Jackie Bailey is a professional writer and researcher who is recognised internationally as an expert on cultural diversity in the arts, the social impact of the arts and the importance of storytelling. She is the recipient of a Varuna Writer’s House Emerging Writers Fellowship for the development of her novel The Eulogy, as well as a UNSW Research Excellence Award and a University Medal. She has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, ArtLink, Online Opinion, Arts Professional UK, Cultural Trends and the Australian Journal of Human Rights, recently appeared as a guest on the Colour Cycle podcast and was a TEDX Sydney presentation on modern approaches to death.
Jackie has also been ordained as an interfaith minister by the world’s oldest interfaith seminary and is a trained Deathwalker, offering spiritual services for the non-religious. She lives in the Illawarra with her husband and daughter.
Jackie’s first book, The Eulogy, is an auto-fictional novel exploring themes of family, faith, identity, trauma, illness and death, with levity and lightness. It was published by Hardie Grant in June 2022 and won the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Multicultural NSW Award category, and was shortlisted for the Glenda Adams Award for New Writing.
Praise for The Eulogy:
‘A haunting web of secrets, stories, personal traumas and private sorrows. But instead of dwelling on them, the author uses hints and clues, peppering the story with dark humour. This subtlety gives The Eulogy all the more power and it’s a story that will stay with the reader long after the end.’ – Books and Publishing