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Shane Jiraiya Cummings

{{Short description|Australian author and editor}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}

{{Use Australian English|date=May 2011}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Shane Jiraiya Cummings

| image = Shane Jiraiya Cummings 2014.jpg

| imagesize = 200px

| caption = Cummings in 2014

| pseudonym =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1974|4|24}}

| birth_place = Sydney, Australia

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Writer
editor

| period = 2003 to present

| genre = Horror fiction
Fantasy
Speculative fiction

| subject =

| movement = Dark fiction[http://www.abc.net.au/news/arts/articulate/200604/s1617026.htm Kemble, Gary (April 2006). "Horror: give it a name". ABC online news (Articulate).] Retrieved 16-9-2007.[http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=shane_jiraiya_cummings_snapshot_2007 Clarke, Rosie (August 2007). "2007 Snapshot interview". Australian SpecFic In Focus.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721233445/http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=shane_jiraiya_cummings_snapshot_2007 |date=21 July 2011 }} Retrieved 16-9-2007.

| signature =

| website = {{URL|jiraiya.com.au}}

}}

Shane Jiraiya Cummings (born 24 April 1974) is an Australian horror and fantasy author and editor. He lives in Sydney. Cummings is best known as a short story writer. He has had more than 100 short stories published in Australia, New Zealand, North America, Europe, and Asia.[http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=681 Shane Jiraiya Cummings Short Stories.] Retrieved 02-05-2015. As of 2015, he has written 12 books and edited 10 genre fiction magazines and anthologies, including the bestselling Rage Against the Night.[http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=674 Shane Jiraiya Cummings Books.] Retrieved 02-05-2015.http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=676 Shane Jiraiya Cummings Edited Publications>

Early life

Born in Sydney, Australia as Shane Cummings, he has used "Jiraiya" as his part of his legal name since his Iga-ryu Ninjutsu and Sports Chanbara sensei Kazuo "Crando" Saito bestowed the name to him in the early 1990s when he attained his black belt in Ninjutsu.[http://jiraiyanews.blogspot.com/2007/06/last-of-my-kind.html Cummings, Shane Jiraiya (June 2007). "The Last of My Kind" , Smoke and Mirrors blog.][http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=2 Cummings, Shane Jiraiya. "Biography"] Retrieved 05-05-2013.

He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia and Wellington, New Zealand, before returning to Sydney in 2015.[http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=2 Shane Jiraiya Cummings biography] Retrieved 02-05-2015.

Education

Cummings graduated from Whitireia New Zealand's Creative Writing programme with a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Creative Writing) in 2014.

Writing and publishing

In 2004, Cummings co-founded Australian independent publisher Brimstone Press and Shadowed Realms online magazine.[http://www.abc.net.au/news/arts/articulate/200612/s1804935.htm Kemble, Gary (December 2006). "A new age for Australian horror". ABC Online news (Articulate).] Retrieved 16-9-2007. In 2005, Cummings founded HorrorScope: The Australian Dark Fiction Blog, a news and review blog. He has edited the fiction anthologies Rage Against the Night, Shadow Box, Black Box, Robots and Time, and Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006 edition,Murphy, John (16 January 2007). "Brimstone fires taste for horror". Wanneroo Times newspaper. and the co-edited the magazines Shadowed Realms, Midnight Echo (issue 2) and Black: Australian Dark Culture.[http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=676 Shane Jiraiya Cummings Edited Publications.] Retrieved 06-02-2011.

Cummings is a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association, the Horror Writers Association (US), and a graduate of the Clarion South writers workshop (2005).[http://www.australianhorror.com/member_pages.php?page=6 Australian Horror Writers Association member page: Shane Jiraiya Cummings] Retrieved 16-9-2007.{{cite web | url=http://www.clarionsouth.org/alumni/past-students | title=Graduates 2005 | publisher=Clarion South | accessdate=2 December 2012}}Hanson, Donna Maree (2005: 198). Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview. Murrumbateman: Australian Speculative Fiction.

Cummings has won two Ditmar Awards (for HorrorScope in 2005 and 2006),[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Ditmar.html Locus magazine index to Ditmar Awards.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100809025345/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Ditmar.html |date=9 August 2010 }} Retrieved 16-9-2007. and in 2015, he won the Australian Shadows Award - Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction - for his novella Dreams of Destruction.[http://australianhorror.com/index.php?view=39 Australian Horror Writers Association "Australian Shadows Awards"] (Retrieved 2 May 2015).[https://www.facebook.com/AustHorror/posts/10153289918766388 Australian Horror Writers Association Facebook page] (Retrieved 2 May 2015). He has been nominated for more than twenty other genre awards for his writing and editing, including Spain's Premio Ignotus.[http://www.aurealisawards.com/Winners.htm Aurealis Awards winners archive] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131011141/http://aurealisawards.com/Winners.htm |date=31 January 2009 }} Retrieved 16-9-2007.[http://www.natcon.org.au/2007/Noimination_shortlist_2007.html Convergence 2 official 2007 Ditmar winners announcement (June 2007).] Retrieved 16-9-2007.[http://splints.customer.netspace.net.au/ditmar1024res/calldit1024.html Inkspillers Ditmar Awards archive.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829110705/http://splints.customer.netspace.net.au/ditmar1024res/calldit1024.html |date=29 August 2007 }} Retrieved 16-9-2007.[http://conjecture2009.org/ditmar-awards/ 2009 Ditmar Awards, Conjecture] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112012714/http://www.conjecture2009.org/ditmar-awards |date=12 January 2012 }} Retrieved 11-9-2009.[http://jiraiya.com.au/?page_id=694 Shane Jiraiya Cummings Awards.] Retrieved 02-05-2015.

