UNSW Canberra and ACT Writers Centre welcome Writer-in-Residence

UNSW Canberra and the ACT Writers Centre are excited to welcome Dr Jane Gleeson-White as this year’s Writer-in-Residence.

Dr Gleeson-White, an award-winning non-fiction writer, will spend her time in Canberra researching for her upcoming book, Burnt Angels.

The book will explore the effect of the Pacific War on Australian culture and the impact of the Japanese invasion of New Guinea on three generations of women.

“In these early days of the project, it’s genre non-specific but tending to fiction,” Dr Gleeson-White says.Launched in 2017, the ACT Writer-in-Residence program provides writers with access to UNSW Canberra facilities, including the Academy Library’s Special Collections. They are encouraged to engage with students and researchers on campus.

Since the first appointment of a Professor of English to the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1913, literary studies have formed a key part of the scholarly training offered to trainee officers in the Australian Defence Force.

UNSW Canberra Professor Nicole Moore says this partnership with the ACT Writers Centre helps to keep the University’s English and media studies program connected to Australia’s contemporary literary culture, as well as Canberra’s reading and writing audiences.

“Dr Gleeson-White will work with undergraduates in our English major, talking to them about her own writing practice as well as helping them come to grips with some of the classic texts of the English language tradition,” Professor Moore says.

“We look forward to hearing from Jane about her current projects, drawing on her experience as a highly successful author of creative non-fiction.”

ACT Writers Centre Interim Director, Paul Bissett, says the ACT Writers Centre is delighted to continue collaborating with UNSW Canberra on the ACT Writer-in-Residence Program.

“Each year the program brings an Australian author of note to spend a month in the ACT, living at the Gorman Arts Centre, writing at UNSW Canberra, and engaging with the ACT region's writing community,” Mr Bissett says.

“Dr Gleeson-White is an eminent member of the Australian writing community and we look forward to welcoming her here.

“The ACT Writers Centre thanks the Copyright Agency for funding the ACT Writer-in-Residence Program. We also appreciate the ongoing support from Ainslie + Gorman Arts Centres.”

Dr Gleeson-White says she is looking forward to “adventure, precious writing time, immersion in the libraries at UNSW Canberra and the War Memorial, and connections to the ACT Writers’ Centre community, UNSW Canberra and the wider Canberra community.”

Dr Gleeson-White is the program’s second Writer-in-Residence, following a successful stint from Isobelle Carmody in 2017. Poet Angela Gardner has been selected for the 2019 residency.

Media contact:

Rachel Packham

Media and Content Coordinator | UNSW Canberra

0423 800 109

r.packham@adfa.edu.au