Elizabeth Allen writes in Sydney and works as a bookseller at Gleebooks. The author of two full-length collections of poetry, Body Language (Vagabond Press, 2012) and Present (Vagabond Press, 2017), Elizabeth won the Dame Leonie Kramer Prize in 2001 and the Anne Elder Award in 2012.
Books
Forgetful Hands
Elizabeth Allen’s first chapbook of poetry, published in limited edition by Vagabond Press in 2005.
Body Language
Elizabeth Allen’s first award-winning full-length collection of poetry, published by Vagabond Press in 2012.
Present
Elizabeth Allen’s second full-length collection of poetry, published by Vagabond Press in 2017.
About
Elizabeth Allen writes in Sydney and works as a bookseller at Gleebooks. She holds a first-class Honours degree in Australian Literature and a Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) from the University of Sydney.
Her poetry, short fiction, and literary criticism has found frequent publication in well-respected journals and anthologies, such as Cordite, Journal of Poetics Research, Bodega, Overland, Australian Book Review (ABR), Southerly, Otoliths, HEAT, Ajar, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Mascara Literary Review, Contemporary Australian Poetry (Puncher & Wattmann, 2016), and the Best Australian Poems (Black Inc. 2012 and 2014).
The author of two full-length collections of poetry, Body Language (Vagabond Press, 2012) and Present (Vagabond Press, 2017), Elizabeth won the Dame Leonie Kramer Prize in 2001 and the Anne Elder Award in 2012. She has been shortlisted for the Peter Porter Prize, the FAW John Shaw Neilsen Poetry Award, and a Red Room Poetry Fellowship.
Elizabeth was a co-judge of the Noel Rowe Poetry Award in 2016 and 2018 and a co-judge of the Mosman Youth Awards in Literature for many years. She has been a writer-in-residence at the Arteles Creative Center (Finland) and Bundanon Trust (NSW). She was the editor of the ABR anthology, States of Poetry NSW, in 2016 and she has extensive experience running poetry workshops for both children and adults in schools and community settings.
Read
Poems
- ‘Snow White: nomenclature’, Overland, Issue 231, Winter 2018
- ‘hey smooth cowgirl’, The Hunger, Verity La, 2018
- ‘Grief’, Contemporary Australian Poetry, Puncher & Wattmann, 2016
- ‘Reflexive verbs: a French lesson’, ‘Exit stage right’, Journal of Poetics Research, Issue 5, 2016
- ‘Orange-delicious’, Cordite, Issue 54: No Theme V, May 2016
- ‘Status update’, ‘Job satisfaction’, Contrappasso, Special Issue: Long Distance, November 2015
- In Vietnamese translation: ‘Leaving’, ‘Dying’, ‘Poem’, Ajar, Issue 2: Space, 2015
- ‘Her suit’, Rabbit, Issue 16: Biography Part 2, 2015
- ‘My love was like a newborn’, ‘Disclosure’, ‘Jetty’, Seizure, Epistles at Dawn, Issue 9, 2014
- ‘Post-mortem’, ‘Delicious’, Tincture, Issue 8, 2014
- ‘Neighbourhood Watch’, Best Australian Poetry 2014, Black Inc
- ‘Avoid eating grapefruit’, ‘Carrie’, ‘Outpatient’, ‘Falling’, Otoliths, Issue 35, Southern Spring 2014
- ‘hey smooth cowgirl’, Verity La, October 3, 2014
- ‘Absence’, Australian Book Review, n 361, May 2014
- ‘Ours’, ‘Redline’, ‘Blindness’, ‘Crush’, Otoliths, Issue 32, Southern Summer 2014
- ‘Winter – Lilyfield’, ‘Neighbourhood Watch’, Mascara Literary Review, Issue 14, December 2013
- ‘Refrigerator’, Overland, Issue 213, Summer 2013
- ‘Thread’, Red Room Company website, 2013
- ‘after seven long years underground’, ‘walking to greenwich baths’, Jacket2 feature Fifty-one Contemporary Poets from Australia, 2012; HEAT, n 17, 2008
- ‘Catastrophe’, Best Australian Poetry 2012, Black Inc
- ‘Two Years On’, Overland, Issue 204, Spring 2011
- ‘Bloom’, ‘Ending’, Snorkel, n 14, October 2011
- ‘At the psychiatrist’, Quadrant, n 479, September 2011
- ‘Before Tomorrow’, The Sun Herald, February 14 2010
- ‘At Winton’, Snorkel, n 9, April 2009
- ‘chameleon’, ‘the afternoon is’, Southerly, v 67, n 1 & 2, 2007
- ‘Before Tomorrow’, published as part of the Red Room Company’s Toilet Doors Poetry Project, 2006
- ‘Wet Sunday Afternoon’, ‘I Do Not Know What Shape’, Southerly, v 63, n 3, 2003
- ‘your life’, Hermes, 2003
- ‘Newtown’, Tangent, 2001
- ‘Como’, ‘Grief’, Southerly, v 60, n 2, 2000
- ‘Self Portrait’, Hermes, v 16, July 2000
- ‘his death’, ‘are you the girl’, ‘corner’, ‘internal scars’, ‘jacket’, ‘leaving’, ‘our house’, Sensory: a collection of works by new Australian writers, House of Beattie Publishing, Sydney, 2000
- ‘Afternoon’, ‘I Lie Down’, ‘Family Snap Shots’, Tangent, 1999
- ‘poem’, Hobo Poetry Magazine, Issue 21, June 1999
- ‘The Statistic Named Sam’, Southerly, v 59, n 3 & 4, 1999
- ‘Playing Games’, Youth Writes, n 8, 1993-1994
Short Stories
- ‘Northern Suburbs Crematorium’, Bodega, Issue 54, February 2017
- ‘Where I Was, Not Where I Am’, Seizure, Flashers, Issue 9, 2014
Essays
- ‘The Ghost of Icarus’, Southerly, v 68, n 1, 2008
Interviews
- Looking for Links, or: On Imagining What I Would Talk About If I Met Stuart Barnes, Tincture Journal, Issue 8, 2014
