Author Archives: Sarah Giles

About Sarah Giles

Sarah Giles (she/her) is a PhD candidate at Swinburne University researching the possibilities of the contemporary short story cycle exploring women’s experiences of isolation, trauma and mental illness. Her writing has been published in The Writing Mind: Creative Writing Responses to Images of the Living Brain, ACE III and ACE IV (Arresting Contemporary stories by Emerging Writers), The Incompleteness Book, TEXT Journal among others. Sarah works at Writers Victoria as Marketing and Memberships Officer and is a sessional tutor across multiple universities.

HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Summer School 2025

The HASS and Indigenous research data community is invited to gain hands-on experience, learn digital skills and network to inspire new research outcomes.

For more information, visit the Australian Research Data Commons website here.

About the Event

The ARDC invites you to join in person for the free 2025 HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons (RDC) Summer School in Brisbane/Meanjin.

The Summer School aims to empower participants with practical knowledge, build digital skills, and help inspire new research outcomes within the humanities, arts, social sciences (HASS) and Indigenous fields of study. Participants will collaborate in an interactive group setting while networking with like-minded researchers and subject matter experts.

You are also invited to join the in person Indigenous Data Governance Masterclass at Summer School, held in Brisbane/Meanjin one day before the Summer School. It is aimed at a wider audience, all custodians of Indigenous data and researchers of all disciplines.

Also register for What to Expect at HASS and Indigenous Summer School 2025: A Webinar to hear from a previous attendee about their experience, and 2025 workshop presenters outlining what they will cover.

For more information, visit the Australian Research Data Commons website here.

Job Opportunity: Nagoya University

Role: Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Humanities, Interdisciplinary Humanities Connections, English Literature, Literature of the English-Speaking World.

Location: Nagoya University, Tokai – Aichi Prefecture

Job description and duties

  • Teach classes on comparative literature, culture, and critical theory in the Global 30 Linguistics and Cultural Studies Program, Graduate School of Humanities.
  • Teach classes in university-wide education subjects (English).
  • Participate in research and education projects promoted by Nagoya University.
  • Other, entrance examination duties, administrative duties, social contributions, etc.
  • (scope of change)
  • Duty designated by the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System

For more information visit the job posting here.

Call for Papers: Text Special Issue

Call for Papers, TEXT Special issue: ‘Isn’t it Romantic’, inspired by the RWA 2024 academic symposium

Romance is a powerhouse genre, a $1.4 billion dollar industry in 2022 (The National Herald). Sales of romance print books increased 52% in the 12-months ending May 2023 (Global Newswire) and according to Nielsen BookScan in Australia the ‘Romance and Sagas’ genre more than tripled in sales 2017-2023, showing an increase of 230%, while New Zealand saw a 270% increase in the same period. Popular Romance Studies is of growing scholarly interest and there are increasing numbers of Higher Degree Research students in the field, particularly doing Creative Writing PhDs. This is a call for papers inspired by the themes of the academic symposium hosted by Flinders University and Assemblage Centre of Creative Arts at the Romance Writers of Australia conference in August 2024. We invite scholarship on popular romance fiction in all its incarnations, including its intersections with colonialism, race, gender, sexuality, power, disability, and queerness, and explorations of genre and subgenre. Both scholarly articles and creative work will be considered. 

Papers are encouraged, but not limited, to explore the following:

  • Popular romance fiction tropes 
  • Popular romance fiction and questions of genre/subgenre 
  • Romance fiction and colonialism  
  • Romance fiction and race 
  • Romance fiction and gender 
  • Romance fiction and sexuality 
  • Romance fiction and dis/ability  
  • Romance fiction and queerness 

Abstract Submissions

Abstracts for scholarly papers should be 200 words in length and sent to the editors at degreesoflove@flinders.onmicrosoft.com with the subject line:‘EOI for Isn’t It Romantic Special Issue of TEXT Journal.’

