Sean Llewellyn Williams (born 23 May 1967) is an Australian author of science fiction who lives in Adelaide, South Australia. Several of his books have been New York Times best-sellers.

Early life and education

Williams was born in Whyalla, South Australia on 23 May 1967. He studied sciences and music at Pulteney Grammar School and matriculated third in his year (1984), topping the state for Musical composition. That same year, he won the Young Composer's Award for a theme and three variations for string quartet with flute, oboe and trumpet soloists called "Release of Anger". He then went to the Adelaide University and studied a Bachelor of Economics and wrote for the student newspaper On Dit. He completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at the Adelaide University in 2005. In 2013, he was awarded a PhD from the same institution.

Writing career

He is the author of over one hundred and forty published short stories and sixty books, including Twinmaker and (with Garth Nix) the Troubletwisters series. He has co-written three books in the Star Wars: New Jedi Order series. His novelisation of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed debuted at #1 on the "New York Times" bestseller list, the first novelisation of a computer game to do so.

Other roles

Williams was Chair of the SA Writers' Centre from 2001 to 2003, and is one of only three lifetime members of that institution. Williams has also tutored for the Clarion South Workshop, was a previous winner of the Writers of the Future contest, and remains a judge for the same. In 2017, Williams visited Casey Station on an Arts Fellowship awarded by the Australian Antarctic Division. Since 2019, Williams has taught Creative Writing at Flinders University. Under the pseudonym, theadelaidean, Williams makes ambient and experimental music released mainly through Projekt Records. In July 2024, Projekt released the double CD Parallels, his first collaboration with Steve Roach. Some of Williams' music has appeared in film and on the stage, such as for the award-nominated short film "Life Savings" (which screened at the St Kilda Short Film Festival in 2024) and the score for the 2023 South Australian Ruby Awards-nominated multimedia work Bárbaros. A presentation of his album Hyperaurea appeared in the 2024 Adelaide Fringe.

Awards

Williams is a multiple recipient of both the Ditmar and Aurealis Awards.

Novels

Evergence (with Shane Dix)

The Books of the Change

Orphans (with Shane Dix)

Star Wars: New Jedi Order (with Shane Dix)

Star Wars

The Books of the Cataclysm

Geodesica (with Shane Dix)

The Broken Land

Astropolis

The Fixers

Troubletwisters series (with Garth Nix)

Have Sword, Will Travel series (with Garth Nix)

Twinmaker Series

Others

Collections

Notable short stories