Emeritus Professor Nicholas Jose

• Biography/ Background

  Nicholas Jose is a novelist, essayist and playwright, whose thirteen books include the novels Paper Nautilus, Avenue of Eternal Peace (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award), The Custodians (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize) and Original Face; two short story collections; a volume of essays, Chinese Whispers; and the memoir Black Sheep. After gaining his doctorate at Oxford University, he taught in the Department of English at the ANU 1978-1985. His monograph Ideas of the Restoration in English Literature was published in 1984.

  
  Professor Jose taught in China 1986-87, and served as Cultural Counsellor in the Australian Embassy Beijing 1987-1990. A full-time writer from 1991, he resumed his academic career as Chair of Creative Writing at Adelaide University in 2005. A past president of International PEN Sydney, he is general editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (also published as The Literature of Australia). He was Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University 2009-2010 and taught there again in 2011. He is Adjunct Professor with the Writing and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney, Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, and Professor of English and Creative Writing in the School of Humanities at The University of Adelaide.

  www.nicholasjose.com.au

   

• Qualifications

  Doctor of Philosophy, Oxford University, 1978

  Bachelor of Arts (1st class honours) and University Medal, Australian National University, 1973

   

   

• Research Interests

  Nicholas Jose's research interests include new writing from Australia and the Asia-Pacific; Australian literature; literary translation; contemporary art; China; and creative practice.

   

   

• Publications

  Books

  Antipodean China: Reflections on Literary Exchange, edited by Nicholas Jose and Benjamin Madden (non-fiction, Giramondo Publishing, 2021). 256 pp

  ISBN 9781925818642

   

  Everything changes: Australian Writers and China, edited by Xianlin Song and Nicholas Jose (non-fiction, UWA Publishing, 2019). 282 pp.

  ISBN 9781760801120

  Bapo, (short stories, Giramondo Publishing, 2014). 231 pp.

  ISBN 9781922146632

  The Literature of Australia: an anthology, general editor, Norton 2009. Introduction pp 1-8.

  ISBN 978-0-393-07261-7

  Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, general editor, Nicholas Jose, Allen & Unwin 2009. Introduction pp.1-8.

  ISBN 978-1-7417-5440-7

    Winner, Special Award, 2010 NSW Premier's Literary Awards

    Winner, Tertiary Scholarly Reference category, Australian Educational Publishing Awards 2010

    Shortlisted, General Non-fiction Book of the Year, 2010 Australian Book Industry Awards

  Contemporary Art + Philanthropy: Private Foundations Asia-Pacific Focus, editor, Power Publications, UNSW Press 2009. Introduction pp 1-15.

  ISBN 978-0-9577-3823-2

  Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, edited by Anita Heiss and Peter Minter, as general editor, Allen & Unwin 2008

  ISBN 978-0-7735-3459-9

     Winner, The Deadly Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Literature, 2008

  Avenue of Eternal Peace (novel, Wakefield Press, new edition with postscript, 2008, 279 pp.; Penguin (Aus), Dutton (US), 1989)

  ISBN 978-1-86254-799-5

    Shortlisted, Miles Franklin Literary Award. Filmed for television as Children of the Dragon.

  Original Face (novel, Giramondo Publishing 2005) 307 pp.

  ISBN 1 902882 13 8

  Black Sheep: Journey to Borroloola (memoir, Allen & Unwin (Aus); Profile UK/Hardie Grant 2002)

    Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year 2003 (non fiction)

  ISBN 9781743430521

  The Red Thread (novel, Chronicle (US), Faber (UK), Hardie Grant (Aus), 2000)

  ISBN 9781740640138

    Published in Portuguese, Greek and Chinese translations.

  The Custodians (novel, Allen & Unwin (Aus), Picador (Aus & UK), St Martins Press (US), 1997)

  ISBN 9781742699868

    Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize 1997 (South-East Asia)

    Published in Chinese translation.

