Steven Paulsen writes fantasy, horror and science fiction for both adults and children. He has also written extensively about the genre, conducted interviews with a large cross-section of Australian SF writers, and is widely acknowledged as an authority on Australian speculative fiction. When not writing, Paulsen works in the computer industry as a project manager for IBM. Paulsen published his first professional science fiction short story in 1982 and has regularly, if not prolifically, published original work in a variety of magazines and anthologies in Australia and North America. His dark fantasy tale based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, "In the Light of the Lamp", was described by horror expert Leigh Blackmore as "one of the few Mythos tales of real quality written in the last decade", while popular crime and SF writer Kerry Greenwood wrote in Meanjin that "Old Wood", a story about a renovator possessed by the vengeful spirits of murdered convicts, was one of 'the best ones' in the Penguin anthology Strange Fruit. In 1991 Paulsen edited and published a small newsletter called Amazing Sheet, which was simply meant to be a market resource guide for Australian SF writers. The response was so great, however, that early in 1992 he founded The Australian SF Writers' News, a quarterly magazine for Australians interested in writing science fiction, fantasy and horror which he edited for three years until it was incorporated into Aurealis in 1995. The Australian SF Writers' News was an important publication which helped to encourage up and coming writers and promote their achievements at a time when a new generation of Australian SF writers were starting to make their presence felt. Paulsen's prolific non-fiction writing on SF has appeared in a variety of publications including Eidolon, Aurealis, Sirius, Thyme, Science Fiction Fan Resource Book, Interzone, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, Fantasy Annual, The St James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers, and The Melbourne University Press Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. He writes a regular column called "Pulse" on Australian horror for Bloodsongs and is a contributing editor to Eidolon, writing an Australian SF news column called "Scoop". In 1995 he was jointly awarded (with Bill Congreve and Sean McMullen) the William Atheling Jnr Award for excellence in SF criticism. In 1996 Lothian Books published Paulsen's well received children's dark fantasy novel, The Stray Cat, as part of their After Dark series edited by Gary Crew. The Stray Cat was nominated for an Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award (Ditmar) in 1997. This was followed in 1998 by The Swap Card, another children's dark fantasy novel, which is a stronger book indicating Paulsen's growing competence in this field. Paul Collins (The Melbourne University Press Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy)