Tansy Rayner Roberts (born 22 May 1978) is an Australian fantasy writer. Her short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Aurealis. She also writes crime fiction as Livia Day.[1]
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, she holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), and completed a PhD in Classics in 2007, both from the University of Tasmania. She currently lives with her husband and two children in Tasmania.[1]
In 1998, Roberts won the inaugural George Turner Prize for Splashdance Silver (1998, Bantam).[2] A sequel, Liquid Gold, and the chapbook novelette Hobgoblin Boots are also both set in the comic fantasy world of 'Mocklore.'[3] The books have subsequently been republished in ebook by FableCroft Publishing, with a third novel in the series, Ink Black Magic, also being published by FableCroft Publishing in 2013. Ink Black Magic was shortlisted for the Best Fantasy Novel category of the 2013 Australian Aurealis Awards.[4]
In 2007 her children's novel, Seacastle, was published by ABC Books. Seacastle is the first book in the seven-part children's book series, "The Lost Shimmaron".[5] Each book in the Lost Shimmaron series was written by a different author.[6]
In May 2010 Power and Majesty, Book One of the "Creature Court trilogy", was published by HarperCollins Voyager.[7] Roberts has described the "Creature Court trilogy" as a combination of two fantasy subgenres: court fantasy and urban fantasy.[8]
Roberts was one of the founding members of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and edited issues 9 in 2003 and issue 23 in 2006. She also co-edited AustrAlien Absurdities (Agog! Press) with Chuck McKenzie, an anthology of humorous Australian speculative fiction in 2002 and is co-editor for the forthcoming Cranky Ladies of History anthology (FableCroft Publishing).
In 2010, Roberts won the WSFA Small Press Award for her novella Siren Beat (2009, Twelfth Planet Press).[9] Siren Beat was also nominated for the Australian Aurealis Awards for Best fantasy Short Story.[10] Roberts won the WSFA Small Press Award again in 2012 for "The Patrician" from her short story collection Love and Romanpunk, volume 2 (2011, Twelfth Planet Press).[9]
In 2013, Roberts was elected Overseas Director for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).[11] In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Roberts was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast with Galactic Suburbia, as well as for Verity! podcast in 2014.[12] She is a co-host on both Galactic Suburbia and Verity!.[13] She won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2013. In 2015 she won the Ditmar Award for Best Fan Writer.[14]
Roberts cites writers Anne Bishop, Jacqueline Carey, Laurell K. Hamilton, Robert B. Parker, Nancy Mitford, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ovid as influences on her writing.[15]
