Ditmar Awards Voting is open. For the uninitiated, the Ditmars are the annual Australian peer-voted awards for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
What does peer-voted mean? Well, that you are either attending the National Convention (or have in recent years) or that you are ‘active in
fandom’. What does the latter mean?
As I understand it: if you’ve been to a convention in Australia, or are in a discussion group (online or live), or interact regularly on social media, or are simply a fan of Australian speculative fiction, you’re eligible. Which is to say, it’s pretty damn broad. If you are new to voting in the Ditmars, feel free to nominate me as a ‘referee’ (this aspect will be clear once you’ve seen the nomination form). Note that nominations close soon, on 30 March.
Okay, enough preamble. I had two works published last year that I am very proud of – if you’d read and enjoyed them, I’d appreciate your vote.
First, and foremost, in the Novella/Novelette category, I have ‘The Hidden God’, originally published in 
Asimov’s March/April 2025. The Hidden God won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novella earlier this year.
In the short story category I had “Déjà Vécu” a gloriously weird story that appeared in the Australia 2025 anthology. It was so weird I couldn’t sell it anywhere, for years, to the point where I just assumed I was deluded about it being good. The story was trunked, never to see the light of day again. Until, that is, one of the editors of Austral asked me if I had any stories I might want to submit. I did, and apparently Déjà Vécu didn’t suck after all (That same anthology won the Aurealis as well, I should add, so a big congratulations to the team for that).
Okay, as much as I’d love to bleat about myself for another page, I’ll instead recommend some other writers. Most particularly, Pamela Jeffs, and her short story collection This Dark Architect and Other Grim Tales, and Matt Tighe’s collection, Drowning in the Dark and Other Stories. Both very talented writers, and both worth checking out.
That’s it. Whether or not you’ve read my work, I encourage you to seek out Australian authors. We’ve an incredibly talented (and largely undiscovered) crop of genre writers down here, deserving of your attention.
