Dr Toby Fitch
Discipline of English and Writing
Toby Fitch is a leading Australian poet, editor, critic and teacher. He is the current poetry editor of Overland, Australia’s premier journal of radical politics, and he judges Overland’s annual Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets. Fitch has organised AVANT GAGA and the monthly Poetry Night at Sappho Books in Glebe, now a Sydney institution, since 2011. He is also an editor and curator at large for Australian Poetry. He attained a BA in Communications (First Class Honours) in Writing and Contemporary Cultures from the University of Technology Sydney in 2005. He was awarded a Doctor of Arts at the University of Sydney in 2016. His doctoral thesis Themparks: Alternative Play in Contemporary Australian Poetry won the Dame Leonie Kramer Prize for scholarly writing on an aspect of Australian poetry. He has taught creative writing workshops to all ages and abilities—at schools, in community libraries and at tertiary level. Since 2015 he has worked as a sessional, fixed-term and now continuing academic in Creative Writing at the University of Sydney, teaching and coordinating subjects for undergraduate and Masters students, and specialising in contemporary poetry and poetics. His poetry has won or been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Charles Rischbieth Jury Prize, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, the Newcastle Poetry Prize and the Gwen Harwood Prize. His books of poetry include Rawshock, which won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry 2012, The Bloomin’ Notions of Other & Beau, Where Only the Sky had Hung Before, and, most recently,Sydney Spleen (Giramondo Publishing, 2021) and Object Permanence: Calligrammes (Puncher & Wattmann / Thorny Devil Press, 2022). He co-edited Best of Australian Poems 2021 with Ellen van Neerven, and edited the anthology Groundswell: The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New & Emerging Poets 2007–2020.
- Creative Writing: Poetry
- Creative Writing: Fiction (Autofiction)
- Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction (The Essay)
- Poetics
- Literary Theory and Criticism
- Modernism and Postmodernism
- Conceptualism
- The Postdigital
- Avant-garde Movements and Practices
- Symbolism
- Dada and Surrealism
- Australian Poetry
- French Poetry
- American Poetry
- Creativity and Writers / Writing Experiments and Processes
- Non-traditional Approaches to Research / Practice-led Research Processes
Teaching
- ENGL1014: Creative Writing
- ENGL2666: Creative Writing: Theory and Practice
- ENGL2650: Reading Poetry
- ENGL6986: Experiments in Form
Supervision
- ENGL6119: Dissertation
- ENGL6120: Dissertation
- Doctor of Arts
- Master of Arts
- Endlings, a book of poems about extinction and climate change. Includes ‘Endlings: An essay-poem, or, Australian extinctions since 1788’, first published in Meanjin.
- Or: An Autobiography, a poetry collection exploring gender, inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography. Contains the long poem ‘The Or Tree’, a fictitious version of Orlando’s fictitious poem, ‘The Oak Tree’.
- ‘Fin de Siécle Symbolism and After’, chapter for The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry. This chapter considers the translation and reception of the French fin de siécle Symbolists and their influence on Australian poetry.
