About Kat Clay

Kat Clay author headshot

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‘ garnered 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.

A passionate essayist and critic, her non-fiction has been published in The Guardian, Interzone, The Victorian Writer, Literary Traveler, Travel Weekly, Matador Network, and Weird Fiction Review, and she was a contributor to the Locus winning and Hugo nominated Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985.

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. As for storytelling, her interests lie in experimental, collaborative, and interactive narratives. It’s for this reason she loves games, particularly daring indies, 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. Her love of language and culture led her to spend a year studying at the Universite de Poitiers in France.

Beyond her writing adventures, Kat Clay is a seasoned traveller, having explored over 40 countries. When she’s not busy writing, Kat enjoys hiking in national parks across the globe, savoring mint choc tops at retro cinemas, and conquering video games on nightmare mode.

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