‘Do more, do better’ – new poetry @ Cordite!

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The wonderful Cordite Publishing Inc. commissioned Keira Edwards-Huolohan and I for an art-poetry-essay project! The process of working on this commission was collaborative, cathartic and invigorating.

‘Do more, do better’ is a poem in four parts that explores transgender discrimination through a hypothetical augmented reality (AR) mobile app. There are accompanying inked and embroidered art pieces, which reiterate key themes within the poem, and a critical statement, which analyses the poem and artwork while asking ‘the reader as well as the wider community if they are doing enough for trans people and others in marginalised communities’.

TRIGGER WARNINGS for the pieces: transphobia, including mentions of misgendering, slurs, violence, death, self-harm.

Read the poem ‘Do more, do better’.

Browse the artwork and read the critical statement
‘The Unaugmented Reality of Transgender Discrimination.

A big thank you to Kent MacCarter and Rosalind McFarlane at Cordite for their encouragement and commission of this project. It was an absolute joy to work with you both!

Art - Trans-Shield-logo

Queensland Poetry Festival 2018

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Last night the Queensland Poetry Festival program for 2018 was launched and it’s truly wonderful! The festival runs from Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th August 2018 and you can view the FULL PROGRAM on the website.

Here’s a peak at what I’ll be getting up to at the Festival, including reading queer poetry, slinging zines and launching my very first book!

  • Sat 25 August, 2018 4.30-6pm – The Big Read @ Judith Wright Centre, Performance Space. Featuring: Alison Whittaker, Tricia Dearborn, Fury The Poet, Laniyuk Garcon-Mills, Stuart Barnes and Zenobia Frost! This event is also Auslan interpreted with is so important and good.
  • Sat 25 August, 2018 6-7pm – MILK TEETH book launch! @ Judith Wright Centre, Foyer
  • Sun 26 August, 2018 12-5pm – QPF Zine Fair @ Judith Wright Centre

Over the next month I’ll highlight some of the events I’m looking forward to in the program via Twitter and Facebook. There are so many great things to see and I’m so pumped!

Milk Teeth’s first review!

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Last week I received a lovely FOUR STAR review of Milk Teeth at Books & Publishing by Carody Culver. My book was described as a ‘striking debut poetry collection’ from ‘a powerful new voice in Australian poetry’!!!

Don’t forget, Milk Teeth will be launched at the Queensland Poetry Festival 23-26 Aug 2018! If you can’t attend QPF, you can also preorder the book on a heckload of places, including Penguin and Booktopia, or pop into your local independent bookshop and ask for a copy. 🙂

Milk Teeth book cover

Cover of Milk Teeth

Queer space rabbits?!

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This month has been poem-tastic, with three of my pieces being published in quick succession! What a good time!

‘astrophobia’ was released in A Visitor’s Guide to the Void, which is available on itch.io. This guidebook is a stand-alone accompaniment to a larger performance installation, Enter the Void. I’m so pumped to be a part of this stunning, stellar project! Other rad poets in the guidebook include: Jennifer Mace, Kaolin Fire, Toby MacNutt, Mari Ness, Hester J Rook, and Melody Watson.

EnterTheVoid

Photo by Toby MacNutt

I have a non-binary-themed poem in the most recent Rabbit 24 – LGBTQIA+ issue. It’s about the ridiculous lengths people go to in order to erase trans people, especially on forms and surveys, punctuated with humour and heavy sarcasm.

rabbit

Rabbit #24, copyright Rabbit Poetry

And finally, Concrete Queers released their latest issue #11 Home and it contains my poem ‘Walk me home’. You can buy a copy here on Etsy. Other featured creatives in this issue are: Pewkazilla, Bridget Flack, Cassandra Cho, Ellen Muller, Rob Corica, Nicole Field, Hester J. Rook, Alison Evans, and Zenobia Frost.

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Photo: Concrete Queers #11 Home

All these sweet poems will be also in my upcoming poetry collection Milk Teeth, published by UQP!!!

milkteeth

Photo: Fancy cover of my book!

New poem at Ibis House

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For those of you who don’t know, I love the sacred Bris-bin ibis a lot, so to be published in a mag called Ibis House is both a privilege and very On Brand for me.

** Read my new poem ‘Sabbatical’ at Ibis House here! **

And if you enjoy the poem, don’t forget you can add a tip (pls give me ur monies) 💸

You can also submit your own work to Ibis House, which I’d super recommend coz they pay and they also make cool art inspired by your work. Like this intense and spooky video for ‘Sabbatical’ which I love!

Queensland Poetry awards are open!

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The Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for an unpublished manuscript is in its 15th year! The award includes prize money of $2,000 and a publishing contract with University of Queensland Press (UQP). I was last year’s winner and it’s been wonderful and life changing! Enter your manuscript so I can pass along the Shapcott Prize baton! 😘💖

*** Visit the Queensland Poetry Festival (QPF) website for more info ***

Super deep words I said from the QPF piece above: “Winning the 2017 Thomas Shapcott prize has given a new life and sense of freedom to my writing practice. My voice as a non-binary person is very often silenced, so to win such a major award has given me the confidence to push myself further and to embrace my voice as a marginalised poet.”

All four Queensland Poetry awards are now open for your excellent entries, including the Arts Queensland supported Thomas Shapcott, Val Vallis & XYZ Awards, along with the ekphrasis prize supported by Philip Bacon Galleries. 

*** Once more with feeling: visit the QPF website for more info ***

rae-winning-shapcottQPF

Pic of me being a happy poetry dork, winning the Shapcott at QPF 2017. This could be you!

Zine Review: Rabbits & Relics: Okunoshima (Rabbit Island)

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Sea Green Zines reviewed my zine Rabbits & Relics! 🙂

Sea Green Zines

Rabbits & Relics: Okunoshima (Rabbit Island)
Rae White
https://raewhite.net/
https://twitter.com/wings_humming

Rabbits and Relics is an A5 black and white zine about Rae’s exploration of Okunoshima – Rabbit Island.

I have always wanted to travel to Japan, so to say I was excited about any sort of Japan-related zine is a bit of an understatement. I’ve heard of various animal places like the fox village and cat island, but rabbit island was new to me.

I think the thing that really struck me about this zine is the glimpse of reality Rae gives in this zine. At the start, Rae mentions how the contrast of adorable rabbits and World War 2 relics is both striking and confronting.

Take what you will of the beautiful living alongside the symbols of the horrible, but it really spoke to me. This isn’t some glossed up, glossing over happy fun time tourist brochure. Rae provides…

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