- Overland Literary Journal, Poetry Editor, 2016–
- Australian Poetry, Editor/Curator at Large, 2016–
- Cordite Publishing Incorporated, Associate Board Member, 2017–
- Australia Council for the Arts, Peer Assessor, 2017–2020
- The Suburban Review, Board Member, 2022–
- Australia Council for the Arts Individual Projects Grant, 2023
- Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Grant, 2023
- Shortlised, Booranga Prize, 2022
- Longlisted, National Poetry Prize (UK), 2022
- Winner, Charles Rischbieth Jury Poetry Prize, 2020
- Australia Council for the Arts Resilience Fund Grant, 2020
- Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Grant, 2020
- Shortlisted, Woollahra Digital Literary Award, 2019
- Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Grant, 2019
- Shortlisted, Newcastle Poetry Prize, 2018
- Winner, Dame Leonie Kramer Prize in Poetry, 2017 (for University of Sydney Doctor of Arts thesis, Themparks: Alternative Play in Contemporary Australian Poetry and The Bloomin’ Notions of Other & Beau, Vagabond Press 2016)
- Highly Commended, Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, 2017
- Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grant, 2016
- Shortlisted, Peter Porter Poetry Prize, 2015
- Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Grant, 2015
- Copyright Agency Career Fund Grant, 2015
- Co-winner, Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, 2012 (for Rawshock, Puncher & Wattmann 2012)
- Shortlisted, Peter Porter Poetry Prize, 2012
- Australian Postgraduate Award, 2011–14
- Highly Commended, Vera Newsom Poetry Award, 2011
- Highly Commended, Reason-Brisbane Poetry Award, 2010
- Finalist, Aesthetica Creative Works Competition, 2010
- Runner-up, Fish Publishing International Poetry Competition, 2010
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| 'Battered', a novel, and exegesis exploring the use of multiple voices in fiction to bear witness to female trauma and the plight of abused women who kill | Samantha BOWERS |
| Reweti | Brendon MCLEOD |
Selected publications
(Puncher & Wattmann, 2022)
(Australian Poetry, 2021)
(O.L. Society Ltd., 2021)
(Giramondo Publishing Company, 2021)
(Penteract Press, 2019)
(Vagabond Press, 2019)
(Flying Island Books, 2018)
(Vagabond Press, 2016)
(Vagabond Press, 2014)
(Stale Objects dePress, 2013)
(Puncher and Wattmann, 2012)
(Vagabond Press, 2010)
Publications
Edited Books
- van Neerven, E., Fitch, T. (2021). Best of Australian Poems 2021. Melbourne: Australian Poetry. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2021). Groundswell: The 'Overland' Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets 2007-2020. Australia: O.L. Society Ltd. [More Information]
Book Chapters
- Fitch, T. (2025). "Triptych". In Anthony Cordingley (Eds.), Literature and Pedagogy: Studies in Honour of Bruce Gardiner (forthcoming). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
Journals
- Fitch, T. (2024). Toby Fitch reviews Catherine Vidler's Selected Visual Poems. Cordite Poetry Review, (12 June 2024). [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2023). Object Permanence: How does the calligramme take shape? Axon: Creative Explorations, 13(1). [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2023). Toby Fitch Reviews 'Running time' by Emily Stewart. Cordite Poetry Review. [More Information]
Edited Journals
- Fitch, T., Gorton, L. (2016). Australian Poetry Anthology. Australian Poetry Journal, 5. [More Information]
Textual Creative Works
- Fitch, T. (2024). In Memory of My Furlings. Living Systems: Poetry from Asia Pacific, (pp. 123 - 125). Sydney, Australia: Vagabond Press. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2024). Polysemic Psalm. Red Room Poetry, Sydney, Australia: Red Room Poetry. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2023). Elegy for a Staffy. Best of Australian Poems 2023, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Puncher and Wattmann.
Magazine / Newspaper Articles
- Fitch, T. (2024). Elegy for a Staffy. The Weekend Australian.
- Fitch, T. (2024). Elegy for a Staffy. Look Magazine, June-July.
- Fitch, T. (2013). Plagiarism scandal has revealed an ugly side of Australian poetry. The Guardian. [More Information]
2025
- Fitch, T. (2025). "Triptych". In Anthony Cordingley (Eds.), Literature and Pedagogy: Studies in Honour of Bruce Gardiner (forthcoming). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
2024
- Fitch, T. (2024). Elegy for a Staffy. The Weekend Australian.
- Fitch, T. (2024). Elegy for a Staffy. Look Magazine, June-July.
- Fitch, T. (2024). In Memory of My Furlings. Living Systems: Poetry from Asia Pacific, (pp. 123 - 125). Sydney, Australia: Vagabond Press. [More Information]
2023
- Fitch, T. (2023). Elegy for a Staffy. Best of Australian Poems 2023, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Puncher and Wattmann.