Scholarly papers should be 6,000 – 8,000 words as per TEXT guidelines (including endnotes). Please include a brief biography with your abstract (100 words max, in TEXT style) and ensure that you include your email address for reply. 

EOI for Creative Submissions

Creative submissions will also be considered for this Special Issue. Final prose works would be 2,000 – 3,000 words. Creative EOIs should include a short synopsis/description of the proposed work, its relation to the theme and focus of the Special Issue, and a 200 – 300 word (10 – 20 lines) creative sample. 

EOIs should be sent to the editors atdegreesoflove@flinders.onmicrosoft.com with the subject line:‘Creative Submission EOI for Isn’t It Romantic Special Issue of TEXT Journal.’ Please include a brief biography with your abstract (100 words max, in TEXT style) and ensure that you include your email address for reply. 

Deadline for Abstracts and EOIs: Friday, 6th September 2024

Deadline for completed, accepted works: Friday, 1st November 2024

We welcome early submissions

References 

Bhowmik, Ananyaa. “Era of Romance: Exploring the Unprecedented Boom in the Popularity of Romance Novles.” The National Herald, 2023. Retrieved June 1st, 2024, from thenationalherald.com.  

Baur, Erick. “From Laggard to Leader: Record Sales of Romance Books Reflect Next Generation of Contemporary Readers.” GlobeNewswire, 2023. Retrieved June 1st, 2024, from globenewswire.com. 

Program for the RWA ‘Trope Actually’ academic symposium: 

https://willorganise.eventsair.com/2024-romance-writers-of-australia/friday-workshops

International Australian Studies Association (InASA)2025 Biennial Conference 

Australian Studies in the 21st Century: Human and More-Than-Human Worlds 
Interactions, Perspectives, Futures 

Macquarie University
Wallumattagal Campus Sydney, Australia
5-7 February 2025 

Australian Studies has long been concerned with histories and stories about human experiences focusing on issues of settler colonisation, conflict, violence, resistance, resilience, agency, and justice. The 2025 InASA conference continues to focus on these vital issues but turns also to consider Australians’ formation by, and engagement with, the more-than-human world. Australian Studies is experiencing rapid transformation in the 21st century as new biopolitical challenges emerge with climate change and concomitant environmental and ecological concerns, and as artificial intelligence impacts and transforms social, cultural, economic, and political life. New understandings, inspirations, and challenges emerge not only about the peoples across Australia, but also the continent’s more-than-human entities, including animals, plants, landscapes, ecologies, and technologies, among others. 

The 2025 InASA conference aims to foster interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dialogues on Critical Indigenous Studies, history, literature, culture, creative arts, politics, media, sociology, anthropology, geography, ecology, and other disciplines that engage with human experiences and/or more-than-human worlds.

Register now

We welcome proposals for individual papers, 3 member panels, or 4-5 member roundtables for plenary sessions, that engage with the conference theme from diverse disciplines, perspectives, and methodologies. For more information visit the Call for Paper’s page.  

The conference program will be available in the coming months. Stay tuned! 

Prizes closing soon

There are just ten days left to submit your entries for one of our seven prizes for writers and translators, brought to you by AAWP and our prizes partners.

The deadline for all prizes is June 30.

Do you create work that lives in the category of: short story – poetry – hybrid writing – translation – under 25 writer work – creative nonfiction – manuscript chapter – novella? There’s a prize waiting to receive your entry.

These amazing prizes offer recognition and exciting opportunities for the winners, but every entry gives you invaluable experience in polishing and putting forward your best work.

For full details of all prizes, head to: https://aawp.org.au/news/opportunities/

And to enter, head to: https://meniscusliteraryjournal.submittable.com/submit

Early Bird Tickets On Sale: Ubud Writers & Readers Festival

News has arrived from our prize partner Ubud Writers & Readers Festival about this year’s festival.

