Shane Jiraiya Cummings

Shane Jiraiya Cummings (born 24 April 1974) is an Australian horror and fantasy author and editor. He lives in Sydney. Cummings is best known as a short story writer. He has had more than 100 short stories published in Australia, New Zealand, North America, Europe, and Asia.[3] As of 2015, he has written 12 books and edited 10 genre fiction magazines and anthologies, including the bestselling Rage Against the Night.[4][5]

Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Cummings in 2014
Cummings in 2014
Born (1974-04-24) 24 April 1974
Sydney, Australia
OccupationWriter
editor
Period2003 to present
GenreHorror fiction
Fantasy
Speculative fiction
Literary movementDark fiction[1][2]
Website
jiraiya.com.au

Early life

Born in Sydney, Australia as Shane Cummings, he has used "Jiraiya" as his part of his legal name since his Iga-ryu Ninjutsu and Sports Chanbara sensei Kazuo "Crando" Saito bestowed the name to him in the early 1990s when he attained his black belt in Ninjutsu.[6][7]

He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia and Wellington, New Zealand, before returning to Sydney in 2015.[8]

Education

Cummings graduated from Whitireia New Zealand's Creative Writing programme with a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Creative Writing) in 2014.[8]

Writing and publishing

In 2004, Cummings co-founded Australian independent publisher Brimstone Press and Shadowed Realms online magazine.[9] In 2005, Cummings founded HorrorScope: The Australian Dark Fiction Blog, a news and review blog. He has edited the fiction anthologies Rage Against the Night, Shadow Box, Black Box, Robots and Time, and Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006 edition,[9][10] and the co-edited the magazines Shadowed Realms, Midnight Echo (issue 2) and Black: Australian Dark Culture.[11]

Cummings is a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association, the Horror Writers Association (US), and a graduate of the Clarion South writers workshop (2005).[12][13][14]

Cummings has won two Ditmar Awards (for HorrorScope in 2005 and 2006),[15] and in 2015, he won the Australian Shadows Award - Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction - for his novella Dreams of Destruction.[16][17] He has been nominated for more than twenty other genre awards for his writing and editing, including Spain's Premio Ignotus.[18][19][20][21][22]

In 2007, Cummings was the Convenor of the Horror judging panel in the Aurealis Awards.[23] He was a judge for the Australian Shadows Awards in 2007 and 2008. Cummings continued on with the Australian Shadows Award as Director in 2009 and 2010.[24]

Shane Jiraiya Cummings served as Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association from 2008 to 2010 .[25]

Cummings self-published seven e-books simultaneously in January 2011.[26]

Bibliography

Books[4]
  • Dreams of Destruction, 2014.
  • The Mist Ninja, 2011.
  • Requiem for the Burning God, 2011.
  • The Smoke Dragon, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Deviance, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Divinity, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Inferno, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Insanity, 2011.
  • Shards (e-book edition), 2011.
  • Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves, Damnation Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-61572-055-2
  • Shards: Damned and Burning (illustrated by Andrew J McKiernan), Brimstone Press, 2009
  • Shards (illustrated by Andrew J McKiernan), Brimstone Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9805677-2-4

Publications Edited[11]
  • Rage Against the Night, Brimstone Press 2012
  • HorrorScope, Brimstone Press, 2005 to 2011
  • Medical Forum (Managing Editor), Health Publications, 2006 to 2009[27]
  • Midnight Echo Issue #2 (with Angela Challis), Australian Horror Writers Association, 2009
  • Black: Australian Dark Culture Magazine (Managing Editor), Brimstone Press, 2008
  • Black Box, Brimstone Press, 2008
  • Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006 edition (with Angela Challis), Brimstone Press 2006. ISBN 978-0-9802817-0-5
  • Shadow Box, (with Angela Challis), Brimstone Press, Nov 2005.
  • Robots & Time (with Robert N. Stephenson), Altair Australia Books, 2004. ISBN 0-9577238-4-9

Awards

Wins[22]

