Steven Paulsen


Steven Paulsen, 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 ; 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 Retrieved 14 January 2011.

Nominations Retrieved 14 January 2011.

Contribution Wins Retrieved 14 January 2011.

Books

;English Language Editions
  • The Stray Cat, Lothian Books, 1996.
  • The Stray Cat, Franklin Watts, 1996.
  • Shadows on the Wall,, 2018.
  • Dream Weaver, , 2023. ''ISBN: 978-1-922856-35-7
;Foreign Language Editions
  • Misteri Kucing Tersesat, PT Elex Media Komputindo, 1997.
  • Le Chat Errant, Hachette Jeunesse, 1998.
  • Die Streunende Katz, G&G Kinder – und Jugendbuch, 1999. Hardcover
  • After Dark, Publisher: Bookhouse Co., Ltd, 2002.
;Edited Anthologies
  • Nosferatu Unbound,, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-925759-61-7.
  • Into the Cthulhu-Universe: Lovecraftian Horrors in Other Literary Realities'',, 2025. ISBN: 978-1-923382-00-8

Short stories (selected)

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Essays (selected)

  • "The State of the Australian Horror Fiction Magazine" – Bloodsongs No. 1, ed. Chris Masters and Steve Proposch, 1993
  • "The Quest for Australian Fantasy" – Aurealis No. 13, 1994
  • "The Search for Early Australian Horror" – Bloodsongs No. 2, ed. Chris Masters and Steve Proposch, 1994
  • "The Hunt for Australian Horror" – Aurealis No. 14, 1994, 1999 and The Best of the Scream Factory, edited by Peter Enfantino, Robert Morrish and John Scoleri, 2019
  • "The Art of HAK" – Bloodsongs No. 3, ed. Chris Masters and Steve Proposch, 1994
  • "The State of the Aust. Horror Fiction Magazine – SF Fan Resource Book, 1995
  • "Pulp Fiction in Oz" – Bloodsongs No. 4, ed. Chris Masters and Steve Proposch, 1995
  • "Kid's Stuff " – Bloodsongs No. 5, ed. Chris Masters and Steve Proposch, 1995
  • "The Hunt for Australian HorrorFiction" The ScreamFactory #16, 1995
  • "Australian Children's TV" – Sirius No. 10, 1995
  • "A Touch of Darkness – Gary Crew)" – Bloodsongs No. 6, ed. Chris Masters and Steve Proposch, 1995
  • "Cowboys and Atmosfear)" – Bloodsongs No. 7, ed. Chris Masters and Steve Proposch, 1996
  • "Australian Fantasy " – The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, ed. John Clute and John Grant, 1997
  • Author entries for Conrad Aiken, Gary Crew, Terry Dowling, G. M. Hague, Robert Hood, Victor Kelleher, Rick Kennett, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Rosemary Timperley – St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, ed. David Pringle, 1997
  • "A History of Australian Horror " – Bonescribes: Year's Best Australian Horror: 1995 ed. Bill Congreve and Robert Hood, 1996
  • "The Quest for Australian Fantasy – Continues" – Fantasy Annual, 1997
  • "Fantastique et horreur made in Australie" – Ténèbres No. 3, ed. Daniel Conrad, July 1998
  • "Golden Age or New Dawn?" – Aussiecon 3 Souvenir Book for the 57th World Science Fiction Convention, ed. Marc Ortlieb, 1999
  • "Hakwork: An Appreciation of John Brosnan" – Studies in Australian Weird Fiction Volume 3, ed. Benjamin Szumskyj, 2009

Editor (Non-Fiction)

The MUP Encyclopaedia of Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy, 1998 The Australian SF Writers' News – Editor, issues 1–10 Eidolon – Contributing Editor, issues 19–27
  • The Coode St Review of Science Fiction, 1999

Interviews (selected)

Steven Paulsen conducted interviews with a number a leading Australian Speculative Fiction writers during the 1990s. These were notable because Paulsen conducted most of these interviews face-to-face instead of via e-mail, recording the interviews and transcribing the conversations. He also conducted a few interviews in collaboration with Van Ikin.