Richard Harland
Encyclopedia
Richard Harland
Richard Harland (born 15 January 1947 in Yorkshire is an English fantasy and science fiction writer, living in New South Wales
, Australia
. He was born in 1947 in Huddersfield
, United Kingdom
and migrated to Australia in 1970. He has been an academic, performance artist and writer, publishing 15 full length works of fiction, three academic books, short stories and poems.
He is the author of the Eddon and Vail science fiction thriller series, the Heaven and Earth young adult fantasy trilogy and the illustrated Wolf Kingdom series for children. He has been awarded the Australian Aurealis Award
on five occasions for his fiction.
in New South Wales
, consequently he migrated to Australia in 1970 to take advantage of this opportunity. He originally only intended to remain in the country until his PhD was completed, but after some months decided to settle permanently.
Work on his thesis was slow, and he eventually reduced its scope to an MA, before moving away from his studies for several years, while he worked as a singer, songwriter and poet in and around Sydney
. He published poetry and short stories during this period in a number of literary magazines. He returned to academic life in the 1980s through a tutoring position at the University of New South Wales
and continued work on his doctoral thesis, which was published as Superstructuralism: The Philosophy of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism in 1987. The volume sold well, was well received, and secured him a lecturing position in English at the University of Wollongong
, where he remained for ten years. During his academic career he published full length works and a number of articles on literary theory
.
competition, and also wrote and distributed stories while at school, exchanging ongoing installments for sweets and other tokens when other pupils were reluctant to part with legal tender.
He is best known for several series of novels, but commenced his novel writing career relatively late in life. He had been eager to write full length tales from late childhood but suffered from writer's block, which prevented him making significant headway with novel projects (and also many short stories) for much of the next 25 years. He was able to produce academic books during this period, however, and he attributes the writer's block partly to his belief that he had to write serious literary novels rather than what he found most enjoyable to work on. It was not until writing the comic horror novel The Vicar of Morbing Vyle (1993) that he managed to conquer this obstacle. However he had published short stories prior to this, some of which were collected in Testimony (1981), which also included his poetry.
He was still lecturing at the University of Wollongong
when he wrote The Dark Edge, the first novel of his "Eddon and Vail" science fiction thriller series. His senior lecturing role was a secure tenured position, much sought after by professional scholars, however, with a sequel to The Dark Edge having been commissioned by his publisher, Pan Macmillan Australia, set to appear the following year, he felt unable to juggle the demands of full time academic life with fiction writing. Despite an uncertain future in a small Australian publication market, where relatively low volume sales are considered a bestseller and there are few full time writers, he resigned his position in 1997 to concentrate on his fiction. He has been a full time writer ever since. He remains an Honorary Senior Fellow
in English at the University of Wollongong
. He has also taught summer courses at the university, most recently on children's and young adult fantasy literature.
s. He has confessed to a fascination with map
s, sometimes spending hours studying them. He has also admitted to often viewing his fictional worlds as though seen from an elevated distance, something he feels is a common feature among fantasy writers.
Following the 1999 publication of Hidden from View, the final volume in his Eddon and Vail series, all of his novels have been written either for young adults or children, with the exception of The Black Crusade (2004). Some of his novels have also been published as audio books.
, Canberra
, Melbourne
and Sydney
to promote it. While it is no longer in print, it has since attained a cult status, something he claims was his original intention when marketing the book.
It was followed in 2004 by The Black Crusade
, a prequel to The Vicar of Morbing Vyle. It describes the journey of the hapless Basil Smorta, a multi lingual bank clerk, who is forced into the company of a group of "fundamental Darwinists" by their imprisonment of the object of his undying love, Australian singer, Volusia, in a mobile iron box. The group travel across Eastern Europe
during 1894, and encounter ghosts, blood donating vampires and other comic horror curiosities. The novel, which shows the origin of the 'vyle' Marquis of Morbol Villica from the first volume in the series, plays with the notion of the tale's reliability as a factual narrative, including fictional footnotes, apparently inserted by the publisher, to show their disdain and disagreement with Basil's actions and their unheroic qualities.
The novel was published by Chimaera Publications, which also produces Aurealis
, a magazine which publishes and promotes Australian speculative fiction, and originated the Aurealis Awards (although these awards have been administered entirely independently from Chimaera by another organisation since 2004). The novel won an Aurealis Award
in 2004 in both the "Best Horror Novel" and the overarching "Golden Aurealis Best Novel" categories.
The series is set against the background of the colonial hegemony
of the planet Terra, whose influence has spread across the cosmos, but is increasingly threatened by the Anti-Human, an unknown menace, which follows a steady path from the boundaries of the universe towards the core, consuming Terran colonies as it advances.
The first volume, The Dark Edge was a finalist for the 1997 Aurealis Award
in both the Horror Novel and Science Fiction Novel categories and the third, Hidden from View, was nominated for the 1999 Ditmar Award
in the Best Novel category.
In preparation for writing the trilogy, Harland extensively researched angel
s and cosmology
, including both the mainstream and unorthodox sources of Christian
, Islamic and Judaic lore on the subjects. He was particularly concerned to present angels as beings which departed from the comforting 'Disney' representations of some previous works, and were awe inspiring, beautiful and disturbing, while remaining characters readers could still empathise with. The first book he read on angels was A Dictionary of Angels by American poet Gustav Davidson
, and he has returned to this book numerous times since to help with inspiration on subsequent fiction projects. He has also stated that the Ghent Altarpiece
by Jan van Eyck
greatly assisted in creating his vision of heaven.
The books were launched in association with the Children's Book Council of Australia
.
A race of talking, bipedal wolves have overrun and enslaved humankind, leaving only a determined resistance, known as the "Free Folk", who shelter in a subterranean refuge and plot to liberate themselves from their animal overlords and must discover how these creatures have risen from their former bestial state, to become oppressive rulers of humankind. The books focus on two children, a brother and sister, whose parents are taken by the wolves, and who subsequently join the "Free Folk" and become key to the success of the rebellion. Harland has long been fascinated with wolves; during his childhood in the United Kingdom
he passed an ominous wood named 'Wolves Wood' on daily basis in a school bus and this left a marked impression upon him.
The series won the 2008 Aurealis Award
for the "best children's illustrated work/picture book" category. In awarding the series an Aurealis the judges, acknowledging the dual work of Harland and his illustrator partner, Laura Peterson, commented: "The illustrations help to bring alive aspects of the story - muscular pictures for a muscular tale. Laura Peterson has shown attention to detail in all the artwork pertaining to the wolves and helps to support the atmosphere of peril that Richard Harland has created."
novel partly inspired by the work of Charles Dickens
, released in May 2009 in Australia. The principal character is Col, who lives in the privileged upper sections of a mountain-sized city-ship. He has been selected to become the next commander of the craft, but is forced to question his world when a girl who has escaped from the lower decks, seeks his help and reveals to him the poverty and exploitation below the elite world of his upbringing. The novel has also been sold to US publisher Simon & Schuster for a substantial advance, and Harland is currently making revisions for the US edition.
Harland began developing the ideas for Worldshaker in the mid 1990s and took five years to write the novel, passing through 3 complete rewrites. It was first entitled Leviathan, later Juggernaught before finally being published as Worldshaker.
It is part of the Aussie Chomps
series for teenagers. Walter is a young member of a family of werewolves
, but struggles to manifest true werewolf characteristics when the full moon rises, and subsequently visits a doctor hoping to find a cure for his condition.
It was a finalist for the 2005 Aurealis Award
for best children's (8–12 years) long fiction.
, and the 2008 published Dreaming Again, the second anthology of Australian speculative fiction compiled by prolific editor and anthologist, Jack Dann
. He has also published shorter works in magazines in Australia
and the United States
. Several of his stories have received honorable mentions in the prominent Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies, edited by Ellen Datlow
& Terri Windling
. His shorter fiction has been both nominated for and won Australian speculative fiction awards.
