Dr Jack McGowan
Senior Lecturer - Creative Writing, Head of Department of English, Media & Culture
English Media and Culture
email: j.mcgowan@worc.ac.uk
tel: 01905 542821
As Course Leader for Creative and Professional Writing, Jack is responsible for overseeing the portfolio of creative writing modules available through the School of Humanities.
Jacks research focuses on contemporary poetry and poetics, and he specializes in the development of performance poetry in the UK since the mid-20th century, and the oral roots of poetry. Jack is a performance poet with 10 years of experience on the UK spoken word scene and he writes for both performance and page publication. His writing examines contemporary themes of alienation and fragmentation, unpicks the vicissitudes of 21st-century life, and shines a diminishing light on 90s pop culture.
Qualifications
- PhD English and Comparative Literary Studies. Thesis title: Slam the Book: The role of performance in contemporary UK poetry. - The University of Warwick (2017)
- MLitt in Creative Writing (Prose) - The University of St. Andrews (2011)
- BA(Hons) English Literature and Creative Writing - The University of Warwick (2010)
Teaching & Research
Teaching
Jacks teaching interests cover a broad range of classical and contemporary approaches to poetry on and off the page. Jack has taught across a number of writing mediums and disciplines including basic composition, academic writing, prose (short story and novel), digital literature, and poetry. He has also taught literary theory and hermeneutics and supervised a number of dissertation projects exploring a wide variety of critical and creative topics.
In 2015 Jack won a WATE: Teaching Excellence Award for his teaching in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick.
He currently teaches:
CPWT1002 - Writing Poetry
CPWT2000 - Writer as Researcher
CPWT3004 - Hypertexts - Creative Writing in a Digital Culture
Jack also supervises a number of modules in his role as Course Leader for Creative and Professional Writing.
Research
Jacks research into performance poetry is dictated by three main approaches: how performance poetry is received by the academy; affect and bodily responses to the receipt of poetry; and how space is occupied and negotiated by performance.
His other research interests include new media in contemporary creative writing, digital literature, video game narratives, and new creative writing pedagogies. He was a key contributor to a poetry installation project funded by Glasgow School of Art: The Library is Dead! Long Live the Library! and his scholarship addresses how the pedagogy of creative writing can be developed for a contemporary university, and for broader society.
Publications
Publications and Performances
- Poetry included in: The New Victoria: Anthology of Collected Poets (New Fire Tree Press, 2010)
- Poetry included in: Dove Release: New Flights and Voices (Worple Press, 2010)
- We grow old because we stop being poets: Volume II Chapbooks (Silkworms Ink, 2009)
- Joint authored publication 50% contribution: Voice-recognition Augmented Performance Tools in Performance Poetry Pedagogy (Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 2016)
- Poetry and critical essays included in: The Library is Dead! Long Live the Library!, Volume 1 Performing Poems in the Mackintosh Library (Glasgow School of Art, forthcoming)
Various spoken word performances across the UK including:
- Ilkley Literature Festival
- StAnza International Poetry Festival
- The Riverside Word Life ft. Buddy Wakefield
- The Edinburgh Fringe Festival
- Shoot From the Lip (organizer and host, Leamington Spa)
- Interview regarding current research and spoken word performance for National Poetry Day 2016, BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire