Dr Aidan Coleman

Biography

Aidan Coleman is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and also teaches in the Associate Degree of Creative Writing. He is writer and critic, and his poetry volumes have been shortlisted for national literary awards. Aidan has 12 years experience as a secondary English and history teacher, and faculty coordinator. He received a National Excellence in Teaching Award (NEiTA), co-designed Australia’s first Shakespeare MOOC, and is the co-author of a series of Shakespeare textbooks.

Research

Aidan’s research and scholarship spans Australian literature, Shakespeare, poetry, ecocriticism and creative writing. His scholarly work has been published in New Writing, Journal of the Association of the Study of Australian Literature (JASAL), Text, Westerly, and Australian Dictionary of Biography, and he has book chapters forthcoming on Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Routledge), the poetry of migratory birds (Routledge) and Australian Modernism in the Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry (CUP) Aidan was awarded a University of Adelaide Medal for Doctoral Research, and he is currently completing a biography of the Australian poet John Forbes to be released by Melbourne University Publishing in 2024.

Creative Work

Aidan’s poetry collections have been shortlisted for national book awards including the NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Award, the John Bray Poetry Award and the WA Premier’s Book Awards. He has been recipient of several Australia Council for the Arts grants for non-fiction and poetry, and has been awarded a range of scholarships, grants and residencies. His poetry, essays and criticism have appeared in venues such as Australian Book Review, The Australian, Carolina Quarterly (US), Colorado Review (US), The Conversation, Glasgow Review of Books, Harvard Review, Italian Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Stand (UK), Sydney Review of Books, Terrain.org (US), and Virginia Quarterly Review (US); as well as Australian and international anthologies.

Industry Engagement

Aidan is a peer assessor and Industry Advisor for the Australia Council for the Arts, and he has chaired peer assessment panels for Arts South Australia. He judges national book awards and recently judged the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and the Newcastle Poetry Prize.

Supervision

Aidan is available to supervise PhD and Masters projects in creative writing, literary studies and education. His expertise and interests Australian literature, Shakespeare, poetry, life writing, ecopoetics and environmental writing, as well as Shakespeare and poetry in the classroom.