marlee jane ward

Bio

 

I’m a writer and visual artist living and working on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung land. I have published both fiction and non-fiction in the genres of speculative fiction and memoir.

 

My debut Welcome to Orphancorp was released in 2015. It was nominated for The NSW Premiers Award, an Aurealis Award & the Norma K Hemming Award, and won the Viva La Novella Prize and the Victorian Premiers Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction. The VPLA Judges report called it ‘raw and necessary.’ Author Ian MacDonald wrote that the novella was the work of ‘a writer of heart and passion, muscle and slow-burning anger.’ Charlie Jane Anders, author and co-founder of i09, said that it ‘takes all of your dystopian nightmares and connects them to a mother lode of pure emotional intensity'.

The sequel, Psynode, was released in 2017 and was nominated for Best YA Novel in the Aurealis Awards. The third in the series, Prisoncorp, came out in 2019 and was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novella. The series was bound into a single volume and released in 2022.

 

My short fiction has been published in Interzone, Terraform, Apex, Interfictions, Aurealis, Slink Chunk Press, Feminartsy, The Sockdolager, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, and Mad Scientist Journal. I've also had short stories in the anthologies Hear Me Roar, In Your Face and Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories.

My non-fiction has been published at Overland, Scum Mag, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Going Down Swinging, and more. I've had memoir pieces adapted for audio at All The Best Radio and performed at Queerstories.

 

I’ve developed my craft through a BCA at the University of Wollongong and acceptance into the 6-week Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, Washington (2014), and the Novel Writing Workshop at The Gunn Centre for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas (2017).

 

My work has been nominated for a number of awards, including The NSW Premiers Literary Award, the Norma K Hemming Award, Aurealis Awards. I won the Ditmar Award for Best New Talent in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Readings Residency Award in 2018.

 

I write non-fiction under the name Mia Walsch, and my memoir, Money For Something, was released in 2020. Under this name I also have pieces in Archer Magazine and on the Tryst Blog.

 

I have a novella with Interstellar Flight Press due out in 2024.