person or book cover
Photograph courtesy of the author
Michelle Aung Thin Michelle Aung Thin i(A112638 works by)
Born: Established: Rangoon,
c
Burma,
c
Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: Feb 1999
Heritage: Burmese ; English
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Works By

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1 “Very Communitas” : Testing a Hypothesis in Creative Writing, Methodologically Francesca Rendle-Short , Michelle Aung Thin , David Carlin , Melody Ellis , Lily Rose Tope , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 27 no. 2 2023;
'This paper examines the concept of communitas in practice (as a loanword from cultural anthropology and social sciences), what it is and what it can offer creative writing, to test whether it might apply to different creative practice settings. Specifically for this essay, the setting is WrICE (Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange program) and the research project examining WrICE as the object of its enquiry (Australian Research Council Discovery Project entitled “Connecting Asia-Pacific Literary Cultures: Grounds, Encounter and Exchange”). If we think of communitas in the way anthropologist and poet Edith “Edie” Turner likes to describe it as (un)structured ritual, a condition for creativity, a space where the intensity of feeling or joy can arise (2012), how might a communitas unfolding look and feel as we practice creative writing? How might we think about communitas and what would it mean to do communitas as creative writing method, as drawing-as-method? Also, how might communitas be performed on the page in an academic context such as this: can we as researchers enact or embody communitas?' (Publication abstract) 
1 When Your Practice Is the Research : A Symposia-led Model for the Creative Writing PhD Michelle Aung Thin , David Carlin , Alvin Pang , Francesca Rendle-Short , Jessica Wilkinson , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 24 no. 2 2020;
'With PhDs in creative writing becoming more valued and valuable in both local and international contexts, the question of models that are fit for purpose has never been more pressing. This paper discusses a case study of an approach to PhD pedagogy underway with writers from across the Asia-Pacific. It is a model of advanced practice-led research in creative writing, which helps established and mid-career writers to deepen their oeuvres and careers. The model poses the question: What if a PhD in creative writing focused its site of research on a practitioner’s ongoing practice as a writer? How might this deepen the practitioner’s engagement with the processes of and contexts for writing, and enable shifts in and for their future writing practice? This paper invites educators and writers to reconsider how a PhD by practice in creative writing contributes new knowledge – on literary approaches, forms, genres and cultures – to the discipline, at the same time as it provides a writer with insights to transform their practice. Faculty and student perspectives of a transcultural, multidisciplinary, low-residency program, based in Vietnam and Australia, reveal how this unconventional approach is making a difference to PhD pedagogy and creative practice research.'

 (Publication abstract)

 
1 y separately published work icon Hasina Michelle Aung Thin , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2019 16725397 2019 single work children's fiction children's

'When the soldiers came in the dead of night, Hasina's family fled in all directions. All Hasina remembers is picking up her baby brother and running deep into the forest. Braving snakes and elephants, they hid until they no longer saw smoke or heard gunfire. When Hasina and Rima emerge, it is to a village half-standing. She’s overjoyed to find her grandmother but there is no sign of Hasina's father and mother, her older brother and sister. As head of her household, Hasina must take care of her family. But how is anyone in the village to live when so many are gone? Who will work the fields and fish and feed them all? One thing Hasina knows—they will all need to work together to survive.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 How to Be Different Michelle Aung Thin , 2018 single work short story
— Appears in: Meet Me at the Intersection 2018;
1 Tea Ceremony Michelle Aung Thin , 2018 single work short story
— Appears in: Overland , Winter no. 231 2018; (p. 68)
1 #STREATstories : Mapping a Creative Collaboration Francesca Rendle-Short , Michelle Aung Thin , Ronnie Scott , Stayci Taylor , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , April vol. 21 no. 1 2017;
'#STREATstories is a storytelling project focused on the artistic activities and interventions of a social enterprise that successfully supports homeless and disadvantaged young people in Melbourne’s inner city. The project explores an ‘applied creative writing’ approach to creative fieldwork, critical perspectives and imaginative inquiry for researchers keen to employ their writing/research skills and interests to matters of social injustice and inequity. This paper goes ‘behind the scenes’ to uncover the orientation of four collaborators on this creative research project, all of whom come from very different creative practices, and examine what informs their approach – what and how they do what they do as co-creators and what brings them into this collaborative space. Areas of approach and interest range across ideas of friendship and ‘lovence’, the ‘intimacy of failure’, notions of ‘giving’ voice, and the ‘collaboration’ between artists and materials. The four contributors to this paper explore how these various interests influence the process of collaboration and co-creation as they negotiate ‘that simple but enigmatic step, joining hand, eye and mind’ (Carter 2004: xiii). ' (Publication abstract)
1 Backtracking Michelle Aung Thin , 2013 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Joyful Strains : Making Australia Home 2013; (p. 117-123)
1 5 y separately published work icon The Monsoon Bride Michelle Aung Thin , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2011 Z1804284 2011 single work novel Winsome is just married and filled with anticipation. Her new husband is a stranger; one of the suitors chosen for her and the other mixed-race girls from the men who apply to the orphanage. But as the night train rattles towards her new home she sees possibility in this uncertain destiny (Libraries Australia).
1 Marriage Lessons Michelle Aung Thin , 2007 single work short story
— Appears in: Antithesis , vol. 17 no. 2007; (p. 176-182)
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