Susan Smith-Clarke
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Susan Smith-Clarke |
| Alias(es): | Sue Smith, SueP Clarke, Susan Batho, Maree Celeste |
| Type: | fan writer, fanzine publisher & editor |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek: TOS, Blake's 7 |
| Communities: | Astrex Star Trek Club |
| Other: | Published under the names R & S Clarke, Clarke & Keating Ink & Batho and Kerr Ink and Clarke & Kerr Ink |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Susan Smith-Clarke (now Batho) is an influential member of the Australian science fiction community. She has written and produced numerous fanzines and has chaired many conventions, including six Medtrek Conventions and one Syncon. In the 1990s she donated her fanzine collection to the National Library of Australia. In 1997, she won Australia's Chandler Award for her contributions to the fan community and the following biography was prepared:
From 1997:
Susan is a firm believer in Fandom is a Way of Life. She has been in fandom for over 25 years and was the founder of the longest running Australian Star Trek Club - ASTREX (now 24 years old) and she was the president for 9 and a half years. She was also the editor of DATA, the club newsletter for 10 years. She is the editor of Beyond Antares - Australia's longest running Star Trek zine (24 years in production) and Chronicles- Blake's Seven magazine (16 years in production). She was four times winner of the National SF Media Award for Best Media Fanzine. Susan has also won numerous FanQ awards at MediaWest Con in America for her fanzine Down Under Express. She has been Chairperson of nine conventions since 1975. She was Fan Guest of Honour at various conventions in Australia since 1979 and at MEDIAWEST Con. For two years she was president of the Sydney Science Fiction Foundation and was editor of its magazine, Forerunner. Over the past 24 years, Susan has become Australia's most prolific fan editor, over 400 fanzines (most 40 to 50 pages in length). She is still producing fanzines as well as a bimonthly newsletter called Review Zine. She still writes stories for numerous local and overseas fanzines.[1]
The National Library of Australia states that:
It would not be unfair to say that Susan Smith-Clarke is one of the founding mothers of media SF fandom in Australia. The accompanying history of Star Trek fandom shows that Susan Smith-Clarke has been involved in many ways and through many years with fandom. She began this long career in high school as a literary SF fan, publishing her own fanzine - Girls own fanzine ...Her Beyond Antares, for long the official fanzine of the club Astrex, became one of the longest running Star Trek publications in the country. After its first beginnings, it was consistently a well-produced and well-edited fanzine, which deserved its long support from writers, artists and readers. Her Chronicles, a Blake's 7 fanzine, was in the same category.
Aside from her own publishing, Susan also acquired a large collection of fanzines, newsletters etc. by way of trade, contributor's copies (she is a prolific writer herself), subscription and simply because people "wanted her to have a copy" " [2]
She was also nominated on multiple occasions for the Australian DUFF Awards (the 'Down Under Fan Fund')[1] and won the Ditmar Award for her services to Australian Fandom.[2]
Susan also jointly published fanzines with Joanne Keating under the name Clarke & Keating Ink (later Batho and Kerr Ink). Some of the issues of Beyond Antares were published under the auspices of the Astrex Star Trek Club.
Susan also became close friends with Bill Hupe, a major US fanzine publisher and agent. They called themselves "The Twins" and became a writing and photographic team and specializing in photography of Alaska and Australia up to Bill Hupe's death in 2010.
Interview
Academic Paper
Zines Listed as of May 1995
- Beyond Antares
- Chronicles
- Beyond Antares R-Rated
- Chronicles Annual
- The Other Side
- Eye of Newt (fantasy)
- Medtrek
- Blue Squadron Journal
- Backtrack
- Down Under Express
- Double Play
- My Brother's Love
- Cross Streams