Staff and Affiliates

The University of Adelaide established the first Australian Chair of Creative Writing.

Emeritus Professor Thomas Shapcott was the first Chair. He was Director of the Literature Board of the Australia Council 1983-1990 and Executive Director of the National Book Council 1992-7.  He has published 7 adult novels, 4 novels for younger readers, 2 collections of short stories, 17 collections of verse, 2 art monographs and other non-fiction works, as well as editing various anthologies and writing over 20 libretti for the composer Colin Brumby. He was awarded an AO in 1989, the Gold Wreath of the Struga Poetry Festival, Macedonia, in the same year, the Patrick White Award in 2002, and various other awards. In 2003 the Queensland Government inaugurated the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for an unpublished poetry manuscript by a Queensland author. In 2007 he was nominated/short-listed for the state's Ruby Awards for individual contribution to the Arts.

Further information about staff and affiliates can be found on the Austlit website: The Resource for Australian Literature. Access is restricted, except for membership—but full access is available from a library that subscribes, such as the Library at the University.

Creative Writing Staff

• Professor Brian Castro, Chair of Creative Writing
• Jill Jones
• Dr Phillip Edmonds
• Dr Jan Harrow (on leave Semester 2, 2009)
• Dr Susan Hosking

Advisory Board

The University of Adelaide has a Creative Writing Advisory Board. 

Writer-in-Residence

Jamaican-born writer Olive Senior was writer-in-residence from August to September 2009.

Celebrated US writer Susanna Moore was writer-in-residence from May to August 2009.   

Dr Eva Sallis - now Eva Hornung - was the Creative Writing Program's inaugural writer-in-residence (Semester 1 2008).

Affiliates/Mentors

A number of distinguished writers are currently associated with the English Discipline as Honorary Visiting Research Fellows.

English Staff

English staff are potential supervisors of PhDs in Creative Writing.