
Dr David Musgrave
Senior Lecturer
School of Humanities and Social Science (English and Writing)
- Email:david.musgrave@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone:(02) 4348 4056
Poetry in motion
With a recent revival in Australia's poetry scene, acclaimed poet Dr David Musgrave, from the University of Newcastle, is paving the way for others to follow his path to success.
As a nationally significant poet and novelist, researcher, lecturer, critic and publisher, Dr David Musgrave has a deep familiarity with all aspects of the thriving contemporary Australian poetry scene.
He has authored five books of poetry, To Thalia (2004), On Reflection (2005), Watermark (2006), Phantom Limb (2010) and Concrete Tuesday (2011), and his work has won or been shortlisted for a swathe of awards, including the Henry Lawson, Broadway, Bruce Dawe, Somerset, Sidney Nolan Gallery, Grace Leven, Josephine Ulrick, John Shaw Neilson, Alec Bolton, SA Festival and WA Premier's and Newcastle Poetry Prizes.
As a lecturer in Newcastle's highly successful and rapidly growing creative writing department, his research is closely aligned with his teaching of creative writing in contemporary Australian poetry. He is also one of Australia's leading critics and publishers of quality writing.
"It's a very exciting time to be working in this area, there's so much being produced at the moment and people's ability to research and criticise seriously doesn't keep up," he says.
But David also knows the downsides of trying to earn a living as a working poet. In 1997, having completed his PhD on Menippean satire at University of Sydney and written his first novel, he was unable to find a publisher. Shifts in the global publishing industry had seen major publishing houses stop taking on individual collections of poetry, and smaller publishers were unwilling to take risks on younger poets.
The only way David could earn a living was to take a job in IT for a health insurance company. He stayed there for nine years, writing creatively for several hours early every morning before going to the office as CIO.
"My foray into the corporate world was a holding pattern and it allowed me to continue to work," he says.
"IT and poetry are not that different. Poetry is about solving a problem, a need to express something, create something or say something, and the creative process is continuing to solve problems until you arrive at that point."
As well as continuing his creative writing during this period, David built a reputation as a critic and researcher, specialising in satire and the grotesque in English and Australian literature.
He was toying with the idea of publishing others' poetry when he was approached by a friend whose publisher had backed out of a book project. "I didn't want anyone to go through what I had had to go through again," David says, and used his own literary prize money to publish the book.
His independent publishing house Puncher & Wattmann was born in 2005 and has become Australia's leading publisher of Australian poetry, with 85 titles on its list by some of the country's major poets, novelists and biographers.
In 2010 David joined the University of Newcastle's creative writing department, which had grown from just one academic to a team of three renowned writers whose students are achieving some success in the literary world. In 2013, two UON Creative Writing RHD students were short-listed in the 2013 Premier's Literary Awards.
"Poetry offers people a way of discovering new ideas, of giving expression to things that otherwise can't be expressed," he says.
"If our understanding of the world consisted entirely of science and popular culture, it doesn't seem to me we would necessarily be able to think of new ways to perceive things or do things in non-rational ways. And most people would admit that, without that aspect, they would feel impoverished."
David is now considered to be among the foremost of his generation of contemporary Australian poets and, with the publication of his work in the United States and Britain, is gaining international acclaim.
A key theme of work is the continuity throughout English literature of satire, a sceptical and playful critical attitude toward knowledge itself. While there is a thread of satirical humour through his own work, it is at the same time serious.
"I have a joy of satire, of being in it and part of it, of making fun of it. It seems to me there is something fundamentally human about someone coming up against a system of knowledge and blowing a raspberry at it," he says.
David's current research interests include the rise of free verse in Australian poetry; the so‐called Generation of '68 and the introduction of postmodernism into Australian poetry, and the ensuing conflict between conservative and avant garde camps; and the anti‐pastoral tradition in Australian poetry.
He is also exploring the synergies between his own creative work and his research, focusing on the contemporary avant garde and their influences and in particular poetic theories of 'voice' and 'voicedness' in poetry. His book-length poem Anatomy of Voice, which investigates these issues, is to be published in 2014.
