Born on the South Island of New Zealand and now living on the North Island of Australia, Simon Petrie is a Canberra-based research scientist and writer of speculative fiction (SF, fantasy, and occasionally horror), with over one hundred short stories published since 2006. In August 2010, he was awarded Best New Talent in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards (NZ's annual speculative fiction awards), and in 2013 and 2018 respectively his novellas 'Flight 404' and 'Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body' won the Best Novella / Novelette award in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. His fiction has also been shortlisted for the (Australian) Ditmar and Aurealis Awards, and has appeared in Year's Best lists; he's also scored a coveted Dishonourable Mention in the annual Bulwer-Lytton writing competition. The three elements central to his writing style are scientific detail, humour, and the Oxford comma.