Chris Lawson
Encyclopedia
Biography
Lawson was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1966. During his childhood Lawson spent time in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
where his father worked as a biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
on a crocodile farm and his mother studied psychology of personal identity. Later he studied medicine in which he has attained a graduate diploma in biostatistics, epidemiology and human genetics. Lawson has previously worked for the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and Merck Sharpe and Dohme and currently practises as a family doctor.
Lawson's first work was published in 1993, entitled "Metacarcinoma" his short story was published in the Summer 1993 edition of Eidolon. He received his first award for his work in 2000 when his short story "Written in Blood" won both the 1999 Aurealis Award for best science fiction short story
Aurealis Award for best science fiction short story
The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and SpecFaction NSW to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers"...
and the 2000 Ditmar Award
Ditmar Award
The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
for best short fiction. Lawson is married and has two children and is currently living in Melbourne.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Aurealis Award Aurealis Award Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award.-History:... |
"Chinese Rooms" | Best science fiction short story Aurealis Award for best science fiction short story The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and SpecFaction NSW to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers"... |
Nomination |
| 1999 | Aurealis Award | "Written in Blood" | Best science fiction short story | Won |
| 2000 | Ditmar Award Ditmar Award The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom... |
"Written in Blood" | Best short story | Won |
| 2003 | Ditmar Award | — | Best fan writer | Nomination |
| 2006 | Aurealis Award | "Hieronymous Boche" | Best horror short story Aurealis Award for best horror short story The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and SpecFaction NSW to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers"... |
Nomination |
| 2006 | Ditmar Award | "Body Parts" | William Atheling Jr. Award William Atheling Jr. Award The William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review are a Special Category under the Ditmar Awards. "The Athelings", as they are known for short, are awarded for excellence in science fiction and speculative criticism, and were named for the pseudonym used by James Blish for his critical... |
Nomination |
| 2006 | Ditmar Award | "Countless Screaming Argonauts" | Best Australian novella or novelette | Nomination |
| 2008 | Ditmar Award | Talking Squid | Best fan production | Nomination |
Short fiction
- "Metacarcinoma" (1993) in Eidolon Summer 1993 (ed. Jeremy G. Byrne, Jonathan StrahanJonathan StrahanJonathan Strahan is an editor and publisher of science fiction. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986....
) - "The Judas Kiss" (1996) in Eidolon Spring 1996 (ed. Jonathan Strahan, Jeremy G. Byrne, Richard Scriven)
- "Unborn Again" (1998) in Dreaming Down-UnderDreaming Down-UnderDreaming Down-Under is a 1998 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb-Background:Dreaming Down-Under was first published in Australia in November 1998 by Voyager Books in trade paperback format....
(ed. Jack DannJack DannJack Dann is an American writer best known for his science fiction, an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, in the majority of cases as editor or co-editor of story anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres...
, Janeen WebbJaneen WebbJaneen Webb is an Australian writer, critic, and editor working mainly in the field of science fiction and fantasy.-Biography:...
) - "Written in Blood" (1999) in Asimov's Science FictionAsimov's Science FictionAsimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov...
June 1999 (ed. Gardner DozoisGardner DozoisGardner Raymond Dozois is an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004...
) - "Chinese Rooms" (1999) in Eidolon Spring 1999 (ed. Jonathan Strahan, Jeremy G. Byrne)
- "Matthew 24:36" (2000) in Eidolon Autumn 2000, (ed. Jeremy G. Byrne)
- "Lacey's Fingerprints" (2001) in Agog! Terrific Tales (ed. Cat Sparks)
- "Faster, Higher, Stronger" (2002) in Spectrum SF #9 (ed. Paul Fraser)
- "Your Soothsayers Are Better" (2003) in Written in Blood
- "No Man's Land" (2003, with Simon Brown) in Gathering the Bones (ed. Ramsey CampbellRamsey CampbellJohn Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction author.Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", while S. T...
, Jack Dann, Dennis EtchisonDennis EtchisonDennis William Etchison , is an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. Etchison refers to his own work as “rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world.”Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison “one hell of a fiction...
) - "Countless Screaming Argonauts" (2005) in Realms of FantasyRealms of FantasyRealms of Fantasy is a professional bimonthly fantasy speculative fiction magazine published by Damnation Books, which specializes in fantasy, nonfiction, and art. The magazine publishes short stories by some of the genre's most popular and most prominent authors...
August 2005 (ed. Shawna McCarthyShawna McCarthyShawna Lee McCarthy is an American science fiction and fantasy editor and literary agent. She is married to science fiction artist Wayne Douglas Barlowe....
) - "The Surfing Cannibals of Norway" (2005) in Mitch?4: Stories by Writers Who Should Have Known Better
- "Empathy" (2006) in CosmosCosmos (magazine)Cosmos is an Australian popular science magazine that is published six times a year. It is subtitled "the science of everything" and is described as "a magazine of ideas, science, society and the future"....
April–May 2006, (ed. Damien BroderickDamien BroderickDamien Francis Broderick is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer. His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term "virtual reality," and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the...
, Wilson da SilvaWilson da SilvaWilson da Silva is an Australian science journalist and editor who has worked in magazines, newswires, newspapers, television and online. He is editor and co-founder of Cosmos, Australia's #1 science magazine, and Cosmos Online, the country's #1 science news website.He has been an on-air science...
) - "Screening Test" (2006) in Agog! Ripping Reads (ed. Cat Sparks)
- "Hieronymus Boche" (2006) in Eidolon IEidolon IEidolon I is a 2006 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan and Jeremy G. Byrne.-Background:Eidolon I was first published in 2006 by Eidolon Books in trade paperback format...
(ed. Jeremy G. Byrne, Jonathan Strahan) - "Canterbury Hollow" (2011) in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
January–February 2011 (ed. Gordon Van GelderGordon Van GelderGordon Van Gelder is a Hugo Award-winning American science fiction editor. As of 2008, Van Gelder is both editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form...
) - "Sundown" (2011) in Welcome to the Greenhouse (ed. Gordon Van Gelder)
Essays
- "The Tithonus Option is Not an Option" (1999)
- "Worldcon 1999 Report" (1999) in LocusLocus (magazine)Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
#466 - Counter-Intuitive: "Life Without Sex" (2000) in Ticonderoga On-line
- "We Done Kill'd the Columbia" (2003) in Written in Blood
- "Evolutionary Pressure on Creationists" (2003) in Written in Blood
- "The Standard Book of Alchymical Elementals" (2003) in Written in Blood
- "Fun Experiments With Your Own Brain" (2003) in Written in Blood
- "Body Parts" (2004) in Borderlands #4
- Counter-Intuitive: "The Shape That Kills" in Ticonderoga On-line
- "Neglected Science in Science Fiction" (2004) in Fables & Reflections #6
- "The Triangle of Meaning" (2004) in Borderlands #3
- Counter-Intuitive: "Still Evolving After All These Years" (2005) in Ticonderoga On-line
- "Preservation of What Exactly?" (2005) in Borderlands #5
- "Conspiracy Theories are Deadlier Than Conspiracies" in Borderlands #6