He is also continuing to write poems for a new collection, Fabulae, and to work on his next novel, The Obituary Collector.
Poetry in motion
With a recent revival in Australia's poetry scene, acclaimed poet Dr David Musgrave, from the University of Newcastle, is paving the way for others...
Career Summary
Biography
Research Expertise
I am currently researching contemporary Australian poetry. I have published on modern Australian novelists such as Patrick White, David Ireland and Norman Lindsay. I have also published on Samuel Beckett. A particular area of focus is the grotesque in art and literature as well as satire, specifically Menippean satire.
Teaching Expertise
I currently teach Creative Writing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I also teach Romantic Literature and Victorian Literature. I have experience in teaching Australian Literature, Modernism, Literary Theory, Analytical Reading and Writing Skills, Rhetorical Studies, Gothic Fiction and contemporary Australian Poetry.
Qualifications
- PhD, University of Sydney
- Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Sydney
Keywords
- Australian Poetry
- Creative Writing
- David Ireland
- Grotesque
- John Kinsella
- Les Murray
- Menippean Satire
- Norman Lindsay
- Patrick White
- Romantic Literature
- Satire
- Victorian Literature
Languages
- French (Fluent)
- Spanish (Fluent)
- Latin (Fluent)
- Russian (Fluent)
Professional Experience
UON Appointment
Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|
Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle School of Humanities and Social Science Australia |
Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle School of Humanities and Social Science Australia |
Academic appointment
Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|---|
1/1/2002 - 31/12/2010 | Membership - Poets Union Inc | Poets Union Inc Australia |
1/1/2008 - 31/12/2010 | Membership - Australian Council | Australian Council Australia |
1/1/2005 - | Editorial Board - Puncher & Wattmann Pty Ltd | Puncher & Wattmann Pty Ltd Australia |
1/1/2004 - | Membership - Australian Society of Authors | Australian Society of Authors Australia |
1/1/2010 - | Membership - Australian Poetry Limited | Australian Poetry Limited Australia |
1/1/2002 - 1/10/2010 | Treasurer | Poets Union Inc Australia |
1/1/2010 - | Board Member | Australian Poetry Limited Australia |
1/1/2006 - | Membership - Australian Publishers Association | Australian Publishers Association Australia |
Professional appointment
Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|---|
1/9/2002 - 1/9/2006 | Chief Information Officer | Manchester Unity Australia Limited Information Services Australia |
Awards
Recognition
Year | Award |
---|---|
2012 |
Prime Minister's Award for Fiction Unknown |
2011 |
UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing Unknown |
2011 |
Western Australian premier's Prize for Poetry Unknown |
2011 |
Adelaide Festival John Bray Prize for Poetry Unknown |
2008 |
The Newcastle Poetry Prize Unknown |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Book (10 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Musgrave D, Numb and Number, 82 (2019) [J1] | ||
2018 | Kissane A, Musgrave D, Rickett C, Feeding the Ghost 1: Criticism on Contemporary Australian Poetry, Puncher & Wattmann, Waratah NSW (2018) | ||
2018 | Kissane A, Musgrave D, Rickett C, Feeding the Ghost 1: Criticism on Contemporary Australian Poetry, Puncher & Wattmann, Waratah NSW (2018) | ||
Show 7 more books |
Chapter (5 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Musgrave DB, Kissane A, Rickett C, '"Seeing What the Hunger is": Current Criticism on Australian Poetry', Feeding the Ghost 1: Criticism on Contemporary Asutralian Poetry, Puncher & Wattmann, Waratah NSW 7-15 (2018) [B1] | ||
2018 | Musgrave DB, 'Les Murray's Mannerist Grotesque', Feeding the Ghost1: Criticism on Contemporary Australian Poetry, Puncher & Wattmann, Waratah NSW 214-249 (2018) [B1] | ||
2018 | Musgrave DB, 'Les Murray's Mannerist Grotesque', Feeding the Ghost1: Criticism on Contemporary Australian Poetry, Puncher & Wattmann, Waratah NSW 214-249 (2018) [B1] | ||
Show 2 more chapters |
Journal article (5 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | |||||
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2015 | Musgrave D, 'Menippean Sensibility in Patrick White's Memoirs of Many in One by Alex Xenophon Demirjian Gray', AUSTRALIAN LITERARY STUDIES, 30 86-100 (2015) [C1] | |||||||
