Matthew Hooton

Dr Matthew Hooton

Lecturer in Creative Writing

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Adelaide. Author of the novel Deloume Road, published by Knopf and Jonathan Cape, as well as short fiction and creative non-fiction for a variety of international publications.

    Expand

  • Books
    Year Citation
    2019 Hooton, M. J. (2019). Typhoon Kingdom. Perth, Australia: University of Western Australia Press.

  • Original Creative Works
    Year Citation
    2019 Publication status: Accepted
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: Because Puppets Do Not Age, Do Not Fear Gravity, Do Not Betray Those Who Love Them Most
    Authors: Hooton MJ
    Publisher: Southerly
    Publisher URL: http://southerlyjournal.com.au/
    Place of publication: Southerly
    Publication date: 15 February 2019
    Journal: Southerly
    ISSN: 0038-3732
    Volume: 78
    Issue: 2
    Extent: 2000 words/10 pages
    Type of work: Print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This short story involves in-depth research into the historical impact and biographies of both Jim Henson and Rudolph Nureyev, as well as into the history of European and North American puppetry and hybrid forms of performance art. This is the first piece of published creative literature exploring Nureyev’s 1978 performance on The Muppet Show, as well as the impact of Henson’s death on the art form, making this story a substantial contribution to the discipline of creative writing. The piece is experimental in form, utilising a fragmented chronology and multiplicity of voices to convey a thematic sense of loss and explore a performative art form through the medium of print. Southerly is one of Australia’s finest and most well-established literary journals, operating in Sydney since 1939, and now publishing both in print and online. As such, publication in this venue ensures impactful exposure both nationally and internationally.
    Abstract: A piece of short fiction that chronicles the Russian dissident dancer Rudolph Nureyev’s appearance on Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show in 1978. The story seeks to explore the profound impact of both art and personal loss on subsequent generations through a fragmented and polyphonic narrative.
    Language: EN
    Keywords: Jim Henson, Rudolph Nureyev, The Muppet Show, Fiction, Short Story, Puppetry
    Other output evidence: http://southerlyjournal.com.au/about/
    Record created at source: 6 December 2018
    2018 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: Joseph Is a Brontosaurus Man, Mary Misses the Ice Age
    Authors: Hooton M
    Publisher: The Antigonish Review
    Publisher URL: http://www.antigonishreview.com/
    Place of publication: The Antigonish Review
    Publication date: 7 June 2018
    Pagination: 72-75
    Journal: The Antigonish Review
    ISSN: 0003-5661
    Volume: 48
    Issue: 192
    Extent: 7 typed pages.
    Type of work: print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This piece of short fiction involves research into the oil industry in Canada and offshore drilling in South East Asia, and links these to an examination of the history of fossil discovery in the badlands of Alberta. The piece presents loss as an anchoring experience that translates across borders to infiltrate the dual settings of Canada and Australia, and seeks to make an original contribution to the short story genre by investigating the connection between disrupted natural environments and the human body, moving from this foundation to an exploration of place or setting as plot. The Antigonish Review, one of Canada’s longest running literary journals, is an award-winning publication with international distribution, which makes it an ideal venue for a piece of transnational writing.
    Abstract: A short story set between Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, and Adelaide, in South Australia, in which the protagonist mourns the death of a child while exploring an exhibit of fossils at a museum. The piece explores themes of environmental disruption and loss, and connects these to the physical and emotional experience of mourning.
    Language: En
    Verification-status: Verified
    Record created at source: 19 February 2018
    2018 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: Thirteen Monkeys and an Ageing Emu Run Amok through the Ruins of Oracle City
    Authors: Hooton M
    Publisher: Westerly
    Publisher URL: https://westerlymag.com.au/
    Place of publication: University of Western Australia
    Publication date: 2018
    Pagination: 113-118
    Journal: Westerly
    ISSN: 0043-342X
    Volume: 63
    Issue: 1
    Extent: 5 published pages of creative non-fiction appearing in the print version of Westerly.
    Type of work: Print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This personal essay blends creative non-fiction with fictional elements and techniques to explore the history and development of the Beijing Zoo through time. The work involves research into fossil hunting in Mongolia and the Japanese military occupation of China in the 1930s and 40s, as well as on-site research into the National Museum of China’s collection of oracle bones and the Beijing Zoo. While little is known about the fate of the animals during the occupation, thirteen monkeys and an emu managed to survive. This is the first piece of creative literature exploring the subject. Westerly is an impactful publisher for such a piece, with a solid national and international reputation and readership. Quotes from this story appear on the back cover of the journal, and will also be projected onto buildings in downtown Perth as part of a promotional campaign.
    Abstract: A piece of creative non-fiction that chronicles a research trip to Beijing, while also reimagining the historical destruction of the Beijing Zoo in the 1940s by invading Japanese troops. The essay seeks to explore issues of personal and historical loss through reconstructive narrative.
