It is with great pride that we announce that SQ Mag 14, the Australiana Edition, won the Best Edited Work of 2014 category in the Australian Shadows Awards. The Australian Shadows Awards has been operating for many years now, and is (obviously) specialised in acknowledging excellence in dark fiction. They know their stuff, and understand what horror and dark fantasy is. For these reasons, and many others, we are chuffed indeed.

Deservedly, this award goes specifically to Sophie Yorkston, the Editor-In-Chief, who put the whole edition together.

Special mention should be given to the authors: Angela Rega, Alan Baxter, Mitchell Edgeworth, Kaaren Warren, Rhoads Brazos (whose story was included in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror Volume 7), Sean Williams, S. G. Larner, and Michelle Jager (a finalist for best short story in the same awards). Also, Geoff Brown and Tehani Wessely, for their excellent articles on the state of play of speculative fiction in Australia, Mysti Parker and Damien Smith for their book reviews, and finally, but not least, Jeffery Doherty for his amazing cover art.

The Judges’ comments are flattering:

Sophie Yorkston’s edited work showcases some of the best dark writing coming out of Australia today. Many of the stories are powerful and haunting, all of them are original. SQ #14 gives us a collection that is unified by its Australian voices and at the same time wonderfully diverse. It’s threaded with nonfiction pieces that have a firm grip on the pulse of Australian genre writing.