Paul Magee studied in Melbourne, Moscow, San Salvador and Sydney. He writes poetry, and works of scholarship. The latter address the philosophy, history, linguistics and ethnography of poetic composition; the relationship between art and knowledge; and new forms for facilitating the presentation of indigenous knowledge.
A first book of poems, Cube Root of Book (John Leonard Press: 2006), was shortlisted in the Innovation category of the 2008 Adelaide Festival Awards for literature, and highly commended in the Anne Elder Award, and also the Mary Gilmore Award. Paul's second, Stone Postcard (John Leonard Press: 2014), was named in Australian Book Review as one of the books of the year for 2014. Later Unearthed is forthcoming from Puncher and Wattman in late 2024. Poems from the manuscript have been published in Island Magazine, Meanjin, Overland, The Canberra Times, Rabbit, The Australian Poetry Journal Anthology, Rabbit, The Kyoto Review and Literary Imagination.
Paul's two current research grants involve teaching, and studying the effects of teaching, creative writing to ill and injured service people, as part of the University of Canberra's Defence ARRTS research tender (2015-2028; see further here), and co-"writing" A Book that Opens, with Paul Collis and Jen Crawford. Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council supported project Imagining Futures through Un/Archived Pasts, this work involves exploring a form of writing that uses innovative transcription practices to bring Australian indigenous story-telling to the fore. The book will form an archive of story-based knowledge about river management down the Darling River and about care of the ancient fish-traps at Brewarrina. Every word in it, up to and including the publishing data in the frontispiece, will be generated as spoken discourse, recorded and then transcribed (see further here).
Suddenness and the Composition of Poetic Thought, was published by Rowman & Littlefield International in 2022. The book explores the relationship between coming up with words in the everyday act of speaking (including the imaginary speaking we perform in our heads and call thinking), and coming up with words when composing poetry. It explores this relationship between speaking and composing through cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy and literary studies, and corroborates those knowledges with interview materials. Overall, the book provides insight into what is happening in the two to three seconds in which each successive phrase is forged. Patrick Flanery in Australian Book Review called it ‘a provocative book in the best possible sense, because it demands that the reader (particularly the reader who is also a writer) reconsider their practice and its relation to thought, speech, and planning.’
With Kevin Brophy of the University of Melbourne, Jen Webb of the University of Canberra and Michael A.R. Biggs of the University of Hertfordshire, Paul was granted an Australian Research Council Discovery Award to investigate poetic judgement in 2012. Understanding Creative Excellence: A Case Study in Poetry (DP130100402, 2013-6), ran from 2013-2016 and saw the team interviewing 80 celebrated Anglophone poets in Australia, Canada, both Irelands, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa and the United States. This material plays a prominent role in Paul's monograph Suddenness.
Keenly involved in the promotion of the poetic word in a variety of public contexts, Paul is Professor of Poetry at the University of Canberra, where he directs the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR). The CCCR generates research at the meeting point between culture and creativity. We are architects, builders, designers, heritage practitioners, Indigenous and global studies scholars, novelists, play-space makers and poets. Hosting the University of Canberra’s only dedicated First Nation’s post-doctoral research fellowship, which focusses on innovative curatorial work with university Indigenous collections, the CCCR is committed to impactful research that increases social connection, sustainability and access. Our ambition is to drive change. The CCCR hosts a weekly Culture and Creativity Seminar Series, which Paul chairs, as well as numerous public events, including the upcoming two day symposium, Poetry on Prescription: Healing with the Arts (November 22nd and 23rd, 2024). All welcome!
Having served as President of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA) early in his career, Paul is now Vice-President of the Australian Universities Language and Literature Association (AULLA), AULLA representative in the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLIM) and ACT representative of the Australian University Heads of English (AUHE).
