Moya Costello
Writer
Books
Kites in Jakarta
(complimentary download)
Small Ecstasies
(complimentary download)
pressed specimens:
Prose Poems from the Medicinal Plant Herbarium, Southern Cross University
Moya Costello has five books – two of short creative prose (Kites in Jakarta, Sea Cruise Books and Small Ecstasies, UQP), two short novels (The Office as a Boat, Brandl & Schlesinger and Harriet Chandler, Short Odds Publications), one collection of prose poems (pressed specimens, Beir Bua Press) – and many pieces individually published in scholarly and literary journals, and anthologies. She has been awarded writing grants and fellowships by government departments and literary organisations. She has been a guest at many writers’ festivals, read her work at various venues, been as writer-in-residence at Monash University, and judged many literary competitions. She is an adjunct lecturer with the Faculty of Business, Law and Arts, Southern Cross University. See also an academic publication site; a general wine quaffing blog, and a local wine drinking blog.
Bio
In the Media
Don Anderson, The National Times on Kites in Jakarta: 'In the dominant drab landscape of Australian realistic writing, these volumes come like a fresh breath of wind. A southerly buster.'
John Hanrahan, The Age
on Small Ecstasies: 'There is wit, irony and comedy in the writing, but also an assured seriousness and high intelligence.'
Katherine England,
The Advertiser
on The Office as a Boat: 'The writing is beautifully clear and visually precise.'
On Twitter, from Akin
Akinwumi: 'Currently reading this wondrous novella [The Office as a Boat] by Australian avant-garde writer @moya_costello. It's so striking at the sentence level and recalls Joy Williams and Kathryn Davis in the way it treads the line between realism and the surreal.'
Nicholas Jose, Sydney Review of Books and The Australian Face: Essays from the Sydney Review of Books on Harriet Chandler: 'This bold, uncompromising author …. this brilliant, beautiful book.'
In Sydney Review of Books by Catriona Menzies-Pike: 'an incarnation of avant-garde and experimental writing'.
Was mentioned in Shanghai Daily.
In Rochford Street Review by Anna Counai
Andrew Paul Wood, NZ Listener on 'Of Ants and Black Cockatoos' in Scorchers: 'Costello's prose is richly poetic, unforced.'
On Twitter, academics, editors and writers of my Overland review of Bail's He.: Emmett Stinson, 'fantastic and fascinating piece'; Susan Lever, 'This is terrific. All your deep knowledge of Bail behind it.'; Jonathon Dunk: 'This essay is a striking study in/performance of the border between entanglement, intimacy and complicity in Australian literary history'.
First review of pressed specimens 2022, in Buzz by Mab Jones.
Mark Roberts in Rochford Street Review on pressed specimens.
Cassandra Atherton, Professor of Writing and Literature, said of pressed specimens in a Facebook/Meta discussion:
NEWS
2022
- Two poems from the 'pressed specimens' ms published in Tinfinsh Journal no. 22. February 2022.
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Review of Helen Garner's third diary volume in Overland. 2022
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'Matilda' in Travel anthology from Spineless Wonders. 2022
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Text by me and Patricia Costello (originally in Griffith Review) in a triptych by Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie in three sections at Devonport Regional Gallery exhibition Stories of Home September 2022
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Beir Bua Press, November 2022, published its 2022 anthology of poets published that year. Samples include one from me. An Experimental Poetry Anthology: Beir Bua Poets of 2022.
2023
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Review of Imants Tillers' Credo in autumn no 335 2023 Art Monthly Australasia.
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pressed specimens was Highly Commended in the Anne Elder Poetry Award.
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'Hedone' published in Spineless Wonders anthology Play, as a finalist in the joanne burns Microlit Award 2023.
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Nominated by Beir Bua Press for a Pushcart Prize.
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Finalist in the 2024 joanne burns Microlit Award from Spineless Wonders. Work to appear in the anthology Remnant in 2024.
Contact
For inquiries, please contact Moya Costello
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Events & News 2022-2023
EVENTS
2022
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Here is the launch of Tinfish Journal no 22 with me and other poets. February 2022.
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At Smelling Rivers @ rīvus Sydney Biennale, I gave a workshop on wine-tasting vocabulary for the smelling of rivers following. 2022
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Impromptu reading at the Chow Chuck Wing Museum, Sydney University, June 2022.
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I read in open mic at the
Deloraine heat of the 2022 Poetry Slam. -
pressed specimens launched at
Southern Cross University, September 2022 -
Gave a conference paper and poetry reading
from pressed specimens at the Out of the World: On Poetry and the World University of Canberra Dec 2022.
2023
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Read at Deloraine, British Hotel, at a regular monthly reading in Feb and March.
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Also read at Devonport Playhouse in an open mic
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A guest reader at Seasonal Poets, a curated reading, in Hobart Feb.
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Read open mic in poetry about place at Rant Arts, Devonport, Tasmania.
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Read at Liquid Amber Press online open mic.
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In online reading for Beir Bua poets July 2023. A two-hour reading. I appear at 42.50- 46.39.
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Guest reader at Deloraine, Tasmania, heats for national poetry slam.