CV &
recognised work.

Awards.

Awarded:

2023: Young Publishers & Writers Award (Queensland Literary Awards).

2023: Chapter One Prize (Australasian Association of Writing Programs).

2020: Flinders University AusStage Prize (ADSA).

2020: Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship (Brisbane City Council).

2017: State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award.

2014: Queensland University of Technology Undergraduate Creative Writing Prize.

Shortlisted:

2021: Young Writers & Publishers Award (Queensland Literary Awards).

2020: Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer (Queensland Literary Awards).

2016: Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing.

2015: Richell Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript.

Longlisted:

2023: Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Commonwealth Foundation).

Qualifications.

Postnominals: MPhil BFA AFHEA

Master of Philosophy.
MPhil. Research Masters.
Queensland University of Technology.
Awarded the Flinders University AusStage Prize.
Graduated 2020.

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
AFHEA.
Advance HE (UK).
Awarded 2020.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Creative and Professional Writing).
BFA. Awarded with Distinction.
Queensland University of Technology.
Graduated 2018.

Scholarships.

2018: AusGov & Queensland University of Technology Research Training Program Scholarship.

2016: Queensland University of Technology Vacation Research Experience Scholarship.

2014: Queensland University of Technology Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship.

Fellowships & residencies.

2019: Playlab Incubator Writers’ Fellowship.

2018: Dreamfarm Eco-Arts Retreat. August.

2018: Hill End AIR. July.

2018: Varuna Writers' House. June.

Editing.

Melbourne’s Missing Middle (2023)
Report. Published by YIMBY Melbourne.

A Street Zine (2021)
Publication featuring work by award-winning writers including Shastra Deo, Laura Elvery, and Zenobia Frost.
Coedited with Jerath Head and published by Pseudonaja Group.

Fiction Reader & Assessor, Overland literary journal (2019–21).

A () Zine (2020)
Eight short publications featuring sixteen artists and writers. Coedited with Jerath Head and published by Pseudonaja Group.

O'Brien, J. (Ed.) (2018). The Conspirator. 1st ed. Brisbane: House Conspiracy Inc. (ISBN: 978-0-646-98615-9).

Various freelance clients (2014–).

Fiction.

All The Boys She Ever Loved
Short fiction. Published by Griffith Review issue #81 ‘The Leisure Principle’, August 2023.

Ocean Spray & Fastest Typewriter In The West
Short fiction. Published by Fanciful Fiction Auxilliary, October & December 2021

Issues
Short story. Published in Voiceworks issue #122 ‘Reflex’, Autumn 2021.

Inheritance, Thief, Paralysis, & Brisbane
Microfictions. Published by Pseudonaja Group, December 2020.

Every Idea I Had For My Australian Literature Short Story Collection
Short story. Winner of the 2017 State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award.
Published in Award Winning Australian Writing 2018.

The Google Search History of Henry Thumb, August 2015
Short story. Published in Scum Mag, December 2017.

The River Boys
Short story. Shortlisted for the 2016 Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing.

—and anyway, we promised you a story, didn’t we—
Short story. Published in Voiceworks issue #104 'Cake', Winter 2016.

Stingos
Short story. Published in Voiceworks issue #102 'Defiance', Summer 2015/16.

Umbilical
Short story. Longlisted for the State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award 2015.

& (or, The End Is On Its Way It Just Got Lost Is All!)
Novel manuscript. Shortlisted for the inaugural Richell Prize (2015), presented by The Guardian Australia, Hachette Australia, and the Emerging Writers' Festival.

The Sound Will Still Ring
Short story. Published in Voiceworks issue #101 'Echo', Spring 2015.

Vinyl
Short story. Winner of the 2014 QUT Undergraduate Creative Writing Prize.
Featured in the 2015 QUT SHAPE Exhibition.
Published in Emerging Writers' Festival & The Lifted Brow's Red Eye project, February 2015.
Published in Award Winning Australian Writing 2015.

Non-fiction.

Yes, our planning systems do more harm than good: They're anti-social, exclusionary and must be reformed
Op-ed. Published by Crikey, July 2024.

