Based out of Melbourne, Australia, Joel McKerrow is an award winning writer, speaker, educator, artist, creativity specialist and, having performed for hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, is one of Australia’s most successful internationally touring, performance poets. Full-time in his creative career for the past twelve years Joel is currently the Artist Ambassador for the aid and development organisation ‘ TEARFUND Australia’, is on teaching staff at the Melbourne Young Writers Studio and is the co-founder/host of the The Deep Place: On Creativity and Spirituality Podcast.
Joel was the third ever Australian representative at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships in the USA as well the co-founder of community arts organisation, 'The Centre for Poetics and Justice' (2010-2013) and the host of the Australian National Poetry Slam for the State of Victoria (2017-2019). He is a highly sought after speaker/performer at conferences and festivals all over the world including: Story Gathering Conference (Nashville), ITEC (International Transforming Education Conference), The Emerging Writer's Festival, The Justice Conference (AUS, US and NZ), Carey Literature Festival, Williamstown Literary Festival, Christian Education National Conference, The Global Health Summit, Anglican Schools Australia Conference, Somerset Storyfest, Amnesty International Conference, Greenbelt festival (UK), Graceland Festival (Netherlands), and many more.
Joel is passionate about schools work and over the last ten years has taught poetry and the creative process to over 50,000 students in schools all over the world. In publishing Joel has released four music/spoken word albums, three published books of poetry and one creative non-fiction manuscript focussed on his journey of discovering his own entitlement within the world. He has had his work featured in such publications as: Mindfood Magazine, Relevant Magazine, Going Down Swinging Literary Journal, Soul-tread magazine, Spirituality for Youth Work (Cambridge Scholars Press), Australian Stories for the Soul (Strand Publishing), Gestalt Arts and Culture Journal, New Urban World Journal, and many more.
