis in creative research 2014
- Review of Angela Meyer's Captives 2015
- Being Marcus 2015
- Push—a prototype of displaced fiction in the YA literature debate: Breaking the circle of silence 2015
- Creative practice - finding the right mentor 2015
- Creative research: Mixing methods in practice-led research to explore a model of stories-within-a-story to build a novel 2017
- Scholarly exegesis as a memoir 2017
- The creation of a toxic utopia in David Coleman's The Shaming 2019
- I went looking for AfroSF 2020
- Becoming visible: The Rise of Black Speculative Fiction 2020
- Review of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Birth of a Dream Weaver 2020
- The Benefit of Our Humanity 2020
- The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi 2020
- Afrofuturism: A WorldCon Recap, and Some Thoughts 2020
- The New Seduction of an Old Literary Crime Classic 2020
- Inhabitation-Genni and I 2020
- World building in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi
- 'Trends in black speculative fiction'
- The Westsider:
- HWA:
- British Fantasy Society -
- British Science Fiction Association -
Critical studies and reviews of Bacon's work
;Secondhand Daylight
; Paulsemel.com
;Publishers Weekly. .
;Mage of Fools
;*
;Danged Black Thing
;Publishers Weekly.
;*
;*
;*
;The Road to Woop Woop and Other Stories
Awards and nominations
| Year | Organisation | Category | Work | Result | Reference |
| 2025 | SFFWA | Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award | Body of works | Winner | |
| 2025 | Otherwise Motherboard | Fellowship | Black Dingo | Winner | |
| 2025 | Locus Award | Non-Fiction | Afro-Centred Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction | Winner | |
| 2025 | Ignyte Awards | Creative Nonfiction | Afro-Centred Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction | Winner | |
| 2025 | Shirley Jackson Awards | Single-Author Collection | A Place Between Waking and Forgetting | Nominee | |
| 2025 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Non-fiction- Short | An Afrofuturistic Dystopia and the Afro-irreal’ | Finalist | |
| 2025 | Foreword Indies Awards | - Short Fiction - Multicultural | A Place Between Waking and Forgetting | Finalist | |
| 2025 | Aurealis | Best Anthology | Fission #4 | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Philip K. Dick Award | Fiction | Danged Black Thing | Nominee | |
| 2024 | Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Fiction | Serengotti | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | British Fantasy Awards | Non-Fiction | An Earnest Blackness | Winner | |
| 2023 | Otherwise Award | Otherwise Award | Danged Black Thing | Honor List | |
| 2023 | Shirley Jackson Awards | Best Novella | Broken Paradise | Finalist | |
| 2023 | African Speculative Fiction Society | Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans – Novella | Broken Paradise | Finalist | |
| 2024 | Literary | Serengotti | Finalist | ||
| 2024 | Science Fiction | Secondhand Daylight | Finalist | ||
| 2024 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Shorter Fiction | Broken Paradise | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Short Non Fiction | 'Dominant Themes in Afro-Centric Fiction' | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Artwork | Danged Black Thing | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Short Fiction | 'Sina, The Child With No Echo' | Longlist | |
| 2024 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Short Fiction | 'Paperweight ' | Longlist | |
| 2024 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Collection | Languages of Water | Longlist | |
| 2023 | Science Fiction | Mage of Fools | Winner - Silver | ||
| 2023 | Short Story | Chasing Whispers | Finalist | ||
| 2023 | World Fantasy Award | Short Story | 'The Devil Don't Come With Horns' | Finalist | |
| 2023 | Locus Award | Non-Fiction | An Earnest Blackness | Finalist | |
| 2023 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Novel | Mage of Fools | Longlist | |
| 2023 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Non-fiction | An Earnest Blackness | Longlist | |
| 2023 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Artwork | Mage of Fools | Longlist | |
| 2023 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Artwork | Chasing Whispers | Longlist | |
