Alan Richard Baxter (born 18 April 1970, Sussex, United Kingdom) is a British-Australian author of supernatural thrillers, horror and dark fantasy, and a teacher and practitioner of kung fu and qi gong.
He has published several novels, novellas, collections, and over 100 short stories. He has also co-written several novels with American action-adventure author, David Wood. He has won four Australian Shadows Awards and one Aurealis Award.
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Early life and influences
Baxter was born in 1970 in Crawley, Sussex, UK. At the age of 7, his family moved to Surrey where Baxter remained until emigrating to Australia permanently in 1999 after 2 years of world travel. His earliest writing was an infamous short story in school, aged 7.[unreliable source?]
His interest in speculative and genre fiction persisted from childhood into adulthood. He maintains that everyone reads speculative fiction as children, but at some point some people choose to stop. Drawn especially to dark fiction and horror, Baxter cites among his influences people such as Clive Barker, H P Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Kaaron Warren, and Stephen King. Baxter has also cited comic books as being big influences on his work, in particular work like Garth Ennis's "Hellblazer" and Neil Gaiman's "Sandman". Baxter's dark urban horror thrillers often feature realistic violence, often gleaned from first-hand experience, the author having spent a lifetime training and teaching martial arts. Baxter has often expressed his love of mashing genres and writing across formats. His work regularly addresses themes of death and mortality, and the justices and injustices in life.
Personal life
Aside from writing, the other main professional focus of Baxter's life has been martial arts. He says that running up against bullies in school drove him towards competitive martial arts in his childhood, and that he found a lifelong path there. After studying a variety of arts, he is now a practitioner and teacher of Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu, and is an international master and Fire Dragon Disciple of Grandmaster Chen Yong Fa. Baxter has competed in a number of competitions in the UK, Australia, and China. In 1996 he won the British Wutan Federation National Championship title in the UK.
Baxter is married to Glover Prize-winning Australian artist, Halinka Orszulok.
Awards
Baxter's writing accolades include being a thirteen-time finalist in the Aurealis Awards, an eight-time finalist in the Australian Shadows Awards and a fourteen-time finalist in the Ditmar Awards. He won the 2014 Australian Shadows Award for Best Short Story ("Shadows of the Lonely Dead"), the 2015 Australian Shadows Paul Haines Award For Long Fiction ("In Vaulted Halls Entombed"), the 2016 Australian Shadows Award for Best Collection (Crow Shine), and the 2019 Australian Shadows Award for Best Collection (Served Cold). He is also a past winner of the AHWA Short Story Competition ("It's Always the Children Who Suffer"). Alan's work has made the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards three times (Crow Shine, 2016 Bram Stoker Award (TM) for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection, The Gulp 2021 Bram Stoker Award (TM) for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection, and Sallow Bend 2022 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel).
Alan's 2015 Australian Shadows Paul Haines Award-winning story, "In Vaulted Halls Entombed", was adapted for Season 3 of the Netflix Original Series, Love, Death & Robots.
From November 2020 to November 2023, Baxter was President of the Australasian Horror Writers Association. He's also a Full Active Member of the US-based Horror Writer's Association.
THE LEAVES FORGET – a supernatural mystery novella (Absinthe Books, September 2023) – Finalist for the 2023 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novella; Finalist for the 2023 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novella
"All the Eyes That See" – Cosmic Horror Monthly issue #42, ed. Charles Tyra (December 2023) Finalist for the 2023 Australian Shadows Award for Short Fiction
SALLOW BEND – Finalist for the 2022 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel; Finalist for the 2022 Ditmar Award for Best Novel
DAMNATION GAMES – Finalist for the 2022 Ditmar Award for Best Horror Collected Work
THE FALL: Tales From The Gulp 2 – Finalist for the 2022 Aurealis Award for Best Collection; Finalist for the 2022 Ditmar Award for Best Horror Collected Work