Professor Brian Castro

Chair Creative Writing

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts

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.

His research interests include melancholia and creativity, Oulipo and diasporic literatures.

Career
Publications
Supervision
Professional Activities
Contact

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Appointments

Date	Position	Institution name
2008	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
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.

Date	Institution name	Country	Title
1973 - 1976	University of Sydney	Australia	M.A.
1968 - 1971	University of Sydney	Australia	B.A. Dip. Ed.

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Journals

Year	Citation
2018	Castro, B. A. (2018). Blindness and Deafness in Literary Reception. The Sydney Review Of Books.
2014	Castro, B. A. (2014). Writing country: lightning, agony, and vertigo. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 14(3), 1-11.
2011	Castro, B. (2011). 'Teaching creative writing in Asia': Four points and five provocations. Text, 2011(10), 1-8.
2011	Castro, B. (2011). Melancholy objects: Flaubert's double agency. Australian Journal of French Studies, 48(3), 257-270. DOI
2009	Castro, B. (2009). My Nervous Illness. HEAT, 21, 59-66.
2009	Castro, B. (2009). Arrested motion and future-mourning: Hybridity and creativity. Cultures in Transit, 4, 83-99.
2008	Castro, B. (2008). In Camera: Arrested motion and future mourning. HEAT, 18, 41-54.
2007	Castro, B. (2007). Memory / memorial. Anglophonia, 21, 115-128.
2006	Castro, B. (2006). Trafficking in dangerous goods. Transtext(e)sTranscultures, 1(1), 13-14. DOI
2002	Castro, B. (2002). Blue Max - a tribute to W.G. Sebald. HEAT, 3, 119-129.

Books

Year	Citation
2018	Rutherford, J., & Castro, B. (2018). Melancholy Migrations: Journeying with the Negative. Sydney: Giramondo.
2017	Castro, B. (2017). Blindness & Rage: A Phantasmagoria (1st ed.). I. INDYK (Ed.), ARTARMON, SYDNEY: GIRAMONDO PUBLISHING.
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
2016	Castro, B. A. (2016). Diary of a rational man: a paranormal entry. In M. Lee, C. Cheung, & S. Wiles (Eds.), Lu Xun and Australia (1st ed., pp. 11-19). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly 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. A. (2015). Samaritan (No. Of Pieces: 10 minutes) [Live reading]. 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

