Janeen Webb

Biography

The daughter of a WW2 Australian Army commando and salesman, Janeen Webb was brought up in the Newcastle suburb of Charlestown and was educated at schools locally. She then studied at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales where she ultimately gained a Ph.D. (1983) in literature. For many years she taught at the Institute of Catholic Education (later part of the Australian Catholic University) in Melbourne, Victoria where she was Associate Professor and Reader in literature.

From 1987-1991, Webb was a member of the editorial collective of Australian Science Fiction Review: Second Series, and is currently on the advisory board of Science Fiction Studies. She is perhaps best known for her co-editorship, with her second husband, Jack Dann, of a major anthology of Australian science fiction and fantasy, Dreaming Down-Under (Sydney: HarperCollins, 1998; New York: Tor Books, 1999), which won its editors a World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, as well as a 1999 Ditmar Award.

Her other publications include Aliens & Savages: Fiction, Politics and Prejudice in Australia (1998), The Fantastic Self (an edited collection of critical essays on fantasy and science fiction) (1999) and a scholarly edition of The Yellow Wave, Kenneth Mackay's important 1895 scientific romance (2003). These three books were written/edited with her colleague, Andrew Enstice.

Webb is currently working on a series of novels for Young Adults, The Sinbad Chronicles. The first two books are Sailing to Atlantis (2001) and The Silken Road to Samarkand (2003).

In 1995 she married Jack Dann an American science fiction author with whom she resides near Foster in rural Victoria.