Bio

I am a Sydney-based poet and writer. I write across forms and genres, and my work has appeared in over 50 publications. I have been the recipient of writing project development grants (Create NSW and Writing NSW), and I was awarded the 2017 Varuna Dr Dark Flagship Fellowship, for non-fiction of outstanding quality in social, historical or political writing. I was also awarded a Griffith Review Contributors Circle Varuna Residency in 2019 and 2016 and a Griffith Review Emerging Writers’ Prize in 2011 (for nonfiction). 

I teach in university writing programs.

For more about my academic work visit Academia.com.

biblio

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UNS*PRE-2000 TRUNCATED


Books/edited books

2018, Traumata, University of Queensland Press (UQP), Brisbane.

2017, The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma, Bloomsbury Academic, New York. 

2013, Traumatic Affect (co-edited with Michael Richardson), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne. 


​Literary (short fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, and poetry)

2022, ‘Friday essay: reclaiming artist-musician Anita Lane from the “despised” label of muse’ (essay), The Conversation Books + Ideas,                        September 22.

2022, ‘Shit happens when you’re smashed: gender, race and alcohol-related injustice’ (essay), Overland, June 29.

2021, ‘On Resilience’, Newsbite (Commissioned Series: Writing and Resilience), Writing NSW. 

2021 (in collaboration with UNSW research participants), ‘Exhaustion: a monologue’, Right Now, March 31.

2019, ‘Necropolis Drive’, Southerly: The Lives of Others: Trans-generational Negotiations, vol. 78, no. 3.

2019, ‘Precarious’ (poetry), Rabbit (TENSE issue), Melbourne.

2016, ‘Souvenir’, Mascara Literary Review, issue 19, September. 

2016, ‘Ant familias’ and ‘Black-eared cuckoo’, Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics, vol. 3, no. 1 (ed.                      Trisha Dearborn), (online).

2015, ‘Black-eared cuckoo’, Bimblebox 153 Birds, Bimblebox Art Project.

2015, ‘Darlinghurst nights’, Verity La, (online).

2013, ‘Up-skirt’, Griffith REVIEW 40: Women & Power, Text, Melbourne, pp. 220-229.

2013, ‘Dust storm’, Meniscus, (online).

2012, ‘Confessions of a vegetarian’, 2013 Voiceless Anthology, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp. 1-21.

2011, ‘Child’s play: the biggest Sherbet fans ever’, Griffith REVIEW 33: Such is Life, Text, Melbourne, pp. 253-261. 

2010, ‘Writing a Dear John letter while reading Abraham and Torok*’, The Best Australian Poems 2010 (ed. Robert Adamson), Black Inc,                      Melbourne, pp. 4-5.

2010, ‘Waiting for dad-o’, Meanjin Quarterly, vol. 69, no. 2, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 146-150.

2009, ‘Have relationships like rock stars: a Twitter exposé’, Meanjin Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 3, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne,                  pp. 94-102.

2007, ‘Désincarné/disembodied’, The Best Australian Stories 2007 (ed. Robert Drewe), Black Inc, Melbourne, pp. 261-276.

2007, ‘From a moving car’, A Revealed Life: Australian Writers and Their Journeys in Memoir (ed. Julianne Schultz), ABC Books, Sydney, pp.                96-103.

2007, ‘My Mount Everest’, Griffith REVIEW 17: Staying Alive, ABC Books, Sydney, 77-113.

2007, ‘The exiled child’, Griffith REVIEW 15: Divided Nation, ABC Books, Sydney, pp. 85-98.

2007, ‘The exiled child’ re-printed as ‘Home is where the pain is’, The Age (‘Insight’ essay), Fairfax, Melbourne, 17 February, (online).
 
2006, ‘Most people are good’, Going Down Swinging, no. 24, Melbourne, pp. 34-35.  2006, ‘Désincarné/disembodied’, Etchings, no. 1, Ilura                  Press, Melbourne,  pp. 75-108.

2006, ‘Girls talk’, Griffith REVIEW 11: Getting Smart, ABC Books, Sydney, pp. 137-184.  2006, ‘Girls talk’ re-printed as ‘Sinister sisters’, The Age              (education section cover story), Fairfax, Melbourne, 17 April. 

2005, ‘From a moving car,’ Griffith REVIEW 9: Up North, ABC Books, Sydney, pp. 179-198.

2005, ‘Projection’, Blue Dog, vol. 4, no. 7, Journal of the Australian Poetry Centre, Melbourne, p. 59.

2004, ‘Invisible moon’, Griffith REVIEW 6: Our Global Face, ABC Books, Sydney, pp. 165-173. 

2004, ‘Beauty and the bêtê noire’, Griffith REVIEW 4: Making Perfect Bodies, ABC Books, Sydney, pp. 109-120.


Freelance journalism and professional/media writing

2021, ‘On resilience’, Newsbite (Commissioned Series: Writing and Resilience), Writing NSW (forthcoming). 

2021, ‘More than half of Australians will experience trauma, most before they turn 17. We need to talk about it’, The Conversation Health + Medicine, April 29.

2021, (co-authored with Michael Salter), ‘3 trauma takes the media gets wrong’, The Conversation Health + Medicine, March 22.

