Dr Aidan Coleman

Biography

Aidan Coleman is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, teaching units in creative writing, literature and English education. He is the coordinator of the Associate Degree of Creative Writing and managing editor of SCU's journal Coastlines. His scholarship encompasses Australian literature, modern and contemporary poetry and Shakespeare. In 2023, Aidan received a Vice Chancellor's Outstanding Teaching Award. Before academia, he worked as a secondary teacher and a speechwriter. His poetry volumes have been shortlisted for national literary awards and in 2006 he received a National Excellence in Teaching Award (NEiTA). Aidan co-designed Australia's first Shakespeare MOOC, and is the co-author of a series of Shakespeare textbooks.

Aidan’s work contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals

Research

Aidan's scholarly work on Australian literature has been published in quality journals and he has written book chapters on Shakespeare's Sonnets (Routledge), the poetry of migratory birds (Routledge), Australian Modernism (Cambridge UP) and aphasia poetry (Bloomsbury). He was awarded a University of Adelaide Medal for Doctoral Research and his biography of the Australian poet John Forbes is in-press with Melbourne University Publishing, to be released in early 2027.

Creative Work

Aidan has received two Australia Council/Creative Australia grants for non-fiction and two for poetry and many other grants and residencies, including the Arts Council of Ireland Heinrich Böll Residency. His poetry volumes, published by Brandl & Schlesinger and Wakefield Press, have been shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Kenneth Slessor Award, the John Bray Poetry Award and the WA Premier's Book Awards. He has been an invited guest at Adelaide Writers' Week, Parole Festival della Letteratura Milan (Italy), Ledbury Poetry Festival (UK), Melbourne Writers Festival and Sydney Writers' Festival. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, in Australia and internationally. His non-fiction and criticism have appeared in prestigious journals and newspapers, here and overseas.

Industry Engagement

Aidan has been a peer assessor and Industry Advisor for Creative Australia (formerly the Australia Council for the Arts). He has chaired peer assessment panels for Arts South Australia, has judged literary awards, including the SA Premiers Literary Awards, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and the Newcastle Poetry Prize. Aidan served on the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) Text Advisory Panel. He has acted as a peer reviewer for many journals and book publishers, and is on the editorial board for TEXT.

Supervision

Aidan is an experienced supervisor, whose expertise spans Australian literature, Shakespeare, poetry, life writing and environmental writing, as well as Shakespeare and poetry in the classroom. Two of his students have been awarded university medals for doctoral research.