Chimaera Publications is a publisher based in

Mount Waverley, Victoria Mount Waverley is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government area. Mount Waverley recorded a population of 35,340 at the 2021 census. It ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The company currently publishes the

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 ...

magazine ''

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 ...

'' as well as running the

Aurealis Awards 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 b ...

History

Chimaera Publications begun publishing the ''Aurealis'' magazine in 1990. In 1995 Chimaera established the

which is held yearly to reward the achievement in Australian speculative fiction. Chimaera also publishes books and in 2004 they published the multi-award-winning novel '' The Black Crusade'' by

Richard Harland Richard Harland (born 15 January 1947 in Yorkshire) is an English fantasy and science fiction writer, living in New South Wales, Australia. He was born in 1947 in Huddersfield, United Kingdom and migrated to Australia in 1970. He has been an aca ...

. ''The Black Crusade'' won the 2004 Aurealis Award for best horror novel and was named the 2004 Golden Aurealis novel. It was a short-list nominee for the 2005

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 ...

for best novel. The artwork featured on the cover of ''The Black Crusade'' also won the 2005 Ditmar award for best artwork for Kerri Valkova.

''Aurealis'' magazine

''Aurealis'' was first released in April 1990 and was edited by

Dirk Strasser A dirk is a long bladed thrusting dagger.Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), ''Dagger'', The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. VII, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (1910), p. 729 Historically, it gained its name from the Highland Dirk (Scot ...

and

Stephen Higgins Stephen E. Higgins (born 1938) was the third Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from 1983 to 1993, subsequently known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Life and career Higgins joined the IRS ...

. It is currently edited by Stuart Mayne. In 1993 it was a short-list nominee for the

for best periodical, losing to the ''

Eidolon (Australian magazine) Eidolon Publications was a small press publisher based in North Perth, Western Australia. The company previously published the speculative fiction magazine ''Eidolon'' which ran from 1990 to 2000 and published books under the name of Eidolon Boo ...

'' magazine. In 1999 it was a short-list nominee for the Ditmar Award for best Australian magazine or anthology, losing to

Jack Dann Jack Dann (born February 15, 1945) is an American writer best known for his science fiction, an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, in the majority of cases as editor or co-edit ...

and

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 ...

's ''

Dreaming Down-Under ''Dreaming Down-Under'' is a 1998 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb. Background ''Dreaming Down-Under'' was first published in Australia in November 1998 by Voyager Books in trade paperback format. In 1999 and ...

''. The artwork also received nominations at the Ditmar Awards

Trudi Canavan Trudi Canavan (born 23 October 1969) is an Australian writer of fantasy novels, best known for her best-selling fantasy trilogies '' The Black Magician'' and '' Age of the Five''. While establishing her writing career she worked as a graphic de ...

was a finalist for best professional artwork for the cover ''Aurealis'' #17 as well as her work on ''Eidolon'' #22/23 but lost to Elizabeth Kyle's cover of '' Dream Weavers'' and Adam Duncan was a short-list nominee for best artwork in 2009 but lost to

Shaun Tan Shaun Tan (born 1973) is an Australian artist, writer and film maker. He won an Academy Award for '' The Lost Thing'', a 2011 animated film adaptation of a 2000 picture book he wrote and illustrated. Other books he has written and illustrated inc ...

's ''

Tales from Outer Suburbia Tales may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tales (album), ''Tales'' (album), a 1995 album by Marcus Miller *Tales (film), ''Tales'' (film), a 2014 Iranian film *Tales (TV series), ''Tales'' (TV series), an American television series *Tales (video ...

''. The magazine has featured short stories which have been short-listed and won literary awards. These stories have won five

and a Ditmar Award and have been short-list nominees at these awards on 21 other occasions.

Aurealis Awards

The Aurealis Awards have been running since 1995 and were developed to award work in

. They were administered by Fantastic Queensland from 2004 to 2010 in partnership with Chimaera. The Aurealis Awards were created to differ from the

and the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards which don't distinguish between different genres of speculative fiction. The Aurealis Awards give separate awards for fantasy, horror and science fiction works across different age ranges.

References

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External links

Official site for the ''Aurealis''
Australian speculative fiction publishers Companies based in Melbourne Science fiction publishers