Russell Blackford (born 1954)[1] is an Australian writer, philosopher, and literary critic.

Blackford was born in Sydney, and grew up in the city of Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, New South Wales.

[citation needed] After graduating with first-class honours degrees in both arts and law from the University of Newcastle and University of Melbourne respectively, Blackford was awarded a PhD in English literature, also from Newcastle, on the return to myth in modern fictional narrative (as postulated by Northrop Frye).

His work includes four novels published by iBooks, three of them forming an original trilogy (The New John Connor Chronicles) set in the world of the Terminator movies.

He was a speaker at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention[4] and a contributor to The Australian Book of Atheism.