Craig Cormick

Craig Cormick is an Australian science communicator and author. He was born in Wollongong in 1961, and is known for his creative writing and social research into public attitudes towards new technologies. He has lived mainly in Canberra, but has also lived in Iceland (1980–81) and Finland (1984–85). He has published over 40 books of fiction and non-fiction, and numerous articles in refereed journals. He has been active in the Canberra writing community, teaching and editing, was Chair of the ACT Writers Centre from 2003 to 2008 and in 2006 was Writer in Residence at the University of Science in Penang, Malaysia.

Cormick's creative writing has appeared in most of Australia's literary journals including '' Southerly'', '' Westerly'', ''Island'', ''Meanjin,'' ''The Phoenix Review'', '' Overland'', ''Scarp'', ''4W'', ''Redoubt'', ''Block'', as well as in overseas publications including ''Silverfish New Writing'' (Malaysia) and ''Foreign Literature No 6'' (China). He has previously been an editor of the radical arts magazine ''Blast'', and his writing awards include the ACT Book of the Year Award in 1999 a Queensland Premier's Literary Award in 2006, a Victorian Community History Award in 2015, th
ACT Writing and Publishing Award
in 2015 and th
Tasmanian Writers' Prize
in 2016.

As a science communicator he has worked for the CSIRO, Questacon and the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, and has represented the Australian Government at many international science forums including Apec and OECD conferences, presenting on issues relating to public concerns about new technologies. In 2013 he was awarded th
Unsung Hero of Science Communications
by th
Australian Science Communicators
Since 2019 he has been serving on the Advisory Board on Education and Outreach to the Nobel Prize Winnin
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

Cormick was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours "service to science, and to the community".

Literary career

Craig Cormick went on to study journalism and creative writing at the University of Canberra – both areas which he continues to work in – with stints at the Canberra School of Art, the University of Iceland and Helsinki University. He returned to the University of Canberra to study languages, public relations and sociology, undertake a Masters in Communications and then completed a PhD in Creative Communications at Deakin University in 2007.

His first books were self-published or picked up by small presses until
Unwritten Histories
' was published by Aboriginal Studies Press in 1998. The book subsequently won the ACT Book of the Year Award and received praising reviews. His work has a strong sense of satire, across themes that include exploration, isolation, duality and Ned Kelly (who appears at least once in each of his eight short story collections). He has written and published, on average, one book a year since 1998, including collections of short fiction, novels and non-fiction.

He has published scholarly articles on public attitudes to new technologies in publications including: ''NanoEthics'', the ''International Journal of Biotechnology'' ''Agricultural Science'', ''Historia Ciencias Saude'' (Brazil) and '' Choices'' (USA). He also authored the Australian Government reports, ''Cloning Goes to the Movies'', and ''What you really need to know about what the public really thinks about GM foods''.

In 2008 he fulfilled "a life's dream"A Voyage Around Mawson, The Canberra Times, 18 June 2010. and travelled to Antarctica as an Antarctic Arts Fellow, visiting the three Australian stations on the continent, Casey, Davis and Mawson, publishing his experiences as
In Bed with Douglas Mawson: Travels around Antarctica
', in 2011, which merges his two interests of science and creative writing.

In 2014 and 2015 he published the acclaimed
the Shadow Master
' series with ''Angry Robot books'', in the US and UK, as was a guest author at th
Convergence
fan convention in Minneapolis, and at WorldCon in Helsinki in 2018. In 2015 he also took part i
the Yale Writers Conference

Writing awards

* 2022 Winner of the Special Book Award from 2020 as a part of the ACT Notable Awards 2022 fo


