Richard James Allen – Australian Poet
Literary Biography
Australian born Richard James Allen has published nine books as a poet, fiction, performance writer and editor, most recently The Kamikaze Mind (Brandl & Schlesinger). His writing has appeared widely in magazines, journals, anthologies and online. He has had a unique international career as a multi-award-winning poet, performer, choreographer, filmmaker, new media artist and scholar, with screen adaptations of his poetry shown over 200 international festivals as well as on television around the world, and live readings, performance adaptations and appearances seen at 150 venues on three continents.
The recipient of numerous awards (including two ATOM Awards) and nominations (including a shortlisting for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for his most recent book of poetry, Thursday’s Fictions, and shortlistings for the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award and the Griffin Award for New Australian Playwriting), Dr Richard James Allen won the prestigious Chancellor’s Award for the most outstanding PhD thesis at the University of Technology, Sydney, the subject of which was spirituality and art.
The judge of numerous performance poetry competitions and a highly regarded performer of poetry in his own right, Richard is the former Artistic Director of the Poets Union Inc., during which time conceived and directed the inaugural Australian Poetry Festival in 1999. He also conceived and co-edited the seminal anthology, Performing the Unnameable: An Anthology of Australian Performance Texts, used as a textbook in many university courses.
Recently Richard has been involved with cutting edge incursions into poetry and new media, in particular finding new spaces and platforms for literature on mobile phones (in conjunction with his verse novel The Kamikaze Mind) and in 3D online immersive worlds (in conjunction with the short feature film of Thursday’s Fictions).
He is currently working on a new book of poems, a novel and the screenplay for a feature film, as well as exploring the possibilities for various iPad apps involving poetry and interactive storytelling. Richard is an honorary Associate to the University of Technology, Sydney in the Creative Practices area.
For more information on Richard James Allen’s work, please visit the following websites: The Physical TV Company (www.physicaltv.com.au), The Kamikaze Mind (www.thekamikazemind.com), Thursday’s Fictions (www.thursdaysfictions.com) and the Australian Poetry Library (http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/allen-richard-james).
Photos: Kyle Powderly |
 portrait by Kyle Powederly 2010 11 28 (c) Physical TV.jpg)
 Physical TV.jpg)
