Angela Slatter (born 1967) is a writer based in Brisbane, Australia. Primarily working in the field of speculative fiction, she has focused on short stories since deciding to pursue writing in 2005, when she undertook a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing. Since then she has written a number of short stories, many of which were included in her two compilations, Sourdough and Other Stories (2010) and The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales (2010).
Education
Slatter is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006. She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing. In 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships.
Angela Slatter's short stories have appeared in anthologies and journals in Australia and internationally. Her work has been listed for Honourable Mention by Ellen Datlow, Gavin Grant and Kelly Link; and she has been nominated three times for the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story. Along with the Aurealis Awards, Slatter has been nominated for the Ditmar Award on two occasions: as Best New Talent in 2008, and for Best Short Story in 2010.
In 2010, Slatter published two short story collections: Sourdough and Other Stories with Tartarus Press (UK) which received a starred review at Publishers Weekly, and The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales (Ticonderoga Publications). She was working on a "duopoly" consisting of the novels Well of Souls and Gate of the Dead.
In 2016, her first solo full-length novel Vigil was released.
Reception
Slatter's works have been well received. She has received praise from Publishers Weekly for her "evocative and poetic prose" in Sourdough and Other Stories, and her writing garnered similar comments from Jeff VanderMeer, who described it as "brilliant, muscular, and original". In particular, Slatter has received critical acclaim for her style of retelling or "reloading" fairytales.
Individual short stories have, at times, been highlighted by reviewers: in particular, her story "The Jacaranda Wife" was perceived as one of the best stories in Jack Dann's Dreaming Again anthology by The Australian, as well as being praised by The Cairns Post and The Sydney Morning Herald, who wrote: "The collection's trump card is the quality of its new writers, many of whom produce stronger stories than some of the veterans ... Particular standouts are ... Angela Slatter's haunting The Jacaranda Wife, set in colonial Australia, seems to build towards a climax truly sinister, yet instead leaves you with beautiful imagery that is as otherworldly as it is strangely touching." Similarly, Scoop Magazine described her collaborative story, "The February Dragon" (with Lisa L Hannett) as being a "highlight" of Scary Kisses.
Kim Wilkins has cited Slatter as a SF author of note in the chapter 'Genre in Speculative Fiction', in the Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing (2012).
Slatter was the subject of an extensive feature in Issue 21 of Black Static, which had her photograph on the cover. Its review of Sourdough and Other Stories states, "The effect is almost as if Quentin Tarantino had decided to write fairy stories instead of scripting Pulp Fiction." (page 44)
Her first collection, The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, was a finalist for the 2010 Australian Shadows Award for Long Fiction, and her story "Brisneyland by Night" was a finalist for Short Fiction.