The first line up of speakers has just been announced – and we are screaming with excitement to see included such writers as Amitav Ghosh, Nam Le, Ali Cobby Eckermann, and Augustinus Wibowo, among other literary rock stars.

So the other great news is that early bird tickets are now on sale! 

Check out the first speaker release and get yourself on the way to the festival in late October with an early bird pass, by heading to https://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/

DEADLINE EXTENDED – CALL FOR PAPERS: 29TH CONFERENCE OF THE AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION OF WRITING PROGRAMS

The deadline for abstract submissions has been extended until 30 June.

Conference Theme: Intersections 
Conference Host: The University of New England (Armidale, New South Wales)
Conference Dates: 27– 29 November 2024
Conference workshops: 26 November 2024 (focusing on creative, critical and professional practice), details TBA.

The 2024 AAWP conference will be held at the Armidale campus of the University of New England, located on Anaiwan Country. Armidale is surrounded by national parks, gorges, and waterfalls. Its natural beauty has historically inspired writers, artists, and storytellers, including Judith Wright. 

Intersections offer the possibility of the unexpected, as a meeting point or a place of divergence. We invite proposals for conference papers, panels, or performances that contemplate literal and figurative intersections involving writing (creative/professional/academic). Some starter points to consider include:

•    Interdisciplinarity
•    Intersectionality
•    Identities and cultures
•    Hybrid genres
•    Co-authorship and collaborations
•    History and fiction
•    Writing and place
•    Poetic forms
•    Pedagogy
•    Performance and writing
•    Technologies and writing
•    Writing and artificial intelligence
•    Curriculum design/delivery
•    Borders and boundaries
•    The publishing industry
•    Creative nonfiction and life writing
•    Writing for different audiences.

We also welcome other approaches to the theme.

While the conference can be attended by anyone, presenters must be current AAWP members. More information about becoming a member is available here. The conference will primarily take place in Armidale, with options to participate in some parts of the program online. 

Submissions are due by 30 June. 

Please include the following in your proposal: Your name, institutional affiliation, email address, what you are proposing (paper, panel, or performance), title, an abstract (250 words max), and a short bio (100 words max).

Please email submissions or any questions to aawp@une.edu.au

Call for Papers: International Australian Studies Association (InASA) 2025 Biennial Conference

Australian Studies in the 21st Century: Human and More-Than-Human Worlds Interactions, Perspectives, Futures

Where: Macquarie University Wallumattagal Campus, Sydney, Australia

When: 5–7 February 2025

Australian Studies has long been concerned with histories and stories about human experiences focusing on issues of settler colonisation, conflict, violence, resistance, resilience, agency, and justice. The 2025 InASA conference continues to focus on these vital issues but turns also to consider Australians’ formation by, and engagement with, the more-than-human world. Australian Studies is experiencing rapid transformation in the 21st century as new biopolitical challenges emerge with climate change and concomitant environmental and ecological concerns, and as artificial intelligence impacts and transforms social, cultural, economic, and political life. New understandings, inspirations, and challenges emerge not only about the peoples across Australia, but also the continent’s more-than-human entities, including animals, plants, landscapes, ecologies, and technologies, among others.

The 2025 InASA conference aims to foster interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dialogues on Critical Indigenous Studies, history, literature, culture, creative arts, politics, media, sociology, anthropology, geography, ecology, and other disciplines that engage with human experiences and/or more-than-human worlds. We welcome proposals for individual papers, 3 member panels, or 4-5 member roundtables for plenary sessions, that engage with the conference theme from diverse disciplines, perspectives, and methodologies. We particularly encourage submissions that prioritise Indigenous voices. We invite contributions from established and emerging scholars that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Indigenous knowledges and perspectives
  • Indigenous histories and geographies
  • Indigenous relationalities
  • Australian histories, biographies, and fiction
  • Australian cultures
  • Geographies of Australia
  • Settler colonialism
  • Colonial commemorations
  • Justice, agency, and resistance
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Cross-cultural encounters
  • Migration, refugees, and diaspora
  • Class, poverty, inequality, and the asset economy
  • Screen and media production and representation
  • Social and digital media
  • Creative writing and multimodal creative research
  • Ecocriticism and environmental humanities
  • Technology and future studies
  • Changing meanings of more-than-human
  • Politics of the more-than-human

