Alison J Barton is a Wiradjuri poet writing in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). She has degrees in Professional Writing & Editing, Social Work and Gender Studies.

Themes of race relations, Aboriginal-Australian history, colonisation, gender and psychoanalytic theory are central to her poetry. Her work has been published in Australian and international poetry and literary journals including: Best of Australian Poems 2022, the Liquid Amber Prize Anthology: Poetry of Encounter, Meanjin, Overland, Cordite, Australian Poetry Journal, Otoliths, Rabbit, Westerly Mag, StylusLit, the Mascara Literary Review Resilience Anthology, The Storms (Ireland), Poethead (Ireland), The Night Heron Barks (USA), Under Bunjil, Yarra Libraries Receipt Poetry, Bluebottle Journal and LinkBund.

Alison’s poetry was recognised in the following prizes:

·     The poem ‘buried light’ was short-listed for the 2022 Queensland Poetry Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize, and is to be published in Overland in 2023.

·       ‘Diary’ was commended in the 2022 WB Yeats Poetry Prize for Australia.

·      ‘How to grieve in the open air’ was shortlisted for the 2022 Pratik Magazine Fire and Rain edition prize.

·     ‘The phases of psychoanalysis’ was longlisted for the inaugural Liquid Amber Press Poetry Prize (2022), and later appeared in the anthology.

In 2023, Alison was a winner of the Mascara/Varuna House First Nations Residency and the Varuna House Tony Birch Masterclass. She was also a recipient of the 2023 Varuna House First Nations Fellowship and will be a co-judge of the Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize.  

Alison can be found on Instagram @alison_j_barton