Nominations[22]
  • 2012 Australian Shadows Award, Best Collection: Apocrypha Sequence (all four volumes: Deviance, Divinity, Inferno, Insanity)
  • 2010 Tin Duck Award, Best Professional Production: Shards (Brimstone Press)
  • 2009 Premios Ignotus, Best Foreign Short Story, "The Autopsy Room" (Paura 4)
  • 2009 William Atheling Jr Award: "Dark Suspense: The End of the Line" in Black: Australian Dark Culture Magazine #3
  • 2009 Ditmar Award, Fanzine: HorrorScope (ed. Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2008 Ditmar Award, Novella/novelette: "Yamabushi Kaidan and the Smoke Dragon"
  • 2008 Ditmar Award, Fan Writer
  • 2008 Ditmar Award, Fanzine: HorrorScope (ed. Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2008 William Atheling Jr Award: Review of David Conyers' & John Sunseri's The Spiraling Worm on HorrorScope
  • 2008 Aurealis Award, Young Adult short story: "Yamabushi Kaidan and the Smoke Dragon"
  • 2007 Ditmar Award, Best New Talent
  • 2007 Ditmar Award, Fan Writer
  • 2007 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Colossus of Roads" (Ticonderoga Online #9)
  • 2007 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Prescience" (Borderlands #8)
  • 2006 Ditmar Award, Fanzine: HorrorScope (ed. Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2006 Ditmar Award, Fan Writer
  • 2006 Australian Shadows Award: Shadow Box (with Angela Challis)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Ian" (Ticonderoga Online #5)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Hear No Evil" (Borderlands #4)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Professional Production: Shadow Box (with Angela Challis)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Fan Production: HorrorScope (edited by Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2005 Tin Duck Award, Professional Fiction: "Sobek's Tears" (Aurealis #33-35)

Honourable mentions
  • 2006 Aurealis Award, Horror short story: "Revision is Murder" (Simulacrum #11)

Reviews

References
  1. Kemble, Gary (April 2006). "Horror: give it a name". ABC online news (Articulate). Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  2. Clarke, Rosie (August 2007). "2007 Snapshot interview". Australian SpecFic In Focus. Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  3. Shane Jiraiya Cummings Short Stories. Retrieved 02-05-2015.
  4. Shane Jiraiya Cummings Books. Retrieved 02-05-2015.
  5. http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=676 Shane Jiraiya Cummings Edited Publications>
  6. Cummings, Shane Jiraiya (June 2007). "The Last of My Kind" , Smoke and Mirrors blog.
  7. Cummings, Shane Jiraiya. "Biography" Retrieved 05-05-2013.
  8. Shane Jiraiya Cummings biography Retrieved 02-05-2015.
  9. Kemble, Gary (December 2006). "A new age for Australian horror". ABC Online news (Articulate). Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  10. Murphy, John (16 January 2007). "Brimstone fires taste for horror". Wanneroo Times newspaper.
  11. Shane Jiraiya Cummings Edited Publications. Retrieved 06-02-2011.
  12. Australian Horror Writers Association member page: Shane Jiraiya Cummings Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  13. "Graduates 2005". Clarion South. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  14. Hanson, Donna Maree (2005: 198). Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview. Murrumbateman: Australian Speculative Fiction.
  15. Locus magazine index to Ditmar Awards. Archived 9 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  16. Australian Horror Writers Association "Australian Shadows Awards" (Retrieved 2 May 2015).
  17. Australian Horror Writers Association Facebook page (Retrieved 2 May 2015).
  18. Aurealis Awards winners archive Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  19. Convergence 2 official 2007 Ditmar winners announcement (June 2007). Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  20. Inkspillers Ditmar Awards archive. Archived 29 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16-9-2007.
  21. 2009 Ditmar Awards, Conjecture Archived 12 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 11-9-2009.
  22. Shane Jiraiya Cummings Awards. Retrieved 02-05-2015.
  23. Aurealis Award 2007 Judges
  24. Australian Shadows Award Judges. AHWA website.
  25. Australian Horror Writers Association AGM minutes. Retrieved 21-03-2009
  26. Shane Jiraiya Cummings: "Let the Grand Experiment begin!" Retrieved 06-02-2011
  27. Medical Hub Retrieved 16-05-10
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