Catriona (Cat) Sparks (born 11 September 1965, Sydney, New South Wales)[1] is an Australian science fiction writer, editor and publisher.
Publishing
As manager and editor of Agog! Press with her partner, Australian horror writer Rob Hood, Sparks has produced ten anthologies of speculative fiction.[citation needed]
Writing
She has won thirteen Ditmar Awards for writing, editing and artwork,[2] her most recent in 2014, when her short story Scarp was awarded a Ditmar for Best Short Story and 'The Bride Price' one for Best Collected Work.[3]
She was nominated for the Aurealis Peter McNamara Convenors' Award for Excellence in 2003 and won one in 2004 for services to the Australian SF publishing industry. In 2006 Sparks was convenor of the Horror judging panel of the Aurealis Awards, and in 2008 she was Guest of Honour at the Conflux 5 Science Fiction Convention in Canberra.[4]
Sparks has concentrated on her writing in recent years.[5] In 2004 Sparks graduated the inaugural Clarion South Writers' Workshop in Queensland and won third prize in the first quarter of the Writers of the Future competition.[6] Her short fiction has been nominated for the Aurealis Awards in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.[7] Her short story Hollywood Roadkill won both the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story and the Golden Aurealis Award[8] in the 2007 Aurealis Awards. Her short story Seventeen won the Aurealis Award for Best Science young Adult Short Story[9] in the 2009 Aurealis Awards.
In January 2012 she was one of 12 students chosen to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway[12] workshop as part of the Key West Literary Seminar Yet Another World: literature of the future. Her participation was funded by an Australia Council emerging writers grant.
In 2012 she became a provisional candidate for a Doctorate of Philosophy – Media, Culture and Creative Arts through Curtin University.
She is an active member of Science Fiction Writers of America.[13]
Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Talos Press in February 2017. Lotus Blue has been described as "Mad Max meets Terminator meets Ghost in the Shell".[14]
Daughters of Battendown (2013). In One Small Step, ed. Tehani Wessely, Fablecroft Publishing
The Alabaster Child (2011). In Gutshot: Weird West Tales, ed. Conrad Williams, PS Publishing - Anthology nominated for a British Fantasy Award
The Sleeping and the Dead (2011). In Ishtar, Morrigan Books - Nominated for a DITMAR Award
Dead Low' (2011). In Midnight Echo #6, The Australian Horror Writers Association - Nominated for an Aurealis Award
Beautiful (2011). In Anywhere But Earth, Coeur de Lion Publishing
All the Love in the World (2010). In Sprawl, ed. Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press
The Piano Song (2010). In Scenes from the Second Storey, eds. Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshaw, Morrigan Books
Heart of Stone (2009). In X6, ed. Keith Stevenson, Coeur de Lion Publishing
The Snow Leopard (2009), Borderlands Magazine, #11
Seventeen (2009), In. Masques, ed. Gillian Polack, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild. Awarded Best Young Adult Short Story in the 2009 Aurealis Awards
A Lady of Adestan (2007), Orb, # 7, June. Nominated for Best Fantasy Short Story in the 2007 Aurealis Awards
The Bride Price (2007), New Ceres, #2, 2007
Arctica (2007). In Fantastic Wonder Stories, ed. Russell B. Farr, Ticonderoga Publications. Nominated for Best Science Fiction Short Story in the 2007 Aurealis Awards
The Golden Hour (2006), WyR[E]d, November.
The Jarrah Run (2006), In c0ck, eds. Andrew Macrae and Keith Stephenson, coeur de lion press.
The Delicacy of Dragonflies (2006), Fables and Reflections, #8.
Street of the Dead (2006), Cosmos, #9, June. Reprinted in Greek Newspaper Eleftherotypia, 2009
Blue Stars For All Saviours' Day (2006). In The Outcast, ed. Nicole R. Murphy, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild.
The Ice Bride (2006), Shadowed Realms, #9, The Redback Edition.
Message in a Bottle (2005), Borderlands, #6
Macchiato Lane (2005), TiconderogaOnline", #5. Nominated for Best Horror Short Story in the 2005 Aurealis Awards
Historical Perspective (2005), Simulacrum, July.
Arcana (2005). In Mitch? 4: Slow Dancing in Quicksand.
Home by the Sea (2004), Orb, #6. Nominated for Best Science Fiction Short Story in the 2004 Aurealis Awards. Reprinted in The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2005, eds. Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt, MirrorDanse Books
Last Dance at the Sargeant Majors' Ball (2004). Borderlands Magazine, #3, 2004. Reprinted in L Ron Hubbard presents Writers of the Future, vol XXI, 2005.
Meltdown my Plutonium Heart (2004). In Encounters, eds. Maxine McArthur and Donna Maree Hanson, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild.
I am my Fathers Daughters (2003), Visions Magazine, #23.
The Birdcage (2003). In Elsewhere, ed. Michael Barry, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild.
Our Lady of Spatial Anomalies (2003), Fables and Reflections, #5.
Song of the Crescent Moon (2003), Gynaezine.
Gracelands (2003), Dark Animus, #3.
Roswell 14 (co-written with Max Blaxall) (2003). In Consensual 2: The Second Coming.
Cross the Nullarbor to the Sea (2003), In Glimpses, Vision Writer's Group.
Pod (2003). In Ideomancer Unbound, eds. Mikal Trimm and Chris Clarke, Fictionwise.
Rats Nest (2003). In Potato Monkey, #3,
14 Shopping Days Till Xmas (2002), Vision Newszine.
