Volume
41Pagination
29-32ISSN
0163-075XeISSN
2327-8307Language
EnglishResearch statement
Research Background
Autobiographical poetry is associated with individual--often pathological--expression. Redfield Jamison, Kyaga and Stone Horton are among scholars who account for autobiographical poetry in relation to the mental illnesses of individual poets. However, the materialist turn in creativity studies (as seen in the work of Csikszentmihalyi, Glaveanu and Tanggaard, for instance) reminds us how creativity always emerges from individuals working with the specific traditions and materials of an art form, presenting a problem for ‘expressive’ theories of autobiographical poetry.
Research Contribution
Contributing to knowledge generated in the Field of Research 190402 Creative Writing, this experimental poem foregrounds both intensely personal and elegiac subject matter but also its materiality to signal how autobiographical poetry gives expression to the personal only through materially mediated practices of creativity. This is something I have also explored in scholarly work that reflects on my creative practice as a poet (including in an essay published in the Q1 journal Life Writing).
Research Significance
The value of this poem is attested to by: its commissioned publication in the prestigious US journal Kenyon Review, which historically published the work of Sylvia Plath; its selection for a reading and recording by the US editors, which is available on the Kenyon Review website; its publication in one of the peak literary journals in Australia, Griffith Review; its inclusion in my forthcoming poetry book with the prestigious University of Queensland Press (which only publishes four poetry collections annually by writers such as David Malouf), a book which was already named as one of the most anticipated releases of 2021 by The Australian.Publication classification
JO4 Original Creative Works – OtherIssue
6Publisher
Kenyon CollegePlace of publication
Gambier, OhioSource
Kenyon Review