2019, Howard, J et al 2019 (interviewed contributor), ‘What should politicians be reading at parliamentary book club? Our experts make their picks’, The Conversation Arts + Culture, August 20.

2019, ‘The Problem with Writing Trauma’, Guest Post on Lee Kofman’s blog The Writing Life, March.

2018, ‘Pride and Punishment: Trauma, immigration, and the state of the nation’, Griffith Review 61: Who We Are, July 30.

2018, 'Patriarchy perpetrates trauma. It's time to face the fact.', The Guardian, April 30.

2018, 'Fear of a vegan Planet,' The Neighbourhood Paper, March 5. 

2017, ‘Relatively sheltered’, The Neighbourhood Paper, June 11. 

2017, ‘Read, listen, understand: why non-indigenous Australians should read First Nations writing’, The Conversation Arts + Culture, July  5. 

2015, ‘On Carpentaria’, Copyright Agency Reading Australia Program, (online).

2006, ‘In conversation: Luke Davies’, Storyline, no. 14, Australian Writers’ Guild, Sydney.

2006, ‘In conversation: Alice Bell & Ann Turner’, Storyline, no. 16, Australian Writers’ Guild, Sydney. 

2006, ‘Invisible heroes’, New Vegetarian and Natural Health, published by vegetarian and vegan societies from around Australia, Sydney. 

2005, ‘Dailies from Project Greenlight’, Storyline, no. 11, Australian Writers’ Guild, Sydney.

2004, ‘Animal organ transplants provide false hope’, The Canberra Times, Canberra: 2 March 22.  

2002, ‘America the scapegoat’, Afterwords: Stories and Reports From 9/11 and Beyond, Atria Books, New York. 

2002, ‘Can you riverdance for me, honey?’, Salon.com, San Franscisco, (online). 

2002, ‘X Marks the Spot’, Beat Magazine, Melbourne, 11 December.  

2002, ‘The gospel of Gabba Gabba Hey’, Beat Magazine, Melbourne, 12 June.  

2001, ‘America the scapegoat’, Salon.com, San Francisco, (online). 

2001, ‘Postcard from New York’, Writing Queensland, Brisbane.


​Refereed journal articles/book chapters


(Forthcoming 2023), ‘Witnessing, Trans-“Species” Trauma Testimony and Sticky Wounds in Contemporary Australian Poetry’, Angelaki                     ‘Witnessing the Anthropocene’ Special Issue.

2022, ‘Writing Threat and Trauma: Poetic Witnessing to Social Injustice and Crisis’, Cordite Poetry Review (Scholarly), vol. 106.

2021, (Atkinson, M, Webb, J & Williams, J) ‘Literary Bridges: Creative Writing, Trauma and Testimony’, TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing             Course, vol. 25, no. 2, Australasian Association of Writing Programs, pp. 1-18.

2018, ‘Hashtag #affect’, Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Enquiry, vol. 1, no. 2.

2018, ‘Alexis Wright’s Literary Testimony to Intersected Trauma’, Animal Studies Journal (Intersectionality and Advocacy Special Edition),                  vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 41-55.

2017, ‘Australia is a crime scene: Natalie Harkin’s intervention on national numbness and the national ideal’ in B Haylock & S Hermanoczki                (eds), TEXT Special Issue: Writing and Trauma, Australasian Association of Writing Program, no. 24, pp. 1-16.

2015, ‘Transgenerational trauma and cyclical haunting in Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy’, Cultural Studies Review: Interventions, vol. 21,                 no. 4, pp. 58-75.
​
2014, ‘Strange body bedfellows: écriture féminine and the poetics of trans-trauma’, TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, vol. 18,                 no. 1, Australasian Association of Writing Programs, (online).

2014, ‘A suite of creatures’, Animal Studies Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, Australasian Animal Studies Association, (online).

2013, ‘Animal poetics: singing the scorched tongue’, Southerly: Lyre/Liar, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 114-121.

2013, ‘Introduction: at the nexus’ (co-authored with Michael Richardson) in M Atkinson and M Richardson (eds), Traumatic Affect,                               Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, pp. 1-21.

2013, ‘Channeling the spectre and translating phantoms: hauntology and the spooked text’, in M Atkinson and M Richardson                                         (eds), Traumatic Affect, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, pp. 247-270.

2009, ‘The blonde goddess’, M/C Journal: A Journal of Media and Culture, vol. 12, no. 2, QUT Creative Industries, (online).


Screen

2005, Upskirt (wrote and co-produced short film script), running time: 15 minutes, Ether Productions, Sydney.
 
2005, ‘Eternally yours’ (wrote, produced, and directed), Project Greenlight Australia Final 10 test scene from the feature film script                             (screened at the Project Greenlight Green Carpet Event at Hoyts Cinema, Fox Studios), running time: 3 minutes, Sydney.


Sound
 
Atkinson, M 2018, ‘White’ (spoken word), Midday Moon (a survey of ambient and experimental music that emerged from Australia and
​           New Zealand between 1980 and 1995), Bedroom Sucks Records, Melbourne.

2015, Theories of Everything & Thomas the Woodcutter (album, written and performed with G Atkinson & T Ashelford & collaborators),                   Microcultures, Paris.
 
2011, ‘Child’s play: the biggest Sherbet fans ever’ (excerpt), First Person: The Book Show, Radio National, Australian Broadcasting                                  Commission, Sydney.