Fact and fiction tend to be regarded as irreconcilable opposites, but UNE PhD student Jane Jago has unambiguously adopted both these ways of interpreting the world as she pursues her professional interest in crime and its origins.
Last week, Jane received the Australian Writers Guild Monte Miller Award for her screenplay adaptation of her novel, The Wrong Hand. The story explores what happens when two convicted juvenile murderers at the end of their prison term are released back into the community under new identities.
Parallel to her work as a writer of fiction, Jane is undertaking a (non-fictional) PhD with UNE’s Dr Kyle Mulrooney, Dr Jenny Wise and Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart.
Pulse asked Jane about this intriguing double-faceted approach to her topic.
What draws you to explore crime and crime psychology?
The intersection between the criminal actor and victim affords so many layers of insight into the human condition. The high stakes of aberrant behaviours have a unique ability to inform on normative patterns and values. My interest is also fuelled by a hypervigilant sense of mapping safety to protect ourselves and society. I’m also heavily drawn to the voyeuristic access, to private narratives, that occurs the instant someone becomes a suspect, convicted perpetrator, or victim of a crime. Very rarely, outside of autobiography, do we get to witness the specific forces and circumstances that drive destructive human acts.
Can you expand on your career as a writer?
I began writing seriously in the early 2000s, first with freelance magazine features, short stories and then crime fiction. I was fortunate to have my work selected for several key mentorships, including the national Hachette/QWC manuscript development program and the Byron Bay Writers Festival manuscript development program.
At some point I invested in a stack of highly recommended ‘how-to’ books on story and screenplay and taught myself to write script format. My first short feature script was awarded development funding under the former Australian Film Commission Emerging Screenwriters Scheme.
Many fiction submissions later, I secured a London literary agent – who called me in the middle night to tell me how much he loved my manuscript – and my first novel The Wrong Hand was eventually published by Penguin Random House UK in 2016.
In the lull between acceptance of the novel manuscript and the actual publication date, I completed a screenplay adaption of the novel which had already had several iterations.
Thoughts on the AWG win? Will it enable you to wrap up the current script, or start on a new one?
Winning the Monte Miller long form screenplay award has already been beneficial in terms of promotion by the Australian Writer’s Guild, and being featured on the Pathways writer’s Showcase – where industry professionals can learn about writers and access their scripts.
I will also receive the benefit of mentorship from AWG writers, legal advice in fielding any interest, and funds of $5000 have been put aside for further script development – with the major objective being to see the screenplay produced.
In terms of encouragement and credibility the award means a lot for me. The Australian Writers Guild Monte Miller Awards for unproduced screenplay, television and web series projects is a fantastic opportunity for all emerging stage writers, in that it is only open to associate and student members of the Guild. Student membership costs $85, so I would encourage all UNE writers to join. The guild also offers many workshops and member benefits, including industry legal advice.
Why did you undertake a UNE PhD – as a career move or out of scholarly curiosity? And why the look back into history?
After I had written realistically about crime, people in publishing kept asking me what degree I had, or if I had a background in corrective services. In 2016 I decided to formalise my writing and crime research skills at UNE. I completed a BA (Criminology) (Writing) 2019, and completed my Honours in Criminology 2022 – exploring the influence of literary commentary on the evolution of 19th Century juvenile justice punishment.
My PhD work extends my interest in the 19th century to a study of poachers and rural thieves sent to Van Diemen’s Land.
Under the supervision of Dr Kyle Mulrooney, director of the UNE Centre for Rural Crime, Dr Jenny Wise, and History Professor Hamish Maxwell Stewart, the project draws on detailed demographic records of over 70,000 convicts to explore offending patterns, prior criminalisation, and regional court outcomes – seeking to describe the motivations and character of rural convicts.
In historical terms, analysis of the geographic distribution, access to resources, occupations and local social controls, also speaks to debates regarding dual portrayals of the convict transportee as either a class victim reduced to crime by society, or as a discarded member of an established criminal sub-class.