Cirrus@Austlit

A co-founder of Brimstone Press, Shadowed Realms and Black: Australian Dark Culture magazine, Shane Jiraiya Cummings has for many years been involved in Australian dark fiction. He was raised in the southern suburbs of Sydney, developing a passion for horror, fantasy ands science fiction, as well as a passion for martial arts. The name Jiraiya was bestowed upon him in his youth by Ninjutsu Grand Master Kazuo Crando Saito. A qualified instructor, Cummings now holds black belts in Iga-Ryu Ninjutsu and Sports Chanbara.

As an author he has had more than of his sixty short stories published in magazines and anthologies in Australia, North America and Europe. A number of these are included in his own collection Shards: Short Shap Stories (q.v.). Among the publications which have published his stories are Borderlands, Aurealis, Antipodean SF and TiconderogaOnline (qq.v.).

Cummings has co-edited the anthologies Robots and Time (q.v.) and Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror 2006 (q.v.), and written the novel Phoenix and the Darkness Wolves (published by Damnation Books). In addition to the horror genre Cummings has occasionally written science fiction stories.

Cummings' industry involvement has seen him undertake the positions of Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association, and Managing Editor of HorrorScope and Black: Australian Dark Culture Magazine (q.v.). His career has seen him win two Ditmar Awards, and receive nominations for several other Ditmars, along with Aurealis and Australian Shadows awards.

Cummings has for many years resided in the northern suburbs of Perth (Western Australia) with his partner Angela Challis.