Carly-Jay Metcalfe Carly-Jay Metcalfe i(A80970 works by) (a.k.a. Carly-Jay Metcalf)
Born: Established: 1977 ;
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 Broken Bodies, Fractured Places Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2024 single work autobiography
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue , no. 71 2024; 'What happens when a place writes itself into our bodies, and when broken bodies write from fractured places? I have been immersed in a sick body after being born into the “kingdom of the sick” (Sontag 2013, p.1) when I was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at nine weeks of age. Consequently, I have spent a substantial amount of time in hospital—a place we go to ‘get better’. My hospital bed is a place I have always written—often with friends dying around me and in the face of immense physical and existential suffering. Being creative in an institutionalised setting has allowed me to resist the feeling of confinement, where I’m able to establish routine and agency to try and create some order among the disorder. The concept of place became especially significant when I was placed in isolation due to being immunosuppressed following a double lung transplant in 1998. The landscape changed from one of community to one that was more solitary and dystopian. A liminality of place exists between home and hospital, and this creative work contemplates how a multidimensionality of creativity can exist, and indeed thrive, within an institutionalised setting.' 

 (Publication abstract)
2 2 y separately published work icon Breath : A Triumphant Story of Hope and Survival Carly-Jay Metcalfe , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2024 27137025 2024 single work autobiography

'A triumphant story of hope and survival

'I am dying. I know that I'm dying, despite not having been told by my doctors that I am dying. I know I am dying because I'm in the dying room.

'Carly-Jay Metcalfe was born with cystic fibrosis, survived a double-lung transplant at the age of twenty-one and faced a rare cancer at the age of thirty. What she has endured should have killed her, but her humour, courage and optimism became her best survival skills.

'From her hospitalised childhood to her many friendships, loves and losses, Carly-Jay shares the fickle nature of life with candour and warmth. She writes with compelling insight about organ donation, opioid addiction and survivor's guilt, while still managing to find joy amongst the wreckage.

'Breath is a stunningly frank and darkly funny memoir about living, dying and trying to breathe.' (Publication summary)
1 Lady Lazarus i "I have done it again.", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Growing Up Disabled in Australia 2021; (p. 182-183)
1 Twice Dead Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2021 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , March 2021; 'Seeing and feeling myself die is the strangest thing I’ve ever done. Birth and death may be the bookends of life, but rarely do we speak about the latter until we’re in the full throat of it.'
1 Dilectus i "And so, it is weeks now.", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Verity La , November 2020;
1 Chemistry i "Dismantling your form as you stand in the wake of white laminate,", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2015 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 October no. 52.0 2015;
1 Mutiny in a Backwood i "We sleep with our own derision,", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2015 single work poetry
— Appears in: Tincture Journal , Winter no. 10 2015; (p. 14)
1 Primitive i "Gun empty, shot with intent", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2014 single work poetry
— Appears in: Regime , no. 4 2014; (p. 4-5)
1 Providore i "There is no indecision", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2014 single work poetry
— Appears in: Regime , no. 3 2014; (p. 5)
1 Haiku i "Long tufts of mangroves", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2013 single work poetry
— Appears in: Regime , no. 2 2013; (p. 54)
1 M.B. i "Wearing leopard print", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2013 single work poetry
— Appears in: Regime , no. 2 2013; (p. 54)
1 After Janus i "Conifer branches like oars,", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2012 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 November no. 40.0 2012;
1 Grounds For Creativity Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: Writing Queensland , August no. 221 2012; (p. 13)
1 My Story : Poetry in Motion Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2012 single work autobiography
— Appears in: The West End Magazine , Winter no. 11 2012; (p. 24-25)
1 My Great Old Man i "Broken hands would spread well-", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2012 single work poetry
— Appears in: Perilous Adventures , vol. 12 no. 1 2012;
1 Topography i "She sits by the windowsill –", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2012 single work poetry
— Appears in: Sotto , July 2012;
1 1 Before Elapsing i "Most words are the same but", Derek Motion , Adam Ford , Zenobia Frost , Rebecca Giggs , Susan Hampton , Stu Hatton , Kelly Lee Hickey , Hal Judge , Dan Lee , Carly-Jay Metcalfe , Ella O'Keefe , Scott-Patrick Mitchell , David Prater , Bel Schenk , Jaya Savige , Andrew Slattery , Amelia Walker , Louise Waller , Ben Walter , Fiona Wright , 2010 single work poetry
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 200 2010; (p. 112-117)
1 Post i "It's that cleave of a canyon.", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2009 single work poetry
— Appears in: Stylus Poetry Journal , April no. 33 2009; FourW , no. 21 2010; (p. 115)
1 Putting You to Bed i "From eyelash to elbow to veined foot,", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2009 single work poetry
— Appears in: Stylus Poetry Journal , April no. 33 2009; FourW , no. 21 2010; (p. 114)
1 Burying You Beneath the Sun i "Shadows brush us over; sift moods, lifting the stain of memory.", Carly-Jay Metcalfe , 2009 single work poetry
— Appears in: Stylus Poetry Journal , April no. 33 2009; FourW , no. 21 2010; (p. 113-114)
X