Author Archives: Tom Davies

Lecturer in English & Creative Writing

  • Full-Time, Continuing position
  • Based at La Trobe University’s Melbourne, Bundoora campus
  • Teaching & Research opportunity

About the position

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences is a dynamic community of scholars who research and teach about the human experience, from its earliest beginnings to the latest developments in society, politics and culture.

We are seeking to appoint a Lecturer in Creative Writing, with a strong creative publication record, demonstrated potential for traditional research outputs, a demonstrated ability to teach creative writing to a high standard, supervision or mentoring experience, and a commitment to community and industry engagement.

The primary purpose of the position is to contribute to teaching and research in the English and Creative Writing Programs, ensuring alignment with La Trobe University’s strategic plans, while complementing existing strengths.

Skills and Experience

To be considered for this position, you will have;

  • A PhD in creative writing or equivalent accreditation and standing recognised by the University/profession as appropriate for the relevant discipline area.
  • A substantial creative writing publication record in one or more literary genres.
  • Demonstrated potential for traditional research publication with quality journals and presses.
  • Demonstrated ability to coordinate, develop, and teach creative writing undergraduate units (including fiction and creative nonfiction).
  • Demonstrated ability to supervise, or co-supervise, honours and postgraduate students.
  • High-level analytical, verbal, and written communication skills, including the ability to interact effectively with people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
  • Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and respectfully with staff and students from a diverse range of backgrounds.
  • Experience in the preparation of research proposal submissions to external funding bodies and evidence of success in securing research funding.
  • Demonstrated commitment to building community, professional, and industry relationships at local and national level.

Please refer to the Position Description for other duties, skills and experience required for this position.

What La Trobe University can offer you!

  • 17% employer contributed superannuation
  • On site child care facilities
  • Flexible work arrangements
  • Discounts for staff and their family members to study a range of La Trobe courses

How to apply

Closing date:  By 11:55pm Thursday, 10th August 2023.

Position Enquiries:  Tonya Stebbins, Head of Department, Dept of Language and Cultures

Email: T.Stebbins@latrobe.edu.au

Recruitment Enquiries:  Bianca Trajanov, Talent Acquisition Consultant

Email:  B.trajanov@latrobe.edu.au

Position Description below:

 PD – Lecturer, English & Creative Writing.pdf

Only candidates with Full Working Rights in Australia may apply for this position.

Please submit an online application ONLY and include the following documents:

  • Cover letter;
  • An up to date resume; and
  • A separate document addressing each essential and desirable bullet point in the Key Selection Criteria which is located in the position description.

We’d love to stay connected! If you would like to find out more about this School, please follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89174495

Full job ad: On the La Trobe jobs website

Book a book proposal conversation with Bloomsbury Academic commissiong editor in Creative Writing, Lucy Brown (UK)

Lucy Brown, commissioning editor in Creative Writing at Bloomsbury Academic (UK) will be running a couple of commissioning days for the creative writing list on Monday 24thand Tuesday 25th April. The idea is for people to book in a short, 30-minute session to discuss any ideas around potential projects or proposals they have been thinking about. Lucy hopes this opportunity will make publishing with Bloomsbury’s Creative Writing area feel more accessible through an informal chat.

Writers can informally discuss projects at the early stages, see if an idea has legs or be ready with a proposal to submit. Lucy is most interested in creative writing books for students to use on courses, and research books for scholars and practitioners. 

Find out more about Bloombsury Academic’s Research in Creative Writing Series here: 

Link to book: https://bit.ly/3UgORvw

Dates: 9am – 5:30pm BST, 24th & 25th April 2023

First Nations Writers’ Fellowship

Work type: Casual
Location: Adelaide
Categories: Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Pursuant to section 65 of the South Australian Equal Opportunity Act 1984 and the University of Adelaide’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment Strategy, applications are invited from Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people only.

The JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice First Nations Fellowships support the production of new work by First Nations artists, to be awarded to creative writers/storytellers and musicians, beginning with a writer in 2023. The Fellowship comprises $10,000 for creative development of a project, and office space at the Centre.

Collaborations and dialogue between the Fellow and JMCCCP members will be encouraged, and the successful applicant will be invited to give a masterclass to students in English and Creative Writing. The Fellow will also be free to engage with our neighbours in the North Terrace Cultural Precinct, by exploring or responding to the collections of the South Australian Museum, or by participating in the programs of the Art Gallery of South Australia, particularly those scheduled around Tarnanthi, Reconciliation week and NAIDOC week. 

If you have the talent, we’ll give you the opportunity. Together let’s make history.

Please submit the following as part of your application:

  • A description of your proposed project
  • A description of how this opportunity might support you at this point of your career
  • A brief budget of how fellowship funds will be spent
  • Samples of writing
  • A curriculum vitae

Applications close 11:55pm, 16 April 2023.

