Faculty of Arts and Education

School of Communication and Creative Arts


   Prof. David McCooey

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Position Personal Chair
Email david.mccooey@deakin.edu.au
Area School of Communication & Creative Arts
Phone +61 3 522 71331
Campus Geelong
Location Waurn Ponds (Room ic1.113)
Role and profile David is an international expert in Australian literary studies. His areas of speciality are autobiography and poetry. His Artful Histories: Modern Australian Autobiography was published by Cambridge University Press in 1996, the same year that the book was awarded a NSW Premier’s Literary Award. His publications on poetry include the ‘Contemporary Poetry’ chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature (2000), the ‘Poetry: 1970-2005’ chapter in The Companion to Australian Literature (2007), and the 'Autobiography' chapter in The Cambridge History of Australian Literature. David has also written numerous essays and reviews for scholarly and general publications such as Criticism, Biography, Southerly, Meanjin, Westerly, Australian Book Review, The Age, The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald and JASAL. David has also written Introductions to 30 Australian Poets (UQP, 2011) and Rosemary Dobson Collected (UQP, 2012).

David has been the co-recipient of a number of ARC Grants, including a Discovery Grant on 'Australian literature and the public sphere'. In 2004 he was invited to guest-edit a special issue of the refereed journal Life Writing on ‘Life Writing and the Public Sphere’. From 2003-2006 he was associate editor of the literary journal, Space: New Writing. He is an editorial board member of Life Writing and Antipodes: The North American Journal of Australian Literature. He has been a guest at a number of literary festivals, including the 2012 Melbourne Writers' Festival. In 2006 he was the co-recipient (with Professor Jill Roe and Professor Nicholas Jose) of an ARC Linkage Grant (of $240 000) for the project The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, of which David is the Deputy General Editor. The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature was published in 2009 and in 2010 it won the 'Special Award' in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Thomas Keneally described the anthology as being 'Unprecedented in the breadth of what it offers from both the ancient and the recent literature of the country'.

David is also a poet. His first book of poetry, Blister Pack was published internationally by Salt Publishing in 2005. Blister Pack won the Mary Gilmore Award (for a first book of poetry) and was short-listed for four major awards, including The Melbourne Prize for Literature (New Writing Award), Australia’s richest literary award. A fine-press chapbook, Graphic: Two Sequences, appeared in 2010. His second full-length collection, Outside, was published by Salt Publishing in 2011. It was short listed for the Queensland Literary Awards and it was a Finalist for the Melbourne Prize for Literature's $30 000 Best Writing Award in 2012. His poetry has also appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Age, Southerly, Australian Book Review, The Best Australian Poems 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012 and The Best Australian Poetry 2007. In 2013 he became the first Poetry Editor of Australian Book Review.
Teaching responsibilities second-level literary studies (ALL201/ALL202), professional writing (poetry and creative non-fiction), honours research methods, honours and HDR supervision
Research interests Australian poetry and autobiography
Literature and the public sphere
Current research projects David's current research project is 'Poetry in the World', which focuses on poetry and the figure of the poet in extra-poetic contexts (rituals, everyday life, cultural formations, and so on). A monograph, Life Lines: Poetry in the World, has been contracted for publication by Monash University Publishing.
Service to the University,
discipline or community  
  • HDR (Higher Degrees by Research) Coordinator (Geelong campus)
  • Professional and Creative Writing Campus Coordinator (Geelong campus)
  • 2004-2006, Associate Head of School

    Community Involvement

  • Poetry Judge, Peter Porter Poetry Prize (2012-2013)
  • Judge, the National Biography Award (2003; 2010)
  • Poetry Judge, The Age Book of the Year Award (2008; 2011)
  • Convenor, Poetry Judging Panel, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (2004)
  • co Judge of the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize (2003)

  • Associate Editor, Space: New Writing (2003-2006)

    Editorial Board Membership:
  • Antipodes: The North American Journal of Australian Literature
  • Life Writing
    • Awards
  • 2010, the Australian Educational Publishing Awards, Tertiary (Wholly Australian) Scholarly Reference (for the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature)
  • 2010, NSW Premier’s Literary Award (for the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature)
  • 2006, Mary Gilmore Award (for the best first book of Australian poetry in the preceding two calendar years, for Blister Pack)
  • 1996, NSW Premier’s Literary Award (for Artful Histories: Modern Australian Autobiography)
  • 1993, Eva Veronka Vidak Memorial Prize (Sydney University, award for PhD thesis)

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    Qualifications
  • BA (hons), PhD
    • Memberships Professional Associations


  • Association for the Study of Australian Literature
  • American Association of Australian Literary Studies
  • Australian Association of Writing Programs
  • Honorary Associate, The Centre for The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, Department of English, Macquarie University, NSW
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    Research link View Deakin associated research data
    Additional URLs

    Author page for Salt Publishing

    Page for Outside

    Deakin University acknowledges the traditional land owners of present campus sites.

    22nd April 2013