Why YIMBYs aren't picking a fight with Guy Rundle
Op-ed. Published by Crikey, May 2024.

Better YIMBYs already exist, despite what you might have heard
Op-ed. Published by Crikey, June 2023.

The missing middle imperative
Op-ed. Published by The Fifth Estate, October 2023.

Better YIMBYs already exist, despite what you might have heard
Op-ed. Published by Crikey, June 2023.

Saying “Yes” to Housing Abundance
Op-ed. Published by Melbourne Zero & Launch Housing, May 2023. Republished by realestate.com.au, August 2023.

Brunswick needs more housing, but it keeps getting in its own way
Op-ed. Published by the Brunswick Voice, April 2023.

Deep / Listening
Essay. Published by Queensland College of Art, accompanying Michael Louttit’s ‘Violence / Nurturance’ exhibition, March 2022.

On Seeing The Mural
Essay. Published by Pseudonaja Group as part of A Street Zine, September 2021.

Next Library: Have You Seen This Woman?
Essay. Published by the State Library of Queensland as part of the international Next Library Conference, presented in partnership with Denmark’s Aarhus Libraries, May 2021.

Lavelle
Essay. Published by STABLE contemporary art space and Brisbane Art Design Festival, accompanying Natalie Lavelle’s ‘Physical Perceptions’ exhibition, April 2021.

People Are the Landscape: A Reflection on Writers Residencies
Essay. Published by Queensland Writers Centre in Write Queensland issue #293, Summer 2018–19.

You Are Busier Than Your To-Do List
Essay. Published by Impact Boom. May 2018.

Various essays penned as part of my role as Founding Creative Director at House Conspiracy. 2017–18. Many but not all were published in The Conspirator.

Anywhere Theatre Festival Official Reviewer 2015 & 2016
Reviews.
2016: Critiqued eight productions over ten days.
2015: Critiqued sixteen productions over nineteen days.
All reviews published on the Anywhere Festival website.

On The Cusp of a Millennia: A Society Entangled in Cinema
Essay. Published in Eyeline Magazine’s 2013 Write About Art publication.

Theatre.

So It Goes
Curator. Live performance adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Presented at Queensland University of Technology, August 2019.

EERTREE
Writer, producer, and co-creative.
Directed by Anthony Brumpton. Produced by Tone Black Productions. Presented at House Conspiracy, February 2018.

Armchair Apocalypse (a library for the end of the world Remount)
Writer. Theatre installation. Presented at The Edge, State Library Queensland, August 2017. 
Directed by Sarah Winter.

The Bohemian And The Machine
Dramaturg and producer. Presented by Terra Nemo Theatre Company in April 2016, in La Boite Theatre Company's Studio space.
Written by William Hinz. Directed by Katie-May Hollett.

Seeds
Script development and dramaturgy. Work-in-progress play presented at Vena Cava's 2015 Fresh Blood Festival.
Written and directed by Cinnamon Smith.

RABBAR
Lead writer. Experimental audio production. Presented by Vena Cava Productions at the 2015 Brisbane Anywhere Festival.
Directed by Tony Brumpton.

Anywhere Festival Launch: Hunt
Writer. Independent post-dramatic production. Presented at the official launch of the 2015 Brisbane Anywhere Theatre Festival.
Directed by Ruby Donohoe.

a library for the end of the world
Co-writer. Experiential theatre production. Presented by Vena Cava Productions at the 2014 Anywhere Theatre Festival.
Directed by Sarah Winter.

Curation.

softcore.
Curator & designer. Exhibition at This Must Be The Place, featuring Rhiannon Dionysius, Jesse Perrin, & Amanda Wolf.

Two Fools
Co-curator and performer alongside Aron Oroszvari. Performance at This Must Be The Place, August 2018.

House Conspiracy
Residencies & showcases 01–14, 2017–18.
Curation led as part of the Founding Creative Director role.

Music.

Agastya (Space Within)
EP by Isha Ram Das. Words featured on track six 'The Glow'. 2015.

