AustLit logo
Grant Watson Grant Watson i(A74085 works by)
Born: Established: 1976 Whyalla, Whyalla area, Northern Eyre Peninsula, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, ;
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

An author, editor, playwright, and critic who has written and worked in various genres, Grant Watson is largely associated with the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Raised in Port Hedland, Western Australia, Watson attended Baler Primary School (1982-88), before moving to Perth with his family in 1989, where he furthered his education at Governor Stirling Senior High (1989-90) and John Wollaston Anglican Community School (1991-93). While attending Murdoch University between 1994 and 1998, Watson became heavily involved in the speculative-fiction community, notably though the Doctor Who fan club The West Lodge. In 1996, he and Simon Oxwell briefly ran their own zine, Ka Faraq Gatri, and the following year the pair co-edited the West Lodge zine, Gallifreyan Graffiti (beginning with no. 129).

In 1998, Grant was a member of the executive that organised the 23rd Swancon. He and two other members of the committee, Anna Hepworth and Oxwell, subsequently edited the anthology Twenty3: Miscellany, which was published by Infinite Monkeys in association with the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF) and Neutral Zone. Grant was also a member of the committee that attempted to re-establish the magazine Eidolon in 2002. When this did not eventuate, he and other members (Stephen Dedman, Simon Oxwell, Anna Hepworth, David Cake, Sarah Xu, Sandra Norman, and Jodie Hunter) instead set up Borderlands Press.

The first Borderlands Press publications were the souvenir booklets accompanying the WASFF conventions Borderlands: The World Within (2001) and Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (2002). The latter publication went on to win the 2003 Ditmar Award for Best Australian Fan Achievement. In 2003, the press published a third Borderlands convention souvenir booklet (titled Trilogy), along with the first issue of the Borderlands journal, a tri-yearly publication of literary speculative fiction. The journal continued publication up until 2009.

Grant's short stories since 2000 have been published in a variety of magazines, zines, and anthologies, including Masquerade (2001), Mitch?: Tarts of the New Millennium (2001), Antipodean (2001), Mitch?: Hacks to the Max (2002), Fables and Reflections (2003), Potato Monkey (2002), Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (2003), Shadowbox (2005), and Canterbury 2100 (2008).

As a playwright, Watson has had a number of his works staged in Perth. To date, these include Frames (1997), Degree Absolute (1998, re-written 2002), The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World (2003), its sequel You Only Rent Twice (2004), Serpentine (2004), and Cry Havoc (2009). The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World, which began as cartoon (written and illustrated by Watson), was later given treatment as a possible SBS television series. (This has not yet eventuated, however.) Watson has also adapted for the stage such productions as A Primitive Othello (1996), Hamlet (1997), R3 (1998), Much Ado About Nothing (2000), Hamlet (again, 2001), Nineteen Eighty Four (2001), Frankenstein (2002), and Mapping Lear (2003).

In the mid-2000s, Watson was employed by the Film and Television Institute (FTI) in Perth as Screen Events manager FTI. This position ended in June 2006. He has also taught courses in the basics of writing television sit-coms and has written a short action film called The Fall.

Among the awards and recognition Grant has received are:

  • 2001 William Atherling Jnr Award for Criticism or Review: 'Waking Henson: A Jim Henson Retrospective' (Grant and Oxwell).
  • 2001 Swancon Award for Best Western Australian Collected Work, Editing: Borderlands: The World Within (Watson, Hepworth, and Oxwell).
  • 2001 Swancon award for Best Western Australian Production: 'Raw Cordial' panel (Watson and Oxwell).
  • 2001 Ditmar Award for Best Fan Fiction (The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World).
  • 2001 Ditmar Award for Best Fan Artist.
  • 2003 Ditmar Award for Best Australian Fan Achievement: Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (Watson, Oxwell and Hepworth).
  • 2003 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Production in Any Medium: Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (Watson, Oxwell and Hepworth).
  • 2003 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Non-Professional Production in Any Medium: Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (convention, Watson, Oxwell and Hepworth).
  • 2007 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Publication in Any Medium: Borderlands (Oxwell et. al).
  • 2007 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Unpaid or Fan Written Work ('Bad Film Diaries', Borderlands issues 6 and 8).
  • 2007 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Publication, Any Medium: Borderlands (Oxwell et al).
  • 2009 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Short Written Work ('Bad Film Diaries').
  • 2010 Best New Play at the Perth Theatre Trust Guild Equity Awards (Cry Havoc).

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • In 2009, Grant Watson was shortlisted for the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review in the Australian Science Fiction Achievement Awards. Watson's shortlisted article, 'Bad Film Diaries: Sometimes the Brand Burns: Tim Burton and the Planet of the Apes', was published in Borderlands 10 (2008).

  • Watson's older brother, Graeme, has also been associated with the Film and Television Institute (Perth).

  • The West Lodge is named after the Foamasi West Lodge, a criminal organisation that featured in the Doctor Who serial 'The Leisure Hive'.

Personal Awards

2021 nominated Ditmar Awards William Atheling Jr Award for reviews in FictionMachine.
2020 winner Ditmar Awards William Atheling Jr Award for reviews on FictionMachine.
2016 shortlisted Ditmar Awards Best Fan Writer For body of work.

Awards for Works

The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World 2003 single work drama satire science fiction He has no name... Hollywood hates him... Customers fear him... He's the angiest video store clerk in the world!

Following the block-buster release of its action flick Bloodsoaked Brothers 2 Hollywood film company WorldWide Pictures now plans to release it on DVD and boasts that it will become the biggest home video hit of all time, with millions of copies already ordered. Far away in a distant Australian suburb, however, one video store clerk who believes the film is truly awful refuses to order a single copy, and the executives at WorldWide intend to find out why.

A satire on the the evils of Hollywood, Grant Watson throws pretty much every film and theatre genre into the mix in what might best be described as a sci-fi action comedy love story musical and tale of revenge.


2001 winner Ditmar Awards Fan Production For the graphic novel series.
y separately published work icon Borderlands : That Which Scares Us Nedlands : Borderlands Press , 2002 Z1793580 2002 anthology short story science fiction
2003 winner Ditmar Awards Fan Production
Degree Absolute 1998 single work drama A two-hander, Degree Absolute explores the relationship between an interrogator and a suspected terrorist who is being held without charge or trial.
1998 shortlisted Ditmar Awards Dramatic Presentation For the Bedlam Theatre Company production.
Last amended 19 Oct 2021 10:17:17
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X