
Adjunct Professor Brian Castro
Adjunct Professor
School of Humanities
Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Brian Castro was educated at the University of Sydney and has worked in Australian, French and Hong Kong universities as a teacher and writer. He is the author of eleven novels and a volume of essays on writing and culture. His novels have won a number of state and national prizes including the Australian/Vogel literary award, The Age Fiction Prize, the National Book Council Prize for Fiction, four Victorian Premier's awards, two NSW Premier's awards and the Queensland Premier's Award for Fiction. He has delivered keynote addresses at major conferences in Shanghai, Vienna, Paris, Toulouse, Hong Kong and Kyoto. He has been a Literature Board member on the Australia Council. For many years he was the literary reviewer for Asiaweek magazine. In 2005 he held the position of Macgeorge Fellow at the University of Melbourne. In 2007-8 he was the Professorial Research Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne. He is currently Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide and is a member of the management committee of the J.M. Coetzee centre for Creative Practice, a centre for cross-disciplinary linkages and research into creativity. Castro was the 2014 recipient of the Patrick White Award for Literature and the 2018 Prime Minister's Prize for Poetry.
His research interests include melancholia and creativity, Oulipo and diasporic literatures.
-
Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2008 - ongoing PROFESSOR University of Adelaide 2006 - 2008 PROFESSOR University of Melbourne 2005 - 2005 RESEARCH FELLOW University of Melbourne 1995 - 1995 WRITER IN RESIDENCE Australian National University 1994 - 1995 WRITER IN RESIDENCE University of Hong Kong -
Awards and Achievements
Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount 2018 Award Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry 2018 Prime Minister's Department Australia $80,000 2014 Award 2014 Patrick White Award for Literature Patrick White Estate Australia $24,000 2006 Award Queensland Premier’s Award for fiction Qld Premier's Department Australia - 2004 Award NSW Premier’s Award for fiction; book of the year NSW Premier's Department Australia - 2003 Award Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction (Vance Palmer Prize) Victorian Premier's Department Australia - 1997 Award National Book Council ‘Banjo’ Prize for Fiction National Book Council Australia - 1993 Award Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction (Vance Palmer Prize) Victorian Premier's Department Australia - 1992 Award Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction (Vance Palmer Prize)+Victorian Premier's Award for Innovative Writing Victorian Premier's Department Australia - 1991 Award The Age Fiction Prize The Age Newspaper Australia - 1982 Award The Australian/Vogel Literary Award The Australian newspaper; Vogel prize Australia - -
Language Competencies
Language Competency Chinese (Cantonese) Can speak and understand spoken English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review French Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 1973 - 1976 University of Sydney Australia M.A. 1968 - 1971 University of Sydney Australia B.A. Dip. Ed.
-
Journals
-
Books
Year Citation 2018 Rutherford, J., & Castro, B. (2018). Melancholy Migrations: Journeying with the Negative. Sydney: Giramondo. 2012 Castro, B. A. (2012). Street To Street. Sydney: Giramondo Publishing. 2012 Castro, B. A. (2012). Shanghai Dancing (US edition ed.). Los Angeles: Kaya Press. 2011 Castro, B. (2011). Drift (2 ed.). Wakefield Press. 2009 Castro, B. A. (2009). The Bath Fugues. Sydney: Giramondo Publishing. 2005 Castro, B. A. (2005). The Garden Book. Sydney: Giramondo Publishing. 2005 Castro, B. (2005). Double-Wolf. Allen & Unwin. 2003 Castro, B. A. (2003). After China (2nd ed.). Adelaide, South Australia: Lythrum Press. 1999 Castro, B. (1999). Looking for Estrellita. University of Queensland Press. 1997 Castro, B. A. (1997). Stepper. Sydney, New South Wales: Random House. 1993 Castro, B. (1993). Birds of passage. Allen & Unwin. 1991 Castro, B. A. (1991). Pomeroy (2nd ed.). Sydney: Allen & Unwin. -
Book Chapters
Year Citation 2020 WESTE, L., D'AGUIAR, F. R. E. D., EVARISTO, B., HETHERINGTON, P. A. U. L., CLARKE, G. E. O. R. G. E. E. L. L. I. O. T. T., O'MAHONY, N. E. S. S. A., . . . CUMMINS, J. A. M. E. S. (2020). INSIDE THE VERSE NOVEL. In L. I. N. D. A. WESTE (Ed.), INSIDE THE VERSE NOVEL (1ST ed., pp. 75-82). MELBOURNE: AUSTRALIAN SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING. 2019 Castro, B. A. (2019). The World, the Sex and the Critic. In A. McCulloch, & R. Goodrich (Eds.), Why Do Things Break? (pp. 115-124). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2007 Castro, B. (2007). Twice born: risks and trespass in White's 'Patrick'. In Ivor Indyk (Ed.), Cartoon Ducks (HEAT 14) (Vol. 14, pp. 60-70). Australia: Giramondo Publishers. 2004 Castro, B. (2004). Authors take sides. In Authors take sides on Iraq and the Gulf War (pp. 29). Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press. 2004 Castro, B. (2004). Through a glass darkly – W.G. Sebald’s Overcast Style. In Ivor Indyk (Ed.), Bedtime Stories (HEAT 07) (Vol. 7, pp. 71-91). Australia: Giramondo Publishers. -
