Latest news:
Aurealis Awards going to Canberra
After 18 years the Aurealis Awards, Australia's premier awards for speculative fiction, finally make it to the nation’s capital. The owner of the Aurealis Awards, Chimaera Publications – the publishers of the Aurealis magazine and book imprint – have reached agreement for Conflux Inc to administer the Awards for the next two years.
The Awards’ founder, Dirk Strasser says, “SpecFaction NSW took the Aurealis Awards to new levels of professionalism during its three years in Sydney, and the energy, enthusiasm and experience in the Conflux team indicates the awards will be raised to even greater heights. With Canberra now joining past hosts Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, we can truly claim the Aurealis Awards as fully national.”
Conflux Inc President Nicole Murphy said Canberra and the Aurealis Awards would be a great match. "Conflux has always had the support and promotion of Australian writing as an important part of our charter, and we're delighted to be hosting Australia's premier speculative fiction awards," she said. "Canberra has a long history of involvement with science fiction and we're going to do everything we can to make the coming ceremonies match up to that history."
Currently the awards are calling for expressions of interest from potential judges. Information can be found at the Aurealis Awards website www.aurealisawards.com. Judging is open to any Australian with a love for speculative fiction and a willingness to read and judge the best works published this year.
For further information see:
Once-only Special Offer
With the last ever AurealisXpress e-bulletin hitting In-boxes in April, we're offering all current and past AurealisXpress subscribers a once-only special offer. If you take out a 2013 Aurealis subscription before 30 April, we’ll give you all ten 2012 Aurealis issues for FREE. That way you can continue to get the best reviews of Australian and overseas SF books as well as great original Australian short stories, articles and artwork. Why haven't you hit the link yet?
Aurealis Awards announcement and call
SpecFaction NSW, who have been hosting the Aurealis Awards for the last 3 years, have decided they won't be continuing after this year’s Awards ceremony on Saturday 18 May 2013 at The Independent Theatre in North Sydney. (Book tickets here.) We are looking for either a group to take on the organisation of the Aurealis Awards from May, or one person to take on the role of Aurealis Awards Night Coordinator for 2014 . The group or individual can be based anywhere in Australia. Please email editors@aurealis.com.au if you are interested or would like to know more detail.
Changes at Aurealis
There will be a number of changes happening to Aurealis over the next few months. Longtime AurealisXpress Editor, Carissa Thorp, will be resigning after the April issue to concentrate on her own writing. We decided to take the opportunity to look closely at the way we’ve been doing things and not simply assume we should continue doing exactly what we’ve been doing in the past.
As a result, we decided that the April issue of AurealisXpress will be the last. However, we will be replacing and enhancing the function AurealisXpress had in a number of ways, and making sure that we give even more free stuff to people interested in Australian fantasy and science fiction. Here’s an outline of what we’re doing:
- We have appointed Elsie Michael in the new position of Reviews Manager. All reviews will now appear first in Aurealis issues and will be archived on the Aurealis website later.
- We have appointed Julian Thumm in the new position of News Editor. He will be seeking out and collecting the sorts of news items that Carissa has in the past.
- Our Social Media Coordinator, Dan Allan, will be placing the news items, depending on what they are, on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Google+, as well as a new Aurealis blog. You will no longer have to wait for the monthly AurealisXpress to get the news.
- We have appointed Angelika Arvela as our new Submissions Manager, replacing Sari Webb. After a short break, we are now open to submissions again. We thank you for your patience.
We have even more changes in the pipeline. There are some exciting times up ahead!
Aurealis Books
[view our book catalogue]
Classic Australian SF: The Complete Set
by Various Authors
In these six novels of speculative fiction, Chimaera Publications has unearthed and reanimated a series of forgotten classics. Ranging from the 1880s to the 1930s, this selection shows the vital contribution that speculative fiction plays in Australia's literary history -- an influence that continues until the present day.
With introductions from some of Australia's most notable writers and critics, Aurealis Classic Australian SF is an essential addition to any library. Purchase all six books in the Classic Australian SF series for a reduced price!