Professor Jeri Kroll has a Ph D in English from Columbia University (1974), an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (1968) and an honours BA from Smith College (1967). After teaching in the US and England, she moved to Adelaide in 1978, where she has taught at Flinders and Adelaide Universities and the former South Australian College of Advanced Education.
At present she is Program Coordinator of Creative Writing at Flinders University. President for nearly five years of the Australian Association of Writing Programs, she still serves on the Executive as Immediate Past President. She is on the Boards of New Writing (UK), TEXT and Australian Book Review. In addition, Jeri has given keynote speeches in the UK and Australia on creative writing practice, research and pedagogy.
Her most recent critical book is co-edited with Graeme Harper: Creative Writing Studies: Practice, Research and Pedagogy (Multilingual Matters, UK, 2008). Other scholarly publications include book chapters and over thirty refereed articles on creative writing research, practice and pedagogy as well as on poetry, fiction and children’s literature.
The recipient of a variety of state and federal grants for poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and community writing, Jeri also held an international exchange residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland (2005). Her most recent grant is a Residential Fellowship at Varuna - the Writers’ House (Katoomba, NSW) for June, 2009.
For several years Jeri worked at Radio University 5UV producing Writers’ Radio and Authors’ Proof as well as Wordwaves (all government-funded). She freelanced from 1986-1993 as a writer and community artsworker, undertaking numerous residencies with local councils and organisations. From 1991-92 she held a Community Writer’s Fellowship from the Literature Board of the Australia Council.
Jeri has a second career as a writer with 22 books of poetry and fiction for adults and young people to her credit. Some of them have been published in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the UK and the US. Her first poetry collection, Death as Mr Right, won second prize in the Anne Elder Award. It was followed by Indian Movies, Monster Love and House Arrest, as well as The Electrolux Man and Other Stories. She is the author of numerous picture books, including Swamp Soup and A Coat of Cats, both Children’s Book Council Notable Books (1996, 1999). Her fiction includes two older reader novels, Bruise and Goliath, and three young adult titles, Better Than Blue, Beyond Blue and Riding the Blues. Fit For a Prince is a SOLO chapter book.
Most recently she has published Mickey’s Little Book of Letters, a novel for upper-primary/lower secondary children, and a hybrid collection of poems and prose, The Mother Workshops. In 2006 ABC Radio National’s PoeticA produced a program based on The Mother Workshops. Mickey’s Little Book of Letters is a Bolinda Audiobook on CD. Jeri also publishes occasional interviews, reviews and articles.
Jeri can be booked for appearances through her agent Carole Carroll. Her literary agent is Jacinta di Mase
