November has already been a busy month, and it is going to get busier! Which is why we are sending this mini update out of schedule. Launch of Never Say Die Thank you to everyone who came to our launch event for Never Say Die last night at Smith’s Alternative. [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8496

Happy spooky season! It’s the most wonderful time of the year for our horror writers, our pumpkin enthusiasts, and our black cat owners. This month saw the ritual sacrifice of the previous committee to summon forth a new one! (Don’t worry, the old committee [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8434

Hey all! The CSFG have our AGM tonight at 7:30pm at The Burns Club in Kambah. (Zoom link available on our discord) For those that may not know it's our formal, yearly meeting where we gather to review the organization's performance, finances, and elect new leaders.

Come with me as I journey to Canberra for a long weekend of literary and iconic treats! #conflux19 @csfg.org.au

support awesomeness in all its forms, world!

It’s Official! CSFG’s latest anthology, “Never Say Die” will launch at Smith’s Alternative in Canberra on November 10th. Come join us for a night of readings and minglings with the writers.

Thank you to all the nominees and winner! #AustralasianShadows #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Novel Award: The Winner is: The Dead Spot by Caroline Angel #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux #AHWA

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Paul Haines Award: The Winner is: Redhead Town By Deborah Sheldon #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux #AHWA

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Short Fiction Award: The Winner is: Archive of the Dead by Pamela Jeffs #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Rocky Wood Award: The Winner is: Long be mightmar'd by Kyla Ward #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Comic Book Works: The Winner is: Gormand Go by Jason Franks #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Edited Works: The Winner is: Death in the Mouth Vol2: By Sloane Leong and Cassie Hart #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Collected Works: The Winner is: Black Days & Bloody Nights By Greg Chapman #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux

Australasian Shadows Awards 2024 Poetry: The Winner is: Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray You Swallowed Your Tongue by Geneve Flynn #AustralasianShadows Awards 2024 #CSFG #Conflux

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review nominees: The Winner is: Gillian Polack for 'A Thing Called the Glugs of Gosh: CJ Dennis and Satirical Fantasy' in 'Aurealis 171' Ian Mond for reviews in 'Locus' #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

Best New Talent Nominees: J. J. Carpenter K. A. Burgess Sarah K. Balstrup Jeff Clulow The Winner is: Sarah K. Balstrup #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium nominees: 'Going Prose' with A. D. Ellicott and C.Z. Tacks (podcast) 'Ethel the Aardvark' edited by LynC (fanzine) 'Let the Cat In' with Kaaron Warren, Aaron Dries and J. Ashley-Smith (podcast) 'Ornithopter' edited by Leigh Edmonds (journal)

Best Fan Artist nominees David Russell for artwork in 'Ethel the Aardvark' and 'SF Commentary' Annalise Jensen for fan art of 'The Prisoner's Throne' by Holly Black, 'Arcane', 'Long Live Evil', and 'Dungeon Meshi' on Instagram (@annalisejensen)

Best Fan Writer nominees: Ian Mond, for reviews on Substack (@mondy74) LynC, for contributions to 'Ethel the Aardvark' Bruce Gillespie, for 'SF Commentary' Jan MacNally for reviews in 'Ethell the Aardvark' The Winner is: Ian Mond, for reviews on Substack (@mondy74)

Best Artwork Nominees: Cover art by C.H. Pearce for 'In the aftermath' by Jessica Nirvana Ram Cover art by Greg Chapman for 'Black Days and Bloody Nights' by Greg Chapman Cover art by Kathleen Jennings for 'Kindling' by Kathleen Jennings

Best Collected Work Nominees: 'Calvaria Fell' by Cat Sparks and Kaaron Warren (auths) 'Nightmare Logic: Tales of the Macabre, Fantastic and Cthulhuesque' by Leigh Blackmore (auth) 'Kindling' by Kathleen Jennings (auth) 'Monsters in the Mills' by Lauren Elise Daniels and Christa Carmen (eds)

Best Short Story Nominees: 'Bellow of the Steamship Cow' by Aaron Dries 'Archive of the Dead' by Pamela Jeffs 'Bright Hearts' by Kaaron Warren ​'Market of Loss' by Matt Tighe The winner is: 'Bellow of the Steamship Cow' by Aaron Dries #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

Best Novella or Novelette Nominees: 'Shattered' by Pauline Yates 'The Emporium' by Kaaron Warren 'Wilder' by Pamela Jeffs 'Ghost of the Neon God' by T. R. Napper 'Maleficium' by Kyla Lee Ward The winner is: 'Ghost of the Neon God' by T. R. Napper #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

Best Novel nominees are: 'The Medusa Situation' by Gabiann Marin 'Blood Convenant' by Alan Baxter 'The Underhistory' by Kaaron Warren 'Ghost Cities' by Siang Lu 'The Escher Man' by T. R. Napper The winner is: 'The Underhistory' by Kaaron Warren #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

2025 Ditmar awards will be going live soon! #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

Hey everyone at Conflux Speculative Fiction Conventions The CSFG will be live posting the winners of the Ditmar Awards and the Australasian Shadows Awards tonight via our bluesky account! Make sure to follow us there for there live updates! #ConfluxSpeculativeFictionConventions #CSFG #Ditmar

We have said goodbye to August! Was this newsletter a day late? Perhaps. Much like the false spring which we here in Canberra have become very used to, it may have been a fake out designed to keep you on your toes. August has seen the usual round of suspects in [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8404

A picture tells a thousand words, and here at CSFG we don't like to sell that fact short. This month, we are super excited to be able to have artist Madison Lee to speak to us all about art, working with an artist, and the value of this kind of collaboration. [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8390

Slowly the days are clawing back both warmth and daylight as we escape the darkest times of the year. For those of us with seasonal affective disorder, or for people who value getting to see daylight outside of working hours, the good news is that there are [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8367

Only a few more days!

Is it a book? Is it a picture? No, it's an amalgamation of both! Comics books are one of the most exciting and engaging ways to tell a story, and this month we are excited to welcome local legend Brendon Dann to speak to the Guild about his life and work running [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8356

Dear writers, this is in no way a challenge!

A reminder everyone: “This month, we’ve got local comic book legend Brendon Dann to come talk to us! Brendan is the owner of Dee’s Comics, and a local legend in the comic scene here in Canberra.

I think I’m forked. But I’m okay with it.

Castles, Jose, and Scotland?

A reminder folx, we will be at the Geek Markets in Canberra on July 19th and we need volunteers! Whether you’re new or old, we’d love to have you come hang out with us! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The darkest month of the year makes for excellent inspiration about the shadowy, the mysterious, and the haunting, and June has seen its fair share of horrors. Written horrors, of course, things have been great in other aspects! From debuting our new second Short [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8337

Hey everyone. Due to very limited availability. We are cancelling our general meeting for Wednesday night. We will be back at the Burns Club in July with something exciting, so stay tuned. Remember that we do have our accountability brunch at the National Library this Saturday at 10am

The CSFG June monthly meeting has been cancelled. Due to limited availability of the committee, we will not be hosting our monthly meeting for June as planned. We apologise for folks who were looking forward to it, but we will be back next month with an exciting [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8329

Come see the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild at the Canberra Geek Markets! CSFG will have a stall at this year's Canberra Geek Markets at Exhibition Park on 19 July 2025. If you're in town for the event, come and say hi! We will be selling books and other [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8322

A reminder that Scribbles&Nibbles will be at the National Library tomorrow morning at 10am! Hope to see you there!

Another month, another update from the Guild! May has flown by at hyperspeed, taking with it that most sacred of scifi holidays May 4th, as well as highlighting how many exciting stories are getting told at the Guild. From screenplays to short fiction, this has [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8300

Scribo ergo sum.

Have you submitted your story for the 2025 Anthology 'Never Say Die' but not heard anything back? Work on our Never Say Die anthology is underway! We had hoped to notify successful authors by 16 May however, due to the number of amazing stories received, we have [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8290

We’ve got Scribbles-n-Nibbles this Saturday at the National Library at 10am! For those not in the know, we like to get together every other week to chat it up about writing, what we’re writing, and what we wish we could be writing about if “life” didn’t get in the way.

A reminder to everyone that we have our general meeting tonight at the Burns Club and online (link provided soon) at 7pm. We hope to see you there!

Have you ever wondered what it takes to translate big ideas to the big screen? The third Wednesday of the month is upon us, and this month we have an exciting night to talk screenwriting! This upcoming meeting, you can look forward to a presentation on [...] https://csfg.org.au/?p=8279

There’s no such thing as a “not important” character in your story. One character can set or change your tone.

The CSFG is looking for slush readers for our upcoming anthology, Never Say Die! We’re looking for a strong, diverse group of slush readers to review a handful of pieces each and help determine the fate of the anthology ✨✨✨ If you are interested, please email us below! [email protected]