Paul Hetherington is Emeritus Professor of Writing in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra and a distinguished Australian poet who has published 18 poetry collections, a verse novel and 14 chapbooks, with more than 40 awards and nominations (see below), including winning the 2021 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize and the inaugural The Marion Halligan Award in 2024. He has also edited ten further volumes. He is a research leader in the field of poetry as practice-led research and an expert in the field of international prose poetry.

In 2020 Princeton University Press published the scholarly monograph, Prose Poetry: An Introduction, which Paul co-authored with Professor Cassandra Atherton, Deakin University; and Melbourne University Press published the Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry, which Paul and Cassandra Atherton jointly edited. In 2020 he also published the co-authored book of epistolary prose poetry, Fugitive Letters (with Cassandra Atherton; RWP). In 2021 he published the prose poetry collection, Her One Hundred and Seven Words (Massachusetts, MadHat Press); and in 2022 he published the collection of related prose poetry sequences, Ragged Disclosures (RWP). In 2023 he published the poetry collection, Sleeplessness (Sheridan, WY: Pierian Springs Press).

Paul founded International Poetry Studies (IPSI) in the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra. He is co-winner (as part of the Creativity and Social Change Team in the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research) in the University of Canberra’s Research Awards in the category for Outstanding Achievements in Research or Innovation, 2017; and winner in the University of Canberra’s Research Awards in the category for Individual Research Excellence, Humanities and Creative Arts, 2017.

He was shortlisted for the prestigious Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry in the 2017 New South Wales Premier's Awards and won the 2014 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards (poetry) for the best book of poetry published in Australia. He was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Residency in the BR Whiting Studio in Rome for 2015-16; and was also awarded one of two places on the 2012 Australian Poetry Tour of Ireland. He was awarded a 2002 Chief Minister’s ACT Creative Arts Fellowship and won the 1996 ACT Book of the Year Award. He has an abiding interest in the visual arts and is one of the founding editors of the international online journal Axon: Creative Explorations and a founding editorial committee member of the Meniscus journal. In 2014 he founded the International Prose Poetry Group.

Apart from prose poetry, his particular areas of expertise incude ekphrastic poetry and visual imagery, practice-led research, creativity, creative collaboration and the lyric essay . He also has research interests in autobiographical memory, arts-health relationships and representations of the city. He is particularly interested in exploring ways in which scholarly and creative work is able to be produced through collaborative processes, and ways in which creativity is often the product of complex interactions between different people rather than the product of individual 'inspiration'. His doctoral thesis explored the extent to which Emily Dickinson's poems may be read as autobiographical texts and, more generally, the ways in which Dickinson might, or might not be identified with her poetry's personae.

Paul's management and administration roles at the university have included: Chair, Writing Research Cluster, 2010-12; Course Convenor, Writing Program, 2011-12; Head of Discipline, Journalism & Creative Writing, 2013-15; Deputy Director, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR), 2013-19; Acting Director, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR), January-May 2017; Acting Head of Discipline, Creative and Cultural Practice, July-December 2017; and Acting Director, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR), January-February 2018.

Paul has also worked in the cultural sector, most notably for the National Library of Australia, where he was Director of Publications and Events for many years and founding editor of the Library's quarterly humanities and literary journal Voices (1991–97). From 1990 to 2008 he also edited the monthly magazine National Library of Australia News. He is a former editor of the Western Australian monthly multi-arts magazine Fremantle Arts Review and a former member of the Boards of Australian Book Review and Conversations (published by the Australian National University).

Paul chaired the ACT Cultural Council (2005-13) and the ACT Public Art Panel (2006-11) and in these roles instigated various arts initiatives and led the development and delivery of the first comprehensive policy and action framework for public art in the ACT. He was one of the founders and a former chair of the ACT Writers Centre and a former deputy chair of the Board of Manning Clark House. He is a former chair of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP). 

