AustLit logo
Robbie Matthews Robbie Matthews i(A69110 works by)
Born: Established: 1962 Innisfail, Innisfail area, Cardwell - Tully - Innisfail area, Ingham - Cairns area, Queensland, ;
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

Writer, editor, role player and games designer, and sometimes musician/singer and actor, Robbie Matthews's association with speculative fiction fandom dates back to the 1980s. During his early years he was part of the Sydney SF scene but effectively ended following the birth of his children. He started writing seriously after attending Aussiecon III in 1999 and that same year he had his first story, 'Map Magic, accepted for publication. Since 2000 Matthews has been heavily involved in the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSFG), and was a founding member of the Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Co-operative Ltd. With the latter organisation has served primarily in the roles of editor and Editor in Chief of its flagship publication, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM).

Matthews has had stories published in the CSFG anthologies Nor of Human… (2001), Machinations (2002), Elsewhere (2003) and Gastronomicon (2005), along with AustrAlien Absurdities (2001) and Daikaiju! 3 (2007). His works have also appeared in Antipodean SF, ASIM, Fables and Reflections, Potato Monkey, Jackhammer, and Charge Magazine. His collection, Johnny Phillips, Werewolf Detective: the Collected Case Files was published in 2008, and subsequently shortlisted for the 2009 Aurealis Awards for Best Collection.

During his career Matthews has won the 2002 Peter McNamara Convenors Award (part of the Aurealis Awards) and Best New Designer Award (2003) for And Now Presenting: Murder!!!, a role playing module which made its debut at that year's Phenomenon convention. The 2003 convention also saw him win awards for Best Team (Draca Draca), Player's Choice (A Superstitious and Cowardly Lot) and Best Player (From the End of a Sword).

A resident of Canberra for many years Matthews set up his own computer consultancy business, Mithril Software, in 1993 and since 2006 has been involved with the Rude Mechanicals theatre company (as both actor and webmaster). At the 2010 Phenomenon convention he and his daughter Stephanie presented their roleplaying game, The Mystery Shack, following it in 2011 with Jusenkyo or Bust! His son Nick made his Phenomenon debut as a writer in 2012 with as co-writer of Antiques Roadshow of Doom (with Stuart Barrow)

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2002 winner Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction Peter McNamara Convenors' Award For his important contribution to local genre publishing with The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and 'Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine'.

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Johnny Phillips Werewolf Detective : The Collected Case Files Kingston : Aust Speculative Fiction , 2008 Z1549282 2008 selected work short story

'Welcome to Sydney where the undead and paranormal creatures live side by side with humans. Here Johnny Phillips ekes out an existence as a detective. Watch out for those werewolves, zombies, sorcerers and vampires.'

The Johnny Werewolf stories 'have appeared in various anthologies. Now they're all together in one publication, including three new unpublished instalments.'

Source: ACT Writers' Centre E-News, 9 December 2008.
Sighted: 15/12/2008

2009 shortlisted Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction Best Collection
y separately published work icon Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine ASIM 2002 Glen Innes : Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Cooperative Limited , 2002- Z973190 2002 periodical (90 issues)

Science-fiction and fantasy magazine launched at ConVergence, the 41st Australian National Science Fiction Convention.

Since being founded in the New South Wales Northern Tablelands township of Glen Innes in 2002, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM) has been run as a co-operative that relies very much on the passion and on-going commitment of its members. The initial objective in starting ASIM, described by its publishers as 'Australia's Pulpiest SF Magazine', was to correct the apparent misfortune surrounding speculative-fiction publishing at that time. As Robbie Matthews notes, 'We founded ASIM at a time when Aurealis was for sale, Eidolon had gone into hiatus, Altair had stopped publishing - in short, the local market was looking pale and wan' (p.158). It was also intended that the magazine be different to those that had come before it; therefore, ASIM has been produced as an off-beat, zany, pulp-style magazine that emphasises the fun and adventurous side of speculative fiction and, particularly, science fiction.

Since its inception, ASIM has used a different editor for each issue, an aspect that has led to it being seemingly erratic, but has simultaneously allowed it to continue being fresh and different. The covers are often zany, while the stories and editorials range across a broad spectrum of interests and specific genres. Since it is run as a co-operative, the magazine's production is also shared among its members, with individuals taking on a variety of tasks, including advertising editor, non-fiction editor, and layout designer.

From April 2006, each issue of ASIM was made available either as a digital (PDF) version or in the traditional print format. A little over twelve months later, the publishers released the first of a series of 'best of' anthologies in PDF format. To date, the anthology series runs to three editions, each one featuring a different speculative-fiction genre: science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine won a Ditmar Award in 2003 for 'Best Australian Production.' The following year, two of its published stories tied for the Sir Julius Vogel Award for 'Best Short Story'. In all, the magazine and its stories have been nominated for more than twenty speculative-fiction awards (notably Ditmar and Aurealis Awards). In 2008, it also won a special Sir Julius Vogel Award for services to New Zealand science fiction.

Further Reference

Matthews, Robbie. 'Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.' In Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview (2005).

'Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.' Wikipedia. Online. (Sighted: 14/06/2011)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Spaceways_Inflight_Magazine

2015 shortlisted Hugo Award Best Semiprozine
2005 shortlisted Ditmar Awards Best Collected Work Nomination for the periodical as a whole.
2004 shortlisted Ditmar Awards Best Collected Work Nomination for the periodical as a whole.
2003 shortlisted Ditmar Awards Best Collected Work Nomination for the periodical as a whole.
Last amended 29 Jul 2013 07:42:15
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X