Dr Tony Birch
Lecturer, Creative Writing
Qualifications
Master of Arts (Creative Writing), University of Melbourne; PhD (Urban cultures and histories)
Biography
Tony Birch is a writer who has published widely in the areas of short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. He has also worked as a writer and curator in collaboration with photographers, film-makers and artists. He was the senior curator on the 'Koori Voices' exhibition at Melbourne Museum's Bunjilaka Centre.
Teaching
- 106-186 Creative Writing 1: Autofictions
- 106-062 Writing Literary Non-Fiction
- 106-221 Creative Writing: Travel and Place
- 106-472 Writing Genealogies of Place
Full subject descriptions are available on the University of Melbourne Handbook.
Publications
Books
- Shadowboxing, Scribe Publications, 2006. (Reproduced as Unabridged Australian Audio, Louis Braille Audio, 2006)
Short fiction
- 'Bulldozers', Manoa, University of Hawai'i, Winter 2006
- 'Gifted', Overland, Spring 2006. pp. 35-38
- 'The Good Howard', Best Australian Short Stories 2006, edited by Robert Drewe, Black Inc., 2006
- 'The Good Howard', Heat, no.11 New Series,2006, pp. 205-213
- 'The Station', Oveland, March, 2005, pp. 61-65
Poetry
- 'waterfrontcity', poetry and photographic images, Suburban Fantasies -Melbourne Unmasked, edited by Colin Long, Claire Merlo and Kate Shaw, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2006, pp. 129-135
- 'Our Father's House', The South Project, www.southproject.org, 2006
- 'Hygiene for a nation's soul', Stolen Wealth Poster Series, Breakdown Press, 2006
- 'The True History of Beruk (William Barak)', Meamjin, March, 2006. pp. 72-76
- 'White Nation', The Quarterly, Sydney Pen Centre, no. 123, September, 2005
- 'Footnote to a History War' (Archive Box no. 2.), Best Australian Poetry 2005, edited by Les Murray, Black Inc., 2005, (first published in Meanjin, no. 4, 2004, pp. 135-137)
- 'Chroming' and 'Hygiene for the nation's soul', Agenda, vol. 41 no 1-2., Spring-Summer 2005, pp. 49-50
- 'Meeting with the toe-cutter', antithesis, vol. 15, 2005, p. 54
- 'Scenes of domestic life', Imprint 8, Department of Education and Arts, Queensland Government, 2005, p. 41
Essays
- 'History is never bloodless': Getting it Wrong after One Hundred Years of Federation, Hassam, Andrew (ed.). With Amit Sarwal. Australian Studies Now: A Reader, New Delhi, Indialog Publications, forthcoming 2007
- 'All Our Days' Another Country Histories of Homelessness, Parity, vol. 19, issue 10, Council for Homeless Persons, November 2006, p. 8
- 'Boxing History' (Review essay), Southern Review, vol.38, no. 2, 2006, pp. 110 -113
- 'Fingerprints marking time': A Tandurrum for Contemporary Australia, Common Goods: Cultures Meet Through Craft, Craft Victoria, 2006. pp. 101-104
- 'I could feel it in my body': War on a History War, Transforming Cultures eJournal, vol.1, no.1, March 2006, pp. 19-32
- 'Between nowhere and now lie the brutal secrets of racism', review essay for Sunday Age, October 2005, of Nowhere People: How International Race Thinking Shaped Australia's Identity, Henry Reynolds, Viking, 2005
- 'Surveillance, Identity and Historical Memory in Ivan Sen's Beneath Clouds, Empires, Ruins and Networks: The Transcultural Agenda in Art, edited by Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis, Melbourne University Press, 2005, pp. 185-201
- 'Fitzroy' and 'A Christmas Story', The Encyclopedia of Melbourne, edited by Andrew Brown-May and Shurlee Swain, Cambridge University Press, 2006
- 'Death is forgotten in victory': Colonial landscapes and narratives of emptiness, in Object Lessons Archaeology & Heritage in Australia, edited by Jane Lydon and Tracy Ireland, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2005. pp. 186-200
- 'Under One Roof', essay for Woman for a Humane Australia Under One Roof photographic exhibition, Footscray Community Arts Centre, June 2005
- 'Black On White', essay for Black On White, an exhibition of photographs by Aboriginal artists representing non-Aboriginality, Centre for Contemporary Photography, June, 2005
Curatorial writing and conceptual development
- Report for National Museum of Australia, '70% Urban Exhibition', September 2006, produced for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program, Australian National Museum, Canberra, ACT
- Aboriginal Melbourne and the Legal Precinct -a discussion paper prepared for Sue Hodges Production, May, 2005
