Dr Sean Williams
Senior Lecturer
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Sean's primary field is speculative fiction in short and long forms. He is also a published poet and occasional screenwriter. His latest release Impossible Music is a realist novel concerning music and hearing loss.
Sean's primary field is speculative fiction in short and long forms. He is also a published poet and occasional screenwriter. His latest release Impossible Music is a realist novel concerning music and hearing loss.
Sean Williams is an award-winning, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of over forty novels and one hundred and twenty short stories for adults, young adults and children. As well as his genre-confounding original fiction, he has contributed to shared universes such as Star Wars and Doctor Who, and collaborated with other authors such as Garth Nix. He is an affiliate of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice and has taught for Clarion South and other institutions.
MA (Creative Writing)
PhD (Creative Writing)
Sean is one of Australia’s most-awarded speculative fiction writers. His work has been nominated for the Aurealis Award thirty times in the categories of Science Fiction Novel and Short Story, YA Novel, Children’s Novel, Fantasy Novel, Horror Short Story, and Collection, and seventeen times for the Ditmar in the categories of Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Collection, and Professional Achievement. He has also been nominated for the Philip K Dick Award and long-listed for the 2016 Australian Writers’ Guild Prime Time award.
He has received the Peter McNamara Award for services to Australian speculative fiction and the "SA Great" Award for Literature.
Recent nominations:
2016 Winner, Aurealis Award, Best Science Fiction Short Story for “All the Wrong Places”
2016 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best Science Fiction Novel for Twinmaker: Fall
2015 Winner, Ditmar Award, Best Novella for “The Legend Trap”
2015 Nominated, Scribe Award (US), Young Adult Novel for Blood Ties
2011 Nominated, Scribe Award (US), Best Speculative Original Novel for The Force Unleashed II
2009 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best Science Fiction Novel for The Grand Conjunction
2009 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best YA Novel for The Scarecrow
2008 Nominated, Ditmar Award, Best Novel for Earth Ascendant
2008 Winner, Aurealis Award, Best Collection for Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams
2008 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best Science Fiction Novel for Earth Ascendant
2008 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best YA Novel for The Changeling
2008 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best Children’s Novel for The Changeling
2008 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best Children’s Novel for The Dust Devils
2007 Winner, Ditmar Award, Best Fiction Novel for Saturn Returns
2007 Nominated, Philip K Dick Award (US) for Saturn Returns
2007 Nominated, Ditmar Award, Best Novella/Novelette for Cenotaxis
2007 Nominated, Aurealis Award, Best Science Fiction Novel for Saturn Returns
He teaches Creative Writing
Sean's fiction explores diverse areas including music and hearing loss, futurology, and extreme landscapes. His PhD thesis (on the use of the matter transmitter in literature) received a Dean’s Commendation for Thesis Excellence from the University of Adelaide. In 2017, he was the Australian Antarctica Arts Fellow and travelled to Casey research station in order to experience life in "the freezer" first-hand.
In recognition of his teaching and mentorship of new writers, Sean has been nominated for the Ditmar Award in the category of Professional Achievement.
A firm believer in community engagement, Sean Williams has taught as guest lecturer or workshopper in institutions all around the world and been invited to literary festivals and conventions as diverse as Hay-on-Wye Writers’ Festival and San Diego Comic-con. He is one of only two living life members of the SA Writers’ Centre, where he was a long-standing Chair and board member. Other committees on which he has served include the Australian Society of Authors, Adelaide Writers’ Week Advisory Committee (ongoing), Arts SA Literature Assessment Board (Chair 2008), Carclew Youth Arts Project & Development Grant Advisory Committee, Australia Council Literature Board (Peer Assessor 2001), The Big Book Club Inc., and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) (Overseas Regional Director).
He has judged numerous awards, such as the Adelaide Festival Literature Award, Writers of the Future Contest, Somerset National Novella Writing Competition, and the Aurealis Awards.
For more information about Sean's work, please see his website:
Or, for information about his latest novel, impossiblemusic.info.
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