Anna Jacobson Anna Jacobson i(6998320 works by)
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 2 y separately published work icon How to Knit a Human : A Memoir Anna Jacobson , Sydney : NewSouth Publishing , 2024 27274292 2024 single work autobiography

'I want to know what it was like to have crossed into the realm of madness. After all, I did it. I went mad. Why can’t I have the secret knowledge that comes with it?

'How do you write a memoir when you have lost your memories? Anna Jacobson awakens in hospital, greeted by nurses and patients she doesn’t recognise, but who address her with familiarity. She decides to untangle the clues.

How to Knit a Human is about the splintering of memory from psychosis and Electroconvulsive therapy that Anna experienced as an involuntary patient in 2011. Through knitting and assemblage, weaving experiences around the gaps of memories that are not accessible, the memory barriers begin to crumble. This book is a reclamation of memory and self.'  (Publication summary)

1 Objects of Illness/Recovery Anna Jacobson , Katerina Bryant , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Island Online - 2023 2023;
1 23 Vignettes on the Rental Crisis Anna Jacobson , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Island Online - 2023 2023;
1 Before I Forget Again i "I am a ceramic horse in kintsugi", Anna Jacobson , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 82 2023;
1 Listen to Your Patients Anna Jacobson , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: A Line in the Sand 2023;
1 Salt in Her Pockets Anna Jacobson , 2023 single work short story
— Appears in: An Unexpected Party 2023; (p. 256-266)
1 y separately published work icon Anxious in a Sweet Store Anna Jacobson , Perth : Upswell Publishing , 2023 26372274 2023 selected work poetry 'Anxious in a Sweet Store is Anna Jacobson's second illustrated poetry collection where the 'sweet', whimsical, humorous, and quirky is juxtaposed with the 'anxious' and disabling forces of mental illness. Themes of food, family, dreams, and culture crystalise, while the poet's mind is fizz bang sherbet on the tongue. Anxious in a Sweet Store is an inventive collection of poems that build and enrich each other across threads of music and anxiety and beyond.' 

(Publication summary)

1 You Are Here. \\| /| I Am Here with You. i "the yoga mat is missing from its rolled-up place", Anna Jacobson , Pascalle Burton , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rabbit , 37 2023; (p. 122-125)
1 How to Knit a Human – the Interactive Version Anna Jacobson , 2022 single work prose
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue , no. 69 2022;
'“How to Knit a Human – the Interactive Version” was created with choice-based digital storytelling, through the Twine platform. The pathways the reader can take represent the inconsistencies of memory(loss) from a severe episode of psychosis I experienced in 2011 and enforced electroconvulsive therapy treatments. The creative process for the interactive version began with my adaptation of my memoir manuscript. As I developed this piece of electronic literature, I incorporated the visual along with the text, creating my own animations, drawings, and scans for an immersive experience. The reader can engage in these parts of my story and actively participate in the losing and regaining of agency through my narrative perspective, to gain a better understanding of my experience. As a result, this work could also benefit mental health professionals as an important resource, to empathise with one example of a patient’s journey through the psychiatric hospital system. Through the digital form, I allowed my experience to travel beyond what a traditional text can do by utilising multiple choices that link to different alternatives and possibilities that exist in my memory. By taking power in my own valuable lived experience, I aim to reduce the stigma in wider society, and institutions.'  (Publication abstract)
1 Asher Lev i "At fourteen I leafed", Anna Jacobson , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rabbit , no. 36 2022; (p. 84-85)
1 ECT Tree Gemma E. Mahadeo , Anna Jacobson , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 15 September no. 106 2022;
1 Shlissel Challah i "I don’t have all the ingredients", Anna Jacobson , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 June no. 105 2022;
1 Writing Disability in Australia : Transmedial Potentials for Illness/Recovery Narratives Anna Jacobson , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 37 no. 1 2022;

'In this paper I argue that extending the illness/recovery narrative through the transmedial mode allows for more diverse representation from patients and survivors, leading to greater understanding of varied stories and an enhanced version of Narrative Medicine. Using two transmedial case studies – Dakoda Barker’s threesixfive (2015) and my own interactive memoir How to Knit a Human – I frame my discussion through the lenses of Disability Studies, Mad Studies and Narrative Medicine. Threesixfive evokes Barker’s experience of living with a chronic health condition and the daily struggles and choices one must make throughout each hour. How to Knit a Human utilises choice-based digital storytelling to represent inconsistencies in memory and alternative pathways caused by memory-loss from psychosis and electroconvulsive therapy. I explore these transmedial potentials and encourage survivors to take power and agency in their own valuable lived experiences in order to transform the Narrative Medicine field, which usually only draws on traditional forms of storytelling. I assert that transmedial modes grant greater diversity and flexibility when wielded by survivors. Moreover, once these stories are experienced by others, stigma surrounding disability and/or madness will reduce not only in wider society, but in medicine, education and institutions.'(Publication abstract)

1 Memory Curls i "Memory Curls", Anna Jacobson , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , February no. 104 2022;
1 Diaspora Memory-Objects Anna Jacobson , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue , October no. 63 2021;
'Objects are not just ‘objects’ but are connected to people and memory. My paper asks: how can objects help authors write from diverse experiences? I answer this question through a diasporic lens. Objects of ritual have strong importance in Judaism and cultural objects are often passed down throughout the generations. I analyse examples from writers, theorists, and curators, including Mark Baker and his memoir Thirty Days (2017); object theorist Bill Brown; Mireille Juchau and her essay ‘The Most Holy Object in the House’; postmemory theorists Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer; curator Alla Sokolova; Marie Kondo and her use of the Japanese term ‘mono no aware’ (the pathos of things), and my own poetry collection Amnesia Findings (2019). Through this research, I arrive at a closer understanding of how objects can help writers respond to complex and hybrid experiences using memory-objects, and by writing through Things.' (Publication abstract)
1 Scattering Matter i "I am made from scattering matter I", Anna Jacobson , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Rabbit , no. 32 2020; (p. 22-23)
1 When Dolphins Bring Gifts i "These creatures sense changes", Anna Jacobson , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Writing Water 2020;
1 How to Grow Nightshades with Teapots i "Pour arctic fire into open ground and furrow dirt. The wagon will heavy the", Anna Jacobson , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry 2020; (p. 104)
1 Second Opinion i "I grieve for my past diagnosis", Anna Jacobson , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 10 no. 1 2020; (p. 62)
1 Row F Seat 10 i "I was a theatre usher - could seat two hundred people", Anna Jacobson , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 65 no. 1 2020; (p. 61)
X