Jennifer Kornberger is a poet, writer, and artist based in Walyalup/Fremantle. She employs poetry as her primary practice for public art works, installations and publication. Her first poetry collection, I could be rain, was published in 2007 (Sunline) and a second collection, The Twilight Observatory was published by 5 Islands Press in 2025. In 2016, Jennifer won the Tom Collins Poetry Prize and was guest poet at the Perth Poetry Festival. Her writing has appeared in Blue Dog, Plumwood Mountain, Short Australian Stories, and the anthology of the Newcastle Short Story Award (2024). She has been shortlisted five times, and twice commended, in The Newcastle Poetry Prize. As co-director of Theatre of the Sea, Jennifer involves groups of writers and international performers in spoken word installations, notably 22 Pillars (Fremantle Biennale, 2017), Somnus (Fremantle Biennale, 2019), and The Rehearsal (Brink Festival, 2021). Jennifer has lived and worked in Slovenia, developing the imaginative capacities of teachers. She has worked as script editor for a number of First Lights shows in Australia. She was commissioned as script writer for the 2024 Fremantle Blessing of the Fleet Festival, and for the 2025 Adelaide Royal Show finale, Solar Wind. She is currently co-director of The Writing Connection and Theatre of the Sea. ​

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Selected Poetry Performances, Installations and Word Art Commissions

 

2007 I could be rain, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle WA

2010 Poetry reading at Centre for Science and Art, Stroud, UK

2010 Dome readings, Threefold Institute, Spring Valley, New York

2011 Guest poet at Voicebox, Fremantle WA

2013 Guest poet at Perth Poetry Club, Northbridge WA

2013 The Lower Lands: Poetry performance and film poem exhibition with artist Holly Story at Heathcote Gallery

2014 Tides of Change Performance for National Trust Heritage Festival Spoken 2014 Word in Landscape    

2014 Word in Landscape Binabup- place of light performance for National Museums Day

2014 Scenes from an Unseen World - a ritual for place, Bibra Lake WA

2015 Forest of Poets Installation at Northbridge, Perth Poetry Festival event

2015 Oraculum a large-scale poetry installation conceived as a ritual to renew time

2016 Fata Morgana performance for group exhibition PS Art Space Fremantle

2016 Collaboration with The Welcome Collective: word installation at PS Art Space

2016 Guest Poet at 2016 Perth Poetry Festival

2016 Commissioned by artists Tom Muller and Ariane Palassis to provide poetry for public art work for Fremantle City

2016 The Delphi Project: Collaborative event in Greece with Horst Kornberger and emerging writers

2017 Co- director of Silence Speaks: Creative Dissent Project with Rethink the Link

2017 22 Pillars Fremantle Biennale​

2019  Somnus Slovenia & Fremantle Biennale​

2021 Commissioned for poetry for Fremantle Biennale 2021

2021 Commissioned for Poetry and poetry performance for Melville Midwinter 

2021 The Rehearsal BRINK festival, Fremantle

2021 The Taliesin Project for Brave New Works Festival 

2021 Commission for ‘Crossings’ Fremantle Biennale Monograph

2023 Script edit for First Lights Project Nyinggulu, Exmouth, Western Australia

2023 City of Fremantle installation with poem: ‘This river once had a mouth’

2024  Scriptwriter for light and sound show, The Blessing of the Fleet, Fremantle.

2025 Scriptwriter for Passion of the Pilbara light and sound show for the town of Onslow.

2025  Scriptwriter for Adelaide Royal Agricultural Show stadium sound and light show: Aurora Australis.

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Publications, Prizes and Grants

 

2002 Shortlisted for Newcastle Poetry Prize

2002 Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology, Unfamiliar Tides

2005 Blue Dog Australian Poetry, Vol. 4, No. 7

2006 Blue Dog Australian Poetry Vol. 5, Nos. 9 & 10

2007 Second Prize and highly commended in Tom Collins Poetry Prize

2007 WA Anthology, The Weighing of the Heart

2007 Poetry collection I could be rain published by Sunline Press WA

2010 Recipient of Australia Council Literature Board Grant to develop new work

         involving mentorship at the Goetheanum Institute in Basel

2013 Film Poem The Lower Lands, collaboration with artist Holly Story

2014 Shortlisted and Commended Entry in Newcastle Poetry Prize

2014 Cuttlefish Journal

2015 Recipient of WA Department of Culture and Arts Grant

2016 Winner of Tom Collins Poetry Prize

2016 Finalist in Newcastle Poetry Prize

2017 Long-listed in Ron Pretty Australian Poetry Prize

2018 Published in Short Australian Stories (Spineless Wonders 2018)

2022 Commended entry: ‘Recent sightings of Tito’, Newcastle Poetry Prize

2023 Published in ‘Cuttlefish/Western Australian Poets’

2023  Shortlisted in Newcastle Poetry Prize: Report from Sarajevo

2024  Two poems Shortlisted for Newcastle Poetry Prize: Aeolian Child and The Thought Eagle

2024  Shortlisted for Newcastle Short Story Award with the story, The Company of Strangers

2025  Full length poetry collection published by Five Islands Press: The Twilight Observatory

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