Daniel John Pilkington is a poet, artist, and early career researcher, from Melbourne, Australia.

He was the recipient of the 2024 Peter Steele Poetry Award and is currently working on his first book-length poetry manuscript, The Flaw's Crochet.

Daniel is the Poetry Editor of Antipodes, the official journal of the American Association of Australasian Literary Studies (AAALS).

His poetic practice combines lyric modes with formal experimentation, including constraint-based writing, intertextual and conceptual procedures, and visual poetics. He seeks to invent previously unseen poetic forms and to employ wit and linguistic play, particularly punning, as a means of exploring philosophical and spiritual themes.

His artistic practice is primarily concerned with questions regarding the nature of language. To this end, his work explores the limits and materiality of language, linguistic coincidences and iconicity, as well as the gestural relationships that exist between handwriting and drawing. His work to date includes sculpture, installation, digital imagery, drawing, animation, and printmaking.

Daniel has a PhD in poetry and poetics from the University of Melbourne. His thesis, Magic and the Occult in Contemporary Poetry, examined the relationship between poetry and magic, specifically in the context of contemporary US poetry, and was subsequently developed into a monograph published by Palgrave Macmillan in its prestigious Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics series. His broader research interests include the intersections between literature and visual art, as well as the relationship between poetry and spirituality.

Daniel also holds degrees in philosophy and architecture from the University of Melbourne.