Year	Citation
2018	Publication status: Published online NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Apophlegms Authors: Castro B Editors: CAHILL M Publisher: Mascara Literary Review Publisher URL: http://mascarareview.com/ Place of publication: WAHROONGA NSW Publication date: 2018 Edition: June 2018 Journal: Mascara Literary Review eISSN: 1835-4017 Volume: June Issue: 22 Extent: http://mascarareview.com/apophlegms-by-brian-castro/ Source URL: http://mascarareview.com/apophlegms-by-brian-castro/ Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: Background: Racism in Australia Contribution: Effects of racism and resulting depression Research significance: Response to Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey Record created at source: 13 June 2018
2017	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Macau Days Authors: Castro B, Young J ISBN-13: 9780995392526 Publisher: Art + Australia Publisher URL: http://artandaustralia.com/ Place of publication: Melbourne Publication date: 2017 Edition: 1st Pagination: 1-187 Extent: 187 pages, Hardcover, B&W and colour images Source URL: http://www.artandaustralia.com/publishing/titles/macau-days Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This tri-lingual book (English, Portuguese, Chinese) includes a series of poetic texts by Brian Castro and artworks by John Young, which both engage their shared histories of Macau. It also offers an introductory letter by Edward Colless and a response from Paul Carter. Castro’s text, titled Macau Days: Or Six Characters in Search of a Dish, is structured like a meal and traditional Macanese recipes accompany his texts. Young’s artworks—paintings, chalk drawings and montages as well as stunning photographs of the Macanese dishes—are dispersed throughout the texts. Macau, as a place, has gone through fundamental metamorphosis over the course of half a millennium. Beginning as a merchant port of refuge and fisherman’s haven, to a gateway for the Jesuit missionaries, and as the nineteenth an twentieth century Modernism of a Portuguese province; where poets and artists from the west and China traversed, and transformed their own orientation in becoming transcultural individuals. Now Macau is defined as a phantasmagoric site for gambling, housing more than 38 casinos, rivalling Las Vegas. These changes have been brought metaphorically into the conditions of the cultural world today. Supported by the J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, EU Centre for Global Affairs, University of Adelaide and University of Melbourne, VCA. Record created at source: 4 August 2017
2016	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Love, Actually Authors: Castro BA Editors: Lamb M ISBN-13: 978 1 922171 60 3 Publisher: Review of Australian Fiction Publisher URL: http://reviewofaustralianfiction.tomely.com/ Place of publication: Melbourne Publication date: 7 June 2016 Edition: Vol 18 Issue 5 Pagination: 7-24 ISSN: 2201-764X Volume: 18 Issue: 5 Extent: 24 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 19 May 2016
2016	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Love, actually Authors: Castro B Editors: Wood C, O'Reilly P ISBN-13: 9781863958868 Publisher: Black Inc. Publisher URL: https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/best-australian-stories-2016 Place of publication: Melbourne Publication date: 2016 Edition: 1st Pagination: 64-70 Extent: 7 pages Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Rights statement: Copyright status unknown Language: en Source URL: https://books.google.com.au/ Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: RESEARCH BACKGROUND In an age in which digital technology rules, the narrator of this story reflects on love letters and how they are written in haste and sent off immediately. In bygone years, writing love letters and not sending them was the pre-occupation of writers and artists, which became the content of their works. Kafka’s scepticism about letters is researched and further endorsed. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION The epistolary genre tells stories or deliver messages through a series of letters. The contribution of this story places doubt upon the genre as genuine, positing the paradox that so-called genuine “love” is always given the lie by writing. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE Chosen in The Best Australian Stories 2016 ed. Charlotte Wood Record created at source: 7 November 2016
2015	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: The company we keep Authors: Castro B Editors: Fischer U ISBN-13: 9781925236187 ISBN-10: 1925236188 Publisher: Boolarong Press Place of publication: Queensland Publication date: 2015 Pagination: 511-517 Extent: 7 pages Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Language: en Keywords: Authors, Australian Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: . Record created at source: 1 October 2015
2015	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Samaritan Authors: Castro B Editors: Putz C, Senft A, Schreiber U ISBN-13: 978-3-940384-79-9 Publisher: Verlag Vorwerk 8 Publisher URL: http://www.vorwerk8.de/ Place of publication: Berlin Publication date: 9 October 2015 Edition: 1 Pagination: 9-13 Extent: 119 Source URL: https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/2015-9_berliner_anthologie.pdf Notes: Evidence: “Samaritan”, Christa Schuenke trans. in “From where I shan’t return” Woher ich nicht zurückkehren werde, Christine Pütz, Anna Senft & Ulrich Schreiber eds. (Berliner Anthologie, Verlag Vorwerk 8, Berlin): October, 2015. pp 8-13 https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/2015-9_berliner_anthologie.pdf (Full text) https://www.boell.de/de/2015/09/04/berliner-anthologie-woher-ich-nicht-zurueckkehren-werde http://www.literaturfestival.com/archiv/sonderprojekte/berlin-liest/berlin-liest-am-9-september-2015 Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: RESEARCH BACKGROUND This poem was written in the immediate aftermath of the Syrian refugee crisis in Germany and Europe. It was also written after a commission-request from the Berlin Literary Festival 2015 for a creative piece on refugees. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION Any writing of a humanist nature connects with an educated public. Given Germany’s and Berlin’s past it contributed to the fact that the ‘issue’ of refugees challenges not only a German reckoning with history, but illuminates the hidden shame of the developed world. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The poem, along with others was read by German speakers in German on the U-Bahn network and at designated sites like the Holocaust Memorial and in parks and squares in Berlin. Record created at source: 6 November 2015
