Dirk's Real-Life World

Place of Birth: Offenbach, Germany (near Frankfurt)
Interests: Reading, technology, movies, food, travelling, swimming, AFL, soccer
Dislikes: Gardening, motor sports
Favourite Colour: Blue
Favourite Book: The Scar by China Miéville
Favourite Film: Groundhog Day (Find out why)
Favourite Food: Tapas
Favourite Song: Once Upon a Time in the West - Dire Straits
Favourite Music: R&B
Favourite Word: susurrus (a soft murmuring or rustling sound)
Favourite Animal: Wombat

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Dirk's Bio

Dirk Strasser has won multiple Australian Publisher Association Awards and a Ditmar for Best Professional Achievement. His short stories have been translated into a number of languages, and his acclaimed fantasy trilogy, The Books of Ascension – Zenith, Equinox and Eclipse – has been published in English (Pan Macmillan / Momentum) and German (Heyne). His short story, “The Doppelgänger Effect”, appeared in the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology, Dreaming Down Under (HarperCollins), edited by Jack Dann. His articles have appeared in most of Australia’s major newspapers, he founded the Aurealis Awards and has co-edited and co-published Australia’s premier science-fiction and fantasy magazine Aurealis for over thirty years. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and fluffy white dog.  He has two adult children. He has been a high school teacher, a writer of best-selling textbooks, an educational software developer, a publishing manager, and a soccer club president. His historical fantasy novel Conquist was a finalist in the Aurealis Awards Best Fantasy Novel category. Dirk’s screenplay version of Conquist won the Wildsound Fantasy/Sci-Fi Festival Best Scene Reading Award and was a featured finalist in the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival and the Creative World Awards.