So proud to have won Best Qld Entry in the 2019 Arts Queensland XYZ Prize for Innovation in Spoken Word for my poem ‘Hussshhh’, alongside first place winner and awesome poet Fable Goldsmith. Have a listen/read of the winning entries on the Melbourne Spoken Word website!
Shout out to 4ZZZ radio for years of audio and voice training because otherwise I don’t think I could’ve pulled off all the weird sound effects and echos!
I have a poem about hauntings in the final issue of the Tundish Review. Such a wonderful publication that did so many great things for the Brissie poetry scene!
This Saturday 26 October I’ll be selling zines and copies of Architype at RuckusFest Zine Fair at The Old Museum, Brisbane from 11am-3pm. Come say hi!
Then on Tuesday 29 October, my story ‘Bodies Needed’ will be released as part of the audio series Urban Internet Myths at Digital Writers’ Festival, voiced and produced by Rudi Bremer. I can’t wait for you to hear the spooky, kooky and weird episodes in this series!
And make sure you check out the whole DWF program!
Cover image courtesy of Digital Writer’s Festival.
Print and play versions of Architype, the dwelling-inspired poetry game I made with Ray Cox, is now available to purchase in 3 cool places! #ArchitypeGame
I’m honoured to be nominated for a Trans Community Award in Brisbane!
MX 2019 Award:
This award recognizes being seen within the community, being approachable and raising awareness of the visibility of the trans, gender diverse, non-binary, sistergirl and brotherboy communities by their actions.
In other news, I’ve recently had 3 non-fiction pieces published in Archer Magazine, Sydney Review of Books and the brand new Wellbeing Wild Magazine.
“…storytelling always has me glowing with adrenaline as if, all at once, I’ve done twenty sit-ups, eaten chocolate and kissed my crush.”
they as they
visible and voice
listening and
listen and listen
Aside from house decorating and exploring haunted forests, Free Realms also had a significant impact on the way I perceived, and performed, my gender identity.
I also wrote a poetry board game called Architype with Ray Cox from [insert quest here], a real play RPG podcast. Grab a copy of the game on itch.io!
A Poetry Game.
Explore houses with your friends.
Build rooms out of prose.
Make architectural poetry
together.
Finally, my short story ‘Bodies Needed’ is part of an audio series ‘Urban Internet Myths’ at Digital Writers’ Festival 2019! Check it out here.
EPISODE 1: BODIES NEEDED, BY RAE WHITE
A temporary reception job at a funeral home takes a turn for the permanent.
This month I had the pleasure of reviewing 6 poetry collections for Overland Journal! These included new work by Franny Choi, essa may ranapiri, Tricia Dearborn, Zenobia Frost, Caitlin Maling and aj carruthers.
For kicks I wrote my reviews in a slightly experimental way: by threading the 6 books together in a circular form – e.g. the last line of one review informing the review of the next book and so on.
Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane reviewed Cirquetry at Queensland Poetry Festival! Huge thanks to Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane for this attentive and insightful review.
I was proud to be part of this performance alongside Maddy Grant, Elyse Fitzpatrick, Georgia Bale, Raelee Lancaster, and Chloe Callistemon, directed by Celia White.
“The showing explores the ideas of the emotional and physical risk-taking in the bodies and minds of poets and circus performers. Instead of keeping to their art form of choice, the performers incorporate the skills of their peers into their pieces. The circus artists wax lyrical while climbing over each other and bouncing off bungy cords. Poets dance, play on aerial silks and balance off each other. The rhythms of spoken word replace music and give voice to the unspoken of circus. Movements give new layers of gravity, meaning to the poetry. It is a truly of a collaboration of art forms.”
“Highlights were the first two pieces, building the world of the show, as the performers repeated words to Georgia Bale performing on lyra. These words formed the core the first spoken word pieced performed by Rae White, while they were being moved and cocooned by the rest of the ensemble, and ending in the group moving in synch.”
I have a ton happening over the next couple of months! If you want to hang out with me in Newcastle or Brisbane, check out these events I’ll be doing:
This weekend at the Queensland Poetry Festival (QPF), I won the Best Queensland Entry for 2019 XYZ Prize for Innovation in Spoken Word! Fable Goldsmith won first place and I love their work so much! Heck yes to more non-binary poets winning things 🙂 Both our poems will be published on Melbourne Spoken Word later this year.
I also had a new poem published in the Concrescence special QPF issue ‘Deep Listening’. It’s about deep sea creatures lurking in wait for humans to destroy the world so they can take over. Yikes!
My short story The Body Remembers is now available to read online a Lip Mag, along with a Q&A. This story placed second in the Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction!
***Read the story and Q&A here**
(Best viewed landscape on your phone or on a computer.)
Here’s a little example of the Q&A:
What does this year’s theme, ‘fragments’ mean to you?
In The Body Remembers this theme is reflected in the fragmentation of memory and how those memories are recaptured and reclaimed by the body: the fractured self as snippets of recollection and body-memory.
And an example of the story itself:
Your words are spliced and springing half-form from your slim-line mouth: Pink gutters. Clogged walls. Lichen lichen blanket. We don’t have the cruelty to wake you and tell you the house on Pearl St no longer exists, pink-painted walls knocked down in the ’90s to make space for a high rise. It’s okay, we chitter like a chorus of budgerigars. We pull the stiff standard-issue blanket up to your neck; tuck it neatly behind your shoulder bones. It’s okay.
