Tag: poetry

Picture of front cover of Australian Poetry Journal 8.2. The front cover features a photo of an anti-Trump protest with someone holding a sign saying 'silence =' and another sign with Trump's face and the word 'illegitimate' written across his eyes.

New poem in Australian Poetry Journal

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My poem ‘Dirty talk’ (from my book Milk Teeth) is published in the latest Australian Poetry Journal Volume 8.2 – ‘spoken’, which features new works by more than 60 Australian poets, with poetry guest-edited by spoken-word poets Andrew Galan and David Stavanger. Following the ‘spoken’ selection is a separate section of 19 poems edited by Toby Fitch. This Big Bent series is an exploration of gender and language queering.

Grab yourself a copy of the latest APJ.

Both sections are also accompanied by sound-recordings, which is very cool! You can find the recordings at australianpoetry.org.

Banner for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019, featuring a VPLA logo and a photo of Milk Teeth under the titles Shortlist and Poetry

Milk Teeth shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry

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Incredibly happy to announce Milk Teeth has been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry!!!

Big big congrats to fellow shortlisted poets Eunice Andrada for Flood Damages and Kate Lilley for Tilt! And to all the other shortlisted folks, including fellow University of Queensland Press authors Melissa Lucashenko for Too Much Lip and Tony Birch for Common People. You can view the full shortlist and highly commended works here.

The winners of the main awards (fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry, writing for young adults, and the biennial Prize for Indigenous Writing) each receive $25,000. The winners of theses categories go on to contest the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, worth an additional $100,000. Wow!

Winners will be announced on Thursday 31 January 2019.

You can participate in the awards by voting for your favourite work published in 2018. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be named alongside the general category winners, and will receive $2,000.

You can also have a read of the VPLA judges’ report, which states: “Milk Teeth is a crisp and tactile first collection. It challenges pre-existing categories: gender, interior and exterior landscapes, the way we assume language is fixed.”

If all this chat about Milk Teeth has convinced you to buy a copy, here’s a list of places you can grab one.

abstract painting with harsh black lines, filled in with bright colours: pink, blue and orange

New poetry, pals!

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Yesterday I had a lovely chat about Milk Teeth with Sadie Ward on All Things Queer RTRFM 92.1. We spoke about themes of navigating the world as a non-binary person and breaking down barriers.

**You can listen back to the interview on the RTRFM website.**

I also have a poem in the latest issue of Cordite alongside some of my fave poets, including Candy Royalle, Toby Fitch, Michael Farrell, Emily Crocker, Ray Briggs, Zenobia Frost, Angela Gardner, Elizabeth Duck-Chong, Bec Jessen, Jill Jones, Madison Godfrey, Fiona Hile, and so many many more.

**Have a read of my poem ‘I’ve got something to say’.**

Also: this poem is part of a new collection I’m working on, which explores non-binary people and space: the space we take up, the space we don’t, the space we’re denied, the space we reclaim. And just between you and me, more poems from this work in progress will be published soon!

 

[Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash]

October round-up

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It’s been quite a busy, exciting month since I came back from National Young Writers’ Festival. Two of my poems from Milk Teeth ‘Plants my exes gave me’ & ‘Dear Excited to Meet Me’ were published in the latest (and sadly final) Woolf Pack #11.

I also had a great radio interview last night on 2SER’s It’s a Gay Area, and have another interview next week. Tune into All Things Queer @ RTRFM, Perth on Wednesday 31 October 2018 at 11.10am (AWST)/1.10pm (AEST) to hear me chat about how I’m using my work as a vehicle to break down barriers and encourage conversations about gender and identity.

Finally, I’m super pumped to be a part of this year’s Digital Writers’ Festival. I’ll be participating in Poem Phone, riffing on John Giorno’s iconic 1969 artwork, this is a Dial-a-Poem for the internet age.

[Header photo by Quino Al on Unsplash]

Review of Milk Teeth by Tony Messenger

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Big thanks to Tony Messenger for this wonderful review of Milk Teeth PLUS bonus interview!

“Milk Teeth” is another engaging, thought provoking collection, with decay and body parts becoming glistening, with the human place in the natural world being questioned, but at the same time it can be playful, and humorous, using symbols, codes, social media posts, emails and a raft of textual techniques (for example how the poems are placed on the page) to engage, unsettle and ultimately reaffirm.

**Read the review and interview here**

‘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!