  Chinese Whispers: cultural essays (non-fiction, Wakefield Press (Aus, 1995)

  ISBN 9781862543362

  The Rose Crossing (novel, Overlook Press (US), Penguin (Aus), Hamish Hamilton (UK), 1994)

  ISBN 9780879517977

    Translations published in French, German and Chinese

  Paper Nautilus (novel, Wakefield Press (Aus); Penguin (Aus), 1987

  ISBN 9781862547339

    Published in Chinese translation (Taiwan)

  Feathers or Lead (short stories, Penguin (Aus), 1986)

  ISBN 0140088512

  Rowena's Field (novel, Rigby (Aus), 1984)

  ISBN0727019988

  https://briobooks.com.au/products/rowena-s-field (2022)

  The Possession of Amber (short stories, UQP (Aus), 1980)

  ISBN 0702215376

  Ideas of the Restoration in English Literature (monograph, Harvard University Press (US), Macmillan (UK), 1984)

  ISBN 0674442768

   

  Selected essays and reviews, 1997 -

  ‘Australia’, Literature: A World History (eds. David Damrosch and Gunilla Lindberg-Wada) John Wiley 2022, v.4, pp.1191-1211

  ‘Eastward, ho!’, Australian Book Review, April 2022, 36-37.

  Alexis Wright, Odyssey of the Horizon, English and in Chinese and Japanese translation, Beijing United Publishing, 2021, ‘Preface’, pp.1-15.

  ‘Goodbye to Hong Kong’, Sydney Review of Books, 09/11/2021

  https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/hong-kong-literature/ 

  ‘A manual for writers: Elizabeth Costello’, Reading Like an Australian Writer. Ed. Belinda Castles. Sydney: NewSouth, 2021, pp.314-24.

  'The Gleaner Song: Selected poems' by Song Lin, translated by Dong Li and 'Vociferate | è© ' by Emily Sun, Australian Book Review, September 2021, no. 435

  ‘Ginkgo Biloba’, Silent Dialogue, correspondences Vic 3054, 2021, pp.26-32.

  ‘Afterword’, Antipodean China: Reflections on literary exchange, with Benjamin Madden, Artarmon: Giramondo 2021, pp. 214-234.

  ‘Visitants: Randolph Stow's End Time Novel’, Randolph Stow: Critical Essays. Ed. Kate Leah Rendell Crawley, UWA Publishing, 2021, pp.203-18.

  'One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987–1995' by Helen Garner, Australian Book Review,

  December 2020, no. 427

   

  'The China Journals: Ideology and intrigue in the 1960s' by Hugh Trevor-Roper, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, Australian Book Review November 2020, no. 426

  Alexis Wright, Signposts: Stories for our Fragile Times, Episode 1: Nicholas Jose, 3 June 2020

  https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/e/signposts-stories-for-our-fragile-times/episode-1-nicholas-jose

   

  ‘The Story of the Moon-Bone’, Westerly, 65.1 (2020), pp. 22-57.

  ‘Regarding Lady Precious Stream’, Contemporary Chinese Literature in English (1919-2019): Translation, Publication and Reception (ed. Leah Gerber and Lintao Qi), London: Routledge, 2020, pp. 73-85.

  ‘UQP Makes History’, Fryer Lecture on Australian Literature, Sydney Review of Books, 2 November 2018, np.

  ‘Contrary Narratives in Contemporary Chinese Fiction’, The Social Work of Narrative: Human Rights and the Cultural Imaginary. Editors: Griffiths G, Mead, ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart; Germany 2018, pp. 121-138.

  ‘In the Swash Zone’, The Australian Face. Editors: Ley J, Menzies-Pike C, Giramondo, Artarmon 2017, pp. 194-204.

  ‘Occasional stories that scrape at the heart’, Beth Yahp, The Red Pearl and other stories, Vagabond Press, 2017, 212-17.

