By Bruce Gillespie: Very sad news received, Bill Wright, stalwart of Australian fandom since the late 1950s, died January 16th in the Alfred Hospital. He would have turned 85 on the 17th. Bill had undergone an exploratory operation for bladder cancer, returned home about a week ago, then rang to say that he had fallen at home and “thought he had broken his back.” He was reachable at the hospital for a couple of days, then not. Thanks to Dick Jenssen for doing his best to stay in touch with his friend of over 60 years. Thanks to his Bill’s sister Rosemary Wright for telling us the sad news.

Bill Wright was a founding member of both ANZAPA and the Nova Mob; HonSec of the Eighth Australian Science Fiction Convention (the eighth Australian Natcon) in 1969; Secretary of Aussiecon in 1975; Awards administrator for the Australian Science Fiction Foundation; Life Member of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club; Founder of Meteor Incorporated; and DUFF delegate in 2013. He received the A. Bertram Chandler Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.

He is particularly noted for establishing the Norma Hemming Award for Race, Gender, Sexuality, Class And Disability In Australian Speculative Fiction, and organising it for six years.

His fanzines and apazines include:

• The Antipodean Areopagus
• Aussie Transpacific
• Interstellar Ramjet Scoop
• The Planet of the Eggs
• Waiting for Paul J. Stevens Fanzine.
• The Wright Stuff

(Thanks to Fancyclopedia 3 for the information in Paragraph 2.)