AustLit logo

AustLit

John Jenkins John Jenkins i(A20818 works by) (a.k.a. John Ormond Jenkins; J. Jenkins)
Also writes as: Maurice Slipteal ; Jan Zavaskar
Born: Established: 1949 Elwood, Caulfield - St Kilda area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

John Jenkins was born in Melbourne in 1949, in the bayside suburb of Elwood, the youngest of two children. He was educated at Burwood Technical School and Box Hill High School and studied Business at the Swinburne University of Technology.

Sometimes associated with the group of poets known as the 'Generation of '68', Jenkins was one of the first poets to read at Melbourne's famous La Mama theatre, and in the 1970s helped to write pop songs with various musicians. Throughout the seventies, he was co-editor and editor of a number of literary journals, Etymspheres: The Journal of the Paper Castle (1974-75), Aspect (1976-77) and in the early eighties, Helix (1981-82).

During this period he worked for a publisher of children's books/library supplier and took part in readings and performances in Melbourne. His first book, Zone of the White Wolf, appeared in 1974, just before he moved to Sydney, where he lived on a small grant from the Australia Council. His second book of poems, Blind Spot, appeared in 1977 and he also began working as a journalist, first for a Sydney art journal and then a large commercial magazine company.

Jenkins travelled to London in 1981, where he worked as a research assistant in the BBC's regional radio division; and later travelled throughout Europe.On his return to Melbourne in 1982, he met many of the rising generation of new Australian composers, and wrote a libretto with composer Richard Vella, and several radio plays with his good and long-time friend the composer Rainer Linz.

Jenkins has worked widely as a journalist, for a variety of magazines and newspapers, and in radio, and as a teacher of creative writing . He has worked on, or contributed to, magazines as various as Cosmopolitan, Dolly, Signature (the Diners' Club magazine), Overland, Art and Text, The Age Monthly Review, ABR, Heat, Artstreams and many more. He has also travelled extensively, in South East Asia, China, Japan, India, Europe, the US and elsewhere, sometimes while working on travel magazines and as a book editor.

In recent years, John Jenkins has been a teacher of creative writing, while continuing to work as a poet, journalist and editor. In addition to his volumes of poetry, Jenkins has also published 22 Contemporary Australian Composers (1988), Arias: Recent Australian Music Theatre (with Rainer Linz, 1997) and contributed (as Jan Zavaskar) to The Pink Violin: An Anthology of Writings about the Music of the Rosenbergs and edited the anthology Travelers' Tales of Old Cuba (2002).

He is a nephew (through his mother) of Andrew Mallon.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Not to be confused with John Jenkins, author of 'The Conscript Who Asked No Questions'.

Personal Awards

2017 shortlisted Margaret River Short Story Writing Competition

For 'Through a Latte Darkly'.

2015 shortlisted Josephine Ulrick National Poetry Prize For 'The Traveller, 1973, Jeffrey Smart'.
2014 highly commended The Fellowship of Australian Writers Victoria Inc. National Literary Awards FAW Di Cranston Award for Heaven HQ

Awards for Works

Freeway, Flyover, and Back 2014 sequence poetry
— Appears in: Island , no. 136 2014; (p. 94-95)
2014 runner up Gwen Harwood Memorial Poetry Prize
The Rabbit Proof Sonnet i "Fourteen clunky lines make a sort of endless fence", 2014 single work poetry
— Appears in: Island , no. 136 2014; (p. 92-93)
2014 runner up Gwen Harwood Memorial Poetry Prize
Under the Shaded Blossom i "Into Havana's noonday glare, Meyer Lansky slips", 2004 single work poetry
— Appears in: Heat , no. 8 (New Series) 2004; (p. 44-54) The Best Australian Poetry 2005 2005; (p. 55-67)
2004 winner James Joyce Foundation Suspended Sentence Award

Known archival holdings

University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy Australian Defence Force Academy Library (ACT)
Last amended 3 Jul 2017 13:58:22
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X