Ben Peek (born 12 October 1976 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

) is an Australian author. His middle name is Michael. Peek's short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including '' Fantasy Magazine'' and ''

Aurealis ''Aurealis'' is an Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications, and is Australia's longest running small-press science-fiction and fantasy magazine. The magazine is based in Melbourne. History and profile ''Aureali ...

''. His fiction has been reprinted in various Year's Best volumes. In 2000, he created a zine called ''The Urban Sprawl Project'', a black and white pamphlet of photography and prose, and this remains the name of his online journal. In 2006 his autobiography, ''Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth'', was published by Wheatland Press with artwork from Andrew Macrae and Anna Brown. In 2007, ''Black Sheep, a dystopian novel'', was published by

Prime Books Sean Wallace (born January 1, 1976) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologist, editor, and publisher best known for founding the publishing house Prime Books and for co-editing three magazines, '' Clarkesworld Magazine'', '' ...

. In 2007, Peek also began collaborating with artist Anna Brown on ''Nowhere Near Savannah'', an online

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

that in part follows on from their original collaboration on ''Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth''. Peek has claimed that every incident described in ''Nowhere near Savannah'' is true. Peek holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the

University of Western Sydney Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network u ...

, and a PhD in Creative Writing from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

, during which he wrote the novel ''A Year in the City''. His reviews have appeared on several websites including, ''PopImage'', ''Sequential Tart'', and ''

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and nonfiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in September 2000, and ...

''. In 2005 he interviewed over forty Australian speculative fiction writers, editors and publishers as part of ''The 2005 Snapshot: Australian Speculative Fiction.'' Peek's writing is best described as

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

. However, he often takes fundamental elements of the genre and combines them into other styles. Recurring themes in Peek's work include the representation of

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

and

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

. Peek has also written a number of works that play with story form, including ''Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth'' and ''Johnny Cash''.

Published fiction

Novels and longer works

*''Leviathan's Blood: Book Two of the Children Trilogy'' (2016)

Thomas Dunne Books Thomas Dunne Books was an imprint of St. Martin's Press, which is a division of Macmillan Publishers. From 1986 until April 2020, it published popular trade fiction and nonfiction. History The imprint signed David Irving, a scholar, for a Joseph ...

*''The Godless'' (2014),

. *'' Dead Americans'' (2013), short story collection, ChiZine Publications. *''Below'' in '' Above/Below'' with Stephanie Campisi, (2011), Twelfth Planet Press. *'' Black Sheep, a dystopian novel'' (2007),

. *''Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth'' (2006), Wheatland Press. *''The Enigma Variant'' (1999), with Chris Mowbray.

MirrorDanse Books MirrorDanse Books, founded in 1994, is one of Australia's longest running independent book publishers of science fiction and horror. MirrorDanse Books publishes the ''Year's Best Australian SF & Fantasy'' anthology series, edited by Bill Congre ...

Award nominations

Peek has been nominated for the

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 a ...

s (Australian SF Award) nine times. He is the second most nominated individual not to win a Ditmar. He has twice been nominated for the

Aurealis Award The Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award. History The Aurealis Award was established in 1995 by ...

References

External links

Ben Peek's livejournal

Prime Books

Wheatland Press

The 2005 Snapshot: Australian Speculative Fiction
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peek, Ben Australian fantasy writers Australian science fiction writers Australian male short story writers Living people 1976 births University of New South Wales alumni Western Sydney University alumni