Edwina Harvey is a worthy recipient of this year’s A. Bertram Chandler Award. She has been an active member of Australian science-fiction fandom: writing, publishing and with her amazing artwork for 40 years.
She was one of the founding members of Astrex, the Star Trek fan club of NSW, and regularly contributed fiction to the associated fanzine Beyond Antares as well as other SF fanzines from the mid 1970s onwards. She was also an active member of The Hitchers Club of Australia (Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy Fanclub) from approximately 1984 onwards contributing to the newsletter Australian Playbeing through articles and comments and assisting with the copying and distribution of some issues of the newsletter. Known locally as the Fund Raising Queens, Edwina has worked with Karen Auhl on organising fundraiser events for Medtrek 4, Huttcon 90 and two Sydney Worldcon bids. (Late 1980s – mid 1990s) Edwina has been a contributing member of FOLCC (the Friends of Linda Cox Chan) which was an informal group donating monies raised to Diabetes Charities in Australia. Linda Cox Chan was a Sydney-based SF fan artist and writer who passed away in 1991. From 2012 to the present time, Edwina has also run a lucky-dip at Australian SF conventions to raise money for FFANZ.
Edwina has been organiser/co-organiser of three SF relaxacons: Nowracon (with Karen Auhl, 1989), Nelcon (with Sue Pears) 2001 and the highly successful Medtrek Reunion 33 and 1/3rd Reunion in 2015. She worked on the committee as secretary for Huttcon 90, the National Science Fiction Media Convention, 1990, held in St Kilda, Melbourne, November 1990. In 1994, Edwina was the treasurer for Comedycon, a SF/Comedy convention with Hattie Hayridge from TV series Red Dwarf as Guest of Honour.
More recently, in July 2017, Edwina was Guest of Honour at the highly successful Medtrek 6: the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek in Australia.
At Australian conventions, Edwina is a well-known and respected fan huckster, the “Celestial Cobbler”, promoting Australian written and published SF, and becoming well known for her own creative works in ceramics, jewellery and painted silk creations.
From 2002 – 2010 Edwina co-edited (with Ted Scribner) the revivified version of The Australian Science Fiction Bullsheet. Edwina was one of the founding members of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM). She worked in various roles on the magazine from 2002 – 2015, including editor for five issues. She has co-edited two anthologies of (mostly Australian) original speculative fiction: Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear (2012) and Use Only As Directed (2014). She is the author of three books with Peggy Bright Books: a young adult SF novel, The Whale’s Tale (2009), a collection of interlinked short stories, The Back of the Back of Beyond (2013) and An Eclectic Collection of Stuff and Things, a collection of her writing (2017). A complete bibliography of her works can been checked out on <https://edwinaharvey.wordpress.com/my-writing-and-editing-cv/>.
She currently works as a freelance editor and has edited several SF books for Australian small press, Peggy Bright Books, and US small press, Dragonwell Press. She also gives back to the current Australian SF scene by editing short stories and novels for emerging SF writers.
Edwina also rescues elderly dogs and cats from shelters, the occasional donkey as well — and is looking for a miniature horse to graze in the back yard.
In other words, Edwina is a hard-working treasure.
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