In 2007, Cummings was the Convenor of the Horror judging panel in the Aurealis Awards.[http://www.aurealisawards.com/Judges.htm#HSJC Aurealis Award 2007 Judges] He was a judge for the Australian Shadows Awards in 2007 and 2008. Cummings continued on with the Australian Shadows Award as Director in 2009 and 2010.[http://www.australianhorror.com/index.php?view=44 Australian Shadows Award Judges. AHWA website.]

Shane Jiraiya Cummings served as Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association from 2008 to 2010 .[http://australianhorror.com/member_home.php?view=138 Australian Horror Writers Association AGM minutes. Retrieved 21-03-2009]

Cummings self-published seven e-books simultaneously in January 2011.[http://jiraiya.com.au/?p=1219 Shane Jiraiya Cummings: "Let the Grand Experiment begin!"] Retrieved 06-02-2011

Bibliography

=Books<ref name="Shane Jiraiya Cummings Books"/>=

  • Dreams of Destruction, 2014.
  • The Mist Ninja, 2011.
  • Requiem for the Burning God, 2011.
  • The Smoke Dragon, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Deviance, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Divinity, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Inferno, 2011.
  • Apocrypha Sequence: Insanity, 2011.
  • Shards (e-book edition), 2011.
  • Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves, Damnation Books, 2009. {{ISBN|978-1-61572-055-2}}
  • Shards: Damned and Burning (illustrated by Andrew J McKiernan), Brimstone Press, 2009
  • Shards (illustrated by Andrew J McKiernan), Brimstone Press, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-9805677-2-4}}

=Publications Edited<ref name="Jiraiya Cummings Edited Publications 2011"/>=

  • Rage Against the Night, Brimstone Press 2012
  • HorrorScope, Brimstone Press, 2005 to 2011
  • Medical Forum (Managing Editor), Health Publications, 2006 to 2009[http://www.mforum.com.au/ Medical Hub] Retrieved 16-05-10
  • Midnight Echo Issue #2 (with Angela Challis), Australian Horror Writers Association, 2009
  • Black: Australian Dark Culture Magazine (Managing Editor), Brimstone Press, 2008
  • Black Box, Brimstone Press, 2008
  • Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006 edition (with Angela Challis), Brimstone Press 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-9802817-0-5}}
  • Shadow Box, (with Angela Challis), Brimstone Press, Nov 2005.
  • Robots & Time (with Robert N. Stephenson), Altair Australia Books, 2004. {{ISBN|0-9577238-4-9}}

Awards

=Wins<ref name="Shane Jiraiya Cummings Awards"/>=

=Nominations<ref name="Shane Jiraiya Cummings Awards"/>=

  • 2012 Australian Shadows Award, Best Collection: Apocrypha Sequence (all four volumes: Deviance, Divinity, Inferno, Insanity)
  • 2010 Tin Duck Award, Best Professional Production: Shards (Brimstone Press)
  • 2009 Premios Ignotus, Best Foreign Short Story, "The Autopsy Room" (Paura 4)
  • 2009 William Atheling Jr Award: "Dark Suspense: The End of the Line" in Black: Australian Dark Culture Magazine #3
  • 2009 Ditmar Award, Fanzine: HorrorScope (ed. Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2008 Ditmar Award, Novella/novelette: "Yamabushi Kaidan and the Smoke Dragon"
  • 2008 Ditmar Award, Fan Writer
  • 2008 Ditmar Award, Fanzine: HorrorScope (ed. Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2008 William Atheling Jr Award: Review of David Conyers' & John Sunseri's The Spiraling Worm on HorrorScope
  • 2008 Aurealis Award, Young Adult short story: "Yamabushi Kaidan and the Smoke Dragon"
  • 2007 Ditmar Award, Best New Talent
  • 2007 Ditmar Award, Fan Writer
  • 2007 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Colossus of Roads" (Ticonderoga Online #9)
  • 2007 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Prescience" (Borderlands #8)
  • 2006 Ditmar Award, Fanzine: HorrorScope (ed. Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2006 Ditmar Award, Fan Writer
  • 2006 Australian Shadows Award: Shadow Box (with Angela Challis)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Ian" (Ticonderoga Online #5)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Professional Short Fiction: "Hear No Evil" (Borderlands #4)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Professional Production: Shadow Box (with Angela Challis)
  • 2006 Tin Duck Award, Fan Production: HorrorScope (edited by Shane Jiraiya Cummings et al.)
  • 2005 Tin Duck Award, Professional Fiction: "Sobek's Tears" (Aurealis #33-35)

=Honourable mentions=

  • 2006 Aurealis Award, Horror short story: "Revision is Murder" (Simulacrum #11)

Reviews

  • [http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=author:cummings_shane_jiraiya ASif! reviews of Cummings' work]
  • [http://www.tangentonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=929&Itemid=263 Tangent Online review of Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006]
  • [http://www.tangentonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=695&Itemid=268 Tangent Online review of Shadow Box]
  • [http://ticonderogaonline.org/008TOL/reviews008.html#three Ticonderoga Online review of Robots & Time]

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.jiraiya.com.au/ Shane Jiraiya Cummings' website]

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Category:1974 births

Category:Living people

Category:Australian horror writers

Category:Australian male short story writers