Kat Clay is an Australian author of fiction, reviews, and roleplaying games. Her fiction has been published in Interzone, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Midnight Echo, Translunar Travelers Lounge, Aurealis, SQ Mag, and Crimson Streets. In 2018, Kat’s short story ‘Lady Loveday Investigates‘ won three prizes at the national Scarlet Stiletto Awards, including the Kerry Greenwood Prize for Best Malice Domestic.
She is the author of two bestselling Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying games, The Hammersmith Haunting and The Well of All Fear. Her weird-noir novella Double Exposure, was published by Crime Factory in 2015.
In addition to her creative writing, Kat’s essays and criticism have been published in The Guardian, Interzone, The Victorian Writer, Literary Traveler, Travel Weekly, Matador Network, and Weird Fiction Review. She was a contributor to the Locus winning and Hugo nominated Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985, with her essay on Judith Merrill.
She has twice recieved the Ditmar Award for Best Fan Writer, acknowledging her contributions to Australian fandom through her blog and YouTube channel.
Kat’s work encompasses a wide range of themes and genres, from crime and cosmic horror to dark fantasy and the weird. She’s fascinated by sinister cities, arcane history, haunted photography, 19th century literature, and the impact of technology on humanity. When she’s tired of being a melodramatic gothic history nerd, she returns to her singular love, Miss Jane Austen.
As for storytelling, her interests lie in experimental, collaborative, and interactive narratives. It’s for this reason she loves games, especially arthouse indies, detective games, RPGs and TTRPGs, and can be found streaming them on YouTube and Twitch.
Kat holds undergraduate degrees in Media Arts and International Studies, along with a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing from UTS. She spent a year studying at the Universite de Poitiers in France, which is where she discovered Margaret Atwood, Enki Bilal, and Sailor Moon, and read a stupid amount of Patricia Cornwell novels.
Beyond her writing adventures, Kat loves to travel and has visited over 40 countries. When she’s not busy writing, she hikes in national parks across the globe, chomps down on mint choc tops at retro cinemas, and cosplays her favourite video game characters.
Awards
- WINNER – 2022 Ditmar Awards – Best Fan Writer
- SHORTLISTED – 2022 Scarlet Stiletto Awards – He’s a good man
- WINNER – 2021 Ditmar Awards – Best Fan Writer
- WINNER – 2018 Scarlet Stiletto Awards – The Sun Bookshop Third Prize, The Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic, The Athenaeum Library Body in the Library Runner-Up
- LONGLISTED – 2018 CWA Debut Dagger Award – Victorianoir
- HONORABLE MENTION – 2017 AHWA Shadows Award – Non-fiction & criticism
- SHORTLISTED – 2017 Aurealis Awards – Best horror story – Reef