2014 | Musgrave DB, 'Poetry as Knowing: Philip Salom's Keepers Trilogy', Axon: Creative Explorations, 4 (2014) [C1] | |||||||
2012 | Musgrave DB, 'Australian Poetry Since 1788 ed. Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray', Southerly, 72 263-267 (2012) [C3] | |||||||
2012 | Musgrave DB, 'Australian poetry since 1788', Southerly, 72 263-267 (2012) [C3] | |||||||
2004 |
Musgrave D, 'The abstract grotesque in Beckett's Trilogy', Samuel Beckett Today - Aujourd hui, 14 371-386 (2004) Through an examination of Beckett's usage of the rhetorical device of the 'enthymeme' I try to show how the grotesque in Beckett's Trilogy differs from previou... [more] Through an examination of Beckett's usage of the rhetorical device of the 'enthymeme' I try to show how the grotesque in Beckett's Trilogy differs from previous literary examples of the mode. The article takes as its starting point Bakhtin's periodization of the grotesque in terms of carnival culture (Rabelais) and the 'subjective grotesque' (Sterne) and puts forward the argument that the abstractness of Beckett's grotesque is its defining feature. By positioning Beckett's work in a general history of the grotesque, I hopefully provide a context for understanding Beckett's 'modernist' grotesque and show how it is primarily concerned with the discovery of the new.
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Show 2 more journal articles |
Review (3 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Musgrave DB, 'Reflective master of form is seizing the day', The Australian (2010) [O1] | ||
2010 | Musgrave DB, 'Thomas Shapcott: Parts of Us (2010) | ||
2010 | Musgrave DB, 'David Foster: Satirist of Australia by Susan Lever', Australian Book Review (2010) [D1] |
Conference (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Musgrave DB, 'Auditory scene analysis and voice in poetry', Presentations, Guangdong Guest Hotel, Yuexin District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province (2017) |
Creative Work (67 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Musgrave D, The Explorers, Kaneohe, Hawaii (2019) | |||
2018 | Musgrave DB, The Narcolept, Sydney (2018) | |||
2018 | Musgrave DB, The Cave, Waratah (2018) | |||
2016 | Musgrave DB, Anatomy of Voice, Melbourne (2016) [J1] | |||
2015 | Musgrave DB, Grace, Port Melbourne (2015) [J2] | |||
2015 | Musgrave DB, The Baby Boomers, Blackheath, NSW (2015) [J2] | |||
2014 | Musgrave D, The Potato (2014) | |||
2014 | Musgrave D, Nine Crab Barn (2014) [J2] | |||
2013 | Musgrave DB, Four Poems from 'Anatomy of Voice', Australia (2013) [J2] | |||
2013 | Musgrave DB, The marquess of Bristol, Watsrel, 1954-1999, Australia (2013) [J2] | |||
2013 | Musgrave DB, Coastline, Collingwood (2013) [J2] | |||
2012 |
Musgrave DB, Coastline, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle, NSW, Australia (2012) [J2]
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2012 | Musgrave DB, Curtains, Snorkel, Mosman, NSW, Australia (2012) [J2] | |||
2012 | Musgrave DB, Skimming Stone, Azul Press, Maastricht, Netherlands (2012) [J2] | |||
2012 | Musgrave DB, Minneapolis, Azul Press, Maastricht, Netherlands (2012) [J2] | |||
2011 | Musgrave DB, Concrete Tuesday, Glebe, NSW, Australia (2011) [J1] | |||
2010 | Musgrave D, Homecoming (2010) [J2] | |||
Show 64 more creative works |
Other (3 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Crispin J, 'The Lumen Seed', ( pp.38-97). New York, NY, USA: Daylight Books (2016) | ||
2012 | Musgrave DB, 'Seeking the Sun', Seeking the Sun ( pp.1-5). Gosford, NSW: Central Coast Poets Inc (2012) [O1] | ||
2012 | Musgrave DB, 'Seeking the Sun', Seeking the Sun ( pp.1-5). Gosford, NSW: Central Coast Poets Inc (2012) [O1] |
Grants and Funding
Summary
Number of grants | 3 |
---|---|
Total funding | $20,500 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20191 grants / $14,000
Creative Writing Lab$14,000
Funding body: Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle
Funding body | Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Dr David Musgrave (Lead), Dr Michael Sala, Dr Keri Glastonbury, Dr Toby Davidson (Macquarie), Dr Naomi Fraser (UON), Claire Albrecht and Chris Brown (Creative Writing HDRs) Carolyn Rickett (Avondale) Bonny Cassidy (RMIT) |
Scheme | Strategic Network and Pilot Project Grants Scheme |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2019 |
Funding Finish | 2019 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20102 grants / $6,500
David Musgrave New Staff Grant 2010$5,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Doctor David Musgrave |
