AustLit

Sydney-based writer, publisher, editor, reviewer and bookseller Bill Congreve holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Macquarie University. In 1994 he founded the specialty press MirrorDanse. The press is well-known for The Year's Best Australian SF and Fantasy anthology series (co-edited by Congreve and Michelle Marquardt). He has also been associated for many years with the Infinitas Bookshop (Sydney), at times working in the store as well as representing Infinitas at external events.

Congreve's decision to establish MirrorDanse was influenced in part by the realisation while travelling overseas between 1987 and 1990 that the speculative fiction small press industy was burgeoning in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom but hardly existed in Australia. After settling back in Sydney he considered publishing a magazine devoted to science fiction, fantasy and horror but discovered that Aurealis and Eidolon had by then cornered the niche Australian market for these genres. He then considered a horror-specific magazine, initially to be called User Unfriendly Fiction, but was this time beaten by Chris Masters' Esoteric Order of the Dragon. A chance suggestion in 1991 by former music journalist and editor of Mean Streets magazine, Stuart Coupe, led Congreve to get in touch with Robert Hood. The respected author offered his help and support for any publishing venture that Congreve might consider, which led to an approach to Five Island Press (then involved almost exclusively with poetry) to publish the first anthology of new Australian horror stories. Intimate Armageddons was subsequently published in 1992 and provided Congreve with the impetus to establish his own small press, MirrorDanse.

As a writer Bill Congreve has produced both technical and fiction works (primarily in the horror and science fiction genres) and has also edited a number of anthologies. Among the short story collections he has compiled are Intimate Armageddons (1992), Bonescribes: Year's Best Horror 1995, Passing Strange: A New Anthology of Speculative Fiction (2002) and Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural (2003).

Aside from his publishing and editing roles with MirrorDanse, Congreve is actively involved in both the science fiction/fantasy communities and the broader small press industry. He has been on the advisory panel for the Shirley Jackson Awards, acted as a judge for the Aurealis Awards, and been invited to speak at numerous official engagements, including for example The Society of Editors (NSW) Inc. (2010). Congreve was also a book reviewer for Aurealis for twelve years.