John Jenkins is an Australian poet, non-fiction author and editor. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of more than 20 books, mostly poetry and non-fiction. He has also collaborated widely with other artists and poets, including on various gallery installations and theatrical events. His papers are at special collections, Academy Library, University of NSW at ADFA.
Biography
Jenkins was born in Melbourne and studied business subjects at Swinburne University of Technology. He worked in educational publishing in the 70s, then widely in commercial journalism until 2000. He has since worked as a book editor, and taught at Box Hill Institute of TAFE, University of Melbourne and La Trobe University. His first book of poems, Zone of the White Wolf and Other Landscapes was published in 1974; he co-edited the collection of innovative short fiction, The Outback Reader while his first non-fiction title, 22 Australian Contemporary Composers, appeared in 1988. He has also collaborated with poet Ken Bolton on a number of books of poetry. In the 70s and 80s and 90s he variously carried out co-, associate- or advisory-editorial roles with the Australian journals Etymspheres, Helix, Aspect, Art and Literature, and Overland, and in the early 1980s began the small publisher, Brunswick Hills Press. He has travelled widely, and has lived and worked in Sydney, Japan and the UK, as well as Melbourne. His travel writing has appeared in inflight magazines, Signature Magazine and Australian Gourmet Traveller, and he edited Travelers' Tales of Old Cuba: from Treasure Island to Mafia Den. His articles and reviews have appeared in Photofile, Agenda, Artstreams, The Age Monthly Review,Australian Book Review, The Australian, Overland, Southerly and other newspapers and periodicals. His installation, The Arthur Tantrum Letters, was held at Central Street Gallery, Sydney in 1970. In the 80s he took part in stage shows at La Mama Theatre and Grant Street Theatre and other venues in collaboration with musicians, and with dancers from Melbourne's Modern Dance Ensemble. In the 90s he took part in a multi-media installation at Adelaide's Experimental Art Foundation. And he collaborated with other writers at Jolt Arts in 2010. He won the 2004 James Joyce Foundation Suspended Sentence Award, and 2003 Artsrush Poetry Prize. He was shortlisted for 2004 FAW Christina Stead Award, and Commended for the 2006 Newcastle Poetry Prize and 2005 Melbourne Poets Union Poetry Competition. His work has featured on ABC Radio National'sAirplay and Poetica series. His latest collection, Growing Up With Mr Menzies, has been described as "a complex, layered and original work".