Harland has a second website created solely to provide advice to writers. The result of a four month break from his writing it has over 140 pages of advice and tips and is located at http://www.writingtips.com.au.
The Black Crusade
"Catabolic Magic"
"The Greater Death of Saito Saku"
'The Wolf Kingdom series' (Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, The Heavy Crown)
He was guest judge on the 2007 Australian Shadows award.
"Eddon and Vail" series
"Heaven and Earth" trilogy
"Wolf Kingdom" series
Other Young Adult Fiction
Richard Harland (born 15 January 1947 in Yorkshire is an English fantasy and science fiction writer, living in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, 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...
. He was born in 1947 in Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and migrated to Australia in 1970. He has been an academic, performance artist and writer, publishing 15 full length works of fiction, three academic books, short stories and poems.
He is the author of the Eddon and Vail science fiction thriller series, the Heaven and Earth young adult fantasy trilogy and the illustrated Wolf Kingdom series for children. He has been awarded the Australian 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:...
on five occasions for his fiction.
Life and academic career
Richard Harland completed undergraduate studies at Cambridge University, graduating with a BA and majoring in English. After graduation, he planned an ambitious doctoral thesis, focusing on a global theory of the language of poetry and approached numerous universities around the globe seeking funding for his research. Support was unforthcoming until an offer from the University of NewcastleUniversity of Newcastle, Australia
The University of Newcastle is an Australian public university that was established in 1965. The University's main and largest campus is located in Callaghan, a suburb of Newcastle in New South Wales...
in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, consequently he migrated to Australia in 1970 to take advantage of this opportunity. He originally only intended to remain in the country until his PhD was completed, but after some months decided to settle permanently.
Work on his thesis was slow, and he eventually reduced its scope to an MA, before moving away from his studies for several years, while he worked as a singer, songwriter and poet in and around Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. He published poetry and short stories during this period in a number of literary magazines. He returned to academic life in the 1980s through a tutoring position at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
and continued work on his doctoral thesis, which was published as Superstructuralism: The Philosophy of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism in 1987. The volume sold well, was well received, and secured him a lecturing position in English at the University of Wollongong
University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...
, where he remained for ten years. During his academic career he published full length works and a number of articles on literary theory
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
.
Fiction writing
He scored an early success in childhood with a short story which won a prominent United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
competition, and also wrote and distributed stories while at school, exchanging ongoing installments for sweets and other tokens when other pupils were reluctant to part with legal tender.
He is best known for several series of novels, but commenced his novel writing career relatively late in life. He had been eager to write full length tales from late childhood but suffered from writer's block, which prevented him making significant headway with novel projects (and also many short stories) for much of the next 25 years. He was able to produce academic books during this period, however, and he attributes the writer's block partly to his belief that he had to write serious literary novels rather than what he found most enjoyable to work on. It was not until writing the comic horror novel The Vicar of Morbing Vyle (1993) that he managed to conquer this obstacle. However he had published short stories prior to this, some of which were collected in Testimony (1981), which also included his poetry.
He was still lecturing at the University of Wollongong
University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...
when he wrote The Dark Edge, the first novel of his "Eddon and Vail" science fiction thriller series. His senior lecturing role was a secure tenured position, much sought after by professional scholars, however, with a sequel to The Dark Edge having been commissioned by his publisher, Pan Macmillan Australia, set to appear the following year, he felt unable to juggle the demands of full time academic life with fiction writing. Despite an uncertain future in a small Australian publication market, where relatively low volume sales are considered a bestseller and there are few full time writers, he resigned his position in 1997 to concentrate on his fiction. He has been a full time writer ever since. He remains an Honorary Senior Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
in English at the University of Wollongong
University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...
. He has also taught summer courses at the university, most recently on children's and young adult fantasy literature.
Novels
Many of Harland's novels contain mapMap
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
s. He has confessed to a fascination with map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
s, sometimes spending hours studying them. He has also admitted to often viewing his fictional worlds as though seen from an elevated distance, something he feels is a common feature among fantasy writers.
