Cirrus@Austlit

An author, editor, playwright, and critic who has written and worked in various genres, Grant Watson is largely associated with the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Raised in Port Hedland, Western Australia, Watson attended Baler Primary School (1982-88), before moving to Perth with his family in 1989, where he furthered his education at Governor Stirling Senior High (1989-90) and John Wollaston Anglican Community School (1991-93). While attending Murdoch University between 1994 and 1998, Watson became heavily involved in the speculative-fiction community, notably though the Doctor Who fan club The West Lodge. In 1996, he and Simon Oxwell briefly ran their own zine, Ka Faraq Gatri, and the following year the pair co-edited the West Lodge zine, Gallifreyan Graffiti (beginning with no. 129).

In 1998, Grant was a member of the executive that organised the 23rd Swancon. He and two other members of the committee, Anna Hepworth and Oxwell, subsequently edited the anthology Twenty3: Miscellany, which was published by Infinite Monkeys in association with the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF) and Neutral Zone. Grant was also a member of the committee that attempted to re-establish the magazine Eidolon in 2002. When this did not eventuate, he and other members (Stephen Dedman, Simon Oxwell, Anna Hepworth, David Cake, Sarah Xu, Sandra Norman, and Jodie Hunter) instead set up Borderlands Press.

The first Borderlands Press publications were the souvenir booklets accompanying the WASFF conventions Borderlands: The World Within (2001) and Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (2002). The latter publication went on to win the 2003 Ditmar Award for Best Australian Fan Achievement. In 2003, the press published a third Borderlands convention souvenir booklet (titled Trilogy), along with the first issue of the Borderlands journal, a tri-yearly publication of literary speculative fiction. The journal continued publication up until 2009.

Grant's short stories since 2000 have been published in a variety of magazines, zines, and anthologies, including Masquerade (2001), Mitch?: Tarts of the New Millennium (2001), Antipodean (2001), Mitch?: Hacks to the Max (2002), Fables and Reflections (2003), Potato Monkey (2002), Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (2003), Shadowbox (2005), and Canterbury 2100 (2008).

As a playwright, Watson has had a number of his works staged in Perth. To date, these include Frames (1997), Degree Absolute (1998, re-written 2002), The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World (2003), its sequel You Only Rent Twice (2004), Serpentine (2004), and Cry Havoc (2009). The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World, which began as cartoon (written and illustrated by Watson), was later given treatment as a possible SBS television series. (This has not yet eventuated, however.) Watson has also adapted for the stage such productions as A Primitive Othello (1996), Hamlet (1997), R3 (1998), Much Ado About Nothing (2000), Hamlet (again, 2001), Nineteen Eighty Four (2001), Frankenstein (2002), and Mapping Lear (2003).

In the mid-2000s, Watson was employed by the Film and Television Institute (FTI) in Perth as Screen Events manager FTI. This position ended in June 2006. He has also taught courses in the basics of writing television sit-coms and has written a short action film called The Fall.

Among the awards and recognition Grant has received are:

• 2001 William Atherling Jnr Award for Criticism or Review: 'Waking Henson: A Jim Henson Retrospective' (Grant and Oxwell).
• 2001 Swancon Award for Best Western Australian Collected Work, Editing: Borderlands: The World Within (Watson, Hepworth, and Oxwell).
• 2001 Swancon award for Best Western Australian Production: 'Raw Cordial' panel (Watson and Oxwell).
• 2001 Ditmar Award for Best Fan Fiction (The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World).
• 2001 Ditmar Award for Best Fan Artist.
• 2003 Ditmar Award for Best Australian Fan Achievement: Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (Watson, Oxwell and Hepworth).
• 2003 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Production in Any Medium: Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (Watson, Oxwell and Hepworth).
• 2003 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Non-Professional Production in Any Medium: Borderlands: That Which Scares Us (convention, Watson, Oxwell and Hepworth).
• 2007 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Publication in Any Medium: Borderlands (Oxwell et. al).
• 2007 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Unpaid or Fan Written Work ('Bad Film Diaries', Borderlands issues 6 and 8).
• 2007 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Publication, Any Medium: Borderlands (Oxwell et al).
• 2009 Tin Duck Award for Best WA Professional Short Written Work ('Bad Film Diaries').
• 2010 Best New Play at the Perth Theatre Trust Guild Equity Awards (Cry Havoc).