Essays

UPDATED May 2024

Forthcoming and in progress:

John Jenkins: Collected Essays

Buzz Buzz! Yes, yet another book-length project, and with the luxury of not having a deadline! So far, I have several provisional titles, including Just Looking: Collected Essays. And this project just might be completed before mid 2026, with luck.

As a journalist, and peering back through the swarm of it all, I have written/re-written/worked on/edited/researched a great many and varied pieces.

As a citizen of the literary world, however, I have also busied myself with reviews, launch speeches, public talks, audio-visual presentations, and – yes – many published essays in literary magazines and journals, and online.

My topics have been far-ranging, from backyard ecology to critical appreciations of fellow writers… pieces on film directors, visual artists and composers. Then there’s a history of Queen Victoria Market, and quite a bit of travel writing. Oh, did I also mention certain scientific subjects, plus a social history of the Australian suburbs? 

At the moment, and for the next year or so, short stories will remain my top priority. That said, I already have at least the core of an essay collection: a rich honeycomb of contenders. My challenge and pleasure now will be to draw together my interests into a lively and informative collection... eventually!

Meanwhile, a few samplers: 

*** A restoration for celebration! My essay on Australian painter Jeffrey Smart, titled Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013): a painter’s eye to poetry and story, originally published Nov. 3, 2013, in the Long Paddock section of Southerly Literary journal (issue 73.3, titled 'The Naked Writer') has now been restored to the new Southerly website, and you can directly access it here: first, go to https://southerlylitmag.com.au/long-paddock-for-southerly-73-3-the-naked-writer/ then scroll down to The Long Paddock, ESSAY heading, and there it is!

And here is a free Tedx talk I gave at Melb. Uni in 2013,  titled Marvellous Melbourne. Although it is now a little out of date, and needs to be revised should I ever re-write it as an essay, it gives some idea of my approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_CMYus5-RI

My 2006 essay, Found About: Art in Public Places, was published by the Shire of Nillumbik in a book titled Writing Art, available now through libraries. See: https://yplocalhistory.blogspot.com/2006/10/writing-art-nillumbik-art-collection.html

Also, for the cost of a digital copy of a very insightful journal, interested people can read my essay titled Poetry as Cinema, published in Southerly (Edition 71.3, A Nest of Bunyips, 2011). See: https://southerly.gumroad.com/l/Ceqt?layout=profile  Over the years, I have also published various other articles, poems and reviews in Southerly, and in numerous other publications.

Back copies of HEAT magazine's Series 1, Number 15, published in 2000, are now available from Giramondo publishing, including my essay on Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market, plus photos by Peter Lyssiotis, at: https://giramondopublishing.com/books/heat-15-outback/

Yes, watch this space for more details.

Pic at top: Beeman, Swarm, Remnant Honeycomb on Tree, by JJ.