Lee John Harding is an 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...

n freelance photographer, who became a writer of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novels and short stories.

Science fiction writing

Born in Colac, Victoria

Colac, Victoria

Colac is a small city located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, situated approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac and the surrounding volcanic plains, approximately 40 km inland from Bass Strait. Colac is the largest city in and...

, and an enthusiastic fan of science fiction, Harding was among the founding members of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club

Melbourne Science Fiction Club

The Melbourne Science Fiction Club Inc. was founded in May 1952 by Race Mathews and others. It is the second oldest, continuously active, science fiction club in the world, after the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society...

. Other members of the club were: Race Mathews, Bertram Chandler

A. Bertram Chandler

Arthur Bertram Chandler was a British-Australian science fiction author. He also wrote under the pseudonyms George Whitley, George Whitely, Andrew Dunstan, and S.H.M....

, Bob McCubbin, Merv Binns, and Dick Jenssen.

In 1961, Harding's short story, Displaced Person, was published in Science Fantasy

Science Fantasy (magazine)

Science Fantasy, which also appeared under the titles Impulse and SF Impulse, was a British fantasy and science fiction magazine, launched in 1950 by Nova Publications as a companion to Nova's New Worlds. Walter Gillings was editor for the first two issues, and was then replaced by John Carnell,...

. He continued to write and submit stories to a range of magazines, including New Worlds

New Worlds (magazine)

New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...

, Science Fantasy, and Science Fiction Adventures. In 1966, John Bangsund started the Australian SF Review (ASFR) and Harding and John Foyster became partners in producing this fanzine

Fanzine

A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...

 publication. This publication closed in 1969 and Harding went on to write for SF magazine, Vision of Tomorrow set up by Ron Graham.

From 1978 Harding switched from photography to writing full time. Harding has also written short stories using the pseudonym, Harold G Nye.

Awards

• 1970 - Ditmar Award
  Ditmar Award results
  The Ditmar Award is Australia's oldest and best-known science fiction, fantasy and horror award, presented annually at the Australian "NatCon" since 1969. The historical nominations and results of the Award follow....
  
   Best Australian Science Fiction for Dancing Gerontius
• 1972 - Ditmar Award
  Ditmar Award results
  The Ditmar Award is Australia's oldest and best-known science fiction, fantasy and horror award, presented annually at the Australian "NatCon" since 1969. The historical nominations and results of the Award follow....
  
   Best Australian Fiction for Fallen Spaceman
• 1978 - Alan Marshall Short Story Award for Displaced Person
• 1980 - Winner of the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award for Displaced Person
• 2006 - Australian Science Fiction Foundation, Chandler Award
  Chandler Award
  The Chandler Award is presented by the Australian Science Fiction Foundation for "Outstanding Achievement in Australian Science Fiction".It is named in recognition of the contribution that science fiction writer A...
  
   in gratitude for his life's work.

Novels

• The Fallen Spaceman (Cassell Australia, 1973, republished in 1979 by Harper & Row)
• A World of shadows (Hale, 1975)
• The Frozen Sky (Cassell Australia, 1975)
• Return to Tomorrow (Cassell Australia, 1976)
• The Weeping Sky (Cassell Australia, 1977)
• Displaced Person (Hyland House, 1979)
• The Legend of New Earth (Australian Broadcasting Commission, c1979)
• Misplaced persons (Harper & Row, c1979)
• The Web of Time (Cassell Australia, 1980)
• Waiting for the End of the World (Hyland House, 1983)
• Children of Atlantis (Methuen Australia, 1983)
• Heartsease (HarperCollins, 1997)

Short stories

• "Dancing Gerontius" in the collection: The Second Pacific Book of Science Fiction edited by John Baxter
  John Baxter (author)
  John Baxter is an Australian-born writer, journalist, and film-maker.Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel...
  
   (Angus and Robertson, 1971)

Edited

• Beyond Tomorrow : an anthology of modern science fiction (Wren, 1975)
• The Altered I : an encounter with science fiction / by Ursula K. Le Guin and others (Norstrilia Press, 1976)
• Rooms of Paradise (Quartet Books, 1978)

External links

• Worlds of if magazine June 1971