Apply via this link

Professor Anne Pender
Director, JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice
E:  anne.pender@adelaide.edu.au

Footage from the Ania Walwicz Symposium

Dear Contributors and Attendees at the Ania Walwicz Symposium,

Here is the raw footage of the symposium, thanks to the inestimable technical oversight of Karen Le Rossignol and all the administrative work of EJ at Deakin Downtown. 

https://deakin.zoom.us/rec/share/YKBziMiUcdqQu_wl1loQb8IvEtp1aX5FsxqhczWvyUqVaYxcTApf15EdbUfXwgYN.V3tkX9Ob7arM1hNS 
Passcode: ?r+C=4S9

I’d like to reiterate my heartfelt thanks to Karen and offer a round of resounding applause to EJ for her amazing support from the beginning of this project. 

You will undoubtedly want to skip quite a bit of the footage, since the camera was rolling from 9.00 am, and right through the breaks.

Congratulations to all for making this a fantastic communal event.

With warm regards

Marion

NAWE 2023 Conference – Living as a Writer: Creative Writing in Education & Communities

Join the writing in education community this March at the NAWE 2023 Conference, 10-11 March, Online, and explore what it means to live as a writer in 2023 and beyond. A chance to make connections and share valuable insights with fellow writers working in education and the community across the UK and further afield. Two days of 45+ talks, workshops, panels and networking opportunities, to boost and benefit your writing and teaching practice. Keynotes from Patrice Lawrence on Living as a Writer and Blake Morrison and Maura Dooley on What is the future of education?

Early bird tickets from only £39 available until 7 February.

Conference sponsors: York Centre for Writing based at York St John University and Bloomsbury.  Info and to book at https://bit.ly/3WAYg0l

Applications Open: Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling and Writing

The University of New England is advertising for a Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Digital Writing and Storytelling to join us in a fulltime continuing basis at the Armidale campus. The Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling and Writing will support research and teaching in both creative storytelling and also empirical, evidence-based storytelling and narrative. This role will support future curriculum development. The successful applicant will have experience with high-quality development of digital-first course/unit design and of online and hybrid modes of teaching.

Closing date for applications is 5 February.

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/jobs/view/lecturer-or-senior-lecturer-digital-storytelling-and-writing-at-hays-3400346049

Seek: https://www.seek.com.au/job/59799143?type=standard#sol=f7e5518ae6d86dd32e4884fb60026d26cdc0c92d

CALL FOR PAPERS: Creativecritical Writing Now 

A Special Issue of TEXT Journal of Writing and Writing Courses 


This Special Issue aims to explore forms of, and approaches to, creativecritical writing: writing which performs scholarly and creative functions simultaneously. Such blended approaches are no longer new—indeed, they are tracking distinct paths and uses in various contexts inside academia and beyond. As such, this Special Issue will take stock of the current nexus between the creative and the critical, as well as speculate on future conceptions of hybrid creative writing /scholarship.  


The creativecritical mode has a long lineage across fictocritical, autotheoretical and ethnographic writing, as well as creative nonfiction and the essay form. Recently, creativecritical writing has gained popular currency, as evidenced by the work of Rebecca Solnit, Anne Carson, and Maggie Nelson. It is also attracting critical momentum, most noticeably at doctoral level, where, as Kylie Cardell and Kate Douglas note, ‘Many postgraduates [in Life Writing] are engaging in projects where the creative and critical/exegetical are an integrated text’ (207–208). In this Special Issue of TEXT, we invite articles (of roughly 6-8,000 words) that engage with the functions, processes, poetics and ethics of creativecritical writing in its many forms (creative nonfiction, fiction, academic writing, poetry/poetics, testimony and more). These engagements should constellate, in order to ask: Where are we now, and what is next for creativecritical writing? We hope to encourage a compiling of the essayistic, the fictocritical, life writing, the seamless, and more, to assess how the exegesis—and creative writing as research more broadly—might be conceived through a creativecritical lens. 


Potential contributors might like to consider:

  • What creativecritical writing approaches do within research? (And, what have they done,
    where are we now, and where we are going?).  
  • Creativecritical possibilities for the exegesis, and questions regarding what counts as
    scholarly output (E.g., what creative writing might do to shift the lexical possibilities of
    scholarly work; how it can work within institutions). Articulating the role of the exegesis, creative exegetical forms, teaching/doing exegetical writing. 
  • Creativecritical approaches as indicative/supportive of new vistas in representation, such as embodied thinking or non-dualistic approaches. (What kind of work is necessary at this juncture? How do thought/body/lived experience interact with scholarly forms? How can life writing operate as scholarship?). 
  • The critical power in creative work, and the inherent criticality of creative expression. (What is creative and what is critical? How can the ‘ancient quarrel’ (Brien and Webb 2012) between poetry and philosophy be re-visited? Is creative work possibly critical work?). 
  • The popular turn towards the creativecritical. 
  • The difference, in creative writing scholarship, between explaining the work and the work being research. 
  • The lineage of creativecritical forms: fictocriticism, art writing, autoethnography, essay. 
  • The ethics of creativecritical writing.  
  • Potential forms and approaches to writing that makes and considers/reflects/thinks 
  • Hybridity in academic writing. 
  • The essay and essayism in scholarly contexts; braided writing and blended forms.

