Jill Jones (born 1951) is a poet and writer from Sydney, Australia. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide.
Career In 1993, Jones won the Mary Gilmore Prize for her first book of poetry, The Mask and the Jagged Star (Hazard Press). Her third book, The Book of Possibilities (Hale & Iremonger), was published in 1997. It was shortlisted for the National Book Council 'Banjo' Awards and the Adelaide Festival Awards.
Her fourth book, Screens, Jets, Heaven: New and Selected Poems, was published by Salt Publishing in 2002. It won the 2003 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (NSW Premier's Literary Awards).
Her fifth full-length book, Broken/Open was published by Salt Publishing in 2005. It was shortlisted for The Age Poetry Book of the Year 2005 and the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize 2006.
Jones served as a judge for the 1995 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and for the inaugural Broadway Poetry Prize in 2001.
A History of What I'll Become was shortlisted for the 2021 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (NSW Premier's Literary Awards) and for the 2022 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature John Bray Poetry Award. In 2021 she also won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize.
She won the 2026 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for How to Emerge. It was shortlisted for the Poetry award at the Prime Minister's Literary Awards in the same year.
Bibliography
Poetry Collections and chapbooks The Mask and the Jagged Star, Hazard Press 1992 Flagging Down Time, Five Islands Press, Wollongong, 1993 The Book of Possibilities, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1997 Screens Jets Heaven: New and Selected Poems, Salt Publishing, Cambridge, 2002 Struggle and Radiance: Ten Commentaries, Wild Honey Press, Bray, 2004 (chapbook) Where the Sea Burns, Picaro Press, Warners Bay, 2004 (chapbook) Fold Unfold, Vagabond Press, Sydney, 2005 (chapbook) Broken/Open, Salt Publishing, Cambridge, 2005 Dark Bright Doors, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2010 Ash is Here, So are Stars, Walleah Press, North Hobart, 2012 Senses Working Out, Vagabond Press, Sydney, 2012 Even If the Signal Fails, Black Rider Press, Perth, 2013 The Beautiful Anxiety, Puncher & Wattmann, Glebe, NSW, 2014 Breaking the Days, Whitmore Press, Geelong, 2015 The Leaves Are My Sisters, Little Windows Press, Adelaide, 2016 Brink, Five Islands Press, Melbourne, 2017 The Quality of Light and Other Poems, Garron Publishing, Adelaide, 2017 Viva the Real, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland, 2018 A History of What I'll Become, UWA Publishing, Crawley, Western Australia, 2020 Wild Curious Air, Recent Work Press, Canberra, 2020 Acrobat Music: New & Selected Poems, Puncher & Wattmann, Glebe, 2022 How to Emerge, Vagabond, 2025
Selected critical studies and reviews of Jones' work Wild Curious Air
References
External links Author weblog Author interview