Lee Murray author, editor
About Lee
Lee Murray ONZM is a multi-award-winning author-editor, essayist, poet, and screenwriter from Aotearoa-New Zealand. A USA Today Bestselling author, Shirley Jackson and five-time Bram Stoker Awards® winner, she is a New Zealand Prime Minister's Award-winner for Literary Achievement in Fiction. Lee lives in the sunny Bay of Plenty with her well-behaved family and a naughty dog.
“Lee Murray is synonymous with Kiwi horror.” —Alan Baxter, award-winning author of The Gulp and Sallow Bend.
“Horror author Lee Murray is New Zealand's Stephen King .” —NZ Woman's Weekly
“Lee Murray is a powerful voice in horror.” —Interstellar Flight Magazine
“A feminist warrior of our time.” —Happy Goat Horror
In July 2024, Lee was listed in the Listener's Quiet achievers, rebels, and dreamers: 50 of New Zealand's most inspiring people.
Lee is represented by Becky LeJeune of Bond Literary Agency.
Distinctions
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Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for literature, particularly speculative literature, 2025
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New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction, 2023
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Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow, 2021
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Honorary Literary Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Authors, Waitangi Day Honours, 2020
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Horror Writers Association Mentor of the Year 2019
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Life Member of Tauranga Writers, New Zealand's longest standing writing group, 2020
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Life Member of SpecFicNZ (Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand), 2018
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Co-founder and facilitator for youngNZwriters (2012-2022)
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Co-founder Wright-Murray Residency for Speculative Fiction Writers
Current Roles
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HWA Wellness Committee, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Committee
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Mentor/assessor HWA, NZSA, SpecFicNZ
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Juror World Fantasy Awards
Photo: Paul Mannering
Awards
International Bram Stoker Award
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2023 nominee for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction for Despatches (PS Publishing)
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2023 nominee for Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction for Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, with Angela Yuriko Smith
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2023 nominee for Superior Achievement in short Non-Fiction for "Displaced Spirits: Ghosts of the Diaspora" in Unquiet Spirits (Black Spot Books)
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2022 WINNER for Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction for "I Don't Read Horror (& Other Weird Tales)" (Interstellar Flight Magazine)
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2021 WINNER for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for Permanent Damage in Attack from the 80s (Eugene Johnson ed.)
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2021 WINNER for Tortured Willows: Bent, Bowed, Unbroken, with Angela Yuriko Smith, Geneve Flynn, and Christina Sng
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2020 WINNER for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection for Grotesque: Monster Stories (Things in the Well)
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2020 WINNER for Superior Achievement in an Anthology for Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women (Omnium Gatherum Media
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2019 nominee for Superior Achievement in a Novel for Into the Ashes (Severed Press)
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2018 nominee for Superior Achievement in an Anthology for Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror
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2018 nominee for Superior Achievement in a Short Story for Dead End Town in Cthulhu Deep Down Under II (Proposch, Sequeira and Stevens eds)
Shirley Jackson Award
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2020 WINNER for Best Anthology for Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women
NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize
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2023 WINNER for prose-poetry collection Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Society Doylean Honoree for Excellence in Fiction and Poetry
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2024 Winner for "Maoriland Blue" in The Terror of Blue John Gap Project (Nancy Holder & Margie Deck editors)
Foreword Indie Awards
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2023 Finalist for Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror
Book Fest Awards
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2024 WINNER for Poetry Anthologies and Collections for Under Her Eye (Black Spot Books)
Sir Julius Vogel Awards
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Best Collected Work for Remains to be Told Dark Tales of Aotearoa, 2023
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Best Novel for Into the Sounds, 2019
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Best Novel for Hounds of the Underworld with Dan Rabarts, 2018
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Best Novel for Into the Mist, 2017
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Best Collected Work for Te Korero Ahi Ka, with Grace Bridges and Aaron Compton, 2019
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Best Collected Work for At the Edge with Dan Rabarts, 2017
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Service to Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Lee Murray, 2017
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Best Short Story for The Thief’s Tale, 2016
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Best Short Story for Inside Ferndale, 2015
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Best Novella/Novelette for Cave Fever, in Regeneration, 2014
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Best Collected Work for Baby Teeth with Dan Rabarts, 2014
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Best Short Story for Hope is the Thing With Feathers 2013
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Best Youth Novel for Battle of the Birds, 2012
Australasian Shadows Awards
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Best Poetry for Cheongsam in Tortured Willows: Bent, Bowed, Unbroken (Yuriko Publishing)
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Best Edited Work for Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Horror, 2019
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Best Edited Work for Baby Teeth with Dan Rabarts, 2014
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Best Edited Work for Midnight Echo #15, 2020
Skoutz Award for Horror Fiction, 2021 (Germany)
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Finalist for Beutezeit (German translation of Into the Mist)
British Fantasy Award, 2021
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Finalist for Best Anthology for Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women
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Aurealis Award, 2021
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Finalist for Best Anthology for Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women
International Imadjinn Awards, 2021
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Finalist for Fiction Collection for Grotesque: Monster Stories
Ladies of Horror Fiction Award, 2021
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Finalist for Best Short Story for Heart Music in Grotesque: Monster Stories
Lit Retreat
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Editor of the Year 2021
Poetry Awards
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Elgin-nominated poet for Tortured Willows, 2021, 2nd-place winner
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Rhysling-nominated poet, short and long forms, 2021, for 'orchid moon', 'exquisite' and 'Interview with a Goddess'. Honorable Mention for 'exquisite', and 2022 for 'Status Transcript:'
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Pushcart-nominated poet, 2021
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Dwarf Star-nominated poet with Honorable Mention for 'fury'.
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Ladies of Horror Fiction-nominated poet for Tortured Willows, 2021
Fellowships
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Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship Finalist, 2016, Winner 2021
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Honorary Literary Fellow of the NZSA, 2020
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Beatson Fellowship Finalist 2020, 2024
Memberships