Please submit an abstract (approx. 250 words) and a bio note (no more than 100 words) to the 2025 InASA Conference. For panels or roundtable proposals, please include a brief description of the proposed session (approx. 200 words), along with abstracts for each individual paper and bio notes. The conference is primarily face-to-face but online access may be possible.

The submission deadline is Monday, 30 September 2024. Please send your submissions or general inquiries sent to Dr Daozhi Xu (daozhi.xu@mq.edu.au).

A conference website with further details will open soon.

TEXT Journal Vol. 28 Issue 1 is now live

In this latest issues of TEXT, Stef Markidis explores Deleuze, dance and the writing life; Jessica White looks at traversing genres, disciplines and institutions as a disabled writer and scholar; Sarai Mannolini-Winwood provides an auto-ethnographic review of Indigenous literature in Walyalup/Fremantle, Western Australia; Katerina Bryant and her co-authors looks at the language of women’s prisons; Julia Jarel discusses verbatim and site-specific playwriting; and Jenny Hedley experiments with ChatGPT as a code-writing assistant for digital poetry.

This issue also includes prose and poetry by Amelia Walker, Ian C Smith, Maureen Alsop, Tom Gurn, Tony Dignan, Emma Derainne, Tara Propper, David Thomas Henry Wright and Md Mujib Ullah.

And in our reviews section, Dominique Hecq reviews The Writing Mind: Creative Writing Responses to Images of the Living Brain (edited by Julia Prendergast, Eileen Herbert-Goodall & Jen Webb); Amelia Walker reviews Mathelinda Nabugodi’s Shelley with Benjamin: A critical mosaic; Aidan Coleman Reviews Ada Calhoun’s Also a Poet, and Verity Oswin reviews John Kinsella’s Legibility: An Antifascist Poetics and Adelle Sefton-Rowston’s Polities and Poetics – Race Relations and Reconciliation in Australian Literature.

Read the latest edition of TEXT Journal here

Call for Papers: 29th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs

Conference Theme: Intersections 
Conference Host: The University of New England (Armidale, New South Wales)
Conference Dates: 27– 29 November 2024
Conference workshops: 26 November 2024 (focusing on creative, critical and professional practice), details TBA.


The 2024 AAWP conference will be held at the Armidale campus of the University of New England, located on Anaiwan Country. Armidale is surrounded by national parks, gorges, and waterfalls. Its natural beauty has historically inspired writers, artists, and storytellers, including Judith Wright. 

Intersections offer the possibility of the unexpected, as a meeting point or a place of divergence. We invite proposals for conference papers, panels, or performances that contemplate literal and figurative intersections involving writing (creative/professional/academic). Some starter points to consider include:

•    Interdisciplinarity
•    Intersectionality
•    Identities and cultures
•    Hybrid genres
•    Co-authorship and collaborations
•    History and fiction
•    Writing and place
•    Poetic forms
•    Pedagogy
•    Performance and writing
•    Technologies and writing
•    Writing and artificial intelligence
•    Curriculum design/delivery
•    Borders and boundaries
•    The publishing industry
•    Creative nonfiction and life writing
•    Writing for different audiences.

We also welcome other approaches to the theme.

While the conference can be attended by anyone, presenters must be current AAWP members. More information about becoming a member is available here. The conference will primarily take place in Armidale, with options to participate in some parts of the program online. 

Submissions are due by 31 May. 

Please include the following in your proposal: Your name, institutional affiliation, email address, what you are proposing (paper, panel, or performance), title, an abstract (250 words max), and a short bio (100 words max).

Please email submissions or any questions to aawp@une.edu.au