How to submit your expression of interest:  
Please submit a 200-word Expression of Interest by email to Stefanie Markidis and Daniel Juckes with ‘Creativecritical Writing Now’ as the subject line. In your EOI please outline how your paper or work(s) explore(s) aspects of the creativecritical mode. Please also include the following information: your full name, institutional affiliation (if any), email address, title of paper/work, brief biography (50–100 words), and 3 to 5 keywords (at least 2 of which should clearly relate to the issue’s title).
Deadline for EOIs: April 14, 2023.

Deadline for finished works: June 30, 2023.  
Enquiries: Daniel Juckes (daniel.juckes@uwa.edu.au) or Stefanie Markidis (stefanie.markidis@rmit.edu.au)

Applications Open: Visiting Professor of Australian Studies

The Centre for Pacific and American Studies (CPAS) at the University of Tokyo is seeking applications for a Visiting Professor of Australian Studies for 2023-24 and 2024-25. This is a teaching and research position for approximately 10 months duration, and is open to Australian citizens and permanent residents only. CPAS welcomes applications from highly qualified candidates with significant academic or public achievement in the field of Australian Studies broadly defined, including but not limited to cultural studies, history, literature, politics and society, philosophy and ethics, Indigenous issues, migration, foreign policy and international relations and environmentalism. Whilst Australia should remain the main focus, applications are also welcomed from candidates whose field of study covers the broader Pacific regions including Oceania, Polynesia, Micronesia and North America, with an emphasis on issues that are of particular relevance to the changing dynamics in the political economy and cross-cultural interchange in the area.

The Visiting Professor in Australian Studies is required to teach at undergraduate and graduate levels; to present conference papers; to conduct research; and to participate in promoting Australian Studies within Japan. All teaching is conducted in English. An attractive salary package and subsidised accommodation are available. The appointment is for a period of approximately 10 months and will commence in September 2023 or September 2024. Applicants may be considered for either term or both terms.

For details, including application instructions, salary and housing arrangements, and further information, please see the position description. Applications are due 1 February 2023. Enquiries should be directed to Professor Kate Darian-Smith at the University of Tasmania (kate.dariansmith@utas.edu.au), who is managing the selection process on behalf of the International Australian Studies Association (InASA).

Duration: Approximately 10 months
Commencement of position: Late September 2023 or late September 2024. Applicants may apply to be considered for a specific term only or for either term. This must be indicated clearly on your application.
Closing date for applications: 1 February 2023

Winners of the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize Announced

Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA), in partnership with Australia’s leading essential building and infrastructure services provider ARA Group, is excited to announce the winners of the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize.

The winner of the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Adult Category is Corporal Hitler’s Pistol by Tom Keneally (Penguin Random House).
The winner of the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Children and Young Adult (CYA) Category is Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, by Katrina Nannestad (HarperCollins Australia).

This year’s winners make the past come alive in an astonishing way. Their luminous prose conjures worlds that intertwine history with imagination to explore themes of survival, identity, desire and power. Both novels embody storytelling at its very best.
The ARA Historical Novel Prize is worth a total of $100,000 in prize monies. The Prize will award $50,000 to the Adult category winner, with $5,000 awarded to each of the two shortlisted authors. In the Children and Young Adult (CYA) category, the winner will receive $30,000, while the two shortlisted authors will receive $5,000 each. The ARA Historical Novel Prize has been made possible through the generous patronage of ARA Group. The ARA Group, and its Founder, Executive Chair and CEO, Edward Federman, are committed to supporting the arts and literature.

2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize Shortlists Announced

Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA), in partnership with Australia’s leading essential building and infrastructure services provider ARA Group, is excited to announce the Shortlists for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize.

This year’s Shortlists explore a diverse range of powerful themes, from reinvention, diversity and the meaning of truth, through to self-reliance, confidence and fulfilling one’s dreams. The Shortlists demonstrate the power of historical fiction to bring the past vividly to life, explore often unspoken truths, and illuminate the challenges faced by humankind throughout the centuries.

The ARA Historical Novel Prize is worth a total of $100,000 in prize monies. The Prize will award $50,000 to the Adult category winner, with an additional $5,000 to be awarded to each of the remaining two shortlisted authors. In the Children and Young Adult (CYA) category, the winner will receive $30,000, while the two shortlisted authors will receive $5,000 each.

The Winners of the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize will be announced on Thursday 20 October 2022.

For further information, visit: https://hnsa.org.au/


The Shortlist for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Adult Category is:

  • Horse by Geraldine Brooks (Hachette Australia)
  • Corporal Hitler’s Pistol by Tom Keneally (Penguin Random House)
  • Cold Coast by Robyn Mundy (Ultimo Press)

The Shortlist for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Children and Young Adult (CYA) Category is:

  • Katipo Joe: Wolf’s Lair by Brian Falkner (Scholastic New Zealand)
  • Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief by Katrina Nannestad (HarperCollins Publishers Australia)
  • The Wearing of the Green by Claire Saxby (Walker Books)