About me

I was born in Ballarat and moved to Melbourne in 1991. Then in 2005 I moved to a small town in central northwestern Victoria called Chewton. I’ve had three poetry collections published, called The Third Fruit is a Bird, Not Quite the Man for the Job and From My Head. My first novel, Man Bites Dog, was published in April 2003. I also have a short story collection called Heroes and Civilians available for free ebook download, and a bunch of zines and comics.

I’ve performed my poetry all over Australia (and once or twice in New York City), including schools, festivals, museums, galleries, cafes, pubs, loungerooms and on public transport.

I’ve been published in places like Best Australian Poems, Overland, cordite, Going Down Swinging, Meanjin, elimae, Torpedo, The Sleepers Anthology, one thousand ridiculous tragedies, pindeldyboz, hutt and the Age.

I’ve been editor of journals including Going Down Swinging, overland express, Voiceworks, &, moments and the zine anthology Chimp Frenzy.

I’ve taught workshops and short courses for universities, secondary schools, libraries and city councils across Australia on topics like poetry, zine-making, music journalism and how to scam free stuff.

I am not a sales representative at Cambridge University Press. Neither have I starred in a best-selling series of Swiss ball fitness videos, nor have I ever rescued a dog whose leash was caught in a railway track. I am not the British archaeologist host of ABC TV’s Who’s Been Sleeping In My House? or a bicycle courier or a small town in Missouri, USA. Nor am I a UK-based freelance graphic designer or a Zimbabwean radio announcer. Or the author of The Cuckoo Plant or Spaceship Earth. Or the author of “Diet and body size of North American mammal road mortalities.” (Transportation Research Part D, v.12, no.7, 2007) (though in some ways I wish I were).

I am, however, the namesake of the fictional US Poet Laureate from John Birmingham’s After America and the highest scoring local poet in the Castlemaine heat of the 2011 Australian Poetry Slam Championships.

If you would like to book me for some kind of public appearance or workshop thingy, schools and libraries should contact Booked Out. Other people can contact me via the reply form at the bottom of this page.