From the Wasteland - stories inspired by T.S. Eliot's “The Wasteland” Plaintive ghosts, deep space, medieval castles, rising seas, parched deserts, abandoned villages...Inspired by its powerful themes—still highly resonant in an era looking for hope—nineteen original tales mark the centenary of Eliot’s poem. From the Wasteland brings together decorated writers and new voices in fantasy; ghost tales, horror, dystopia and science fiction. With a blend of the grotesque and the sublime, the poignant and the horrifying, the sad and the stoic, you’ll find stories that conjure wastelands from the 1500s to many centuries hence. You’ll also find the hope for humanity and the belief in our joint future that these writers seek for us all.
Authors
I’m a speculative fiction writer and doctor. My writing explores brains, minds, technology, space, and identity. My debut novel, Every Version of You, uses virtual reality and mind-uploading to explore identity, love, migration, change, and the future of humanity. My short fiction can be found in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Fireside, Space and Time Magazine, Black Cranes, Going Down Swinging, Aurealis, Andromeda Spaceways, and many other places. I have been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards, Norma K Hemming Award, and Viva la Novella VII. My other interests include salt-and-vinegar anything and secretly filming my friends’ NYE karaoke highlights. I am terrible at conveying sarcasm. In a decaffeinated state, I may cease to exist.
Jeff Clulow is a British/Australian author of romantic dark fiction and horror. Born in Cornwall in the UK, Jeff now lives and writes in Sydney, Australia. Jeff’s writing leans towards the lighter end of dark fiction, exploring themes of family, childhood, love and loss. He’s inspired by folktale, mythology and the notion that the old gods still walk among us. His stories have reached the finals of the Aurealis Awards, the Shadows Awards, the American BookFest Awards and the National Indie Excellence Awards. He has been awarded an ‘Honourable Mention’ in the Robert N. Stephenson competition for short fiction in horror and is the winner of the 2023 Asylumfest Mayday Hills Ghost Story Competition. Find out more about Jeff and his work at www.jeffclulow.com
Cat Sparks is a multi-award-winning Australian author, editor and artist whose former employment has included: media monitor, political and archaeological photographer, graphic designer, Fiction Editor of Cosmos Magazine and Manager of Agog! Press. A 2012 Australia Council grant sent her to Florida to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway workshop. She’s currently finishing a PhD in sci fi and cli fi. Her short story collection The Bride Price was published in 2013. Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Skyhorse in March 2017.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Welcome! I’m an award-winning Melbourne-based author, with a solid career of writing with influence across a variety of mediums. I’ve been ‘writing and moonlighting’ for as long as I can remember. Whether it’s writing the first draft of a shiny new story, or helping other writers polish their own works, there’s nothing I like better than fiddling around with words. My genre-mashing fiction for children and adults has won, been shortlisted for, and honourably mentioned for numerous awards and prizes including the Aurealis, Australian Shadows, Ditmars, and Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor’s Writing Award. To date, my traditionally-published works include three middle grade novels, a speculative short story collection, and over sixty short stories, poems, and articles in numerous Australian and international anthologies, journals, and magazines. I hold a MA in Creative Writing, and a Certificate of Publishing (Copy Editing & Proofreading). To provide her muse with life’s essentials I copywrite and edit in a freelance capacity and operates StoryCraft Creative Writing Workshops for aspiring authors of every age and ability…however my true passion is storytelling. Say G’day at rebeccafraser.com or Twitter and Instagram @becksmuse or have some fun over on TikTok @rebeccafraserauthor
Nikky Lee is an award-winning author who grew up as a barefoot 90s kid in Perth, Western Australia on Whadjuk Noongar Country. She now lives in Aotearoa New Zealand with a husband, a dog and a couch potato cat. In her free time she writes speculative fiction, often burning the candle at both ends to explore fantastic worlds, mine asteroids and meet wizards. She's had over two dozen stories published in magazines, anthologies and on radio. Her short fiction has been shortlisted six times in the Aurealis Awards with her novelette Dingo & Sister winning the Best Young Adult Short Story and the Best Fantasy Novella categories in 2020. In 2021, she received a Ditmar Award for Best New Talent. Her debut novel The Rarkyn's Familiar won the 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Youth Novel, three 2022 Indie Ink Awards, Bronze in Young Adult Fiction at the 2022 Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Awards, and was a finalist in the 2022 Aurealis Awards for Best Young Adult Novel.
