Cirrus@Austlit

Raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Paul Haines moved to Australia in the 1990s after completing a university degree in Otago. He attended the inaugural Clarion South writers workshop in 2004 and became a member of the SuperNOVA writers group. Haines has had more than thirty short stories published in Australia and North America. In 2007, he volunteered as a mentor for the Australian Horror Writers Association.

The winner of three Ditmar Award - Best New Talent (2005), Best Novella/Novelette for 'The Last Days of Kali Yuga' (2005) and 'The Devil in Mr Pussy (Or How I Found God Inside My Wife)' (2007) - Haines also won the 2004 Aurealis Award (horror short story) for 'The Last Days of Kali Yuga' and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2003 and 2004.

Haines' first short story collection Doorways For The Dispossessed was published by Prime Books in 2006. It won the New Zealand 2008 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collection and was nominated for the 2007 Australian Ditmar for Best Collection.