Professor Kari Gislason

Biography

Background

Dr Kári Gíslason is Professor of Creative Writing and Literary Studies in the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT. He has previously taught in Writing and Literary Studies at the University of Tübingen, the University of Queensland, the University of Iceland, and Bond University, as well as at secondary schools in Iceland. His PhD, a study of authorship in medieval Iceland, was completed at the University of Queensland in 2003, and was included on the UQ Dean's Commendation List for Outstanding Research Higher Degree Theses. During his doctoral studies, he also worked as a translator and, in a research capacity, on projects that investigated the teaching of Shakespeare in Australian universities, environmental law, and practices of translation and language training. Professor Gíslason has published internationally on a range of topics in literature and cultural studies, as well as creative writing pieces in the local and national press, and in Australian literary journals. In 2011, he published a family memoir The Promise of Iceland, and in 2015 the novel The Ash Burner. In 2017, he co-authored (with Richard Fidler) Saga Land: The Island of Stories at the Edge of the World, a work that emerged from a ABC Radio National documentary series, and in 2022 he published the historical novel The Sorrow Stone. He has delivered numerous papers in the areas of authorship studies, narrative theory, and creative writing scholarship. He is currently the unit coordinator of:

• KWB116 Creative Non-fiction
• KWB214 The Artful Life: From Memoir to Fiction
• KWB117 Australian Voices