  ‘Transcultural Affinity: In praise of Wang Zuoliang’, Transcultural Encounters in Knowledge Production and Consumption. Editors: Song X, Sun Y, Springer, Singapore 2017, pp. 65-80.

  ‘Foreword’, My Travelling Life by Neilma Sidney (Oryx Publishing, 2015) vii-x.

  ‘Gifts from China’, Confucius Institute Annual Lecture, University of Adelaide, University of Sydney, Griffith Review 61 2018 np. https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/gifts-from-china-australia-relations/

  ‘The Dao of Translation: An East-West dialogue’, Translation Studies 11 (1):105-107 2018.

  Lunar Inheritance by Lachlan Brown, Mascara Literary Review, 6 June 2018. https://www.mascarareview.com/nicholas-jose-reviews-lunar-inheritance-by-lachlan-brown/

  ‘Qiu Miaojin: The Bittersweet’, Mascara Literary Review np 2018.

  https://www.mascarareview.com/qiu-miaojin-the-bittersweet-by-nicholas-jose/

   

  ‘That certain cut: towards a characterology of APWT’, TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Programs 47 (Special Issue 47):1-9 01 Oct 2017.

  "Coetzee in China", Texas Studies in Literature and Language Special issue, Winter 2016. Forthcoming.

  "Sneak Preview", A Brief Take on the Australian Novel by Jean-François Vernay (Wakefield Press, 2016), xi-xv.

  "Translation Plus: On Literary Translation and Creative Writing." The AALITRA Review: A Journal of Literary Translation, 10 (Melbourne: Monash University, May 2015):5-17
  http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/ALLITRA/article/viewFile/3712/4338

  "Creative Writing in China", The China Story Journal, 1 February 2015, http://www.thechinastory.org/2015/02/creative-writing-in-china/

  "Foreword", My Travelling Life by Neilma Sidney (Oryx Publishing, 2015), vii-x.

  "In Hot Water", Sydney Review of Books, 07/11/2014

  http://www.sydneyreviewofbooks.com/death-fugue-sheng-keyi/

  "J. M. Coetzee, R. G. Howarth, South to South", New Scholar, Vol 3, No 2 (2014) http://www.newscholar.org.au/index.php/ns/article/view/181

  "Metamorphic Malouf", Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, North America, 14 7 05 2014.

  "Damage Control: Australian Literature as Translation", Literature as Translation/Translation as LIterature, ed. C Conti and J Gourley, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, 1-15.

  "Geoffrey Dutton: Little Adelaide and New York Nowhere", Adelaide: A Literary City (Adelaide University Press, 2013), 183-96.

  "Writing Asian Poetry in English in Australia", Mascara Literary Review, 13, June 2013. http://mascarareview.com/writing-asian-poetry-in-english-by-nicholas-jose/

  "Outpost Thinking", Sydney Review of Books, 02/04/2013
  http://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/outpost-thinking/

  "Cheeky", Scenes of Reading, eds. Brigid Rooney and Robert Dixon, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2013, pp. 189-96.

  "'Our Kind of Country': Writing Australia from New Mexico", Magnificent Obsessions: Honouring the Lives of Hazel Rowley, ed. Rosemary Lloyd and Jean Fornasiero, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.

  "Deconstructing the dumpling: Australia, China, lived connections", Journal of Australian Studies, 37:1, 116-129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2012.753929

  ‘1989: Forces of justice:The year the dragon came', Telling Stories: Australian Literary Cultures, 1935-2012, ed. Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziel, Monash University Press. 2013, pp.444-51.

  "Foreword", A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature, ed. Belinda Wheeler, Camden House, 2013, pp. viii-xii.

  "Auto da fé", Sydney Review of Books, 29/01/2013 http://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/auto-da-fe/

  "Aporetic Australia in The White Tiger, The Boat and The Hamilton Case". Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, North America, 1215 08 2012. http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/2303/3197

  "Everyday and Exotic: Australian Asian Writing", The Long View, The Wheeler Centre, June 2012. http://wheelercentre.com/projects/the-long-view/book/everyday-and-exotic-australian-asian-writing

  "Damage Control: Australian Literature as Translation" Westerly, 57: 1 July 2012, pp.102-20.

