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From the river to the sea
I am shouting into the void. I am whispering prayers into the fabric of the universe. In case an echo bounces back, or its shadow catches in the starlight and falls into the sea. It is a privilege to remain silent in the face of oppression, in the face of violence and genocide. Perhaps I…
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Past is Parallel
June has always been a strange time of year for me. It’s my birthday month, and so always carries a certain melancholy I associate with growing older. This year it also coincides with the end of my 12-month Writing Fellowship with the Centre for Stories. During that time I’ve been working on a collection of…
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A Matter of Time
I’ve been seriously working on my poetry collection manuscript for about 6 months, and now feels like a good point to reflect on my progress. So with a 70-page manuscript (and growing) taking up permanent space on my desktop, here’s what I’ve learned so far.
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Coming Out
Hey folks. Just last week, I turned 26. The people close to me know what a wild year the last one has been. It’s taken me all my life, but I’m finally living in a way that honours my deepest self, one that I had buried and hidden for so long. And thanks to the…
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No Justice, No Peace
It seems like everywhere I look lately, I see injustice. Fear. Misuse of power. Oppression. Outrage. Living in Boorloo/Perth, it is easy to feel separated from the rest of the world in our own little bubble. It is a privilege to be able to shut off or turn away when everything becomes too much –…
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My Name
Hey friends! I have something I’d like to share with you all. In the last 12 months, I’ve found myself the lucky recipient of quite a few writing and poetry opportunities, not least of which is the After Australia anthology that will be out next month (!!). I’ve been sort of doing this poetry thing…
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Update: 2019
Hello! It’s been just about a year since my last blog post, so I thought I’d write a little update about how my writing and life in general has been going. And this is also just a bit of a time-capsule for me as it gets closer to the end of the year and the…
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“Where are you from?”
It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve had a productive couple of weeks though, poetry-wise: poetry events including workshops and poetry slams, submitting poems to journals (and getting accepted!), and writing poems for submission have all been keeping me busy. This last week, I’ve been trying, specifically, to write a poem about ‘belonging.’ One…
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Poetry Can Save Us
In my last post, I talked about the significance of art and how we, as humans, are drawn to beauty. Today’s post is in a similar vein – I’ll be thinking about and exploring the significance of poetry as an art form. You may have noticed, if you’ve read some of my other posts, that…
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Make Noise or Beauty
Today, I want to talk about art. Specifically, the importance of art. And by art I really mean anything that has been born out of creativity, like creative writing and poetry, drawings and paintings, novels and comics, music, and stage and television productions. Now, I know this is something that lots of different people, probably…
Got any book recommendations?
KAYA ORTIZ 