Following the 1999 publication of Hidden from View, the final volume in his Eddon and Vail series, all of his novels have been written either for young adults or children, with the exception of The Black Crusade (2004). Some of his novels have also been published as audio books.
The "Vicar" series
The first volume of this series, The Vicar of Morbing Vyle, was Harland's first published novel. He set up his own publishing company to bring it to press, and approached individual booksellers in the Australian cities of BrisbaneBrisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
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...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
to promote it. While it is no longer in print, it has since attained a cult status, something he claims was his original intention when marketing the book.
It was followed in 2004 by The Black Crusade
The Black Crusade
The Black Crusade is a 2004 horror novel by Richard Harland. It is a prequel to Harland's earlier novel The Vicar of Morbing Vyle. It describes the journey of the hapless Basil Smorta, a multi lingual bank clerk, who is forced into the company of a group of "fundamental Darwinists" by their...
, a prequel to The Vicar of Morbing Vyle. It describes the journey of the hapless Basil Smorta, a multi lingual bank clerk, who is forced into the company of a group of "fundamental Darwinists" by their imprisonment of the object of his undying love, Australian singer, Volusia, in a mobile iron box. The group travel across Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
during 1894, and encounter ghosts, blood donating vampires and other comic horror curiosities. The novel, which shows the origin of the 'vyle' Marquis of Morbol Villica from the first volume in the series, plays with the notion of the tale's reliability as a factual narrative, including fictional footnotes, apparently inserted by the publisher, to show their disdain and disagreement with Basil's actions and their unheroic qualities.
The novel was published by Chimaera Publications, which also produces Aurealis
Aurealis
Aurealis is a Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications. The magazine was launched in September 1990 to provide a market for speculative fiction writers, with a particular emphasis on raising the profile of Australian authors.In 1995 the magazine instituted the...
, a magazine which publishes and promotes Australian speculative fiction, and originated the Aurealis Awards (although these awards have been administered entirely independently from Chimaera by another organisation since 2004). The novel won an 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:...
in 2004 in both the "Best Horror Novel" and the overarching "Golden Aurealis Best Novel" categories.
The Eddon and Vail series
In this series of three science fiction novels with both mystery and supernatural elements, Inspector Eddon Brac, a male detective with traditional sleuth leanings, is partnered with assistant Vail ev Vessintor, a female goth noble with expertise in the psychic sciences. Each novel presents the pair with a murder mystery with an unorthodox and surprising origin and also explores the tension between them.The series is set against the background of the colonial hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
of the planet Terra, whose influence has spread across the cosmos, but is increasingly threatened by the Anti-Human, an unknown menace, which follows a steady path from the boundaries of the universe towards the core, consuming Terran colonies as it advances.
The first volume, The Dark Edge was a finalist for the 1997 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:...
in both the Horror Novel and Science Fiction Novel categories and the third, Hidden from View, was nominated for the 1999 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...
in the Best Novel category.
The Heaven and Earth trilogy
This trilogy for young adults is set in Australia 1000 years into the future and concerns a war between heaven and earth. Each book includes an 'angelology'.In preparation for writing the trilogy, Harland extensively researched angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s and cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, including both the mainstream and unorthodox sources of Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, Islamic and Judaic lore on the subjects. He was particularly concerned to present angels as beings which departed from the comforting 'Disney' representations of some previous works, and were awe inspiring, beautiful and disturbing, while remaining characters readers could still empathise with. The first book he read on angels was A Dictionary of Angels by American poet Gustav Davidson
Gustav Davidson
Gustav Davidson was a poet, writer, and publisher.Davidson attended Columbia University in New York City and worked for the Library of Congress.-Works:...
, and he has returned to this book numerous times since to help with inspiration on subsequent fiction projects. He has also stated that the Ghent Altarpiece
Ghent Altarpiece
The Ghent Altarpiece or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is a very large and complex Early Netherlandish polyptych panel painting which is considered to be one of Belgium's masterpieces and one of the world's treasures.It was once in the Joost Vijdt chapel at Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, but...
by Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century....
greatly assisted in creating his vision of heaven.