  "Contemporary Approaches to Literature", Window and Bridge III (Writers' Publishing House, Beijing, 2012), pp.161-65. (In Chinese.)

  Sara Dowse, Subhash Jaireth and Nicholas Jose, "Cold Light", Meanjin May 2012.
  http://meanjin.com.au/articles/post/cold-light/

  "Visitants: Randolph Stow's End Time Novel", Transnational Literature, 3:1 May 2011. http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/transnational/vol3_issue2.html

  "The man and his thoughts", Australian Literary Review, 5 October 2011.
  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/through-the-iron-bars/story-e6frg8nf-1225946195062

  
  "At the Limit of Literature": review of The Cambridge History of Australian Literature ed. Peter Pierce, Modernism/modernity 17: 4, November 2010.
  http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modernism-modernity/v017/17.4.jose.html

  
  "Through the Iron Bars": review of Lu Xun, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun, translated by Julia Lovell, Australian Literary Review, November 2010, p.14.http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/through-the-iron-bars/story-e6frg8nf-1225946195062

   "Mulberry Australis", Peter Emmett and Tony Kanellos, eds., The Museum of Economic Botany (Adelaide Botanic Garden, 2010), pp. 162-64.

  "Who'll come a-morphing", Australian Literary Review, August 2009, p.14.

  "All Our Own Work", The Weekend Australian 25 July 2009, Review p.10.

  "Earthy Expose of China's Cowboy Capitalism", review of Yu Hua, Brothers, The Weekend Australian 26 June 2009, Review p.10.

  "Australian Literature Inside and Out", Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, vol 9 Special Issue, 2009, pp.1-13 http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/894/1752

  "I had written him a letter", Essentially Creative, Griffith Review Edition 23, 2008. http://www.griffithreview.com/edition-23-essentially-creative/210-essay/563.html

  "Recovering Australian Literature", NSW History Awards Address 2008, SMH October 28, 2008

  "Penumbra: Contemporary Art from Taiwan", Art Monthly May 2008

  "Back to the Avantgarde", In the Neighbourhood, Griffith Review, Edition 18, 2007

  http://www.griffithreview.com/edition18/73-essay/109.html

  "There's this world too: Nicolas Rothwell, Another Country", Australian Book Review, March 2007, 16-17.

  "Go West", The Age, December 16, 2006, A2, 16-17.

  "Writers in Prison", Wet Ink, 4: 2006, 20-21.

  "Adam Aitken", Dictionary of Literary Biography, Australian Writers: 1975-2000, Gale, 2006.

  "A Shelf of Our Own: Creative Writing and Australian Literature", Australian Book Review, November 2005, 25-29.

  "Oh, great river: Yo Yo, Ghost Tide", Australian Book Review, September 2005, 56.

  "Jumping Puddles", Australian Author, August 2005, pp. 8-11.

  "Talking English : Tony Roberts, Frontier Justice", Australian Book Review, April 2005, 14-15.

  "Memoir: Tiananmen, Liu Xiaobo and PEN", The Quarterly, Sydney PEN Centre, March 2005, 28-31.

  "Bliss and Damnation: Peter Carey in Australia", in Fabulating Beauty: Perspectives on the Fiction of Peter Carey, ed. Andreas Gaile, Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2005.

  "Ouyang Yu, New and Selected Poems", Life Writing, 3, 2005.

  "The Compliment Men", Best Australian Essays 2004, ed. Robert Dessaix, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2004, 217-232.

  "Going, going, Guan", on Guan Wei, Weekend Australian, September 18-19 2004, Arts, R18-19.

  "Pammie's Queen of Puddings", Mumma's Kitchen: Recipes and Stories, ed. Helen Addison-Smith & George Papaellinas, ABC Books, Sydney 2004, 114-121.

