Dr Daniel John Pilkington is an early career researcher in poetry and poetics. His work examines the intersections of poetry, philosophy, visual art, and spirituality, with a particular focus on contemporary poetics, and experimental writing.

He is the author of Magic and the Occult in Contemporary Poetry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), the first scholarly monograph dedicated to contemporary magical poetries. Developed from his doctoral research at the University of Melbourne and published as part of Palgrave Macmillan's prestigious Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics series, the book investigates the relationship between poetry and magic in the contemporary US.

Magic and the Occult in Contemporary Poetry traces the history of magical poetics and occult poetry to the present, asking what possibilities remain for a magical or occult poetics today, particularly within contemporary US poetry. It argues that magical and occult poetics offer a vital counterpoint to dominant poetic trends, defining such practices through a willingness to entertain magical worldviews as creative frameworks or to experiment with techniques derived from magical and occult traditions. It explores the figure of the poet as magician, the conception of language as inherently magical, and the implications of adopting magical perspectives in poetic practice, while examining creative methods such as spellcraft, trance, divination, and ritual in the composition of poetry. For more information, including the table of contents and purchasing options, click here.

Daniel’s current research interests include the intersections between literature and visual art, intermedia text-based artworks, the history of Australian visual and concrete poetries, the ongoing significance of descents into the underworld in contemporary poetry, and the broader relationship between poetry and spirituality.

Essays and Interviews:

Occult Poetics & (Soma)tic Rituals: an interview with CAConrad
An Interview with Ariana Reines
An Expanded Notion of ‘Kerning’: an exhibition essay on Australian text-based art