    Rights statement: It is Agreed between Westerly and the Author that the Author grants to Westerly the non-exclusive right to publish the Author’s Content in Westerly in both hardcopy format and in an online version of Westerly at www.westerlymag.com.au.
    Language: en
    Keywords: Beijing, Zoo, Fossils, Westerly
    Verification-status: Verified
    Record created at source: 31 July 2018
    2017 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: The Great & Amazing Disappearing You
    Authors: Hooton M
    Publisher: PRISM International
    Publisher URL: http://www.prismmagazine.ca/
    Place of publication: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Publication date: 2017
    Edition: 55:3 Spring 2017
    Pagination: 66-70
    Journal: Prism International
    ISSN: 0032-8790
    Volume: 55
    Issue: 3
    Extent: 8 typed pages.
    Type of work: print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This piece of short fiction is an experiment in fictionalizing memoir and personal essay writing, which uses elements of genre writing (speculative fiction and science fiction) to allegorically represent the “unknowable” aspects of family history as supernatural. The work required research into the history of the Canadian oil fields and industry, the psychology of intergenerational haunting, Canadian geography, Chinese history, and the science of molecular biology. The piece seeks to portray and subvert common themes and elements in Canadian “literary” fiction, such as the disillusionment of “working class” individuals and their disconnection from the political sphere of influence, and intergenerational (mis)communication, in an original way by introducing supernatural elements found in so-called genre fiction. Publishing this piece in PRISM International gives such an experiment maximum exposure in Canada, where PRISM has won 12 National Magazine Awards, and been nominated for 28.
    Abstract: A short story that reimagines the author’s family history with a grandfather who can walk through walls. The piece thematically explores intergenerational haunting and the impact of silence on family history.
    Rights statement: We ask for the exclusive right of first publication of the work, with copyright remaining with the author.
    Language: en
    Source URL: http://prismmagazine.ca/about/
    Verification-status: Verified
    Record created at source: 16 February 2018
    2016 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: This Country
    Authors: Hooton M
    Publisher: Aesthetica Magazine
    Publisher URL: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/
    Place of publication: York, UK
    Publication date: 2016
    Edition: 2016
    Pagination: 125-128
    Journal: Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual 2017
    ISSN: 2048-8777
    Extent: 8 typed pages.
    Type of work: print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This piece of short fiction involves research into climate change and potential global extinction events, while experimenting with literary language (often poetic in scope), character and plot to subvert genre tropes. The story seeks to make an original contribution to speculative fiction by focussing on a same sex relationship within the context of apocalyptic survival. The work examines violence and survival, and the politics of social interaction outside the confines of a regulated nation-state. The scope and intended audience of the project is both regional, distinctly Canadian in setting, and global, and the piece has been published in the Canadian journal The Impressment Gang, and anthologized in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual, published in York, UK.
    Abstract: A short story set in an imagined apocalyptic future, in which two men try to survive freezing temperatures mid-winter. The piece explores themes of violence, mourning, and same sex relationships as it seeks to subvert expectations attached to genre fiction.
    Rights statement: "All work is copyrighted to the author. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without permission from the Publisher."
    Language: en
    Source URL: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/about/
    Verification-status: Verified
    Record created at source: 16 February 2018
    2016 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: How to Write a Successful Obituary for a Superhero
    Authors: Hooton M
    Publisher: Pulp Literature Press
    Publisher URL: http://www.pulpliterature.com/
    Place of publication: Vancouver, Canada
    Publication date: 2016
    Pagination: 7-15
    Journal: Pulp Literature
    ISSN: 2292-2164
    Issue: 11
    Extent: 6 typed pages.
    Type of work: print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: A piece of short fiction that uses literary language to deconstruct the tropes of the superhero genre, in which words throughout the story take physical shape to haunt the narrator. The story seeks to make an original contribution to genre fiction through its literary intent, language and exploration of both human nature and love, and the reverse contribution to literary fiction through the use of comic-book-like world creation. The piece is built on research into violent crime in Canada, journalism and reportage, the lost art of obituary writing, and the physiologies of human violence and aging bodies. Pulp Literature in Vancouver, Canada, is the perfect delivery mechanism for a cross-genre experiment such as this, as they are dedicated to publishing stories that appear unlikely to fit within oversimplified industry categories, and because they are a growing presence in the Canadian publishing industry as both a magazine and book publisher. Pulp Literature published this piece as their feature story for the issue.
