STAFF PROFILE
Associate Professor Jessica Wilkinson
Jessica is an Associate Professor in Creative Writing in the School of Media and Communication
Jessica is a writer, critic, scholar and editor whose research interests include: poetry and poetics; contemporary poetry; poetic biography; 'nonfiction poetry'; experimental/radical writing; literary theory. She is the founding and Managing Editor of 'Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry' (2011-present) and of the Rabbit Poets Series. In her own poetry and with Rabbit, Jessica is interested in pushing boundaries of form, and in exploring what poetry can do in collision with nonfiction writing. She is also passionate about giving opportunities to new Australian writers, and in the transnational potential of literary publishing. Jessica holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne.
Jessica's poems have appeared in books, newspapers, and international anthologies and journals. She is the author of three books of poetry: 'marionette: a biography of miss marion davies' (Vagabond, 2012), 'Suite for Percy Grainger' (Vagabond, 2014) and 'Music Made Visible: A Biography of George Balanchine' (Vagabond, 2019). In 2017, she received an RMIT Research Award recognising the impact she has made to the field of 'nonfiction poetry'.
Scholarships, grants and awards
2020 Varuna Residency Fellowship
2019 Australia Council for the Arts for 'Poetic Portraits of Australian Elders' collaboration ($28,308)
2018 Shortlisted, Aesthetic Creative Writing Award (Poetry)
2018 Australia Council for the Arts for 'Rabbit' ($15,610)
2018 Creative Victoria Arts Projects for 'Rabbit' ($17,425)
2017 RMIT Research Impact Award (Design) ($3000)
2016 DFAT Australia-Korea Foundation for 'Melbourne-Seoul Poetry Exchange' ($20,000)
2015 Longlisted, Montreal International Poetry Prize
2015 Australia Council for the Arts project grant for Music Made Visible (AU$15,924)
2014 Art Victoria Program Grant for 'Rabbit' ($20,000)
2014 Longlisted, VC Canberra Poetry Award
2014 Winner, International Peter Porter Poetry Prize for poem 'Arrival Platform Humlet'
2014 Shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, for Marionette
2013 City of Melbourne Arts Grant Program for 'Rabbit' (AU$17,300)
2012 CAL Cultural Fund for special issue of 'Rabbit' (AU$3050)
2009 Varuna Residency Fellowship
2008 Felix Meyer Scholarship for Creative Writing (University of Melbourne)
2008 'Oneida' shortlisted for the PressPress Chapbook Award
2006 H.B. Higgins Scholarship for the Study of Poetry (University of Melbourne)
2019 - present: Deputy HDR Director, School of Media and Communication
2018 - present: PRS Asia/Australia Chair for Media and Communication
2011 - present: Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry (founding editor/ Managing Editor)
2013 - present: Rabbit Poets Series (founding/Managing editor)
Advisory Board Member:
- Forty-five: A Journal of Outside Research (US)
- International Poetry Studies Institute (Canberra)
- Journal of Poetics Research (Sydney/International)
2012 – Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning, School of Education, RMIT University
2011 – PhD, Creative Writing, University of Melbourne, Australia
2005 – BA (Hons), Media and Communications, University of Melbourne (Majors: English and Creative Writing)
- Wilkinson, J. (2020). Life Cycles of Biographical Poetry In: Axon: Creative Explorations, 10, 1 - 16
- Wilkinson, J. (2020). Poetry Folio: Mental Health Poems In: Various: Australian Poetry Journal, Scars: An Anthology of Microlit, Red Room Poetry Melbourne and Sydney, Australia
- Wilkinson, J. (2020). �What is Nonfiction Poetry? Reflecting on Rabbit�s 30 issues� In: Sydney Review of Books Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Aung Thin, M.,Carlin, D.,Pang, A.,Rendle-Short, F.,Wilkinson, J. (2020). When your practice is the research: A symposia-led model for the creative writing PhD In: Text: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, 24, 1 - 22
- Wilkinson, J. (2019). Music Made Visible: A Biography of George Balanchine In: Music Made Visible: A Biography of George Balanchine Sydney, Australia
- Wilkinson, J. (2019). Writing Lines, Writing Lives: The Art of Poetic Biography In: New and Experimental Approaches to Writing Lives, Red Globe Press, London, United Kingdom
- Wilkinson, J. (2018). A poet walks through an archive: processing the poetic biography In: Associations, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne, Australia
- Wilkinson, J. (2018). The Frame and the Score: Knowing a Subject Differently Through Poetic Biography In: Offshoots: Contemporary life writing methodologies and practice, UWA Publishing, Crawley, Australia
- Wilkinson, J. (2018). Nonfiction Poems 2017-2018 In: Best Australian Poems et al. Carlton, Australia et al.
- Disney, D.,Wilkinson, J.,Atherton, C. (2017). 'bending in all directions everywhere': a juddering, glimpsing, eido�longing of poets In: Westerly, 62, 121 - 133
7 PhD Current Supervisions9 PhD Completions and 1 Masters by Research Completions
- Poetic Portraits of Australian Elders. Funded by: Australia Council for the Arts from (2019 to 2021)
- Rabbit a journal for nonfiction poetry, 2018-2019. Funded by: VicArts Grants 2018 from (2018 to 2019)
- Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry & Rabbit Poets Series 2018-2020. Funded by: Australia Council for the Arts - Arts Projects - Organisations, 2017 Round 3 from (2018 to 2020)
- Melbourne-Seoul: an intercultural poetry exchange. Funded by: Australia Korea Foundation 2016 from (2016 to 2016)
- Music Made Visible.Rockets on a Starry Night: a dual biography of George Balanchine & Lucette Aldous. Funded by: Australia Council for the Arts - Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups 2015 from (2015 to 2017)