| 2022 | World Fantasy Award | Short Story | 'The Failing Name' | Finalist | |
| 2022 | Otherwise Award | Otherwise Fellowships | N/A | Honor list | |
| 2022 | Aurealis Award | Aurealis Awards | Danged Black Thing | Finalist | |
| 2022 | Best Collection | Danged Black Thing | Honorable Mention | ||
| 2022 | Australian Horror Writers Association | Australian Shadows Awards: Collected Works | Danged Black Thing | Finalist | |
| 2022 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Artwork | Danged Black Thing | Short-Listed | |
| 2022 | Rhysling Award | Short Poem | 'Tons of Liquid Oxygen Buckle Too Late Under Strain' in | Nominee | |
| 2022 | Elgin Awards | Full-length Books | Nominee | ||
| 2022 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Best Artwork | Saving Shadows | Short-Listed | |
| 2022 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Short Story | The Failing Name | Long-Listed | |
| 2022 | Locus Magazine | Recommended Reading Novels - Science Fiction | 2022 Recommended Reading List | ||
| 2022 | Locus Magazine | Recommended Reading Collection | 2022 Recommended Reading List | ||
| 2022 | Locus Magazine | Recommended Reading Non-fiction | 2022 Recommended Reading List | ||
| 2021 | African Speculative Fiction Society | Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans – Novella | Ivory's Story | Long-Listed | |
| 2021 | Australian Horror Writers Association | Australian Shadows Awards: Edited works | Hadithi & The State of Black Speculative Fiction | Finalist | |
| 2021 | African Speculative Fiction Society | Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans – Short Story | 'The Road to Woop Woop' 'A Visit in Whitechapel' 'Still She Visits' 'The One Who Sees' | Long-Listed | |
| 2020 | Short Story | The Road to Woop Woop & Other Stories | Finalist | ||
| 2020 | British Science Fiction Association Awards | Novella | Ivory's Story | Short-Listed | |
| 2020 | Locus Magazine | Recommended Reading Collection | The Road to Woop Woop & Other Stories | 2020 Recommended Reading List | |
| 2020 | Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre Residency Programme | Emerging Writer-in-Residence | N/A | Awarded | |
| 2020 | African Speculative Fiction Society | Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans – Novel | Claiming T-Mo | Long-Listed | |
| 2020 | African Speculative Fiction Society | Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans – Short Story | A Pining | Long-Listed | |
| 2020 | African Speculative Fiction Society | Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans – Short Story | The Day Chivalry Died | Long-Listed | |
| 2020 | African Speculative Fiction Society | Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans – Short Story | A Good Ball | Long-Listed | |
| 2019 | Australasian Horror Writers Association | The Rocky Wood Award for Non-Fiction and Criticism | Chapter 8 of Writing Speculative Fiction | Finalist | |
| 2019 | Australian Science Fiction Foundation | Ditmar Awards - Novel | Claiming T-Mo | Finalist | |
| 2019 | Australian Science Fiction Foundation | Ditmar Awards – William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review | Writing Speculative Fiction | Finalist | |
| 2018 | Bridport Prize | Short Story | A Pining | Shortlisted | |
| 2017 | Copyright Agency | Best prose | Honey Gone Sour | Winner | |
| 2017 | L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest | Short Story | A Case of Seeing | Honourable Mention | |
| 2016 | Fellowship of Australian Writers Literary Awards | Microfiction Award | Mahuika | Highly Commended | |
| 2016 | Fellowship of Australian Writers Literary Awards | Angelo B. Natoli Short Story Award | Jungolo | Commended | |
| 2016 | Alan Marshall Short Story Award | Short Story | Swimming with Daddy | Shortlisted | |
| 2014 | Lightship International Short Story Prize | Short Story | A Puzzle Piece | Shortlisted | |
| 2013 | Fish Short Story Prize | Short Story | Unusual Suspects | Longlisted | |
| 2012 | Lightship International Short Story Prize | Short Story | Rozaria's Memories | Longlisted | |
| 2006 | Pushcart Prize | Short Story | The Hybrid | Nominated | |
| 2005 | Tarralla Writers Group | Short Story | The Boy in the Gleam | Shortlisted | |
| 2004 | Writers Bureau Short Story Prize | Short Story | Morning Dew | Awarded | |