    Abstract: A short story that explores our culture’s fascination with superheroes and comics by satirizing the death of a local superhero and the ethical conundrums of the obituary writer who knows the man’s true identity.
    Rights statement: "All stories and works of art copyright 2016 their authors as per bylines."
    Language: En
    Other output evidence: http://pulpliterature.com/about-us/
    Verification-status: Verified
    Record created at source: 16 February 2018
    2016 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: Is This Our Inheritance O Lord, and Is That Your Voice We Hear Echoing on the Party Line?
    Authors: Hooton M
    Publisher: Riddle Fence
    Publisher URL: http://www.riddlefence.com/
    Place of publication: St. John's, Canada
    Publication date: 2016
    Edition: #24
    Pagination: 9-13
    Journal: Riddle Fence
    ISSN: 1913-7265
    Issue: #24
    Extent: 6 typed pages.
    Type of work: print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This piece of short fiction involves research into Korean history and the life of Evel Knieval, and explores connections between personal history and media representations of “foreign” cultures and events. The story is original and experimental in its reimagining of history, and its displacement of an American icon into a foreign culture. It uses a Canadian domestic scene as a foundation to explore both the influence of American culture on Canada, and how loss translates both personally and historically from the familiar to the cultural. Riddle Fence is the ideal publication for such a piece, as it is a national distributed journal with a reputation for pushing literary boundaries and genres in Canada.
    Abstract: A short story that reimagines the final stunt of Evel Knieval, which sees the daredevil attempt to jump the DMZ separating North and South Korea. The piece thematically explores personal and historical loss, as well as cultural alienation and connection.
    Rights statement: author retains copyright
    Language: en
    Verification-status: Verified
    Record created at source: 16 February 2018
    2015 Publication status: Published online
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: But Icarus
    Authors: Hooton M
    Publisher: Cosmonaut's Avenue
    Publisher URL: http://www.cosmonautsavenue.com/
    Place of publication: Montreal, Canada
    Publication date: 2015
    Journal: Cosmonaut's Avenue
    Extent: 12 typed pages.
    Type of work: print online
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This piece of short fiction involves research into palliative care and the psychology of death and dying, childhood trauma, narrative coping strategies for engaging with post traumatic stress disorder, and insect life on Vancouver island. The piece presents the return of the narrator to their childhood home as a journey narrative that evokes childhood loss and pain, and further explores issues of death and dying through the cross-pollination of literary and speculative fiction. Topics such as religion and mourning, memory and imagination, and chronic pain, both physical and emotional, run through the piece as literary currents. As such, Cosmonaut’s Avenue, published online in Montreal, Canada, which specializes in cross-genre work, is an appropriate delivery mechanism for a piece that might not sit easily within industry categories.
    Abstract: A short story in which a childhood trauma is recounted and reimagined as the supernatural flight of a boy from a cliff’s edge. The piece explores the psychological interplay of trauma and narrative, and the exorcism of childhood pain and loss.
    Language: En
    Source URL: http://www.cosmonautsavenue.com/
    Verification-status: Verified
    Record created at source: 20 February 2018
    2013 Publication status: Published online
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: This Tongue
    Authors: Hooton MJ
    Publisher: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
    Publisher URL: http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites
    Place of publication: Canada
    Publication date: 2013
    Extent: 6 typed pages.
    Type of work: Online print
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: This travel essay involves research into the science of memory and imagination, the psychology of lying and deceit, snakes in literature and religious texts, snakes in Canada, Vietnam and Malaysian Borneo, and the life and death of British travel writer Bruce Chatwin. The piece makes intuitive and explicit thematic connections between the aforementioned topics, which are unified through the lens of the author’s personal experiences both as a child in Canada, and an adult travelling in Asia. The narrative pushes the boundaries of creative non-fiction by presenting the faulty nature of memory and imaginative reconstruction as a “lie,” asking questions of family history and silence, and spring-boarding from this foundation to a larger examination of mythologies and cultural knowledge as social/shared memory. The essay was a finalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Canada Writes Non-Fiction Prize, and was published on the CBC’s website. The impact of such a large public body publishing the essay involved exposure through radio interviews, online interviews, and a nationwide distribution network for the work itself.
    Abstract: A travel essay linking the author’s first lie to a cobra’s still-beating heart in a shot glass, a mountain summit in Borneo, and the death of British travel writer Bruce Chatwin. The piece explores themes of memory and imagination, lies within families, and death and loss.
    Rights statement: Copyright CBC Canada Writes
    Language: En
    Notes: Judges Comments on “This Tongue” by Matthew Hooton