Paul Hetherington's prizes and nominations include:

– Shortlisted for the 2021 Australian University Heads of English (AUHE) Prize for Literary Scholarship for the book, Prose Poetry: An Introduction (co-authored with Cassandra Atherton)

– Winner of the 2021 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize for the poem 'Screen'

– Shortlisted for the 2020 Newcastle Poetry Prize for the prose poetry sequence ‘Isolations’

– Shortlisted for the 2019 Newcastle Poetry Prize for the poem ‘Translating the House’

– Commended in the Surprise Encounters: Headstuff Poetry Competition 2018 (Ireland), for the prose poem ‘Haunting’

– Shortlisted for the 2018 Grieve Writing Competition (poetry), for the prose poem ‘Circumspection’

– Finalist in the 2017 international Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition (poetry) for the prose poem ‘Plumber’

– Winner of the individual 2017 Research Excellence Award, Humanities and Creative Arts, University of Canberra

– Co-winner (as part of the Creativity and Social Change Team in the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research) in the category for Outstanding Achievements in Research or Innovation (with Distinguished Professor Jen Webb, Ian Drayton, Professor Ross Gibson, Associate Professor Jordan Williams, Associate Professor Scott Brook, Dr Jennifer Crawford and Dr Paul Munden), the 2017 Research Awards, University of Canberra

– Shortlisted for the 2017 international Bridport Prize Flash Fiction competition (UK) for the work ‘Executing the Arrest Warrant’

– Shortlisted for the 2017 NSW Premier’s Awards (the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry) for Burnt Umber

– Shortlisted for the international 2016 Periplum Book Competition (UK) for the manuscript, The Green Hare

– Shortlisted and Commended (one of the top five poems) for the 2016 Newcastle Poetry Prize for the prose poetry sequence ‘Blanche and Henry’

– Received a special commendation for sustained contributions to the Creative Arts Discipline in the 2015 Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards: Research Excellence, Humanities and the Creative Arts, University of Canberra

– Finalist in the 2014 international Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition (poetry) for the poem ‘Furniture’

– Commended in the 2014 Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards: Research Excellence, Humanities and the Creative Arts, University of Canberra

– Winner of the 2014 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards (Poetry) for the book Six Different Windows

– Awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Literature Section Residency in the BR Whiting Studio in Rome for a practice-led research project entitled ‘Roman Paintings’, 3 August 2015 to 29 January 2016

– Finalist in the 2013 international Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition (poetry) for the poem ‘Angels at Nedlands Primary School, 1968’

– Shortlisted for the 2013 Newcastle Poetry Prize for the poem ‘Six Bells’

– Shortlisted for the 2013 Montreal International Poetry Prize for the poem ‘House’

– Finalist in the 2012 international Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition (poetry) for the poem ‘Blood’

– Awarded one of two places on the 2012 Australian Poetry Tour to Ireland by the peak body for Australian poetry, the Australian Poetry organisation

– Longlisted for the 2011 Montreal International Poetry Prize for the poem ‘Mustang’

– Shortlisted for the Manning Clark House 2006 National Cultural Awards

– Shortlisted for the 2004 ACT Poetry Award for the poem ‘Abschied’

– Shortlisted for the 2003 Colin Roderick Award for the book Blood and Old Belief

– Shortlisted for the 2003 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards (Poetry) for the book Blood and Old Belief

– Highly Commended in the 2003 ACT Poetry Award for ‘The Place of Water’

– Awarded a 2002 Chief Minister’s ACT Creative Arts Fellowship

– Winner of the 1997 ANUTECH Poetry Prize for the poem ‘September’

– Shortlisted for the 1997 Newcastle Poetry Prize for the poetic sequence ‘Recovery’

– Shortlisted for the 1996 Newcastle Poetry Prize for the poetic sequence ‘Domestic Suite’

– Shortlisted for the 1996 ANUTECH Poetry Prize for the poem 'Prep-School Boarder, Aged Nine'

– Winner of the 1996 Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Book of the Year Award for the book Shadow Swimmer

– Shortlisted for the 1994 ANUTECH Poetry Prize

– Finalist in the 1993 Antipodes Poetry Contest (USA) for the poetic sequence ‘Writing the Country’

– Commended in the 1989 Mazzucchelli’s Love Poem Competition

– Awarded the 1984 Gladys I Wade Prize, the University of Western Australia

– Awarded the 1984 James Bourke Memorial Prize, the University of Western Australia

– Awarded the 1984 Convocation Prize in Arts, the University of Western Australia