Press Kit

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Zena Shapter Images

A Selection of Zena Shapter Book Covers

There are additional book covers in my Bibliography, which you also have my permission to use.

Zena Shapter YouTube

Please feel free to share any of the videos on my YouTube channel over here. There are videos on: When Dark Roots Hunt, Towards White, my author life, interviews with me, an author/artist resilience playlist, and more.

Zena Shapter Bios

50 words

Zena Shapter is the Ditmar Award-winning author of ‘When Dark Roots Hunt’, ‘Towards White’ and co-author of ‘Into Tordon’. A writing mentor and editor, she believes stories are our best invention. She loves frogs, chocolate, potatoes and movies – though not at the same time! Find her online via @ZenaShapter and zenashapter.com

160 words

Zena Shapter writes from a castle in a flying city hidden by a thundercloud, reaching across age and genre into the heart of storytelling. A multi-award-winning author of science fiction, fantasy, speculative and contemporary fiction, she loves conjuring journeys into the beyond and unusual, and is the author of books such as ‘When Dark Roots Hunt’ (Finalist ‘Best Novel’ 2024 Ditmar Award), ‘Towards White’, and co-author of ‘Into Tordon’. When not writing, Zena loves movies, frogs, chocolate, potatoes and living with her family among Sydney’s beautiful Northern Beaches. She’s travelled all around the world, visiting close to 50 countries, which inspire her to create worlds of her own. With her BA (Hons) in English Literature, Zena enjoys working as a mentor, editor and inclusive creativity advocate, teaching storytelling and writing at festivals, libraries and schools. She judges various literary awards and encourages everyone to value the importance of creativity. She believes that stories are our best invention. Find her online via @ZenaShapter.

450 words

Zena Shapter is a multi-award winning author of science fiction, fantasy, speculative and contemporary fiction, conjuring journeys into the beyond and unusual. She loves movies, frogs, chocolate, potatoes, and living with family among Sydney’s beautiful Northern Beaches. She’s travelled all around the world, visiting close to 50 countries, which inspire her to create worlds of her own.
As an author, Zena has been called a “writer with a need for adventure” (Midnight Echo magazine), “a specialist in the weird, wacky, wonderful” (Writing NSW), creating “the kind of excitement and suspense and pure pleasure that made me want to become a writer” (Lillian Csernica, Tangent Online), “dark fantasy at its blood-soaked finest” (Australasian Horror Writers’ Association), “cold and brutal” (Tor.com) and “beautifully crafted and well told stories that deserve to be read many times” (Glen Miles Short Story Prize).
Her published titles include the science fantasy YA ‘When Dark Roots Hunt’ (MidnightSun, 2023; Finalist ‘Best Novel’ 2024 Ditmar Award), the science fiction adult novel ‘Towards White’ (IFWG 2017), the science fiction children’s book ‘Into Tordon’ (co-author, MidnightSun 2016), and various children’s and YA novels to raise money for The Kids’ Cancer Project.
She’s won over a dozen national writing competitions, including the Australasian Horror Writers’ Association Award for Short Fiction (“Darker”), the Glen Miles Short Story Prize (“Champions”) and a Ditmar Award for Best New Talent. Her short stories have appeared in the Hugo-nominated ‘Sci Phi Journal’, ‘Midnight Echo’ and their Australian Shadows Awarded ‘best’ anthology, ‘Dark Recesses Press’, ‘Manawaker Studios’, ‘Etherea Magazine’, ‘SFS Stories’, ‘Untitled’, ‘Antipodean SF’, anthologies by B-Cubed Press, Deadset Press, Award-Winning Australian Writing (twice), and many more.
With her BA (Hons) in English Literature, Zena enjoys working as a mentor, editor, and inclusive creativity advocate, inspiring writers to develop their craft.
She’s founded and led community creativity projects for writers such as the ‘Art & Words Project’, a range of short story anthologies, and the award-winning Northern Beaches Writers’ Group. She has spoken on council-led panels about the importance of creativity, talked about writing at countless festivals, libraries and schools, and taught creative writing since 1991, teaching at: Writing NSW, the Society of Women Writers NSW, the Fellowship of Australian Writers, Mosman Community College, Northern Beaches Community College, Sydney’s Freecon, Conflux, Natcon, Carers Australia NSW, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, Mosman Council, the Northern Beaches Council, and more.
With a BA(Hons) in English Literature, she has also judged the Mosman Literary Awards, the Northern Beaches Writers’ Competition, Manly West Short Story Competition, Australasian Horror Writers’ Association Short Fiction Award, Ghostly Stringybark Award, Seven Deadly Sins Stringybark Award, and BezerkaCon Writing Award.
Zena believes that stories are our best invention. Find her online via @ZenaShapter and zenashapter.com