2015	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: 600 Lines of Blindness & Rage Authors: Castro B Editors: MacCarter K Publisher: Cordite Poetry Review Publisher URL: http://cordite.org.au/ Place of publication: Carlton South, MELBOURNE VIC. Publication date: 1 August 2015 Edition: 51.0 Series: "Transtasman" Journal: Cordite Poetry Review eISSN: 1328-2107 Issue: 51.0 Extent: 600 Abstract: Blindness & Rage is a verse novel in 34 cantos. Lucien Gracq, suffering from a terminal illness, moves to Paris from Adelaide to live out his last days. There he discovers a secret society which only accepts as members writers with varying degrees of terminal illnesses. It is not a palliative clinic, but is in fact a meeting place for the production of literary texts. Its overriding premise is that a text considered good enough to be published would have to attributed to another member, the recipient of a gift which may endow that person with high honours and prizes. It is preoccupied with the question: What is an author? No egotistical apostasy, no reclaimed ownership/authorship of the original work would be allowed under threat of the potential murder/suicide of the ghost writer who breaks the faith. Euthanasia is a free service. Gracq’s epic is chosen. He now has to decide what to do … to live anonymously as long as possible, or to welcome a visiting assassin. Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Rights statement: Copyright Brian Castro Description: DOP: August 1, 2015 Language: en Source URL: http://cordite.org.au/chapbooks-features/600-lines-of-blindness-rage/ Keywords: chapbook, verse novel Author URL: file://localhost/Users/bcastro/Desktop/Personal%20Website.html Medium: website Notes: ERA FOR - 190402 – 100% SEO - 950104 – 100% Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: . Record created at source: 1 August 2015
2014	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Introduction (to book 'Breaking Beauty') Authors: Castro B Editors: Washington L ISBN-13: 9781925227000 Publisher: MidnightSun Publishing Pty Ltd Place of publication: Adelaide, South Australia Publication date: 2014 Pagination: 9-11 Extent: 3 pages Source URL: https://www.amazon.com.au/Breaking-Beauty-Anna-Solding-ebook/dp/B00PBA6IL4 Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: . Record created at source: 29 November 2018
2013	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Literature and fashion Authors: Castro B Publisher: University of Western Sydney Place of publication: Online Publication date: 2013 Pagination: 0 pages Journal: Sydney Review of Books ISSN: 2201-8735 Volume: OnlinePubl Extent: 4050 words Abstract: Abstract not available Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Rights statement: Copyright status unknown Language: en Source URL: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/literature-and-fashion/ Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Research Statement RESEARCH BACKGROUND REVIEW ESSAY ON GILLES LIPOVETSKY, FRENCH SOCIOLOGIST IN THE FIELD OF FASHION IN ART AND LITERARY THEORY. ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTION: “ARE LITERARY CANONS THINGS TO BE PRESERVED OR DO THEY CHANGE WITH THE FASHION OF THE TIMES?” THIS ESSAY MAKES THE LINK BETWEEN ART AND DEMOCRACY. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION THIS ESSAY ADDRESSES NEW KNOWLEDGE IN TERMS OF HOW FASHION MAY BE A CATALYST TO A MORE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY IN THE ABSENCE OF CANONICAL THINKING. EVIDENCE OF EXCELLENCE WORLDWIDE PUBLICATION IN RESPECTED ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE SPONSORED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL AND THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY. Evidence: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/literature-and-fashion/ (Full text) Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: RESEARCH BACKGROUND This is a review essay on Gilles Lipovetsky’s book, The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy. It was commissioned by the Sydney Review. Lipovetsky draws on the history of fashion to demonstrate that the modern cult of appearance and superficiality actually serves the common good. Focusing on clothing, bodily deportment, sex roles, sexual practices, and political rhetoric as forms of "fashion," Lipovetsky shows how the evolution of fashion from an upper-class privilege into a vehicle of popular expression closely follows the rise of democratic values. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION The essay argues that high culture’s contemptuous word “commodity” is no longer the target of art, nor is fashion the butt of social critique – in the same way as universities are now no longer bulwarks of intellectual debate against corporate enterprises. Times change. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The essay, while assessing Lipvetsky’s book, moves away to challenge the role of the critic and the traditional novel, positing the phenomenon of the ‘writer-critic’ the process of hybridising both roles in a creatively paradoxical project. Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2013	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Sensible seeing Authors: Castro B Publisher: University of Western Sydney Publisher URL: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/sensible-seeing/ Place of publication: Online Publication date: 2013 Pagination: 4360 pages Journal: Sydney Review of Books ISSN: 2201-8735 Volume: OnlinePubl Extent: 4360 Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Rights statement: Copyright status unknown Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Research Statement RESEARCH BACKGROUND REVIEW ESSAY ON W.G. SEBALD’S “A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY”. THIS ESSAY ADDRESSES FIVE SWISS AUTHORS WHO HAVE IN COMMON A PRACTICE OF WRITING GENERATED BY WALKING. ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTION: “CAN RHYTHMS OF COMPOSITION BE LINKED TO RHYTHMS OF WALKING WHICH REQUIRE A DIFFERENT FORM OF ANALYSIS OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT?” THIS ESSAY MAKES THE CASE FOR A DIFFERENT KIND OF “SEEING”. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION THIS ESSAY ADDRESSES NEW KNOWLEDGE IN TERMS OF HOW MELANCHOLY FORCES A DELAY IN THE BROACHING OF A TOPIC; HOW WALKING ALTERS TEXTS BY DEFERRING THE OBVIOUS. EVIDENCE OF EXCELLENCE WORLDWIDE PUBLICATION IN RESPECTED ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE SPONSORED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL AND THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY. Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: Not provided Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2012	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Street to street Authors: Castro B ISBN-13: 9781920882952 Publisher: Giramondo Publishing Place of publication: Sydney, Australia Publication date: 2012 Pagination: 1-160 Extent: 160 pages Description: This is a novella about the early 20th century Sydney poet Christopher Brennan and his early 21st century biographer Brendan Costa. It asks the research question about artistic and intellectual life in Australia: how it goes unrecognised for the most part until the artist is dead. It presents new knowledge on Brennan and questions the possibilities of biography in an age which no longer values the past, an age which is now merely a realm to visit and admire. This novel was reviewed favourably in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian and the Adelaide Advertiser. Language: en Source URL: http://www.giramondopublishing.com/fiction/street-to-street/ Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This is a novella about the early 20th century Sydney poet Christopher Brennan and his early 21st century biographer Brendan Costa. It asks the research question about artistic and intellectual life in Australia: how it goes unrecognised for the most part until the artist is dead. It presents new knowledge on Brennan and questions the possibilities of biography in an age which no longer values the past, an age which is now merely a realm to visit and admire. This novel was reviewed favourably in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian and the Adelaide advertiser. Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2012	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Passages Authors: Castro B, Liew K, Young J ISBN-13: 9780980540840 Publisher: Tarrawarra Museum of Art Place of publication: Healesville Victoria Publication date: 2012 Pagination: 1-78 Extent: 78 pages Notes: "Passages" is a multi-art collaboration between Brian Castro, John Young and Khai Liew, three of Australia's pre-eminent artists in the fields of literature, art and design. Passages connotes travel and the disruption of regular or familiar time and place. It suggests notions of deterritorialisation whereby orthodox understandings of history, nation, identity and belonging are destabilised and the possibility of alternative epistemologies and subjectivities can be entertained. This exhibition provides new knowledge in situating text, painting and furniture design in the context of the biographies of the artists; i.e. their "Asian" origins and Australian formation. It was reviewed postively in The Age, The Melbourne Review and the Issiad Review. Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: Passages is a collaborative project which presents an enticing combination of thought-provoking literature, elegant design and fine art, bringing together the writings of Brian Castro, furniture of Khai Liew, and paintings of John Young. The three artists inPassages inhabit a similar cultural space shaped by the Asian Diaspora, which emerges in varying degrees through their individual disciplines of literature, design and visual art. Their common Asian reference informs each artist’s engagement with modernism to develop an aesthetic particular to Australia. This wonderful confluence of ideas and experiences enables fresh dialogues and dynamic correspondences to emerge and be exchanged between their different art forms. Record created at source: 17 December 2014
2011	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Slow boat to culture Authors: Castro B Publisher: Nationwide News Pty. Ltd. Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2011 Pagination: 20 Journal: The Australian Issue: 5 Oct 2011 Extent: 1 page Abstract: A university should nurture faith in the critical and the creative. Along the grand boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, where I teach at the university, institutions abound: the art gallery, the museum, the state library, the hospital. Books are gleaned and swallowed quickly, as though time were in short supply; as though culture, which was once seen to be holding back anarchy, had been shipped to a side pocket as one more option for multi-tasking. Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Rights statement: (c) News Limited Australia. All rights reserved. Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 ISSN: 1038-8761 (removed from ISSN field to resolve "multiple/no value subcategory error" in workflow report.) Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: Not provided Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2011	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: The reprieve Authors: Castro B Publisher: Wet Ink Magazine Inc. Place of publication: Adelaide, South Australia Publication date: 2011 Pagination: 2-5 Journal: Wet Ink ISSN: 1832-682X Volume: 25 Extent: 4 pages Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Rights statement: Copyright status unknown Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: RESEARCH BACKGROUND “The Reprieve” is a short story written out of personal experience on a fishing trip to the Lachlan River in 1970. While studying American Literature at Sydney University, I put certain texts to testing fiction against reality. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION By employing and parodying Hemingway’s short story about fly-fishing “Big Two-Hearted River”, it ironises the myths of fishing and shooting and re-sets it in an Australian context. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE “The Reprieve” blends the traditional memoir form with a fictional essay in a critique of the American gun culture that Hemingway encouraged and which was also widespread in Australia prior to gun-law changes in 1996. Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2010	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: The archivist Authors: Castro B Publisher: Australian Association of Writing Programs Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2010 Pagination: Online Journal: TEXT Volume: 14 Extent: 13 p. Statement of responsibility: Brain Castro Rights statement: (c) 2010 Author Description: Type of work : Prose poem. Extent : 13p. Language: en Keywords: Prose poem, the archive, Benjamin Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: Research Background: ‘The archivist’ is a work of exploration unearthing ‘revelations’ from the archive. ‘The Archive’ has been a source of serious research by scholars for centuries. Jacques Derrida, in his Freudian interpretation of the Archive (1996), suggests there is a connection between psychic processes and technologies of inscription relating to the Death Drive. Research Contribution: While dispersion and fragmentation rupture the dominant modes of writing, the fragment, when framed as a gesture and an epic, forms a whole and creates the illusion of a totalized self. Research contribution here is the investigation of the link between intimacy with intention in archival material. Research Significance: Published in TEXT Journal. The research undertaken here weds Walter Benjamin’s idea of the fragment-as-gesture with his notion of poetry as a collection of refuse. Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2010	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Roller-Coaster Authors: Castro B Publisher: Victorian Writer's Centre Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2010 Pagination: 0 pages Volume: July 2010 Extent: 1 page Description: In : Victorian Writer Type of work : Written artlcle Extent : 1 page Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2009	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Notes to a biographer Authors: Castro B Publisher: ABC Books Publisher URL: http://www.griffithreview.com/ Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2009 Pagination: 125-130 Journal: Griffith Review Volume: 23 Extent: 6 pages Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Description: Copyright © Copyright Griffith University & the author. Language: en Keywords: writing, China, suicide Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2009	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: The Bath Fugues Authors: Castro B ISBN-13: 9781920882556 Publisher: Giramondo Publishing Place of publication: Artarmon, NSW Publication date: 2009 Pagination: 354 pages Extent: 354 pages Abstract: This work takes the form of three interwoven novellas: three meditations on friendship based on Montaigne’s Essays. The research was centred around the themes of art forgery … in particular the forgeries perpetrated by the Red Brigades… and that of the falsification of identity. It incorporates research into the fugue, in both its musical and psychological forms. The work interrogates the structures of identity by examining Macanese ethnicity and surveying the justice system in Macau in the 1920s, where Chinese law existed side by side with Portuguese colonial wealth. Power and bloodlines played important roles in determining the posterity or otherwise of the family. Assumed identity and falsification of heritage were common practices. Description: Extent : 354 p. ; 21 cm Language: en Keywords: melancholy, Montaigne, Sarraute, Benjamin, Baudelaire, Pessanha Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: Research Background: ‘The Bath Fugues’ takes the form of three interwoven novellas; three meditations on friendship. Three characters share in an art inheritance, but they have more than painting in common. For each of them, the bonds of friendship will be stretched through this legacy. It incorporates research into art fraud, art provenance and art heritage. Research Contribution: This work contributes to research on Montaigne and the essay form, art production and the disposition of melancholy. It expands the field in the conception of the novella and the novel form. Research Significance: Short-listed, Miles Franklin Literary Award, 2010. Short-listed, South Australian Premier’s Literary Award, 2010. Short-listed, Queensland Premier’s Fiction Award Short-listed, Victorian premier’s Literary Award, Vance Palmer Prize. Reviews: The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Adelaide Advertiser, The Asian Review of Books. Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2009	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Foreword Authors: Castro B ISBN-13: 9780511545764 Publisher: Wakefield Press Place of publication: Kent Town, SA Publication date: 2009 Pagination: ix-x DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511545764.001 Journal: Assisting at Surgical Operations: A Practical Guide ISSN: 8756-758X eISSN: 1460-2695 Volume: 36 Issue: 11 Extent: 1 p. Description: Type of work : Foreword Extent : 1 p. Language: en Author URL: http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/ Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014 DOI
2008	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Arrested motion and future-mourning: Hybridity and creativity Authors: Castro B ISBN-13: 9781921556012 Publisher: Southerly Place of publication: C/O English Assoc Univ Sydney Dept English Sydney Australia NSW 2006 Publication date: 2008 Pagination: 112-132 Journal: Southerly Volume: 68 Extent: 21 pages Description: 2008 Blaiklock lecture Language: en Keywords: melancholy, Henry Kendall, crossing cultures Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: Research Background: Essay on melancholy and creativity with autobiographical references. References to Henry Kendall and Australian literature and history. Research Contribution: Provides new perspectives on depression, migration, grief, creativity and their connections. References the author’s diaries and works. Research Significance: 2008 Blaiklock Lecture, Sydney University. 2008 Barr-Smith Lecture, Adelaide University. Delivered as keynote lecture, the University of Copenhagen. Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2007	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Eight Chinese lessons Authors: Castro B Publisher: ABC Books Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2007 Pagination: 51-61 Journal: Griffith Review Volume: 18 Extent: 11 pages Rights statement: © Copyright Griffith University & the author. Description: Type of work : Literary essay Extent : 11 pages Language: en Keywords: China, Colonialism Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2007	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Written kisses Authors: Castro B Publisher: Meanjin Company Ltd. Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2007 Pagination: 185-188 Journal: Meanjin Volume: 66 Extent: 4 pages Description: Type of work : Refereed Extent : 4 pages Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2007	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: My personal write of way Authors: Castro B Publisher: Age Company Ltd Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2007 Pagination: 2 pages Journal: The Age Description: Type of work : Article Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2005	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: The Garden Book Authors: Castro B ISBN-13: 9781885030078 ISBN-10: 1920882103 Publisher: Giramondo Publishing Place of publication: Artarmon, NSW, Australia Publication date: 2005 Pagination: 1-316 Extent: 316 pages; 21 cm. Abstract: Brian Castro’s award-winning novel, The Garden Book, is a meditation on loneliness, addiction and exploitation. Description: Type of work : Book Extent : 316 pages; 21 cm. Language: en Keywords: Fiction Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2005	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Making oneself foreign Authors: Castro B Publisher: Meanjin Company Ltd. Publisher URL: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=232788377732847;res=IELAPA Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2005 Pagination: 4-14 Journal: Meanjin Volume: 64 Extent: 11 pages Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Rights statement: © 2005 The Author Description: Type of work : Refereed Extent : 11 pages Language: en Keywords: Translation Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2004	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Caesura Authors: Castro B Publisher: ABC Books Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2004 Pagination: 37-48 Journal: Griffith Review Volume: 6 Extent: 12 pages Description: © Copyright 2004 Griffith University & the author. Language: en Keywords: CHINA Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2004	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: A Gardener at midnight : travels in the Holy Land ; from drawings made on the spot by Yabez Al-Kitab Authors: Lyssiotis P, Castro B Publisher: Masterthief Place of publication: Melbourne, Vic, Australia Publication date: 2004 Pagination: 0 pages Extent: 1 v. (various pagings), [51] plates ; 52 cm Abstract: An artist's book examining the colonising history of Iraq, the futility of war, religious intolerance and that no one learns from history. Through two narratives, one set in the present and second war in Iraq is written by Lyssiotis - and the second set in the 19th century and the same region is written by a fictional boy Yabez Al-Kitab, i.e. Brian Castro. The images of the region are scratched to look a century old, reminding readers of the past and ruins. Description: Extent : 1 v. (various pagings), [51] plates ; 52 cm "The text, Stones for Al-Kitab is by Brian Castro"--Insert. "First edition is limited to 10 signed copies"--Colophon. Extra prints: Convent of Saint Catherine, Mount Sanai -- Mount Musa, The Wells of Moses, Wilderness of Tyn. Printed on Magnani Velata Avorio. Sections were hand sewn with linen on five tape supports in a cross pattern French style. Endpapers are Magnani Vergalla. End bands have been sewn in red and gold silk. The lettering and tooling finished in 23 carat gold. The book has been quarter bound in Chieftan goatskin with raised bands and buckram sides by Nick Doslov and typeset in Bembo 26 point by David Pidgeon. Source of the work is David Robert's The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014
2003	Publication status: Published NTRO sub category: 3 Written work Title: Shanghai dancing Authors: Castro B ISBN-13: 9780957831186 Publisher: Giramondo Publishing Place of publication: Australia Publication date: 2003 Pagination: 447 pages Extent: 447 pages Statement of responsibility: Brian Castro Description: Type of work : Novel Extent : 447 pages Language: en Notes: Migrated record 20140814 Verification-status: Verified Record created at source: 14 August 2014

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.

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Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
2018	Principal Supervisor	Comparing 'a' by Andy Warhal and Line 1072 of Aeschylus, Agamemnon	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mr Peter Edward Medcalf
2018	Principal Supervisor	Ekphrasis and Sketching as Tools for Characterisation and Narrative	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mr Stephen William Abram
2018	Co-Supervisor	Into the Forest: Historical Imagination in Philippine Fiction	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Glenn Lappay Diaz
2018	Co-Supervisor	A Prose Fiction Project on Colonel William Light	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Dr Lyn Dickens
2017	Co-Supervisor	Historicizing the Avant-Garde tradition in Philippine Poetry in English	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Mark Anthony Reyes Cayanan
2016	Co-Supervisor	“. . . a story in an obscure corner of the front page . . .” American White Women Novelists: New Recognitions (1950s-1965)	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Azadeh Feridoun Pour
2016	Co-Supervisor	"Scapegrace", Young Adult Novel	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Emily Francine Palmer
2016	Principal Supervisor	The Seven Sisters: Space, Time and Cultural Appropriation on the Nullarbor Plain	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Catherine Mary Flanagan Willanski
2016	Co-Supervisor	Postulating the Personal in Abstract Art Through Poetry	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Dominic Alexander Symes
2016	Co-Supervisor	The Willton Tales, Stories from a Country's Heart	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Peter Hugh Court
2015	Principal Supervisor	Reunited: A Novel and Exegesis (film structures and cinematic techniques in modern crime fiction and thrillers)	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Phillipa Deanne Martin
2015	Co-Supervisor	Disabling Poetics: Bodily Otherness and the saying of poetry	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Andrew Jackson
2014	Co-Supervisor	Portraying the Other in Salaryman Novels and How Their Identities are Constructed	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Miss Ying Xuan Chuang
2014	Principal Supervisor	Arson and Other Acts of Violence: Social Realism in Australian Gothic Fiction	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Sally Sian Lily Fermer

Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
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 - 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
2015 - 2017	Principal Supervisor	In the Garden Where We've Been Planted	Master of Philosophy	Master	Part Time	Dr Henry Walter Prunckun
2015 - 2017	Principal Supervisor	Me, Myself and the Other: Self-reflexivity in Travel Writing	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Ms Tina Morganella
2015 - 2018	Principal Supervisor	Volume 1: Belly of the Beast Volume 2: The Road to Nowhere: Myths of Homeland and Expulsion in Australian Road Stories	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Liz Allan
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	Mr Matthew James Hooton
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
2013 - 2015	Co-Supervisor	Rewriting Urban Narratives of the Australian Great Depression	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Helen Catherine Dinmore
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
2012 - 2016	Principal Supervisor	THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Ms Kathryn Koromilas
2012 - 2017	Principal Supervisor	This Old Man and An Act of Reading and Writing.	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Jonathan Mark Zweck
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
2011 - 2014	Principal Supervisor	The Forked Road of Narrative in the Hero's Journey	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Con Anemogiannis
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	Co-Supervisor	The Cotton Is High & Of the Earth: Writing The Cotton Is High	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Bryan Whalen
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
2010 - 2014	Principal Supervisor	Cloud Village/Ethnographic Surrealism and the New World Baroque	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Miss Leila Susan Binder
2009 - 2015	Principal Supervisor	Unintelligible: A Memoir of Unassumable Inheritance Volume 1 Creative work Volume 2 Exegesis After-words: Postmemory and writing perpetration	Master of Arts	Master	Part Time	Dr Anna Szorenyi
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	Co-Supervisor	Ephemeron: Volume 1 Creative works Volume 2 Exegesis	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Emma Carmody
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
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
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 Subjectivity	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Michelle Diane Aung Thin
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
2008 - 2013	Principal Supervisor	The 'Murdering Twinmaker'	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Sean Llewellyn Williams

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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

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

Position: Chair Creative Writing
Phone: 83133861
Email: brian.castro@adelaide.edu.au
Fax: 8313 4341
Campus: North Terrace
Building: Napier, floor 6
Room: 6 05
Org Unit: English and Creative Writing

Professor Brian Castro

Appointments

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Education

Journals

Books

Book Chapters

Live Performance of Creative Works

Original Creative Works

Curated or Produced Public Exhibition or Events

Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Committee Memberships

Editorial Boards

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