The Wolf Kingdom series
The Wolf Kingdom Series comprises four illustrated fantasy books, aimed at older pre-adolescents, commencing with Escape! and completed by The Heavy Crown, all published in 2008. Harland wrote the story, and Laura Peterson provided illustrations which head each chapter and are mostly full page. Each tale functions as a self contained narrative, but the series also interlinks as a larger story arc.The books were launched in association with the Children's Book Council of Australia
Children's Book Council of Australia
The Children's Book Council of Australia is a not for profit organisation which aims to engage the community with literature for young Australians. The CBCA presents annual awards for books of literary merit, for outstanding contribution to Australian children's literature.-Awards:The first...
.
A race of talking, bipedal wolves have overrun and enslaved humankind, leaving only a determined resistance, known as the "Free Folk", who shelter in a subterranean refuge and plot to liberate themselves from their animal overlords and must discover how these creatures have risen from their former bestial state, to become oppressive rulers of humankind. The books focus on two children, a brother and sister, whose parents are taken by the wolves, and who subsequently join the "Free Folk" and become key to the success of the rebellion. Harland has long been fascinated with wolves; during his childhood in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
he passed an ominous wood named 'Wolves Wood' on daily basis in a school bus and this left a marked impression upon him.
The series won the 2008 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:...
for the "best children's illustrated work/picture book" category. In awarding the series an Aurealis the judges, acknowledging the dual work of Harland and his illustrator partner, Laura Peterson, commented: "The illustrations help to bring alive aspects of the story - muscular pictures for a muscular tale. Laura Peterson has shown attention to detail in all the artwork pertaining to the wolves and helps to support the atmosphere of peril that Richard Harland has created."
Worldshaker
Harland's most recent series of novels commenced with Worldshaker, a young adult steampunkSteampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
novel partly inspired by the work of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, released in May 2009 in Australia. The principal character is Col, who lives in the privileged upper sections of a mountain-sized city-ship. He has been selected to become the next commander of the craft, but is forced to question his world when a girl who has escaped from the lower decks, seeks his help and reveals to him the poverty and exploitation below the elite world of his upbringing. The novel has also been sold to US publisher Simon & Schuster for a substantial advance, and Harland is currently making revisions for the US edition.
Harland began developing the ideas for Worldshaker in the mid 1990s and took five years to write the novel, passing through 3 complete rewrites. It was first entitled Leviathan, later Juggernaught before finally being published as Worldshaker.
Other young adult fiction novels
- Walter Wants to Be a Werewolf (2003)
It is part of the Aussie Chomps
Aussie Chomps
Aussie Chomps is a collection of children's novels written by a variety of Australian authors in Australia. They are published by Penguin Books under the imprint Puffin Books....
series for teenagers. Walter is a young member of a family of werewolves
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
, but struggles to manifest true werewolf characteristics when the full moon rises, and subsequently visits a doctor hoping to find a cure for his condition.
- Sassycat: The Night of the Dead (2005)
It was a finalist for the 2005 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:...
for best children's (8–12 years) long fiction.
Shorter works of fiction
Richard Harland has published nearly 20 short stories and novellas. His work has been included in anthologies such as Encounters, OutcastThe Outcast (Anthology)
The Outcast is the seventh short story anthology published by the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild. Printed in 2006 and edited by Nicole R...
, and the 2008 published Dreaming Again, the second anthology of Australian speculative fiction compiled by prolific editor and anthologist, Jack Dann
Jack Dann
Jack 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...
. He has also published shorter works in magazines in 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...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Several of his stories have received honorable mentions in the prominent Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies, edited by Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist.-Biography:Datlow was the fiction editor of Omni magazine and Omni Online from 1981 through 1998, and edited the ten associated Omni anthologies...
& Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award...
. His shorter fiction has been both nominated for and won Australian speculative fiction awards.
Author's website
His website is notable for presenting the substance and background of each of his fiction projects, and dozens of pages of writing tips. It also includes an extended biography, describing the development of his writing career, including his protracted battle with writers block.Harland has a second website created solely to provide advice to writers. The result of a four month break from his writing it has over 140 pages of advice and tips and is located at http://www.writingtips.com.au.
