Orb Publications is a publisher based in Ringwood, Victoria

Ringwood, Victoria

Ringwood is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Maroondah. At the 2006 Census, Ringwood had a population of 15,185....

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The company currently publishes the speculative fiction

Speculative fiction

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...

 magazine Orb Speculative Fiction.

Orb Speculative Fiction

Orb Speculative Fiction (also known simply as Orb) was first released in 1999 and was edited by Sarah Endacott. In 2002 Orb #2 was a short-list nominee in the Ditmar Awards for best collected work but lost to Earth Is But a Star, edited by Damien Broderick

Damien Broderick

Damien Francis Broderick is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer. His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term "virtual reality," and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the...

.

Orb again was nominated for best collected work in 2005 and 2008 for the issues six and seven respectively. Two authors have won awards for their stories featured in Orb. Sue Isle

Sue Isle

Sue Isle is the author of the Young Adult literature Fantasy novel Scale Of Dragon, Tooth Of Wolf and nonfiction children's book 'Wolf Children'....

's "The Woman of Endor

The Woman of Endor

-Background:"The Woman of Endor" was first published in 2001 in the second edition of the Orb Speculative Fiction magazine, edited by Sarah Endacott and published by Orb Publications...

" won the 2001 Aurealis Award for best fantasy short story

Aurealis Award for best fantasy short story

The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and SpecFaction NSW to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers"...

 and Cat Sparks' "A Lady of Adestan" won the 2008 Ditmar Award for best novella as well as being a finalist in the 2007 Aurealis Award for best fantasy short story. The magazine has also featured ten other short stories which have been finalists at the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards.