Liz Grzyb is the award-winning editor and co-editor of seven themed short story anthologies in various subgenres of speculative fiction and of The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror series from Ticonderoga Publications. She is a teacher and bellydancer, who enjoys sipping champagne while debating the finer points of possessive apostrophes.
1. Tell us about your recent publications/projects?
My last project was Ecopunk! anthology that I co-edited with Cat Sparks in 2017: a collection of stories looking towards our ecological future with a sense of optimism. We had a bunch of fun putting that together, working with some amazing authors with fabulously left-of-field ideas about where the world will go.
Since then editing has taken a bit of a back seat as I’ve been busy with the day job and studying, but I’ve had more time to be reading a bit of everything, rather than focusing on one particular genre at a time.
2. What has been the best publishing or SF community experience of your career so far?
I’ve loved every publishing adventure I’ve been on… from my first anthology Scary Kisses, to my most recent one, Ecopunk!. All the writers and my co-editors bring such passion to what they do.
There’s a special place in my heart though, for Hear Me Roar: 17 tales of real women and unreal worlds. It was a great experience to work on stories that were so focused on the strengths of women, and it felt that the whole group of us working on the book had a united vision for the project.
3. Which recent Australian/NZ work would you recommend to international fans interested in expanding their Antipodean spec fic knowledge?
I’d strongly recommend Juliet Marillier’s Blackthorn & Grim trilogy. It’s a mesmerising read which entwines magical fantasy with gritty realism, and Marillier’s characterisation is just out of this world.
On the more sci-fi side of things, I love Amie Kaufman’s writing. Her Starbound series written with Meagan Spooner was wonderful, and I was also really excited to read The Illuminae Files, the trilogy she co-authored with Jay Kristoff, another great Aussie spec fic writer.
Angela Slatter’s short stories and novels are a darkly addictive vision of Australian spec fic. Seek out her Verity Fassbinder series or the novella Of Sorrow and Such.
Australian SF Snapshot Project 