On Thursday night I reached a milestone I’ve always wanted: winning the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize! This means I’ll have a published book ready for you to read in a year’s time, thanks to University of Queensland Press.
Here’s a photo of myself and 2016 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize winner Shastra Deo. UQP will launch Shastra’s debut collection, The Agonist, today at Queensland Poetry Festival.
You can now buy Diary of a Lavender Plant on my Etsy store. I’ll also be giving some to Junky Comics today and selling copies at ZICS, Brisbane.
This year’s Queensland Poetry Festival has an incredible line-up of 80+ sessions and 120+ artists!
I’m pumped to announce I’ll be reading at QPF New Voices from 10-11am Sunday 27th August, Judith Wright Centre – IMA Screening Room, Brisbane.
Wanna read a creepy poem about baby teeth? Of course you do! My poem ‘Mother’s milk’ is in Issue 6 of the awesome Gargouille. Grab yourself a copy in their shop for only 18 bucks!
Hi fronds! I have a poem in the ‘New Shoots Anthology: poems inspired by plants’, thanks to Red Room Company and The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Download the Anthology PDF here for free!
I have a flower-themed poem called Sunday Stroll in the latest Umbel and Panicle! The poem uses ze/hir pronouns and is about a flowering lithop. 🌸
I have a poem on page 8 of the latest Woolf Pack! It’s about migrating Caper White butterflies in Brisbane ❤️ You can read the digital copy on Issuu here.
I came out to fanfare and
distaste. As they gripped
my hands and said I was
brave, I watched you roll
the word inside your mouth:
testing it with your tongue
like the pit of a sour plum
you didn’t want to swallow.
This poem was first published in Bi-Focus issue #2, which you can buy here.
I clench my muscles.
With squelch and grunt
it clangs,
circling into the bowl.
Crouching on cool bathroom
tiles, I dip my arm into dull
yellow water, hold it in my hand
for a moment, remember
your fingers slipping and curling
into me. I towel off the ring
and place it in an envelope,
which I leave in your letterbox.
An hour later your texts: HE KNOWS
HE FUCKING KNOWS
and I imagine your fingers
sliding against the tears
that splatter your phone screen.
I have a new poem in Cordite Poetry Review‘s CONFESSION! I’m chuffed to be alongside some of my fave poets including Stuart Barnes, Shastra Deo and Ellen van Neerven. 
Rae White 