Awards
Richard Harland has won the following awards:The Black Crusade
- 2004 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel
- 2004 Golden Aurealis for Best Novel
"Catabolic Magic"
- 2004 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story (tie with Louise Katz)
"The Greater Death of Saito Saku"
- 2005 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story (tie with Rosaleen Love)
'The Wolf Kingdom series' (Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, The Heavy Crown)
- 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Children's Illustrated Work/Picture Book (with Laura Peterson as Illustrator)
He was guest judge on the 2007 Australian Shadows award.
Fiction
"Vicar" series- The Vicar of Morbing Vyle (1993)
- The Black CrusadeThe Black CrusadeThe Black Crusade is a 2004 horror novel by Richard Harland. It is a prequel to Harland's earlier novel The Vicar of Morbing Vyle. It describes the journey of the hapless Basil Smorta, a multi lingual bank clerk, who is forced into the company of a group of "fundamental Darwinists" by their...
(2004)
"Eddon and Vail" series
- The Dark Edge (1997)
- Taken by Force (1998)
- Hidden from View (1999)
"Heaven and Earth" trilogy
- Ferren and the Angel (2000)
- Ferren and the White Doctor (2002)
- Ferren and the Invasion of Heaven (2003)
"Wolf Kingdom" series
- Escape! (2008)
- Under Siege (2008)
- Race to the Ruins (2008)
- The Heavy Crown (2008)
Other Young Adult Fiction
- Walter Wants to Be a Werewolf (2003)
- Sassycat: The Night of the Dead (2005)
- Worldshaker (2009)
Academic writing
- Superstructuralism: The Philosophy of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism (1987)
- Beyond Superstructuralism: The Syntagmatic Side of Language (1993)
- Literary Theory from Plato to Barthes: An Introductory History (1999)
Short fiction and poetry anthology
- Testimony (1981)
- "Catabolic MagicCatabolic Magic"Catabolic Magic" is a 2004 fantasy short story by Richard Harland.-Background:"Catabolic Magic" was first published in April 2004 in Aurealis #32, edited by Keith Stevenson and published by Chimaera Publications. It was published alongside five other stories by the authors Paul Haines, Stephen...
" (2004) in AurealisAurealisAurealis is a Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications. The magazine was launched in September 1990 to provide a market for speculative fiction writers, with a particular emphasis on raising the profile of Australian authors.In 1995 the magazine instituted the...
#32 (ed. Keith Stevenson) - "The Border" (2004) in Agog! Smashing StoriesAgog! Smashing StoriesAgog! Smashing Stories is a 2004 speculative fiction anthology edited by Cat Sparks.-Background:Agog! Smashing Stories was first published in Australia in 2004 by Agog! Press in trade paperback format. It was a short-list nominee for best collected work at the 2005 Ditmar Awards but lost to Black...
(ed. Cat Sparks) - "The Greater Death of Saito SakuThe Greater Death of Saito Saku"The Greater Death of Saito Saku" is a 2005 fantasy short story by Richard Harland.-Background:"The Greater Death of Saito Saku" was first published in 2005 in Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales, edited by Robin Pen and Robert Hood and published by Agog! Press. It was published alongside 27 other...
" (2005) in Daikaiju! Giant Monster TalesDaikaiju! Giant Monster TalesDaikaiju! Giant Monster Tales is a 2005 speculative fiction anthology edited by Robert Hood and Robin Pen.-Background:Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales was first published in Australia in 2005 by Agog! Press in hardback format. It won the 2006 Ditmar Award for best collected work. Daikaiju! Giant...
(ed. Robin Pen and Robert HoodRob HoodRobert Hood is an Australian writer and editor recognised as one of Australia's leading horror writers. He has published five young adult novels, three collections of his short fiction, fifteen children's books and over 100 short stories in anthologies and magazines in Australia and overseas...
) - "Special Perceptions" (2007) in At Ease With the Dead (ed. Christopher Roden, Barbara Roden)