
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 and the 2018 Prime Minister's Prize for Poetry.
His research interests include melancholia and creativity, Oulipo and diasporic literatures.
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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 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.
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Journals
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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 2020 Castro, B. R. I. A. N. (2020). The Slow Derangement. In D. Driver (Ed.), A Book of Friends In Honour of J. M. Coetzee on his 80th Birthday. Melbourne: Text Publishing. 2020 Castro, B. R. I. A. N. (2020). The Slow Derangement. In D. Driver (Ed.), A Book of Friends In Honour of J. M. Coetzee on his 80th Birthday. Melbourne: Text 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
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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 Ms Edith Mina Lyre 2018 Co-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 expiation, For, the, sin, of, Nothing: The Politics of the Poetic Form in Queer Philippine Poetry in English Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Mark Anthony Reyes Cayanan 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 The Willton Tales, Stories from a Country's Heart Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Peter Hugh Court 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 The Expatriates: Short Stories and Essays Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Joanne Nicole Lennan 2016 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Postulating the Personal in Abstract Art Through Poetry Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Dominic Alexander Symes 2016 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Literary Novel: 'The Ghost of a Child' and exegesis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Karen Maree Rees 2015 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Disabling Poetics: Bodily Otherness and the saying of poetry Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Andrew Jackson 2015 - 2017 Principal Supervisor All autostrade lead to Rome: A contemporary traveller's impressions of Rome Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Tina Morganella 2015 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Novel and Exegesis : "In the garden where we've been planted" Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Dr Henry Walter Prunckun 2015 - 2019 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 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Australian Road Stories Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Liz Allan 2014 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Episodic Novel Essay: Memory, Imagination and The Creative Process Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Matthew James Hooton 2014 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Bone Troubles (Novel) and Exegesis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Robert Meldrum Sedlack 2013 - 2016 Principal Supervisor A Narrative about War and a War Bride: Creative work & Exegesis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Eleanor Ahern 2013 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Creative Writing - Literary Fiction Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Helen Catherine Dinmore 2012 - 2016 Principal Supervisor The Philosophical Novel 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 Dr Jonathan Mark Zweck 2012 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Stories About the End: On Writing Young Adult Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Tim Sinclair 2011 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Creative Writing. A Novel, Plus a Critique/Thesis/Exegesis Titled, The Monster as the Holy Grail in Literature and Cinema the Changing role of Jeopardy in Narrative Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Con Anemogiannis 2011 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Memoir: Expatriates Experiences, Shanghai, China Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Christine Robyn Velde 2011 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Point of View in a Novel about a Divided Society Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Mary Lynn Mather 2010 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Creative Writing: Self Invention in Settler Cultures Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Leila Susan Binder 2010 - 2016 Co-Supervisor Dark Green: A Collection of Poems on Environmental Themes Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Rachael Mead 2010 - 2014 Principal Supervisor The Role of Place in Defining Subjectivity in Contemporary Australian Fiction Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Sally Sian Lily Fermer 2010 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Of The Earth: An In-Depth Creative Enquiry into Travel and Transportation Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Bryan Whalen 2009 - 2015 Principal Supervisor Intimate Dislocations: Telling Vera's Story (A Memoir) Master of Arts Master Part Time Dr Anna Szorenyi 2009 - 2012 Principal Supervisor Literary Activists and Activism Master of Arts Master Full Time Ms Catherine Mary Flanagan Willanski 2009 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Transposition - Poetry and Cinema Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Emma Carmody 2009 - 2013 Principal Supervisor The Role of Narrative in Corporate Environments Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Martina Newhook 2009 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Creative Writing Novel Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Charles Canning 2009 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Novel: Maps and Cartography Throughout History as Metaphors for Meaning in Literature Vs "The Hero's Journey" 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 Technologies of Writing in Contemporary Culture Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Sonja Dechian 2009 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Creative Writing - Fiction Novel and Exegesis - Conflict Theory and its Impact on Writing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Lauren May Lovett 2008 - 2011 Co-Supervisor Creative Writing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Miguel Syjuco 2008 - 2013 Principal Supervisor The skin of a writer:
Part one: Winsome of Rangoon (provisional title) - a novel
Part two: Skin, writing and ethics in the representation of Anglo-Burmese subjectivityDoctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Michelle Diane Aung Thin 2008 - 2011 Principal Supervisor The Trauma Aesthetic: the works of W.G. Sebald, J.M. Coetzee and Thomas Pynchon Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Shannon Burns 2008 - 2011 Principal Supervisor "Calypso Summers" (Novel) and "Culture Code" (Exegesis) Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Jared Thomas 2008 - 2009 Principal Supervisor Childless Women in Fairytales and Novel Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Carol Lefevre 2008 - 2009 Co-Supervisor Sonata Form and the Literary Creative Process Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Stefan Lashchuk 2008 - 2009 Principal Supervisor To Examine the Balance Between Aethetic and Socio-political Concerns when Interpreting Historical Event in Fiction Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Dominique Wilson 2008 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Original Novel Plus Research into Crime and Science Fiction 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 -
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
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External Profiles