Vitalpoetics

Vitalpoetics was co-founded by Tim Cahill and Eugenia Demuro as an academic journal in 2008, publishing works  that discussed literature and the cultural and political contexts that give rise to it. In 2010 it has expanded to include works of translation, poetry and prose. The journal is peer-reviewed.

The editors and authors of Vitalpoetics are listed below:

Gareth Sion Jenkins has taught experimental writing practices, ficto-criticism, literary studies and creative writing at the University of Technology in Sydney and the University of Newcastle. He was awarded his PhD, which explored the Outsider writing of Anthony Mannix and his schizophrenic cosmology, in 2008. His theoretical work focuses on avant-garde literature and art-makers that have experienced mental illness. Gareth holds a Masters degree in psychology and has presented his research in Australia, Europe and the U.S.A. His creative work includes poetry, prose, new media and performance. He has performed, exhibited and published in Australia and internationally. Selections of his work are available here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Christine Howe has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong. Her thesis, “Towards a Poetics of Hope: Simone Weil, Fanny Howe and Alice Walker”, outlines a poetics of hope based on the writings of Simone Weil, and applies this to analyse selected works by two contemporary American writers, Fanny Howe and Alice Walker. Her research interests cover poetics, philosophies of hope, ‘committed’ literature of the 20th century, postcolonial literatures and the intersections between literature and mysticism. She also writes fiction and poetry. For examples of her theoretical and creative work, see “Fear v Hope: The battle for language”, and “Literature and Hope: Sartre’s Commitment, Camus’ Rebellion and Weil’s metaxu” (Vitalpoetics Vol.1 No.1).

Eugenia Demuro has recently completed her doctorate degree on twentieth century Latin American literature at Sydney University (Department of English). She holds an Honours degree in Creative Writing (on “Critical Fiction”) and a BA/BCA (Sociology and Creative Writing) from the University of Wollongong. Eugenia has a wide range of interests which span literary theory, cultural studies, sociology, history and politics. She believes that art always responds to cultural, political and social contexts. Examples of her work are available here and here. She writes prose and her translations of poetry have been published internationally.

Emily Finlay is completing a thesis on the work of Maurice Blanchot and Georges Bataille. She is exploring the relationships between excess, silence, poetry and fascism and teaches nineteenth-century writing theory at the University of Wollongong. Her areas of interest include: nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature and theory; post-structuralism; surrealism; symbolism; French history; post-Hegelian philosophy; phenomenology; Australian literature; nationalism (French and Australian); fascism; ethics; literary eroticism; twentieth-century poetics.

Colin Dray received his PhD in Arts English from the University of Sydney. His thesis, a study of the poetics of Gwen Harwood as inspired by the language philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, argues the benefits of interdisciplinary study. He was awarded his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong, and received First Class Honours for his study of contemporary Australian poetry, in particular the work of J.S Harry. He writes prose fiction and teaches English and Creative Writing Prose. His research interests include Australian poetry, narratology and the mechanics of prose fiction, contemporary American fiction, language philosophy, and Language poetry. His work has appeared in Australian Literary Studies, Meanjin, Voiceworks, and through Ginninderra Press.

Tim Cahill received his PhD in Creative Writing in 2009 for his dissertation on Louis Zukofsky, Louis Althusser, Karl Marx and Benedictus Spinoza. He has variously taught literary theory, creative writing, sociology, and most recently media and communications at Australian universities. His poetry has appeared in several small press publications, he has had one chapbook published, and his translations of poetry from Spanish have appeared in Argentina.