Richard James Allen

Richard James Allen (He/Him), is an Australian poet, born in Kempsey, New South Wales, on the unceded lands of the Dunghutti People. He now lives on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, in Redfern, a centre of Indigenous migration and a hub of Aboriginal activism for many years.

Richard’s writing has appeared widely in journals, anthologies, and online, and he has been a popular reader at multiple performing arts venues, over many years. His latest book, Text Messages from the Universe (Flying Island Books, 2023), reflects a lifelong engagement with Buddhist and Yogic philosophies. A film adaptation by The Physical TV Company won six awards, including Best Screenwriter of the Year Award at the Mumbai International Film Awards, and was a Finalist for Best Narrative Feature Film at the ATOM Awards in Melbourne.

His novel More Lies, published by Interactive Press in 2021, was, in an earlier incarnation, shortlisted for the Griffin Award for New Australian Playwriting. His previous poetry book, The short story of you and I, was published by UWA Publishing in 2019. A suite of poems, Minimum Correct Dosage, was commissioned in the same year by Red Room Poetry, as part of its Poetry Fellowship project. Earlier critically acclaimed books of poetry and fiction include Fixing the Broken Nightingale (Flying Island Books), The Kamikaze Mind (Brandl & Schlesinger) and Thursday’s Fictions (Five Islands Press), shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.

Richard is well-known for his multi-award-winning career as a filmmaker and choreographer with The Physical TV Company, and as a performer in a range of media and contexts, including his leading role in the Australian psychological thriller, Bloodshot Heart, currently streaming for free on SBS on Demand. Former Artistic Director of the Poets Union Inc., and director of the inaugural Australian Poetry Festival, Richard also co-edited the landmark national anthology of writing for performance, Performing the Unnameable: An Anthology of Australian Performance Texts (Currency Press and RealTime). A First-Class Honours graduate from Sydney University, he won the Chancellor’s Award for best doctoral thesis at the University of Technology, Sydney.