Megan Joan Fleming (born 1984), is an Australian/New Zealand poet, non-fiction writer and academic.

Biography

Fleming grew up in Sydney, Australia, until employment opportunities spurred the family to relocate first to

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, then

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall * Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershi ...

, Colorado, before finally settling in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand. She studied creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University, where she won the Biggs Poetry Prize in 2007. She graduated from the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...

with a Master of Arts with a thesis on the iterative poetry of

Anne Carson Anne Carson (born June 21, 1950) is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor. Trained at the University of Toronto, Carson has taught classics, comparative literature, and creative writing at universities across the Unit ...

. She holds a PhD in

ethnopoetics Ethnopoetics is a method of recording text versions of oral poetry or narrative performances (i.e. verbal lore) that uses poetic lines, verses, and stanzas (instead of prose paragraphs) to capture the formal, poetic performance elements which ...

from

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, a city in which she now lives. Fleming's grandparents were stationed as

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

missionaries in the town of Yuendumu, in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

of Australia. As a result, she has an ongoing interest in Warlpiri culture, with much of her poetry and non-fiction work focusing on themes of cultural misunderstandings, the limits of language, and the continuing effects of

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...

. More recent work also explores such themes as eco-feminism and

ecological collapse Ecological collapse refers to a situation where an ecosystem suffers a drastic, possibly permanent, reduction in carrying capacity for all organisms, often resulting in mass extinction. Usually, an ecological collapse is precipitated by a disast ...

. She has published a number of collections of poetry, as well as writing and co-editing works of literary criticism, essays, short stories and book reviews for publications in Australia, New Zealand and overseas.

Awards and honours

Fleming's honours include the Biggs Poetry Prize, the Verge Prize for Poetry and the Harri Jones Memorial Prize from the Hunter Writers Centre in 2017. In 2021, she was shortlisted for the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest award for her unpublished manuscript ''Dirt''.

Publications

; Poetry * ''Song of Less'' (Cordite, 2021) * ''Some People’s Favourites'' (Desperate Literature, 2019) * ''Failed Love Poems'' (Victoria UP, 2015) * ''The Same As Yes'' (Victoria UP, 2011) * ''Two Dreams in Which Things Are Taken'' (Duets, 2010) ; Non-Fiction * ''Dressing for the Apocalypse'' (''Island'', 2021) * ''Pulling Up the Walls'' (''Verge'', Monash UP, 2021) * ''Write First, Apologise Later?'' (''Pantograph Punch'', 2020) * ''Notes Toward a Theory of Making'' (''Westerly 64.1'', 2019) * ''Kardiya as Kindergartner: The Poetics of Ignorance in the Central Desert'' (''Meanjin 78.1,'' 2019) * ''Seated between the eyes of two worlds: the Intercultural work of Craig San Roque'' (''Philosophy Activism Nature 13,'' 2018) * ''The limits of knowledge: A reflexive reading of Warlpiri poetics'' (''JEASA 9.1,'' 2018) * ''On Misunderstanding, Masquerade, and the Prose Poem'' (''Bonsai: Best Small Stories from Aotearoa New Zealand'') ; Editor * ''Verge 2015'' (Monash UP, 2015)

References

Monash University alumni 1984 births Living people {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Joan Poets from Sydney 21st-century Australian poets 21st-century Australian women writers Australian women poets International Institute of Modern Letters alumni University of Otago alumni