BIOGRAPHY

Kat Clay Author headshot

Kat Clay is an award-winning writer from Melbourne, Australia.

Her short story ‘Lady Loveday Investigates’ won three prizes at the 2018 Scarlet Stiletto Awards, including the Kerry Greenwood Prize for Best Malice Domestic. In 2022, she was awarded the Ditmar Award for Best Fan Writer, for her blog and YouTube channel, at Australia’s oldest science fiction awards.

Kat’s short stories have been published in Interzone, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Midnight Echo, Translunar Travelers Lounge, Aurealis, SQ Mag, and Crimson Streets. Her non-fiction and criticism has been published in The Guardian, Interzone, The Victorian Writer, Literary Traveler, Travel Weekly, Matador Network and Weird Fiction Review.

Her novella, Double Exposure, was released in print and e-book with Crime Factory and was longlisted for the Davitt Award for Australian women’s crime fiction. She is also the author of Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying game, The Hammersmith Haunting.

Her fiction traverses noir, horror, fantasy and the weird, exploring topics such as sinister cities, haunted photography, the impact of technology on humanity, all under a feminist lens. When she’s tired of being serious, as a devotee of Miss Austen, she delves into social satire.

Kat holds undergraduate degrees in Media Arts and International Studies, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing from UTS. While studying at university, she completed a year abroad at the Universite de Poitiers, France. She speaks French and has visited over 35 countries, including living in South Korea for a year.

Her hobbies include hiking in national parks around the world, eating mint choc tops at retro cinemas and completing video games on nightmare mode.

 

Photography and Video Production

As a digital creative, her video and photographic work has been seen on national news programs, and used by National Geographic, Lonely Planet, and many well-known brands. Her professional experience includes video production and digital design for non-profits, government, and commercial businesses.

To view her photography portfolio, visit Tropic of Camera.

AWARDS

Winner - 2022 DITMAR Awards

Shortlisted - 2017 Aurealis Awards

Best fan writer

Best horror story - Reef

Longlisted - CWA Debut Dagger Award

SHORTLISTED - 2022 SCARLET STILETTO Awards

Victorianoir

He's a good man

SHORTLISTED - DITMAR AWARD

WINNER - 2018 Scarlet Stiletto Awards

The Sun Bookshop Third Prize

Non-fiction & criticism

The Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award

Honorable mention - AHWA SHadows Award

The Athenaeum Library

Body in the Library Runner-Up

Non-fiction & criticism