{"id":139,"date":"2024-02-25T14:31:22","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T14:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jayasavige.com\/?page_id=139"},"modified":"2026-03-09T11:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:07:08","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jayasavige.com\/index.php\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"ABOUT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo \u00a9 Jaya Savige, October 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Jaya Savige<\/strong> is a Sydney-born poet, writer, editor and critic currently living in London. He is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Change Machine<\/em> (2020), which was a Book of the Year for the Sydney Morning Herald\/The Age, Australian Book Review<\/em><\/em>, Weekend Australian<\/em><\/em> and ABC Radio National’s Bookshelf<\/em>, & was shortlisted for the 2021 Australian Prime Minister\u2019s Award for Poetry, the NSW Premier\u2019s Kenneth Slessor Prize, the QLA Judith Wright Calanthe Prize and the Queensland Premier\u2019s Award for a work of State Significance. His essays and reviews have appeared throughout Australia and abroad in the Times Literary Supplement<\/em>, London Magazine<\/em>, Poetry<\/em> (Chicago) and elsewhere. Jaya is the long-standing poetry editor for The Australian<\/em> newspaper (2010-), for which he has selected over 500 poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaya is represented in the UK by Peter Straus<\/a> @ RCW Literary Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born to an Indonesian father and an Anglo-Celtic Australian mother, I grew up on Bribie Island \/ Yarun in Moreton Bay, and in Brisbane \/ Meanjin, Queensland.\u00a0After quitting Law at university I was awarded the University Medal for a first-class BA in English and Philosophy, and gained an MPhil in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland. I received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to read for a PhD in English at Christ\u2019s College, University of Cambridge. From 2013-2021 I was Assistant Professor of English and Head of Creative Writing at Northeastern University, London (formerly New College of the Humanities). I recently wrote the final two chapters of the Cambridge History of Australian Poetry<\/a>,<\/em> ed. by Ann Vickery and Philip Mead (2025).

My first poetry collection, latecomers<\/em> (UQP 2005), won the\u00a0NSW Premier\u2019s\u00a0Kenneth Slessor\u00a0Prize\u00a0<\/em>for Poetry and the\u00a0Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, was Highly Commended for the\u00a0Dame Mary Gilmore Prize\u00a0and shortlisted for several other awards. Surface to Air<\/em> (UQP 2011), was shortlisted for\u00a0The Age\u00a0<\/em>Poetry Book of the Year and the\u00a0West Australian Premier\u2019s Prize.\u00a0

Poems of mine can be found on this website, in the books promoted here, and in\u00a0The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry<\/em>,\u00a0Poetry International,\u00a0Contemporary Australian Poetry,\u00a0Thirty Australian Poets<\/em>, in more than ten editions of the annual\u00a0Best Australian Poems,<\/em>\u00a0and in magazines and journals such as Poetry Review, London Magazine<\/em> <\/em>and PN Review<\/em> (UK),\u00a0Kenyon Review<\/em>, Jacket2<\/em>, POETRY<\/em> (Chicago)<\/em> and Poetry Daily<\/em>\u00a0(USA), Poesia\u00a0<\/em>(Italy) and throughout Australia in Cordite Review, Marrickville Pause, Meanjin, Overland, Rabbit, Southerly, Stilts <\/em>and more.

I have given given readings at festivals and events in Bali, Berlin, Brisbane, Cambridge, D\u00fcsseldorf, London, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Prague, Turin, Sydney, Verona and elsewhere. I’ve been a recipient of a\u00a0Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship\u00a0for Poetry, a\u00a0Brisbane Lord Mayor\u2019s Artist Fellowship, and Australia Council (Creative Australia) writing residencies at the B.R. Whiting Library Studio, Rome, and the Cit\u00e9 Internationale des Arts, Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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