- Fitch, T. (2023). Entanglement. A Line in the Sand: 20 Years of Red Room Poetry, Sydney, Australia: Pantera Press. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2023). Let's Dance Redux. Dancing with Architecture: and Other Ekphrastic Maneuvers, Cheshire, MA, United States of America: MadHat Press. [More Information]
2022
- Fitch, T. (2022). Object Permanence: Calligrammes, (pp. 1 - 92). Waratah, NSW, Australia: Puncher & Wattmann. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2022). Entanglement. Best of Australian Poems 2022, Melbourne, Australia: Australian Poetry. [More Information]
- Fitch, T., Glastonbury, K., Yee, G. (2022). Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2021, Judges' Report. Overland, (246), 68-69. [More Information]
2021
- Fitch, T. (2021). Sydney Spleen, (pp. 1 - 103). Sydney, NSW, Australia: Giramondo Publishing Company. [More Information]
- van Neerven, E., Fitch, T. (2021). Best of Australian Poems 2021. Melbourne: Australian Poetry. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2021). Groundswell: The 'Overland' Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets 2007-2020. Australia: O.L. Society Ltd. [More Information]
2020
- Fitch, T., Bonney, S. (2020). 'Our Death': Aspects of the radical in Sean Bonney's last book of poems. Overland, 2020-Autumn(238), 3-10. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2020). Endlings: An essay-poem, or, Australian extinctions since 1788. Meanjin, 79(2), 72-78. [More Information]
2019
- Fitch, T. (2019). Where only the sky had hung before, (pp. 1 - 96). Sydney, NSW, Australia: Vagabond Press. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2019). Object Permanence: Selected Calligrammes, (pp. 1 - 56). Shrewsbury, United Kingdom: Penteract Press. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2019). Aussi / Or: 'Un Coup de des' and Mistranslation in the Antipodes. Cordite Poetry Review, , 1-85.
2018
- Fitch, T. (2018). Ill Lit Pop, (pp. 7 - 74). Markwell, New South Wales, Australia: Flying Island Books. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2018). In Memory of My Furlings. past simple fourteen, Sydney, Australia: pastsimple.org. [More Information]
2017
- Fitch, T. (2017). Ashbery made strange. Overland, 242. [More Information]
- Jones, J., Fitch, T. (2017). Judges' report: The Judith Wright poetry prize. Overland, Autumn(226). [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2017). Themparks: Farrell Transposing Ashbery Translating Rimbaud. Journal of Poetics Research, (7).
2016
- Fitch, T. (2016). The Bloomin' Notions of Other & Beau, (pp. 1 - 82). Sydney, Australia: Vagabond Press. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2016). 'Louvres'; 'Villainesque2'; 'In Fancy' (poems). Active Aesthetics: Contemporary Australian Poetry, (pp. 77 - 82). Artarmon, Sydney, Australia: Giramondo Publishing Co..
- Fitch, T., Gorton, L. (2016). Australian Poetry Anthology. Australian Poetry Journal, 5. [More Information]
2014
- Fitch, T. (2014). Jerilderies, Sydney, Australia: Vagabond Press. [More Information]
2013
- Fitch, T. (2013). Quarrels, (pp. 1 - 16). Sydney, NSW, Australia: Stale Objects dePress. [More Information]
- Fitch, T. (2013). Plagiarism scandal has revealed an ugly side of Australian poetry. The Guardian. [More Information]
2012
- Fitch, T. (2012). Rawshock, Glebe, NSW, Australia, Australia: Puncher and Wattmann. [More Information]
2010
- Fitch, T. (2010). Everyday Static, (pp. 1 - 8). Sydney, Australia: Vagabond Press. [More Information]
Judging and Selection Committees
2023 — David Harold Tribe Poetry Award Judge
2023 — Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award Judge
2023 —Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2022 —Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2021 — Best of Australian Poems Vol. 1 Editor
2021 — Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2021 — Newcastle Poetry Prize Judge
2020 — Anne Elder Award Judge
2020 — Melbourne Poets Union International Poetry Prize Judge
2020 — Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2019 — Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2019 — NT Literary Awards, Poetry Judge
2018 — Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2018 — NT Literary Awards, Poetry Judge
2017 — Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2017 — Australian Council for the Arts Literature Board Selection Committee
2016 — Australian Poetry Anthology Vol. 5 Editor
2016 — Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
2018 — NT Literary Awards, Poetry Judge
2015 — Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets Judge
In the media
- 24/05/2024 - interviewed in Arc - UNSW Student Life: Toby Fitch
- 09/11/2023 - quoted in First Nations Telegraph: Indigenous poet wins Australia’s richest poetry prize
- 06/07/2022 - interviewed in Australian Book Review: An interview with Toby Fitch
- 18/06/2022 - quoted in The Guardian: Literary experts find John Hughes' plagiarism defence unconvincing
- 01/02/2020 - interviewed in Cordite Poetry Review: 'The amorphousness of meaning-making': Elena Gomez Interviews Toby Fitch