* 2022 – Shortlisted for an Aurealis Award for Science Fiction Novella
The Cruise to the End of the World
* 2020 – Winner of the Roly Susses Short Story Prize for the Lost Journal of Edmund Kennedy.
* 2019 Winner of the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards - non-fiction, fo
'' Backseat Drivers''
2018.
* 2019 - Shortlisted for the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards - fiction fo
Years of the Wolf
2018.
* 2019 Shortlisted for a Victorian Community History Award, fo
'' Backseat Drivers''
2018.
* 2019 - Shortlisted for a
Aurealis Award
for Best Horror Book fo
Years of the Wolf
2018.
* 2016 - Winner of th
Tasmanian Writers' Prize
2016.
* 2015 – Winner of a Victorian Community History Award, fo
Ned Kelly under the Microscope
2015.
* 2015 – Winner of th
ACT Writing and Publishing Award
for
Uncle Adolf
'' 2015.
* 2010 – Shortlisted for th
ACT Writing and Publishing Awards
for
Futures Trading
'' 2010.
* 2006 – Winner o
Queensland Premier’s Award
for
A Funny Thing Happened at 27,000 Feet
' ( Steele Rudd Award for a collection of short fiction).
* 2004 – Short-listed for a Queensland Premier's Award for
the Princess of Cups
' ( Steele Rudd Award for a collection of short fiction).
* 2000 – Second Prize in the Age Short Story Contest.
* 2000 – Second Prize in the University of Canberra Short Story contest.
* 2000 – Nominated for ACT Artist of the Year.
* 1999 – ACT Book of the Year Award for
Unwritten Histories
', 1998.
* 1999 – Highly commended in the Victorian Fellowship of Australian Writers Jim Hamilton Award.
* 1998 – First Prize in the Max Harris Literary Awards.
* 1998 – First Prize in the Arts West Writing Competition.
* 1998 – Second Prize in the Not the Premier's Literary Award.
* 1998 – Second Prize in the R Carson Gold Short Story Competition.
* 1998 – Shortlisted for the ANU/Anutech short story award.
* 1997 – Canberra Critics Circle award for literature.
* 1995 – Shortlisted for the ANU/Anutech short story award.
* 1996 – Highly commended in the National Book Council Award.
* 1993 – Shortlisted for th
Australian-Vogel Award
for
Of One Blood.
'

Works

Books published

''Archangel''
Merino Press, .
*
The Twilight of the Time Vandals
'' Merino Press, .
*

', Big Sky Publishing, .
* ''[https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/What-If-Histories-of-Australia/Craig-Cormick/9781922615763#:~:text=The%20What%20If%20histories%20of,that%20history%20could%20have%20taken. What If History of Australia: Colonial Settlement: France vs Britain]'', Big Sky Publishing, .
*
The Cruise to the End of the World
', Merino Press, .
*
On A Barbarous Coast
with Harold Ludwick),'
Allen and Unwin
2020. .
*
The Science of Communicating Science
'
CSIRO Publishing
2019. .
*
Years of the Wolf
'
IFWG Australia
2018. . (Shortlisted for an Aurealis Award for Best Horror Book).
*
Backseat Drivers
'
Ginninderra Press
2018. . (Shortlisted for a Victorian Community History Award).
*
The Seven Voyages of Captain Cook
'
Dimension 6, coeur de lion
2017. . (Shortlisted for a 2017 Aurealis Award - Best Anthology).
*
Valdur the Viking and the Ghostly Goths
'
Ford Street Publishing
2016. .
*
The Floating City
'
Angry Robot Books
2015. .
*

'' CSIRO Publishing, 2014. (Winner of a Victorian Community History Award, 2015) .
*
The Shadow Master
'
Angry Robot Books
2014. .
* ''Uncle Adolf,'' Ginninderra Press, 2014. (Winner of an ACT Publishing Award, 2015). .
*