- Report for National Museum of Australia, John Batman Website Module, April 2005, produced for Research and Development section, Australian National Museum, Canberra, ACT
Readings
- Lynall Hall Secondary College, Richmond, 13 November 2006
- Museo de Arte Contemporaneo -MAC, The South Project -Santiago Gathering, , 5 October 2006. (followed by Writer's Lab 1)
- "Melbourne Babylon', Melbourne Writers Festival, Meryln Theatre, Malthouse, 26 August 2006
- 'Winter of Words', Daylesford Writers Festival, 6 August 2006
- Medley Hall College, 26 July, 2006
- City of Yarra, Fitzroy branch library, 6 June, 2006
- Reading for Reconciliation, Melbourne Church of England Girls Grammar School, South Yarra, 30 May 2006
- Reading from Shadowboxing, Happy River café, in conjunction with Sun Books, Yarraville, 11 May, 2006
- Reading of 'The True History of Beruk [William Barak]', First Person: International Digital Storytelling Conference, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, February 4, 2006
- Antithesis launch and fundraiser, Dante's, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, 16 November, 2005
- 'Readings of the South', The South Project: between earth and sky, Soundings Theatre, Te Papa Museum, Wellington, 20-21 October, 2005
- Reading and short fiction workshop, Writing, Journalism & Social Inquiry, Faculty of Humanities, UTS, Sydney, April 13, 2005
Conference papers and public talks
- Tramatak Series, City Of Melbourne, 10 November 2006
- 'Show and Tell #1', The South Project -Santiago Gathering, Centro Cultural Estacion Mapocho, Santiago, Chile, 4 October 2006
- 'Who, still on a battlefield wants a monument': Camp Sovereignty -an event without a history, History Department, University of Melbourne, 25 August 2006
- 'The Future of Australian Fiction', 24 August 2006, Readers Feast, Melbourne
- 'History Space Memory,' Transforming Cultures Program, UTS, Sydney, 18 August, 2006
- Postgraduate Master Class in Creative Writing, Writing and Communication Program, UTS Sydney, 18 August 2006
- 'Time, Place and Landscape in Creative Writing', professional development seminar for secondary teachers, English Department, University of Melbourne, 27 June 2006
- 'Who, still on a battlefield wants a monument': Camp Sovereignty -an event without a history, biennale of sydney, UTS June Symposium -Biennales, Cosmopolitanism and Locality, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 10 June 2006
- In conversation, on Shadowboxing, La Mama theatre, 8 April, 2006
- Panel member 'Fiction -is the novel dead?', St Kilda Writers' Festival, 29 April 2006
- In conversation series, on Shadowboxing, University House, University of Melbourne, 28 April 2006
- Panel member, 'New Writing -the same old thing', Emerging Writers Festival, Melbourne Town Hall, 8 April, 2006
- 'Past Matters', conversation with Stephen Muecke, Eltham Writers Festival, Eltham Courthouse, 2 April, 2006
- 'Optimism and Amnesia in Howard's Australia', Relaxed and Comfortable: Challenging John Howard's Australia, Victorian Trades Hall Council, 11 March 2006
- 'Promise not to tell': Interrogating Colonialism's worst (or best) kept secrets, First Person: International Digital Storytelling Conference, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, February 4, 2006
- 'They were your people': Ivan Sen's 'Dust', University of Melbourne, 30 November, 2005, (in conjunction with The South Project and Craft Victoria)
- Participant, public lecture program, 'Islamophobia, Multiculturalism and the new Australia', University of Melbourne, October 11, 2005
- 'The News Today': Narratives of violence and the refugee', Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melborne, 11 April, 2005
- 'The earth spoke to demand justice: 'progress' and amnesia in the neo-colonial nation', Humanities Program/Jumbunna Centre, University of Technology Sydney, April 12, 2005
- 'Locating the past in a "post" reconciliation nation', The Australian Centre for Indigenous History, History Program, RSSS, The Australian National University, 17 March, 2005
- 'Death is forgotten in victory': Colonial landscapes and narratives of emptiness', postgraduate workshop and seminar, The Australian Centre for Indigenous History, History Program, RSSS, The Australian National University, 17 March, 2005
Digital media
- Encounters at Coranderrk, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens, 1999.