Scheme | New Staff Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2010 |
Funding Finish | 2010 |
GNo | G1000887 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Patrick White: Modernist Impact, Critical futures, Senate House, University of London, 23 - 25 June 2010$1,500
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Doctor David Musgrave |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2010 |
Funding Finish | 2011 |
GNo | G1000600 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Research Supervision
Number of supervisions
Current Supervision
Commenced | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | PhD | The Phenomenology of Place in a Postcolonial Text: Imaginings, Development and Identity in the Poetry of Place | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2019 | Masters | The Representation of a Child’s Imagination in Children’s Literature and how this encourages Transformative Agency for the Child | M Philosophy (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2019 | PhD | Paramnesia | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | The Search for the Soul: How Spirituality is Reflected and Represented in Contemporary Speculative Literature and Film | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | (Re)constructing ‘The Roaring Days’: Cognitive Narratology and World-Building in Writing the Historical Novel | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | ‘Miles on Miles of Nought’: a Re-interpretation of the Poetry of Emily Dickinson | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | A Theory of Displacement | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | Verbal-pictures, Photography and the Ethics of Perception in Charles Reznikoff's Testimony: The United States (1885-1915): Recitative | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | Postirony and its Trajectory: Circumventing Postmodernism | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2017 | PhD | The splintering roles and representations of the father in children's literature from the twentieth to the twenty-first century. | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | The Kalevala's influence on Finnish-Australian and Finnish-North American Literature | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | Paragons of Poetry: Lady Hester Pulter and Anne Bradstreet's Creative Adaptations of Sir Philip Sidney's Theory of Poetry. | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | The Act of Writing in Coni Text | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | Representations of Celtic Fairy Lore in Young Adult Fantasy Novels | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | Poem as Community: Plurality and Contemporary Australian Poetry | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
Past Supervision
Year | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | PhD | Tarare | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | The Taming of the Shrew: Discipline and Punishment of Transgressive Young Women from the Romantics until Present Day | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2017 | PhD | Animals, Sex and the Orient: A Feminist Retelling of the Arabian Nights | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2016 | PhD | Second Shot | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | Activated: A Young Adult Science Fiction Novel Exploring the Social Media Other | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | Masters | The Expressionist | M Philosophy (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | The Weight of a Human Heart | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | Surface Inscriptions: Implications of the Postmodern in William Gibson's Future Worlds | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | Masters | Living Like Common People | M Philosophy (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | Watermark: A Short Story Cycle | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
News
Creative writing graduate research at Newcastle
March 1, 2014
Graduate's debut novel wins two awards
February 1, 2014
Dr David Musgrave
Position
Senior Lecturer
School of Humanities and Social Science
College of Human and Social Futures
Focus area
English and Writing
Contact Details
david.musgrave@newcastle.edu.au | |
Phone | (02) 4348 4056 |
Fax | (02) 4348 4075 |
Office
Room | HO1.11 |
---|---|
Building | Humanities |
Location | Ourimbah 10 Chittaway Road Ourimbah, NSW 2258 Australia |