School of Arts and Humanities

Associate Professor Donna Mazza

Donna Mazza is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Humanities and coordinates Major in Creative and Professional Writing and the Arts offerings at South West Campus.

Current teaching

• CCC3109 - Speculative Fiction
• CCC3106 - Contemporary Australian Literature
• WRT1101 - Language and Writing
• WRT1103 - Creativity and Writing
• WRT2110 - Introduction to Editing
• WRT2213 - Creative Writing
• WRT3215 - Authorship and Publication
• Coordinator - WRT3105, WRT3107, CCC3102, WRT3120

Background

Donna is a fiction writer and researcher with qualifications in English and Writing. She has mentored and supervised highly successful researchers and writers who have won major awards and published their work internationally.

Her research focuses on environmental and feminist speculative fiction, responds to genetic technologies and climate. Her recent novel, "Fauna" (2020) was shortlisted for Aurealis Best Science Fiction Novel and she is also author of The Albanian (2007), which won the TAG Hungerford Award. Her stories and poetry have been published in major literary journals in Australia and India and her research on kangaroos, swearing, utopia and Australian literature has appeared in The Conversation and other journals.

Donna received fellowships to Ireland and in Australia for her environmental writing and presents at conferences, writers festivals and on national radio. She is active as fiction editor, workshop facilitator, mentor and judge.

She has also been writer for public art projects in Busselton, Perth and the iconic Wardandi Boodjar sculpture in Bunbury.

Professional associations

• 2015-present - Varuna Writers Centre Alumni, (Member)
• 2017-present - city of Bunbury Art Collection Committee, (Member)
• 2019-present - Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL), (Member)

Awards and recognition

National and International Awards

• 2021 - WA Premier’s Writing Awards Writers Fellowship (shortlisted)
• 2021 - Aurealis Award Best Science Fiction Novel 2020 – Shortlisted for Fauna (Allen & Unwin)
• 2021 - Davitt Awards: Sisters in Crime – Longlisted for Fauna (Allen & Unwin)
• 2021 -Tyrone Guthrie International Exchange – Annaghmakerrig, Ireland
• 2018 - Mick Dark Flagship Fellowship for Environmental Writing – Varuna Writers Centre NSW – ‘Natural Deviations’
• 2015 - Patricia Hackett Prize for best contribution to Westerly - ‘The Exhibit’
• 2016 - Australian Greens Short Story Competition – Winner for ‘Dear Daddy’
• 2016 - Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript – Shortlisted Author for Dark Little Ghost [novel]
• 2015 - Alan Marshall Short Story Prize – Shortlisted for ‘Dear Daddy’
• 2005 - TAG Hungerford Award for Unpublished Fiction - Winner for The Albanian

Research areas and interests

• Speculative fiction with a focus on feminism and environmental issues.
• Australian Gothic literature, particularly in relation to coastal areas and return of the repressed.
• Representation of kangaroos and other fauna in Australian fiction.
• Creative examinations of new genetic science through art and literature.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, Edith Cowan University, 2004.
• Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours (English Studies), Edith Cowan University, 1999.
• Bachelor of Arts (English), Edith Cowan University, 1991.

Research Outputs

Research Projects

• Run-down: Short fiction from a fading hotel in regional Western Australia, Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Arts Projects for Organisations, 2024 ‑ 2025, $76,077.
• The spaces between us: Interdisciplinary, practice-led research into colonial Western Australian infanticide, Edith Cowan University, ECU Early Career Researcher Grant - 2016, 2016 ‑ 2018, $30,000.
• Bitter Heritage: WA and its climate violence, Edith Cowan University, School of Arts and Humanities Research Grant Scheme 2016, 2016, $5,000.
• Pilot study into the needs of young carers in South-West Australia, The Bethanie Group Inc, Grant, 2006, $7,434.

Research Student Supervision