Maria Takolander, born in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 in 1973, is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and literary critic

Critic

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

. She is a lecture

Lecture

thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...

r at Deakin University

Deakin University

Deakin University is an Australian public university with nearly 40,000 higher education students in 2010. It receives more than A$600 million in operating revenue annually, and controls more than A$1.3 billion in assets. It received more than A$35 million in research income in 2009 and had 835...

, Geelong, Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, in the areas of Literary Studies and Professional and Creative Writing. She has published many poems in literary journals, and her work has frequently been included in The Best Australian Poems and The Best Australian Poetry. Her first full-length book of poems, Ghostly Subjects, was shortlisted for the 2010 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards.

She has also published articles of literary criticism within Australia and internationally.

She is married to fellow Australian poet David McCooey

David McCooey

Dr. David McCooey, poet, critic 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 , and completed his doctorate at Sydney University ....

.

Critic Martin Duwell has written of her work, "...Takolander, as well as being an exciting new poet, also writes in what might be thought of as a branch line of the minimalist tradition... it is always a treat to read poems of a consistently high quality written by a young Australian poet which sound so unlike the poems of other young Australian poets."

Poetry

• Narcissism, Geelong: Whitmore Press, 2005.
• Ghostly Subjects, Cambridge: Salt, 2009.

Literary criticism

• Catching Butterflies: Bringing Magical Realism to Ground. Bern: Peter Lang, 2007.