BIO

Eleanor Jackson is a Filipino-Australian poet, performer, arts producer and advocate. Eleanor is the author of Gravidity and Parity from Vagabond Press, which was Highly Commended in the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) Mary Gilmore Award 2022 and winner of Small Press Network Book of the Year 2022. She is also Chair of Peril Magazine, which is dedicated to Asian Australian arts and culture, and producer of the Melbourne Poetry Map.

Eleanor has that rare gift in poetry – the ability to capture even the rowdiest slam crowd without the aid of histrionics, relying instead on understatement, clarity, and the power of her words. Both in her writing and the way it is performed, this is work of the highest possible calibre.

– Geoff Lemon, Editor, Going Down Swinging

A regular guest at Australian literary and arts festivals, Eleanor has been described as capable of creating, “powerful quiet”.

Her poetry is published in Overland Journal, Arc Poetry Magazine, Australian Poetry Journal, Bareknuckle Poet Annual Anthology, Going Down Swinging, Peril Magazine, Scum Magazine and the Cordite Poetry Review, FBI’s “All the Best”, RRR’s “Aural Text”, 3CR’s “Spoken Word”, ABC Radio National’s “Night Air” and the online poetry channel, “IndieFeed: Performance Poetry”.

Her live album, One Night Wonders, is available for digital download through Going Down Swinging. Her chapbook, A Leaving, was published by Vagabond Press in 2018. Her work has been anthologised in Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Poetry (UQP: 2019); #MeToo: Stories from the Australian Movement (PanMacMillan: 2019); and The Relationship is the Project: Working with Communities (Brow Books: 2020). Her radio play, Agent Ion, was featured as a part of Radiotonic for ABC Radio National, and her short fiction, The Transfer, appeared in Review of Australian Fiction. In 2014-2015, she was Artist in Residence at La Boite Theatre in Brisbane.

Eleanor is committed to developing and hosting events and experiences that showcase the diversity of poetic language. She is the producer of the Melbourne Poetry Map,  is currently Chair of the Board for Peril Magazine and Advisory Board Member for Almaviva Festival, Multicultural Arts Victoria. She has previously been involved in a multitude of community arts festivals and projects as a governance leader, advisor, advocate and programmer, including roles as Editor in Chief of Peril Magazine; Board Member and Program Adviser for the Queensland Poetry Festival; Curator for Brisbane Emerging Arts Festival; Vice-Chair and Diversity Advisory committee of The Stella Prize; Reference Group Member and Organisational Mentor for Diversity Arts Australia, Fair Play Project.

Eleanor also loves creating and sharing stories of community, identity and place and was a long-time host of At the Local on 4zzz fm, profiling local arts, events and community organisations that often pass under the radar of mainstream broadcasting with co-host, and all-round dreamboat, Domenico Natoli