Creative Writing

Creative Writing is a medium used to communicate, resist, provoke and seek or find understanding. Our research investigates the artistic, historical, cultural and societal impacts of the written word.

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Creative Writing at Melbourne

Academic staff in the Creative Writing program are widely published writers, industry professionals, and leading researchers in areas including:

  • Fiction, non-fiction and poetry, creative nonfiction
  • Contemporary Australian writing and Aboriginal literature
  • Writing for screen, theatre, live art, videogames and performance
  • Graphic narratives and experimental poetics
  • The theory and teaching of creative writing, creativity and composition

Our graduate students and researchers position Creative Writing as political, cultural, and critical discourse. We value working and writing together: generating connection, collaboration, and collegiality.

Our academic staff publish on dynamic and diverse topics including living poetry, video games, storytelling and genre-shifting work. Recent examples of this published work include a project investigating the history of contemporary Australian comics, an examination of the function of the theatre in Western culture and a project exploring artistic innovation and the work of disability artists in Australia.

View our staff

More featured research

Study with us

Develop your expertise in Creative Writing through our undergraduate, higher degree and other programs.

Learn more about applying for high degree programs, including Graduate research and Graduate coursework, in which students participate in writing, publication, thesis and seminar programs designed to foster creative and critical debate.

Undergraduate

Graduate coursework

Graduate research

Meet our Creative Writing staff

Academic staff in the Creative Writing program are leading teachers, researchers and industry professionals, with expertise across fiction, creative non-fiction, screenwriting, graphic novels, critical scholarly work and beyond. Our award-winning staff have also been recently recognised across the industry – Maria Tumurkin has received the Windham Campbell Prize for nonfiction in Australia and Amanda Johnson received the 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize.

Profile picture of Grant Caldwell

Dr Grant Caldwell

Senior Lecturer Poetry and Prose, Creative Writing
cal@unimelb.edu.au
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Dr Odette Kelada

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
okelada@unimelb.edu.au +61383445566
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A/Prof Jeanine Leane

Associate Professor in Creative Writing
j.leane@unimelb.edu.au +61383444000
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Dr Elizabeth MacFarlane

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
ecm@unimelb.edu.au
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Dr Cath Moore

Tutor in Creative Writing
catherine.moore@unimelb.edu.au
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Dr Nadia Niaz

Head Tutor in Creative Writing
nadia.niaz@unimelb.edu.au
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Dr Radha O'Meara

Lecturer in Creative Writing
radha.omeara@unimelb.edu.au
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A/Prof Eddie Paterson

Associate Professor in Creative Writing, Script Writing
eddiep@unimelb.edu.au +61383449727
Profile picture of Maria Tumarkin

A/Prof Maria Tumarkin

Associate Professor In Creative Writing
m.tumarkin@unimelb.edu.au

Creative Writing honorary staff