Bryce J. Stevens

Infobox Writer


imagesize = 150px
name = B. J. Stevens
caption =
pseudonym =
birthname =
birthdate = 10 Sept, 1957
birthplace = Christchurch, New Zealand
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Writer, artist
nationality = New Zealand/Australian (dual citizenship)
period =
genre = Horror, Dark Fantasy,
subject =
movement =
notableworks =
influences =
influenced =


website =

Bryce John Stevens (born 1957 in Christchurch, New Zealand) is a long-term Australian resident and horror writer/artist.

At age 22 he came to Sydney to see what Australia was like and lived in a flat at Bondi where he bought the landlady’s old typewriter for $5. As an artist doing much drawing, he eventually held four gallery exhibitions between NZ, Melbourne and Sydney. Titles that he gave the illustrations would sometimes turn into paragraphs, which is where he began his fiction-writing career. After Bondi he returned to NZ and trained as a psych nurse. He has also worked as an abbattoir assistant, builder's labourer, museum attendant and kitchenhand.

Between 1987 and 1992 he co-edited , (with Chris G.C. Sequeira and Leigh Blackmore), Terror Australis: The Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine. In the mid-1990s he moved to Melbourne where he was a key figure (with Steven Proposch and Chris A. Masters) in the Melbourne Horror Society, helped produce Bloodsongs magazine, and edited many issues of Severed Head. In 1999 he held his solo art show, the "Screw the Millennium Bug Exhibition". He produced several issues of a personal zine, "Choking Dog Gazette".

Stevens has published several collections of horror stories. His short stories have also appeared in "Black Moon, Bloodsongs, Cold Cuts, Dead By Dawn, E.O.D, Forbidden Tomes", "Cthulhu and the Co-Eds: Kids & Squids, Misanthrope, Octavia, Outside, and Terror Australis." Stevens is noted for his hard-edged and uncompromising horror content; however he often delves into black humour and his most reprinted story is a Lovecraftian parody called "The Diary of Howard Clark Long Phillips".

Stevens returned to Sydney to live in 2004, and continues to draw and paint, and holds regular exhibitions of his work in different cities in Australia.

Collections

* "Pale Flesh" (Borderlands Press, 1989)
* "Visions of Torment" (Spine Publications, 1993)
* "Skin Tight" (Bambada Press, 1995)
* "Stalking the Demon: Tales of Sex and Insanity" (Jacobyte Books, 2002)

Magazines Edited or Co-edited

* Terror Australis
* Bloodsongs
* Severed Head: Newsletter of the Horror Writers of Australia

Other Works

* "The Fear Codex: The Australian Encyclopedia of Dark Fantasy and Horror" (2001)(CD-ROM)
* "Strange Vistas" (1991) Artwork.

References

* Mike Ashley & William G. Contento. "The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird and Horror Anthologies". Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995, p. 523
* Donna Maree Hanson. "Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview". Canberra: Australian Speculative Fiction, 2005, p.115
* Paul Collins (ed). "The Melbourne University Press Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy". Melbourne, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1998, p.162.