    “Matthew Hooton writes in a rather tantalizing style as he arouses one's interest in what will come next. His descriptive style makes one see and smell and shudder at the things that he is writing about.”

    “The writing is strong and lyrical. The shifts in time and subject are seamless and coherent. It provokes emotion without seeming to try too hard.”

    “I like the echo that occurs as the two stories work against each other. The foreign is made familiar and the familiar becomes foreign.”

    “It sings with a beautiful voice.”

    “Reads like poetry. So engaging. Brilliant imagery.”
    “
    The reality, the emotion, the visions...all with so few words. Fantastic!”

    “Brilliant juxtaposition of disparate elements, relayed in sumptuous language.”

    “There is very vivid imagery and beautiful descriptions of place, time, and experience.”

    “The way the theme of lies weaves around the image of the [lying] snake, concepts of shedding skin and changing colours... What we can and can't do / change. I like the bluntness of the assertions, the subtle sorrows and fears tucked inside the fact-filled narratives.”

    “Travel writing at its best!”

    “The language does double-work, creating emotional and symbolic layers. The form echoes the way we remember (and the way we lie), and while it has a stream of consciousness feel, it's deftly crafted.”

    “As I read it, I felt a low, dark, hollow, wide-open hum that connected all the sections. It was, at once, scary, familiar, and comforting. It felt like the space in my own head that plays with and puts together seemingly disparate parts of my dreams, memories, and past.”

    “The narrative floats effortlessly between past and present, with its strong imagery and clear, compelling language.”

    “There is a slippery rhythm to the story that appeals to me, along with the intertwining images of snakes and stones, healing and death and renewal. And on a personal note, it appeals to memories of many similar events in my own life.”