(''Children's book), New Frontier, 2014. .
* ''Time Vandals''
Scholastic Australia
2012. .
* ''Shipwrecks of the Southern Seas''
Murdoch Books
2011. .
* ''In Bed with Douglas Mawson''
New Holland Press
2011. .
* ''Futures Trading''
Mockingbird Press
2009. Shortlisted for the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards 2010 .
* ''The Last Super: The creation and recreation of Alexander Pearce, the 'cannibal convict' of Van Diemen's Land,'
Lambert Academic Publishing
2009. .
* ''Of One Blood''
Australian Booksellers Association
2007. As a manuscript, shortlisted for the Australian-Vogel Award in 1993, the National Book Council Award in 1996 and the Victorian Fellowship of Australian Writers Jim Hamilton Award in 1999 .
* ''The Prince of Frogs''
Mockingbird Press
2007. /
* ''A Funny Thing Happened at 27,000 feet...''
Mockingbird Press
2005. Winner of the Queensland Premier's Award – Steel Rudd Award for short fiction, 2006 .
* ''The Princess of Cups''
Mockingbird Press
2003. Short-listed for the Queensland Premier's Award Steel Rudd Award, 2004 .
* ''DIG: the Unwritten History of Burke and Wills''
Ginninderra Press
2002. .
* ''The Queen of Aegea''
Mockingbird Press
2001. .
* ''When Angels Call'', [Short fiction by Craig Cormick, Poetry by Hal Judge and illustrations by Steve Harrison), Aberrant Genotype Press, 2001. .
* ''Kurikka's Dreaming''
Simon and Schuster
2000. [*featured o
ABC Radio National's Australia Talks Books
May 2001]. .
* ''The King of Patagonia''
Mockingbird Press
1999. .
* ''Unwritten Histories''
Aboriginal Studies Press
1998. Winner of the 1999 ACT Chief Minister's Book of the Year Award .
* ''Pimplemania''
MacMillan Educational
1997. .

Books edited

* ''Snapshots'', Oak Publications, Malaysia, 2006. .
* Co-editor of ''Meeting of Muses''
Mockingbird Press
2003. .
* Co-editor of ''The Circulatory System''
Mockingbird Press
2001. .
* Co-editor of ''Time Piece''s
Mockingbird Press
1999. Commended in the Victorian FAW Community Writer's Award, 1999 .
* ''Protesting the Testing: Canberra Writers Speak Out Against Nuclear Testing in the Pacific'', 1995, (Left Book Club (ACT) and PEN (ACT)). .

Academic publications

*Cormick. C., Nielssen. O., Ashworth. P., La Salle. J., & Saab. C.
What Do Science Communicators Talk About When They Talk About Science Communications? Engaging With the Engagers
''Science Communication'' 37(2):274-282.
*Cormick. C., and Romanach, L.
Segmentation studies provide insights to better understanding attitudes towards science and technology
''Trends in Biotechnology''
Volume 32, Issue 3
March 2014, Pages 114–116.
* Cormick.C., and Hunter. S.
Valuing Values: Better Public Engagement on Nanotechnology Demands a Better Understanding of the Diversity of the Publics
''NanoEthics'', April 2014, Volume 8, Issue 1, pp 57–71.
* Ten Big Questions on Public Engagement on Science and Technology: Observation from a Rocky Boat in the Upstream and Downstream of Engagement, in DEMESCI – the International Journal of Deliberative Mechanisms in Science,

', Volume 1, number 1, August 2012.
* The Complexity of Public Engagement, in Nature Nanotechnology,

', February 2012.
* Why Do We Need to Know What the Public Thinks about Nanotechnology?
NanoEthics
', August 2009.
* Piecing Together the Elephant: Public Engagement on Nanotechnology Challenges’,
Science and Engineering Ethics
', Volume 15 Number 3, 2009.
* What do the Public Really Think and Who do they Really Trust, in ''Human Biotechnology and Public Trust''
Centre for Law and Genetics, University of Tasmania
2008.
* Public Attitudes Towards GM Crops and Foods,
Agricultural Science
', Volume 21, No 2 – September 2007.
* A clonagem vai ao cinema, Historia Ciencias Saude,
Manghinhos
', Brazil, Volume 13, October 2006.
* Lies Deep Fries and Statistics,

', USA. 2005.
* Perceptions of Risk Relating to Biotechnology in Australia,
International Journal of Biotechnology
'. Vol 5, No 2, 2003.
* Recent Changes in Public Attitudes Towards Biotechnology in Australia,

', Vol.15 (2), September 2002.
* Australian Attitudes to GM Foods and Crops,
Pesticide Outlook
', Royal Society of Chemistry, December 2002.

References

External links

New Holland Publishers: Craig Cormick biography/photo

Verity LA: An interview with Craig Cormick


with Margaret Throsby

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cormick, Craig
Australian science writers
Living people
People from Canberra
1961 births
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia