professor david mccooey poet critic musician and academic was born in london in 1967 he moved to perth western australia with his family in 1970 he studied at university of western australia 19851988 and completed his doctorate at sydney university 19901993he is personal chair in literary studies and professional creative writing at deakin university in geelong and regularly writes reviews for australian book review and the age he has been the recipient of a number of arc australian research council awards from 20042006 he was associate editor of space new writing and in 2013 he was inaugural poetry editor of australian book reviewmccooey described by nicholas birns in the australian as one of the pioneers of australian studies of life writing is the author of a key critical work in australian autobiography artful histories modern australian autobiography which was published by cambridge university press in 1996 and republished in 2009 artful histories won a nsw premiers literary award in 1996 and was shortlisted for the colin roderick award for best australian book in 1997 mccooeys first poetry collection blister pack salt publishing won the 2006 mary gilmore award and was shortlisted for four other major awards mccooey is the deputy general editor of the macquarie pen anthology of australian literature allen unwin published internationally by norton as the literature of australia which won the special award in the 2010 nsw premiers literary awards and a 2010 australian educational publishing award mccooeys latest book of poetry outside salt publishing was published in 2011 and in 2012 it was shortlisted for the queensland literary awards and was a finalist for the melbourne prize for literatures best writing award in her review of outside in the australian fiona wright commented on the collections remarkable power to draw the reader in and its shifting and subtle exploration of creativity mccooeys poetry has appeared widely in australian journals newspapers and anthologies including the best australian poems annual anthology in 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 his poetry soundtracks original poetry music and sound design have appeared in various cd issues of literary journals and have been broadcast on abc radio national 3rrr and elsewhere an album of poetry soundtracks outside broadcast was released as a digital download in 2013mccooey is married to the writer and academic maria takolander his website is davidmccooeycom