Josephine Wilson is an Australian novel and
electronic literature
Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature where digital capabilities such as interactivity, multimodality or Generative literature, algorithmic text generation are used aesthetically. Works of electronic literature ar ...
writer and academic based in
Perth
Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
, Western Australia.
She writes essays, poetry and fiction.
Biography
Wilson was born in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
, England, and came to live in Australia with her family at the age of six. She has a Masters of Philosophy from the
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...
and a PhD from
University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...
(UWA).
[
Wilson lives in Perth and teaches ]creative writing
Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...
and literary theory at Murdoch University
Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its ...
. She has been a sessional teacher at UWA and Curtin University
Curtin University (previously Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public university, public research university based in Bentley, Western Australia, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. ...
, lecturing in performance studies, creative writing, and the history of art and design.
Literary recognition
In September 2017, Wilson won the Miles Franklin Award
The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...
for her second novel, ''Extinctions
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its last member. A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover. As a species' potential range may be ...
'' (UWA Publishing
UWA Publishing, formerly known as the Text Books Board and then University of Western Australia Press, is a Western Australian publisher established in 1935 by the University of Western Australia. It produces a range of non-fiction and fiction ...
, 2016).Colin Roderick Award
The Colin Roderick Award is presented annually by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at Queensland's James Cook University for "the best book published in Australia which deals with any aspect of Australian life". It was first presente ...
, and was shortlisted for the 2017 Prime Minister's Literary Awards
The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts.[Australian Book Review
''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are " ...]
. She was also a writer-in-residence
Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...
at Yaddo
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...
in Saratoga Springs (2019), and an Asialink
Asialink is a think-tank that promotes better relations between Australia and Asian economies. Asialink works alongside several philanthropic organizations to engage in civic and cultural relations that lead to business ties.
History
Asialink w ...
resident in Shanghai in 2018.
Research
Wilson has collaborated with sociologist Barbara Barbosa Neves on interdisciplinary research combining literature and social science. Together, they developed the concept of "live gerontology," an approach that integrates sociological research with creative works to better understand and represent aging experiences. This collaboration produced academic publications that use creative narratives alongside social science research to explore topics such as loneliness in later life and experiences in aged care settings. Their joint work has been covered in podcasts, media articles, and academic presentations.
Wilson has also co-authored several interdisciplinary research
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...
projects. She contributed to a 2024 study examining the introduction of virtual reality technology to older adults in aged care
Elderly care, or simply eldercare (also known in parts of the English-speaking world as aged care), serves the needs of old adults. It encompasses assisted living, adult daycare, long-term care, nursing homes (often called residential care), hos ...
settings; a 2023 paper on using crystallization methodology to understand loneliness in later life; a 2022 article examining care in the COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
context and its role in contemporary humanities critique; and a 2023 conference presentation on an eco-performance soundscape
A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term, originally coined by Michael Southworth, was popularized by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...
project exploring human relations with time, space, and existence in the Anthropocene age.
Works
Electronic Literature
Wilson participated in ''Lux: Tink and Lina Cha''t which is an array of texts by digital writers.
Her work with Linda Carroli includes:
* ''*water always writes in *''plural was first published in the Progressive Dinner Party, a collection curated by M.D. Coverley
Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink (August 4, 1943 – October 4, 2023) was an American writer, scholar, and teacher. Writing hypermedia fiction under the pen name M.D. Coverley, she is best known for her epic hypertext novels ''Califia'' (2000) and '' ...
, which is now archived in The NEXT Museum, Library, and Preservation Space. This work won the ''Salt Hill'' Hypertext award in 1998.
* ''Cipher,'' a work using email conversations
Plays
*''The Geography of Haunted Places'' (1994)
Novels
*
* This work, set in 2006, features Fred, a retired engineer and Jan, his neighbor. Gillian Dooley calls this a "Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...
for seniors."
Academic articles
* Gilson, D., Grehan, H., & Wilson, J. (2022). 'Do We Need to Talk about Prince Harry?': Thoughts on care and the politics of critique. ''Performance Research'', ''27''(6–7), 221–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2022.2198867
* Murray, L. A., Daroy, A., Wilson, J. H., & Zeunert, J. (2023, May 4-5). ''Anthropoiesis: Eco-Performance project at ECC, Venice Biennale 2023'' onference presentation Environmental Communication: Science Inspired & Arts Delivered, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia.
Awards
In 2015, her manuscript for ''Extinctions'' the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Award and when published, won the 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Colin Roderick Award, was also shortlisted for the 2017 Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Josephine
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Australian women novelists
Academic staff of Curtin University
English emigrants to Australia
Writers from Perth, Western Australia
Miles Franklin Award winners
University of Western Australia alumni
Australian expatriates in England
Australian electronic literature writers
University of Queensland alumni
Academic staff of Murdoch University