Rate My Professor Julienne van Loon

Julienne van Loon is Associate Professor in Creative Writing in the School of Culture and Communication, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Melbourne. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland, completed in 2005 and awarded the Dean's Award for Higher Degree Research Excellence for her thesis, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Education (Higher and Further Education) from Curtin University in 1998. Her academic career spans multiple institutions: she served as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Cultural Studies at Curtin University from 1997 to 2015, was appointed Vice-Chancellor's Principal Research Fellow at RMIT University in 2015, and held the position of Director of the Australian Society of Authors from 2015 to 2017. Van Loon is a member of the Australian Society of Authors, Writers Victoria, and the Australasian Association of Writing Programs.

An award-winning novelist and essayist, van Loon's publications include the novels Road Story (Allen & Unwin, 2005), winner of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 2004; Beneath the Bloodwood Tree (Allen & Unwin, 2008); and Harmless (Fremantle Press, 2013). Her essay collection The Thinking Woman (NewSouth Publishing, 2019), which applies philosophical ideas from contemporary women thinkers including Rosi Braidotti, Siri Hustvedt, and Julia Kristeva to personal experiences of love, play, fear, work, wonder, and friendship, was highly commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. Her scholarly work features in peer-reviewed journals, such as 'Articulating Bookish Value: Value Beyond Price in the Words of Australian Literary Arts and Publishing Sector Insiders' (2025) and contributions to TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, where she has served in editorial roles including reviews editor. Van Loon's research specializations include creative writing, creative practice, contemporary fiction, and the cultural and economic value of literary arts. She contributes to public intellectual discourse through outlets like The Conversation and has been involved in literary judging and residencies, including the 2025 Whitlam Essay Residency.