Writer Paul Haines died 5 March 2012, after publicly battling with cancer, at home in Melbourne, Australia. Born 8 June 1970 in New Zealand, he moved to Australia in the 1990s, and worked as an IT consultant.
At the end of November, he announced “the official end” of his writing career, writing “My health has taken such a pounding these last months and the cancer is spreading like cancer does. Sadly the end is nigh, and the first to go is my writing career. She is now officially kaput.” That announcement, the last entry on his web site, points readers at a more detailed explanation on his LiveJournal blog.
In his brief career, he earned a slew of awards, including three Aurealis Awards, five Ditmars (including Best New Talent in 2005), four Sir Julius Vogel Awards, and two Chronos Awards. His stories, which appeared mostly in Australian magazines, were collected in three volumes: Doorways for the Dispossessed (Prime Books, 2006), Slice of Life (The Mayne Press, 2009), and The Last Days of Kali Yuga (Brimstone Press, 2011).
Haines is survived by his wife and daughter.