    “Poetic and deeply moving, analytical, insightful and well-written.”
    Record created at source: 20 February 2018
    2013 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: "Foreigner" in At The Edge: A Collaborative Novel
    Authors: Hooton MJ
    Editors: Anderson M, Schnitzer D
    ISBN-13: 9780991960903
    Publisher: Unlimited Editions
    Publisher URL: http://www.unlimitededitions.ca/
    Place of publication: Winnipeg, Canada
    Publication date: 2013
    Pagination: 89-107
    Extent: 20 typed pages.
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: An original chapter for a collaborative novel featuring work by authors from around the world, including Jack Hodgins and Gail Anderson-Dargatz. Each contribution was selected through a blind judging process. The book was launched at the Vancouver Public Library in 2013. This chapter features characters from both South Korea and Canada, and focusses on transnational experience, both linguistically and physically. It is one of the few published pieces of writing in Canada to feature romanization of Korean text, and to highlight Canada's historical relationship to the Korean peninsula, specifically in the form of 23,000 soldiers who served there during the Korean War from 1950-53. Research topics include Canadian history, the Korean War, Hangul (Korean language), and South Korean propaganda about North Korea in the 1980's (another subject that was previously absent from literature in English).
    Abstract: "Project coordinators, Marjorie Anderson and Deborah Schnitzer, two contributors in the Dropped Threads anthologies, have collaborated with a collection of writers from across Canada and abroad to create this novel of intrigue. It is the first offering of the literary production enterprise, Unlimited Editions, and heralds new opportunities for collaborative writing that expand traditional ideas of genre and authorship."
    Rights statement: Book copyright Unlimited Editions, 2013, Chapter, "Foreigner" copyright Matthew Hooton 2013.
    Language: En
    Record created at source: 16 February 2018
    2013 Publication status: Published
    NTRO sub category: 3 Written work
    Title: "Foreigner" in At The Edge: A Collaborative Novel
    Authors: Hooton MJ
    Editors: Anderson M, Schnitzer D
    ISBN-13: 9780991960903
    Publisher: Unlimited Editions
    Publisher URL: http://www.unlimitededitions.ca/
    Place of publication: Winnipeg, Canada
    Publication date: 2013
    Pagination: 89-107
    Extent: 20 typed pages.
    ERA Research Statement - 2000 character limit: An original chapter for a collaborative novel featuring work by authors from around the world, including Jack Hodgins and Gail Anderson-Dargatz. Each contribution was selected through a blind judging process. The book was launched at the Vancouver Public Library in 2013. This chapter features characters from both South Korea and Canada, and focusses on transnational experience, both linguistically and physically. It is one of the few published pieces of writing in Canada to feature romanization of Korean text, and to highlight Canada's historical relationship to the Korean peninsula, specifically in the form of 23,000 soldiers who served there during the Korean War from 1950-53. Research topics include Canadian history, the Korean War, Hangul (Korean language), and South Korean propaganda about North Korea in the 1980's (another subject that was previously absent from literature in English).
    Abstract: "Project coordinators, Marjorie Anderson and Deborah Schnitzer, two contributors in the Dropped Threads anthologies, have collaborated with a collection of writers from across Canada and abroad to create this novel of intrigue. It is the first offering of the literary production enterprise, Unlimited Editions, and heralds new opportunities for collaborative writing that expand traditional ideas of genre and authorship."
    Rights statement: Book copyright Unlimited Editions, 2013, Chapter, "Foreigner" copyright Matthew Hooton 2013.
    Language: En
    Record created at source: 16 February 2018
    Expand

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2019 Co-Supervisor Narrative Traction in Contemporary Literary Fiction Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Rose Katherine Hartley
    2018 Co-Supervisor A Collection of Absurd and Contemporary Australian Short Stories and accompanying exegetical work: The Wrtiter's Guide to Intertextuality Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Travis Lucas
    2018 Co-Supervisor Queer Ecologies and Contemporary Poetry Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Em Artur Koenig
    2018 Co-Supervisor Genre Hybridity in Television: An exegesis investigating genre hybridity and its contribution to the coming of age TV comedy genre, plus a creative work (comedy television series) about life in a postgraduate college. Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Dancey Elizabeth Gordon
    2018 Co-Supervisor Intersection of History, Memory and Imagination in Fantastical Narratives Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Olujide Babatunde Adebayo-Begun
  • Position: Lecturer in Creative Writing
  • Phone: 83134562
  • Email: matthew.hooton@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Napier, floor 6
  • Room: 6 10
  • Org Unit: English and Creative Writing
Connect With Me