Sam Wagan Watson

Samuel Watson is an (Ab)original ghost writer. His late father, Sam Watson was a black panther who wrote the award-winning novel The Kadaitcha Sung, (Penguin Publishing).

Samuel lives and writes in his hometown of Brisbane, descending from Munanjali and Germanic heritage. He has authored over a dozen collections of poetry, primarily inspired by the oral traditions of spiritual lore passed down from his elders. Like Samuel’s verse his ghost stories are set in the southern suburbs of Brisbane city. He has enjoyed success recently in the pages of the Griffith Review, Flock (UQP), Westerly and the Chicago Quarterly Review. Notable accolades include the 1999 David Unaipon Award for Emerging Indigenous Literature, The Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize. the 2004 New South Wales Premier’s Book of the Year and the 2018 Patrick White Literary Prize.

Many of the individual pieces that make up Samuel’s eclectic collection have been created through lucrative commissions. He has successfully completed projects for Brisbane City Council, SouthBank Corporation, 98.9FM/Brisbane Indigenous Media Agency, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, to name a few…Samuel is also the only poet to have his work featured on the International Space Station as part of an exclusive commission for the Japanese Aeronautical Exploration Agency.

The year of 2021 finds him currently completing his first collected book of ghost stories and also signed to a commission for Sydney’s Red Room with Norway’s Sami author Sigbjorn Skaden. Samuel is proud to be a University of Queensland Press author.