About Me

Contact:

Email: Laura.N.Mauro at gmail dot com

I am represented by Max Edwards at Aevitas Creative

My pronouns are they/them

Short bio:

Laura Mauro was born and raised in London and now lives in Oxfordshire. Her short story ‘Looking for Laika’ won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction in 2018, and ‘Sun Dogs’ was shortlisted for the 2017 Shirley Jackson Award in the Novelette category. Their debut collection, ‘Sing Your Sadness Deep’ won the 2020 British Fantasy Award for Best Collection, and her short story ‘The Pain-Eater’s Daughter’ won the 2020 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. They like Japanese wrestling, Finnish folklore and Russian space dogs. They blog sporadically at lauramauro.com

The Long Story:

Most writers will tell you they’ve been writing since they were small, and I’m no exception. I started out writing poems, which graduated into awful teenage angst poems (with the requisite soujourn into Sprawling Epic Fantasy Novel territory). I started writing short stories in 2011 but never took it seriously until 2012, when my first short story was published in ‘Shadows and Tall Trees’. Since then, I’ve been what you might call a ‘serious’ writer, although I’m yet to give up my day job (it’s part of The Dream, along with the apartment in Osaka and the functioning knee joints…)

I was also (briefly) a pro wrestling journalist, and served as Women’s Wrestling Editor over at Steelchair Magazine. My article on the Golden Lovers received a Kevin Kelly shout-out during NJPW’s 2018 G1 tournament, which I haven’t stopped talking about.

In 2018, my short story “Looking for Laika” won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. As if by some miracle, my short story “The Pain-Eater’s Daughter” and my debut collection “Sing Your Sadness Deep” won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction and Best Collection respectively. I haven’t stopped talking about that, either.

私は少し日本語を話しています。でも、もっと勉強をしなければなりません！

I was born and raised in south east London and currently live in Oxfordshire. When I’m not making things up I enjoy reading, travelling, watching wrestling, playing video games, collecting tattoos, dyeing my hair strange colours and making up nicknames for my cats.

Site header image credit: Freaktography @ Flickr

Awards, Nominations & Other Accolades:

2012: Honourable Mention in Ellen Datlow’s ‘Best Horror of the Year 5’ for ‘Red Rabbit’

2015: Nominated for British Fantasy Awards in ‘Best Short Story’ and ‘Best Newcomer’ categories for ‘Ptichka’

2017: Longlisted for the BFSA Awards in the ‘Best Short Fiction’ category for ‘Looking for Laika’

2018: Nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award in the ‘Novelette’ category for ‘Sun Dogs’

Nominated for British Fantasy Award in the ‘Best Novella’ category for ‘Naming the Bones’

Winner of the British Fantasy Award for ‘Best Short Story’ for ‘Looking for Laika’

2020: ‘The Pain-Eater’s Daughter’ selected for Ellen Datlow’s ‘Best Horror of the Year 12‘

Winner of the British Fantasy Award in the ‘Best Collection’ category for ‘Sing Your Sadness Deep’

Winner of the British Fantasy Award in the ‘Best Short Story’ category for ‘The Pain-Eater’s Daughter’