  "The Mungo Excursion", Vintage: Celebrating Ten Years of the Mildura Writers' Festival, ed. Donata Carrazza & Paul Kane, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2004, 25-37.

  "The Writing's on the Wall", Financial Times, 14-15 February 2004, Weekend 5.

  "The Compliment Men", Meanjin, 4/2003, 7-20.

  "Necklace of Pearl: Henry Reynolds, North of Capricorn", Australian Book Review, November 2003, 11-12.

  "Compost and Pollination", Translations, Southerly, 1/2003, 9-23

  "Giving Voice", David Malouf: A Celebration, National Library of Australia, 2001, pp.21-28.

  "My Federation: 1 January 2001" Postwest, No. 18, 2001

  "Fairweather's Ghost", Postwest, no. 16, 2000

  "Australia in Time", Reaching the World, Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Sydney, 1999

  "On Reticence", HEAT 5, 1997

   

  Selected Catalogue Essays and Art Writing

  "Ah Xian", Dark Heart, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2014.

  "YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES: THE SLICKEST LITTLE KOREAN SCUMBAG DOWNUNDER", Edge of Elsewhere, Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2014.

  "Angela and Hossein Valamanesh", Heartland, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2013.

  "Stewart MacFarlane", Heartland, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2013.

  "On the Way", Stewart MacFarlane: paintings, Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur 2012, pp.13-26.

  "My China Project", The China Project, Queensland Art Gallery 2009.

  "Citizens of the World", Writing the Painting, University of South Australia, March 2006.

  "The Sinking Ship", Interesting Times, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, September 2005.

   

  Selected Recent Short Fiction

  ‘Are We Here Just for Saying’, Transnational Literature, October 2021.

  ‘Evvy After’, A Book of Friends: In Honour of J M Coetzee on his 80^th Birthday, edited by Dorothy Driver, Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2020, pp. 99-109.

  ‘Solstice’, Meanjin, vol.78, issue 1, 2019, 34-44.

  ‘Feathers or Lead’, Meanjin A-Z MUP 2018, 71-98.

  ‘Beetroot’, Reading the Landscape, UQP 2018, 191-205.

  ‘A Local Footnote’, Griffith Review, 55, 2017, 212-6.

  "What Love Tells Me", Chinese translation by Li Yao, World Literature, 2012.6, 77-88.

  "What Love Tells Me", The Best Australian Stories, edited by Cate Kennedy, Black Inc., 2011, pp.180-88.

  "What Love Tells Me", HEAT 24, New series, 2010, pp.171-79.

  "The Aunt's Garden's Story", Small City Tales of Strangeness and Beauty ed. Gillian Britton and Stephen Lawrence, Wakefield Press, 2009, pp.85-87.

  "After the Show", New Australian Stories, edited by Aviva Tuffield, Scribe 2008, pp.183-88.

  "Emeritus Professor Wally Frith addresses a ceremony at Peking Union Medical College (Beijing, 2008)", Asian Literary Review (Summer, 2008 No.8), pp.213-17.

  "The Disappearing Book", Biblio: A Review of Books (India) vol.xiii, nos.9 & 10, Sept-Oct 2008.

  "George", The Review of Contemporary Fiction Fall 2007, vol. xxvii, no.3, pp.206-09.

  "Diamond Dog", Meanjin, vol.57, no.3 (1998), Japanese translation published in Diamond Dog: Contemporary Australian Short Stories  (Shuei Sha, 2008), pp.1-25; from Subaru Monthly, June 2006, 232-42; Serbian translation published in Serbian Translation of Contemporary Australian Fiction (Agora 2012), pp.191-202;

   

  Translation

  The Finish Line: A Long march by Bicycle through China and Australia, by Sang Ye with Nicholas Jose and Sue Trevaskes (non-fiction, UQP (Aus), 1994)

  ISBN 0702226548

   

   

Entry last updated: Friday, 21 Apr 2023