Live Performance of Creative Works
Year Citation 2015 Castro, B. (2015). Blindness and Rage (No. Of Pieces: 600 lines) [Performance]. Melbourne, Victoria. 2015 Castro, B. (2015). Samaritan (No. Of Pieces: 10 minutes) [Live reading of a poem]. Berlin. 2009 Castro, B. A. (2009). Recycling (No. Of Pieces: 8-12; 15 minutes reading) [Performance]. Artarmon, Sydney. 2006 Castro, B. (2006). Ghosts in the Machine [Performance]. ACT: National Library of Australia. -
Original Creative Works
-
Curated or Produced Public Exhibition or Events
Year Citation 2017 Castro, B., & Young, J. (2017). Macau Days (No. Of Pieces: 191 pages) [Exhibition]. Melbourne: Art + Australia. 2012 Castro, B., Liew, K., & Young, J. (2012). Passages (No. Of Pieces: 78 pages) [Exhibition]. Healesville Victoria: Tarrawarra Museum of Art.
-
Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2018 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Volume 1: The Lining of the Heart
Volume 2: Encounters with Visual Art through Creative Writing: Sketching as a Methodology, Unconscious Scanning and Characterisation through EkphrasisMaster of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Stephen William Abram 2017 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Mobile Lives
'The Expatriates: Short Stories' and
'The Possibilities of Expatriate Fiction: Exegesis'Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Joanne Nicole Lennan 2016 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Postulating the Personal in Abstract Art through Poetry: the Development and Implementation of an Abstract Ekphrasis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Dominic Alexander Symes 2016 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Confronting the Dark: Representations of Death in Australian Fiction and 'The Art of Dying' Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Karen Maree Rees 2016 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Lawson, Stow, Prescott and the Mythos of the Outback Town Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Peter Hugh Court 2015 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Disabling Poetics: Bodily Otherness and the Saying of Poetry Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Andrew Jackson 2015 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Volume 1: Belly of the Beast
Volume 2: The Road to Nowhere: Myths of Homeland and Expulsion in Australian Road StoriesDoctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Liz Allan 2015 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Me, Myself and the Other: Self-reflexivity in Travel Writing Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Tina Morganella 2015 - 2017 Principal Supervisor In the Garden Where We've Been Planted Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Dr Henry Walter Prunckun 2015 - 2019 Principal Supervisor Volume 1: My Killer Secret
Volume 2: 'Literary' Crime Fiction - an AnalysisDoctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Phillipa Deanne Martin 2014 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Volume One: Cooperation Volume Two: Portraying The Other in Salaryman Novels and How Their Identities are Constructed Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Ying Xuan Chuang 2014 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Volume 1 Dignity of Boundary "Jack London Slept Here (A Novel)
Volume 2 Dignity of Boundary "Foregrounding Dialogue: An Ethical Approach through Courageous Risk" (An Exegesis)Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Robert Meldrum Sedlack 2014 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Silence, Shamans and Traumatic Haunting: A Novel and Accompanying Exegesis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Matthew James Hooton 2013 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Rewriting Urban Narratives of the Australian Great Depression Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Helen Catherine Dinmore 2013 - 2016 Principal Supervisor One Sunday in Picardy/ The Olfactory Shift in the Literature of the First World War: The Reawakening of Smell Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Eleanor Ahern 2012 - 2017 Principal Supervisor This Old Man and An Act of Reading and Writing. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Jonathan Mark Zweck 2012 - 2016 Principal Supervisor THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Kathryn Koromilas 2012 - 2016 Principal Supervisor The Untellable Story / Twice Upon a Time: Starting Over After the Apocalypse Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Tim Sinclair 2011 - 2014 Principal Supervisor The Forked Road of Narrative in the Hero's Journey Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Con Anemogiannis 2011 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Point of View in a Divided Society:
