Chris Lawson is an Australian writer of
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...
.
Early life and education
Lawson was born in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Australia in 1966.
During his childhood Lawson spent time in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
, where his father worked as a
biologist
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...
on a crocodile farm and his mother studied psychology of personal identity.
Later he studied medicine, attaining a graduate diploma in
biostatistics
Biostatistics (also known as biometry) is a branch of statistics that applies statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...
,
epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...
and
human genetics
Human genetics is the study of inheritance as it occurs in Human, human beings. Human genetics encompasses a variety of overlapping fields including: classical genetics, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, biochemical genetics, genomics, populatio ...
.
Career
Medicine
Lawson worked for the
Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and
Merck Sharp & Dohme
Merck & Co., Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey. The company does business as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical com ...
. As of 2011 was practising as a
family doctor
Family medicine is a medical specialty that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary care physician, is ...
.
Writing
Lawson's first work was published in 1993, entitled "Metacarcinoma" his short story was published in the Summer 1993 edition of ''
Eidolon (Australian magazine)''.
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
The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have b ...
and the 2000
Ditmar Award
The Ditmar Award (formally the Australian SF ("Ditmar") Award; formerly the "Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award") has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (the "Natcon") to recognise ...
for best short fiction.
Personal life
Lawson is married and has two children and as of 2011 was living in Melbourne.
Awards and nominations
Bibliography
Short fiction
*"Metacarcinoma" (1993) in ''
Eidolon (Australian magazine)'' Summer 1993 (ed.
Jeremy G. Byrne,
Jonathan Strahan
Jonathan Strahan (born 1964, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a ...
)
*"The Judas Kiss" (1996) in ''Eidolon'' Spring 1996 (ed. Jonathan Strahan, Jeremy G. Byrne,
Richard Scriven)
*"Unborn Again" (1998) in ''
Dreaming Down-Under
''Dreaming Down-Under'' is a 1998 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb.
Publishing history
''Dreaming Down-Under'' was first published in Australia in November 1998 by Voyager Books in trade paperback format. In 1 ...
'' (ed.
Jack Dann
Jack Dann (born February 15, 1945) is an American writer best known for his science fiction, as well as an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, the majority being as editor or c ...
,
Janeen Webb
Janeen Webb (''née'' Pemberton) is an Australian writer, critic and editor, working mainly in the field of science fiction and fantasy.
Biography
The daughter of a Second World War Australian Army commando and salesman, Webb was brought up in ...
)
*"Written in Blood" (1999) in ''
Asimov's Science Fiction
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac ...
'' June 1999 (ed.
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois ( ; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of '' The Year's Best Science Fiction'' anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of '' Asimov's Science Fict ...
)
*"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
Catriona (Cat) Sparks (born 11 September 1965, Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australians, Australian science fiction writer, editor and Publishing, publisher.
Publishing
As manager and editor of Agog! Press with her partner, Australian horr ...
)
*"Faster, Higher, Stronger" (2002) in ''Spectrum SF'' No. 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 Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...
, Jack Dann,
Dennis Etchison
Dennis William Etchison (March 30, 1943 – May 29, 2019) was an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. )
*"Countless Screaming Argonauts" (2005) in ''
Realms of Fantasy
''Realms of Fantasy'' was a professional bimonthly fantasy speculative fiction magazine published by Sovereign Media, then Tir Na Nog Press, and Damnation Books, which specialized in fantasy fiction (including some horror), related nonfiction (wi ...
'' August 2005 (ed.
Shawna McCarthy
Shawna Lee McCarthy (born 1954) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor and literary agent.
McCarthy graduated from the Wilkes University and studied at the American University.
Career
McCarthy edited various magazines for seve ...
)
*"The Surfing Cannibals of Norway" (2005) in ''Mitch?4: Stories by Writers Who Should Have Known Better''
*"Empathy" (2006) in ''
Cosmos
The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...
'' April–May 2006, (ed.
Damien Broderick
Damien Francis Broderick (22 April 1944 – 19 April 2025) was an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of some 74 books. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' credits him with the first usage of the term ''virtual ...
,
Wilson da Silva
Wilson da Silva is an Australian feature writer, science journalist, editor and documentary filmmaker who has worked in magazines, newswires, newspapers, television and online. He is a co-founder and the long-serving former editor of ''Cosmos (m ...
)
*"Screening Test" (2006) in ''Agog! Ripping Reads'' (ed. Cat Sparks)
*"Hieronymus Boche" (2006) in ''
Eidolon I'' (ed. Jeremy G. Byrne, Jonathan Strahan)
*"Canterbury Hollow" (2011) in ''
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiv ...
'' January–February 2011 (ed.
Gordon Van Gelder
Gordon Van Gelder (born 1966) is an American science fiction editor. From 1997 until 2014, Van Gelder was editor and later publisher of ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short ...
)
*"Sundown" (2011) in ''Welcome to the Greenhouse'' (ed. Gordon Van Gelder)
*"Apologetoi" (2011) in ''
Dead Red Heart'' (ed. Russell B. Farr)
Collections
*''Written in Blood'' (2003)
Essays
*"The Tithonus Option is Not an Option" (1999)
*"Worldcon 1999 Report" (1999) in ''
Locus'' No. 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'' No. 6
*"The Triangle of Meaning" (2004) in ''Borderlands'' No. 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
References
;General
*
*
;Specific
External links
Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Chris
1966 births
Living people
Australian male short story writers
Writers from Melbourne