Kathryn Gossow was told to choose a genre and stick to it. In the same way that she ignored her grade 9 science teacher, she ignored this advice. Her first novel, Cassandra, is a mythic fiction retelling. Her second book, The Dark Poet, is a collection of gritty short stories about the dangers of charismatic men. In real life, Kathryn loves many things. Jonquils, decaying buildings, sarsaparilla, lemon curd, cold winds, warm spring days, music festivals. True Crime. The ordinariness of life meets the extraordinary of crime. From this obsession springs her third book, a small-town thriller, Taking Baby for a Walk.
Kathryn is a co-editor of South of the Sun: Australian Fairy Tales for the 21st Century anthology and a keen explorer of fairy tales.
She adores flash fiction and has several short stories loose in the world.
Her debut novel, Cassandra, was a finalist in the Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy Novel in 2017. She was the winner of an ASA Mentorship, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won a commendation for Flash Fiction from the Australian Horror Writers’ Association. In 2024, she won the Annual Australian Fairy Tale Society Award for Inspiration and Contribution to Australian Fairy Tale Culture
Kathryn is an irregular blogger and sometimes gardener of her two-acre garden in a pocket of the Brisbane River. When she is writing, her garden is a mess. When she is gardening, she forgets to write. It seems she cannot have both. She writes for that elusive feeling when she gets into the zone, and there is nothing else in the world but her and the words that tumble onto the page. She gardens for the tomatoes.
Writing Awards
- 2024 Australian Fairy Tale Award for Inspiration and Contribution to Australian Fairy Tale Culture
- Cassandra finalist in the 2017 Best Fantasy Novel category of Aurealis Awards
- Manuscript “Cassandra” was awarded a mentorship in the Australian Society of Authors Mentorship Program
- Nominated for Pushcart Prize, “Dance Home”, Cezanne’s Carrot
- Commendation in the Australian Horror Writers’ Association Flash Fiction Competition for “Stalker”
- Conflux winner for short story “The Cusp”
Short Stories and Flash Fiction
- Microfiction at Metaworker, “Precarious” and “Bus Stop”
- “Back on the Ice” at Lothorien Poetry Journal
- “The Cusp”, Conflux winner
- “Memory Games,” in StylusLit
- “Turning the Corner,” Unsettling Wonder
- “Grandma’s House,” Gingerbread House
- “Devotees,” Crash Issue I, January 2010
- “Soulmates,” Black: Australian Dark Culture
- “Cold Kiss,” Black Box Anthology, Brimstone Press
- “Dance Home,” Cezanne’s Carrot
- “Stalker,” Moonlit Path, October 2007
- “Boys and Cars,” elimae
- “Women who do Lunch,” Salome Magazine
- “Reflections on a Town Bike,” Diddle Dog
- “The Applicant,” Antipodean SF
- “Worm,'” Cezanne’s Carrot, Autumn Equinox
For fun, she jumped out of a plane (only once)…