"The Parts"
"Putting 'The Parts' Together"Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Mary Lynn Mather 2011 - 2014 Principal Supervisor The Transformation of Expatriates Through Turning to the Foreign - Volume 1 The Memoir: Bound: An Expatriate's Journey to China and Beyond. Volume 2 The Exegesis: Xenotropism and the Awakening of Literary Expatriatism Through Writing Memoir. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Christine Robyn Velde 2010 - 2014 Co-Supervisor The Cotton Is High & Of the Earth: Writing The Cotton Is High Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Bryan Whalen 2010 - 2016 Co-Supervisor Volume 1 The Sixth Creek Volume 2 The Sixth Creek: The Home as Habitat - Writing and Protecting the Local Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Rachael Mead 2010 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Cloud Village/Ethnographic Surrealism and the New World Baroque Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Leila Susan Binder 2010 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Standing in the Plaza: Problematic Place in the Short Story Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Sally Sian Lily Fermer 2009 - 2015 Principal Supervisor Unintelligible: A Memoir of Unassumable Inheritance
Volume 1 Creative work
Volume 2 Exegesis After-words: Postmemory and writing perpetrationMaster of Arts Master Part Time Dr Anna Szorenyi 2009 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Ephemeron: Volume 1 Creative works Volume 2 Exegesis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Emma Carmody 2009 - 2012 Principal Supervisor Here Where We Live The Evolution of Contemporary White Australian Writers Response to White Settler Status Master of Arts Master Full Time Ms Catherine Mary Flanagan Willanski 2009 - 2013 Principal Supervisor She Wore Pants Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Martina Newhook 2009 - 2014 Principal Supervisor The Writer as Mapmaker - Volume One: The Journeyman Years - Volume Two: Mapping a Postmodern World Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Benjamin Alexander Crisp 2009 - 2011 Principal Supervisor Desire and Its Disastrous Results: Re-Examining Morality and Ambivalence in the Literature of Feminine Masochism Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Maya Linden 2009 - 2009 Co-Supervisor The Museum of Paper and Wires: Reading and Writing Refugee Fiction Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Sonja Dechian 2009 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Pet Names. Connection and identity in second-person fiction. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Lauren May Lovett 2009 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Novel: "The 89th Temple" and Exegesis: "From the Inside Out: Narrative Empathy in the Novel `The 89th Temple'" Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Charles Canning 2008 - 2011 Co-Supervisor Autoplagiarist: An Exegesis of the Novel Ilustrado Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Miguel Syjuco 2008 - 2013 Principal Supervisor The Skin of a Writer:
Volume One: Winsome of Rangoon , a Novel
Volume Two: Representing Anglo-Burmese SubjectivityDoctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Michelle Diane Aung Thin 2008 - 2013 Principal Supervisor The 'Murdering Twinmaker' Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Sean Llewellyn Williams 2008 - 2011 Principal Supervisor Corpus: Fictional 'Exposures' and Writing 'Trauma' Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Shannon Burns 2008 - 2011 Principal Supervisor The Process and Importance of Writing Aboriginal Fiction for Young Adult Readers Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Jared Thomas 2008 - 2009 Principal Supervisor Three Drops of Blood: Fairy Tales and Their Significance for Constructed Families Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Carol Lefevre 2008 - 2009 Co-Supervisor Form in Fiction: The Development of 'I Dream of Magda' Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Stefan Lashchuk 2008 - 2009 Principal Supervisor Peering Into Cracks and Crevices: Writing Cross-Cultural Historical Fiction' and 'The Yellow Papers Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Dominique Wilson
-
Committee Memberships
Date Role Committee Institution Country 2010 - 2015 Advisory Board Member Adelaide Writers' Week - Australia 2010 - 2012 Advisory Board Member Asialink Myer Foundation Australia -
Editorial Boards
Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country 2016 - ongoing Board Member Sydney Review of Books University of Western Sydney Australia 2007 - ongoing Consulting Editor Transtext(e)s/Transcultures L'university de Lyon 3 France
Connect With Me
External Profiles