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Andy Jackson Andy Jackson i(A68919 works by) (a.k.a. Andrew Jackson)
Also writes as: 'Lee N. Mylar'
Born: Established: 1971 Bendigo, Bendigo area, Ballarat - Bendigo area, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Andy Jackson writes about bodily difference and lives in Castlemaine. He has performed at dozens of events and festivals (including The Age Melbourne Writers Festival, Castlemaine State Festival, Brisbane Writers Festival,  Prakriti Poetry Festival [in Chennai, India], Goa Literary & Arts Festival, Australian Poetry Festival, Queensland Poetry Festival, Clifden Arts Festival [Ireland], Newcastle Young Writers Festival and Overload Poetry Festival), had poems published in a variety of print and on-line journals, been awarded grants from the Australia Council and Arts Victoria, and been the recipient of an Australian Society of Authors mentorship.  He has been awarded residencies from Victorian Writers Centre, Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre (Perth) and Asialink.  He is also an infrequent collaborator with musicians, sound artists and other writers. He has the genetic condition Marfan Syndrome.

His first full-length collection of poems, Among the Regulars,was published in 2010 – this book was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Prize for Poetry (the Kenneth Slessor Prize) and Highly Commended in the Anne Elder Award.  A collaborative puppetry-poetry performance with Rachael Wenona Guy entitled Ambiguous Mirrors won the City of Yarra Award for Most Innovative Work at the Overload Poetry Festival in 2009.  He won the 2008 Arts ACT Rosemary Dobson Award for Best Unpublished Poem for Secessionist.

Jackson has since released a further four volumes of poetry: The Thin Bridge, Immune Systems, That Knocking, and Music Our Bodies Can't Hold. The Thin Bridge won the Whitmore Prize in 2013.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Human Looking Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2021 22958297 2021 selected work poetry

'A ground-breaking insight into the experience of disability, from a distinguished poet who has lived with Marfan Syndrome, including severe spinal curvature, and whose poems give voice to those who are often treated as ‘other’ or alien. 

'The poems are visceral and intimate, they comfort and discomfort at the same time – empathy for the other seems to falter, only to expand and deepen.

'The poems in Human Looking speak with the voices of the disabled and the disfigured, in ways which are confronting, but also illuminating and tender. They speak of surgical interventions, and of the different kinds of disability which they seek to ‘correct’. They range widely, finding figures to identify with in mythology and history, art and photography, poetry and fiction. A number of poems deal with unsettling extremes of embodiment, and with violence against disabled people. Others emerge out of everyday life, and the effects of illness, pain and prejudice. The strength of the speaking voice is remarkable, as is its capacity for empathy and love. ‘I, this wonderful catastrophe’, the poet has Mary Shelley’s monstrous figure declare. The use of unusual and disjunctive – or ‘deformed’ – poetic forms, adds to the emotional impact of the poems.'

Source : publication summary

2022 winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards Poetry
2022 winner ASAL Awards ALS Gold Medal
2022 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Poetry
y separately published work icon Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold St Lucia : Hunter Publishers , 2017 12932318 2017 selected work poetry

 'This book continues Brendan Ryan's exploration of place and belonging that resonate in country towns. From the lives of farmers, abattoir workers, and dog walkers to the history of Aboriginal dispossession; from a tour of the communities of the Mt Noorat Football League in Victoria's isolated Western District to moments of wonder on back country roads celebrated with gentle irony. Here is a view of the country that is both contemporary and wry. Lyrical and rich in narrative power, this is a collection that dismantles the idealised rural pastoral with an empathetic and incisive voice.' (Publication summary)

2020 shortlisted Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards John Bray Award for Poetry
Last amended 15 Oct 2020 16:01:35
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