Poetry.

From now on
Poem. Published in Glass issue #1, February 2019.

Femi
Poem. Published in Voiceworks issue #111 'Riff', Autumn 2018.

two.
Poem. Installation. Presented in The Good Room's 'These Frozen Moments', July 2017.
Remounted at Flowstate, November 2018.

Solicited Advice
Writer. Six poems. Presented by Caitlin Strongarm and Nomad Travelling Theatrette in association with Queensland Poetry Festival and House Conspiracy. August, 2017.

Podcasts & radio.

Write Offs
Co-presenter. Weekly live radio show on 4ZZZ. 2019–20.

House Conspiracy Podcast
Writer, Host, & Producer (Season 1, 55 Episodes).
500+ regular listeners. Available on iTunes and through House Conspiracy. Podcast. 2017–18.

Everything You Like Is Bad
Episode 13. Guest and co-producer. Podcast. 2017.

Loveletters to Fuckbois Presents
Co-producer & recording engineer (all episodes). Podcast. 2017.

Panels, festivals, & readings.

Funny About That & Whodunit?
Panel chair (x2). Brisbane Writers Festival, May 2023

The Beige Index: How We Got Here.
Co-presenter with Siang Lu. Murphy Live Magazine, December 2022.

Literary Death Match Brisbane, Ep 1.
Reader, Competitor, & Winner. Literary Death Match & Brisbane Writers Festival, May 2022.

The Day as Told by an Unreliable Narrator
Official Presenter. Next Library Conference & State Library of Queensland, May 2021.

Far Write, Projects and Partnerships, Doing it Yourself, Sunday Roast: My Problematic Fav, & Late Night Readings
Official Artist. National Young Writers Festival, October 2019. 

Literary Salon with Anwen Crawford and Magnificent Guests
Salon at State Library of Queensland. Hosted by Queensland Writers Centre, September 2018.

Making New Things Work
Panel at Gold Coast Arts Centre, November 2017.

Building Communities, Art Festivals Are Bad!, & Late Night Readings
Official Artist. National Young Writers Festival, September–October 2017. 

House Conspiracy Emerging Writer Salons
Salon host and curator.
Launching The Book of Dirt by Bram Presser (November, 2017).
Launching Colombiano by Rusty Young (August, 2017).
In Partnership with Avid Reader.

Protect Caroline
True story. Told at Yarn: Insomnia. May 2017.

Pitch Drop: Make Queensland Love Art Again
Panel host and facilitator. New Globe Theatre. February 2017.
Extended opening statement available here.

The Google Search History of Henry Thumb, August 2015
Short story. Read at Avid Reader's Salon for the launch of Graeme Simsion's 'The Best of Adam Sharp', September 2016.

Various fiction readings at the QUT Literary Salon. 2016.

Press.

A good chunk of the press YIMBY Melbourne receives.

This cool new database dissects films in a unique way
Australian Financial Review. August 2022.

Let’s Hear It For Shortlists
State Library of Queensland. July 2022.

Literary Death Match | Brisbane Writers Festival
Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane. May 2022.

Queensland Literary Awards 2021 Shortlists Announced
Books + Publishing. August 2021.

Queensland Literary Awards 2020 Finalists
scenestr. August 2020.

Bold Work Nets Writer Top Gong
Westside News Brisbane (print only). December 2017.

Undaunted House
The Saturday Paper (print & online). November 2017.

The Conspiratorial Impulse – House Conspiracy – Interview with Jonathan O'Brien
Remix.org.au. July 2017.

Cottage in Brisbane’s West End sandwiched by towers to become artists’ centre
Brisbane Times / Domain. February 2017.

Future of Brisbane's 'Up' house assured
The Courier Mail. February 2017. (NB: The quotes in this article are pretty dubious and I'm 98% sure I didn't say any of this.)

The House Conspiracy
Mous Magazine. February 2017.

The Little House That Could
612 ABC Brisbane. December 2016.

Richell prize shortlist: five emerging writers in running for literary award
The Guardian Australia. September 2015.