Founded in 1994 and initially based in the Sydney suburbs of Westmead and Parramatta before relocating to Chatswood in 2004, MirrorDanse Books is one of Australia's longest running independent book publishers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. It was founded by writer and editor Bill Congreve following the release in 1992 of Intimate Armageddons (q.v.), the first anthology of new Australian-written horror stories. A joint venture between Congreve (who edited it) and Five Islands Press - better known at that time as a publisher of poetry - Intimate Armageddons was released only a few months before another Australian anthology, Leigh Blackmore's Terror Australis (qq.v.). The support that Congreve received from within the Australian horror community, and in particular from Robert Hood, eventually led to the founding of MirrorDanse.
Over the years MirrorDanse has published some of Australia's leading authors in these genres, including Chris Lawson, Lucy Sussex, Terry Dowling, Greg Egan, Sean Williams, Leanne Frahm and Robert Hood (qq.v.). Among its achievements has been the publishing of Williams' first book, Doorway to Eternity (q.v., 1994); while Egan's Our Lady of Chernobyl (q.v., 1995) was that author's first independent press collection.
MirrorDanse Books, which Congreve describes as the 'mass market' side of the operations annually publishes The Year's Best Australian SF and Fantasy (q.v.) anthology series (edited by Congreve and Michelle Marquardt). Its purpose is to publish and market works which to the wider marketplace. These are distributed to the trade through an association with Tower Books.
MirrorDanse also publishes a selection of works under the name MirrorDanse Editions. The Editions imprint is described on the company's website as 'an eclectic, independent publishing operation dedicated to publishing the best in Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror.'
Since beginning its operations in 1994 MirrorDanse has been the recipient of several industry awards, including 2007 Aurealis award for Best Collected Work (The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Vol.2). That same year Bill Congreve also won the Aurealis Professional Achievement award for his publishing efforts with MirrorDanse. Two of its publication have also won prestigious Ditmar awards, these being Leanne Frahm's Borderline (q.v., 1997 Best Australian Short Fiction Award), and Passing Strange (q.v., 2003 Best Collected Work).
A member of SPUNC (The Small Press Underground Networking Community), MirrorDanse books are distributed by Tower Books.
