Lee Murray (writer)


Lee Wei-Hahn Murray is a New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer and editor. She is a third generation Chinese New Zealander who has written over forty works. She is a five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a twelve-time winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award. She is most noted for her Taine McKenna military thrillers, and supernatural crime-noir series The Path of Ra. In December 2024, Murray was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature, particularly speculative literature.

Biography

Murray was born in Putāruru. She previously worked as a scientist and an advisor for the OECD. She is the co-founder of Young New Zealand Writers with Piper Mejia, an organization which has provided development and publishing opportunities for New Zealand school students. She suffers from anxiety and depression. She currently lives in Tauranga.

Honours and awards

Murray's anthologies Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror and Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women won the Bram Stoker Award for Anthology in 2018 and 2020 respectively, while her collection Grotesque: Monster Stories won the Fiction Collection category in 2020. Other works have won the Australian Shadows and Sir Julius Vogel awards. She was the winner of the 2019 Bram Stoker Mentor of the year award. She is a professional member of the Horror Writers Association, Australian Horror Writers Association, and the New Zealand Society of Authors. In 2020 she was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Honorary Literary Fellowship. In 2021 she was awarded the Grimshaw Sargeson 2021 Fellowship. She won the NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize 2023 with her manuscript Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud.
In the 2025 New Year Honours, Murray was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature, particularly speculative literature.

''Taine McKenna Adventures''

  1. Into the Mist
  2. Into the Sounds
  3. ''Into the Ashes''

Standalone novels

  • ''Misplaced''

Collections

Beyond This Story
  • ''Grotesque: Monster Stories''

Edited works

At the Edge Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women Asian Ghost Short Stories