The AHWA built to some extent on the work of previous horror writers' associations in Australia such as the Sydney-based Gargoyle Club (1987-92)(see Leigh Blackmore) and the Melbourne-based Australian Horror Writers (1994-1998) (see Bryce J. Stevens), which grew out of Bloodsongs magazine (its President being Bryce J. Stevens, and its newsletter/journal Severed Head having been edited first by Stevens, then Aaron Sterns).
Issues four to seven were edited-in-chief by Steve Proposch and co-edited by Chris A. Masters and Bryce J. Stevens.
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Writers who published stories in the magazine included Ramsey Campbell, Poppy Z. Brite, Robert Hood, Sean Williams, Richard Harland, Kyla Ward, Kaaron Warren and D.F. Lewis.
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Bill Congreve, Sean McMullen and Steve Paulsen's William Atheling Jr award-winning essay, "A History of Australian Horror", notes that "Issue 1 received some criticism for tending towards the splatter end of the genre... A Category One Restricted rating by the Attorney General's department saw it restricted to readers 18 years and older, and banned altogether in the state of Queensland." (Bonescribes: Year's Best Australian Horror 1995, p. 135)