Jack Dann's first novel, Starhiker, appeared in 1977, followed by Junction (1981), The Man Who Melted (1984), Echoes of Thunder (1991), High Steel (with Jack C. Haldemann II, 1993), historical secret history The Memory Cathedral (1995), and Civil War historical novel The Silent (1998). His short fiction has been collected in Timetipping (1980). He edited a number of important genre anthologies, including In the Field of Fire (1987) with first wife Jeanne Van Buren Dann. He also co-edited (mostly with Gardner Dozois) numerous SF and fantasy anthologies, from the í70s to the í90s.

In 1994 Dann, recently divorced, moved to Melbourne, Australia, where he married Janeen Webb in 1995.

He won a 1996 Nebula for novella ëëDa Vinci Risingíí, and Australiaís Aurealis Awards in 1996 for The Memory Cathedral and in 1998 for novella ëëNiagara Fallingíí, co-written with Janeen Webb.

Janeen Webb is one of Australiaís major SF critics. She was co-editor of the Australian Science Fiction Review from 1987 to 1991, and is co-author, with Andrew Enstice, of academic study Aliens & Savages: Fiction, Politics and Prejudice in Australia (1998).

Jack Dann and Janeen Webb are co-editors of the 1998 Australian original anthology Dreaming Down-Under.

ëëJD: Iíve been in Australia now for five years. It has affected the fiction. You can see it in ëNiagara Fallingí, and you can see it in a story called ëJubileeí. I set it in Greece and New York and Melbourne, not because I chose to. It takes a while for new material to work its way through. I found myself in the very strange situation of living in Melbourne, Australia, and writing The Silent, a novel all about the American Civil War. The embarrassing part of it was, when I started telling Australians I was working on the Civil War, people kept asking me specific questions about it that I couldnít answer yet. When I was going through Immigration and I had to go see the doctor, I mentioned the Civil War, and he started discussing various generals and strategies. Theyíve got one of the old Monitor and Merrimack vessels here, and theyíre using it as a sea wall.

ëëThereís been a lot of talk, over the last years, about a golden age of science fiction in Australia. Harlan Ellison started this off, at a conference with a bunch of writers, and a bunch of readers. Harlan leaned over and said, ëDo you guys know that youíre right in the middle of your golden age?í You could feel something go through the room. There really was a recognizable sense of community and of a zeitgeist, that something was happening. This year, the magazines have been arguing that this isnít a golden age, itís this and itís that.... But thereís still that sense of community among the authors, of conversation, writers working off each other with their fiction.

ëëI think of Dreaming Down-Under as the Australian Dangerous Visions. Itís basically a yearís worth of Australian output in one volume. We wanted the best work the writers were doing. We didnít care what it was. And in many ways, what we got was not what we expected. We received less hard science fiction than we thought we would. We received more horror. And we got wonderful horror stories by writers known for science fiction.

ëëMy new book, Second Chance, is a novel about James Dean. When I was a kid, I was trying to be James Dean - it was an icon that had strongly affected me. I worked with film director Nick Ray, who did Rebel Without a Cause, years and years ago. Nick was also one of those guys who was kind of a James Dean character. In fact, I got to play James Dean once with Nick Ray. He was standing there in a T-shirt, with his white hair and this patch over his eye, and I was a young punk. ëDid you want to work on the film?í he asked me. And suddenly I knew, this was my time. So basically, Iím incorporating that stuff.

ëëWhen I walk around and you see me, what youíre really seeing is James Dean as he would have been at my age. The only difference is, I donít quite look right anymore! Though it wonít be marketed as genre, this is about the life of James Dean after the accident. Itís this world as it would have been affected, had James Dean lived, and beaten Reagan in California, and all sorts of weird stuff.

ëëI have been on the peripheries of some really interesting politics, so I actually know the players Iíll be writing about. There are a lot of personal reasons for writing the novel, but itís basically about the American Myth, the Hollywood Myth - sort of ëOne Hundred Years of Solitude Goes to Hollywood.í The reason Dean and Monroe are such iconic characters was that they died young. But that stuff is very powerful, so I want to do a very wild, realistic, fantastical novel about these characters, using the myth.íí

JW: ëëI was and still am an academic, teaching. I didnít meet fandom until 1985, when the Worldcon came to Melbourne. After that, I started commuting to conventions, so Iíd see the same people in different locations. The other thing that happened was, Iíd promised to give an academic paper on Gene Wolfe, who arrived and sat in the front row as I was presenting it. For a career academic who, up to this point, hadnít come in contact with the world fantasy or SF conventions, this was a new experience. Now, Iíve kind of gotten used to that interaction, and I really like it.

ëëAside from my time in academe, it seems Iíve spent my whole life traveling. I lived in Southeast Asia for three years, on the west coast of Malaysia. Parts of our collaboration, ëNiagara Fallingí were straight out of my experience in Saudi Arabia.íí

JD: ëëParts of ëNiagara Fallingí were out of my experience of first landing in Melbourne. George R.R. Martin referred to me as ëthe hermit of Binghamton,í because you really couldnít get me out of there. I moved to Australia because I met Janeen at a Locus Worldcon party, and fell in love at first sight! íí

JW: ëëNow Iím writing my first novel. Itís called Death and Desire. Itís probably closer to magic realism than to science fiction, in the sense that itís set in the real world, but strange things will occur. It has a sense of place, but I would hope itís not parochial. I would describe it as being like ëThe Seventh Seal on Rodeo Drive.ííí

JD: ëëI see Australia moving from a civil culture to a rapacious corporate culture, American-style, but it hasnít quite permeated yet. When it does, I think youíre going to see the equivalent of road rage. But right now, for me Australia is a lovely culture to live in. Living in Melbourne, the level of tension and crime is substantially lower than what Iíd been used to. You can walk through a park at night and stand a chance.íí