"There's an importance of the two to Australian society, and I think that a healthy democracy needs things like critical thinking and imagination," he said.

"Without that, I don't see how democracy would flourish."

Born in Canberra, Mr Klee went on to study in those areas at ANU, and is now about to study it even further at Cambridge University after receiving a prestigious John Monash scholarship.

Mr Klee was one of 18 people to receive the scholarship, which was presented at a ceremony recently at the Sydney Opera. The scholarships are recognised as among the reputable for Australian postgraduate students, with hundreds of applicants applying every year.

Mr Klee, 26, said being able to study an English PhD at Cambridge, specialising in culture and criticism, has been a lifelong ambition, with his three-year degree starting next year.

"I'm really excited to be able to expand further into arts and humanities, and this scholarship is a very humbling thing," he said.

As part of the application, the postgraduate student had to undergo several rounds of interviews at both a state level and a national level.

While most of the scholarship winners are focusing in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects, Mr Klee is the only one out of the 18 that is studying in arts and humanities.

"It was quite an achievement, because I was up against people studying medicine and law," he said.

Already an established poet and playwright, Mr Klee earlier this year was named a joint winner of the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, which is run by the Australian Book Review. He has also been awarded the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship for Young Writers from the ACT Writers Centre in 2015.

Mr Klee said his major influences are playwrights Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, and said he hopes to expand upon his work during his time at Cambridge.

"The criticism and culture program is quite unique to Cambridge and allows you to specialise there on things like the philosophical themes that underlies people's writing," he said.