Biography

Ken Saunders is a Sydney-based writer who has lived in Canada, New Zealand and Australia without ever once being asked to compete in the Olympics for any country. He has, however, won the less athletic NSW Writers’ Centre Inner-City Life short story competition on two occasions.

His debut novel 2028, a satire set in a plausibly absurd and dysfunctional future Australian political landscape was compared by reviewers to the works of Douglas Adams (despite there being no Vogons whatsoever in the plot).* This was followed up by his second comedy fiction, Get with the Program, the purported memoirs of Zenith, the interactive virtual personal trainer, part AI autobiography/part cyberspace intrigue and thriller.

A graduate of McGill University with a degree in History, Ken pursued a successful career working for places that were willing to hire him. His screen credits include performing the role of Prince Andrey in the 1982 Canadian Super-8 silent film version of War and Peace that played to packed audiences of family and friends on several occasions and was written by the famous non-Canadian, Leo Tolstoy.

He co-authored and illustrated A Child’s Guide to Particle Physics, a photocopied and stapled together alphabet primer (“A is for Atom, the smallest of small, ‘til Rutherford split it proving it wasn’t at all”) that was sometimes given to new parents instead of a proper gift. He also produced the 45 record (that’s showing his age) “The Train They Call the Ocean” that went platin . . . sorry . . . that went vinyl. He still has two or three copies of it in a drawer somewhere in his apartment if you’re interested.

A man of many talents but limited guitar chords, his most recent music video is in the relatively obscure musical genre of contemporary sea shanty, where a traditional 18^th century whaling song has been adapted to be about the Manly Ferry in Sydney instead.

Ken and his wife, the neuroscientist Laurie Miller, reside in Glebe, NSW. They have a daughter Marina who lives in Montreal and once found a copy of a Todd Noy novel mysteriously left behind in a café while she was backpacking in Europe.