Select Endorsements

“Zena Shapter is a writer with a need for adventure.” Midnight Echo magazine

“A specialist in the weird, wacky, wonderful world of speculative fiction.” NSW Writers Centre, Sydney

“The kind of excitement and suspense and pure pleasure that made me want to become a writer… Go read more of Zena Shapter’s work. Go like her page on Facebook. You’ll be glad you did. Zena Shapter – she deserves your attention…” Lillian Csernica, reviewer for Tangent Online

“As cold and brutal as the Pacific Ocean crashing into the rocky California coast.” Alex Brown, Tor.com

“Beautifully crafted and well told stories that deserve to be read many times.” Gareth Barlow, Glen Miles Short Story Prize.

“When Dark Roots Hunt is a great read – fresh, action-packed and utterly compelling. I loved it.” Ian Irvine, internationally bestselling author of The Gates of Good and Evil series

“Shapter has created an immersive, fantastical world with tension poised to snap at any moment. I couldn’t put it down.” USA Today Bestselling Author Dionne Lister, author of The Circle of Talia

“When Dark Roots Hunt is a rich and thrilling read… Shapter has created an intriguing new world filled with luminous beauty, exotic dangers, and unsettlingly familiar ageing tech, where the heroine must navigate strange cultural and political tensions and wrestle with the consequences of her own tangled ambitions.” Leife Shallcross, author of The Beast’s Heart

“A completely captivating fantasy world, that is full of action with intriguing characters and a great story line. Sala is a complicated character who will have you screaming at her one minute and cheering her on the next… A perfect story for fantasy and sci-fi lovers.” Lamont Books

“Compelling, impossible to put down.” The Supernatural Underground

“[Towards White] is steeped in a deep sense of unease, alternating between white-knuckle action and a deliberate unfolding of the layers of truth.” Leife Shallcross, author of ‘The Beast’s Heart’

“Zena Shapter’s ‘Darker’ is dark fantasy at its blood-soaked finest. Its setting is evocative and sharply drawn, its storyline emotionally gruelling and possessing a surprising sting in the tale. Highly recommended.” Guy Salvidge, Australasian Horror Writers’ Association Judge, of ‘Darker’

“‘Towards White’ shows the conflict and chaos of a meeting between the unstoppable force of scientific progress and the immovable object that is human nature – and what happens to those caught in the middle.” David McDonald, author of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Castaways’ and ‘Captain America: Sub Rosa’

“Zena Shapter, an Aussie author who is soon to take the speculative fiction world by storm with her novel, Towards White.” MJ Hearle, Pan Macmillan author of ‘Winter’s Shadow’

“If you like your science fiction intelligent, pacy and thought-provoking, ‘Towards White’ is for you. I thoroughly enjoyed this SF thriller.” Pamela Freeman, author of ‘The Castings Trilogy’

“Suspense that takes you to the brink, then pushes you over. The world building was perfection. Highly recommended!” Kim Falconer, author of ‘The Blood in the Beginning’, an Ava Sykes Novel

“…a dynamic writer, teacher and one-woman publicity machine… One of the most energetic identities on the Sydney writing scene is the fabulous Zena Shapter.” Walter Mason, Allen & Unwin author

“A smart supernatural thriller, with a central mystery that is both heartbreaking and intriguing. Shapter blurs the line between technology and spirituality.” Joanne Anderton, award-winning author of ‘Debris’ and ‘The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories’

“Fabulous read from a strong and prolific SF writer! Keep your eye on this author!” Kim Falconer, Quantum Encryption Series, of ‘Let The Tempest Hold Me Down’

“A magnificent story!” Karl Sumner, Editor of Let Us In, of ‘Made’

“An impressive debut! A pacy, exciting read!” Books & Publishing, of ‘Into Tordon

“That rarest of books—an easy read that tackles hard subjects. Combining the ominous vibes of ‘The Stepford Wives’ with the science driven action of ‘The Andromeda Strain’, this slick technothriller will keep you turning the pages long past when you should have gone to bed.” David McDonald, author of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Castaways’ and ‘Captain America: Sub Rosa’

“Absorbing and unique.” S Philips, Editor of You, Me & a Bit of We, of ‘Our Something Said’

“I quickly found myself engrossed in a classic page-turner so full of action, imagination and suspense that I defy anyone, no matter what age, to put it down.” Judith O’Connor, Women’s Ink, of ‘The Time of the Jade Spider

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