Occupation Writer Role Writer Name Will Elliott | Period 2002 to present Nationality Australian | |
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Genre Horror fiction
Literary fiction Awards Aurealis Award for best horror novel, Australian Shadows Award Books The Pilo Family Circus, Nightfall, The Pilgrims: A Novel, World's End, Shadow: The Pendulu Similar People Stephen King, H P Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Jasper Fforde, Mervyn Peake | ||
Will Elliott (born 1979) is an Australian horror writer who lives in Brisbane, Queensland.
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His debut novel The Pilo Family Circus was published in Australia in 2006 after winning the inaugural ABC Fiction Award (sponsored by ABC Books). The novel went on to win the Aurealis Award (co-winner: Best Horror novel, plus the Golden Aurealis Award), the Australian Shadows Award, the Ditmar Award (Best Novel), the Sydney Morning Herald's "Best Young Novelist Award" for 2007 and the 'Premios Nocte' Best Foreign Book Award 2011. The Pilo Family Circus also short-listed for the 2007 International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel. The Pilo Family Circus has been picked up for North American distribution by Victoria Blake's new publishing company, Underland Press and was scheduled to be one their debut novels in 2009.
Elliott dropped out of a law degree at 20 when he developed schizophrenia. Although The Pilo Family Circus is about a young man struggling with a psychotic alter-ego when he dons clown face paint, Elliott has said the novel is not autobiographical.
Elliott has written some short stories. His first published story "Ain't no ordinary ham" (Griffith Review, Sept 2006) was reprinted in Best Australian Stories 2006, ed. Robert Drewe (Black Ink, 2006).
Elliott's memoir "Strange Places" was released in Australia on 1 May 2009, chiefly dealing with Elliott's experiences with schizophrenia and detailing the development of his writing career. It was short-listed for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Non-fiction in 2010.
His foray into mainstream fantasy, "The Pendulum Trilogy" consists of the three novels Pilgrim, Shadow and World's End. Pilgrims was published on 1 April 2010, Shadow on 1 January 2011 and World's End on 1 October 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia. Elliott has expressed disappointment with this series, mentioning that it was written in difficult personal circumstances, and that it is "not the kind of fiction he should be writing", despite some positive critical response from reviewers in the fantasy genre.
Elliott's darkly comic fantasy Nightfall was published in Australia in 2012. A short story collection "Happy Endings" was published in May 2013 as an E-book. A standalone comic fantasy, "Inside Out" was published in October, 2013. A sequel to "Pilo Family Circus" is slated for publication in 2015 in the USA with Resurrection House, titled "The Pilo Traveling Circus".