Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: published author

  • Places You’ll Never Go and Things You Won’t See

    Kalliope X Logo

    Any journal, especially an Australian one that is open to or dedicated to publishing poetry in languages other than English has my wholehearted support. English is not the only language and the more we learn from each other the better. We are a multicultural society with a majority of Australians being born overseas or having a parent who was born overseas. As such, our literary landscape needs to reflect our cultural diversity.

    So when I come across a fabulous journal like Kalliope X, I devour its contents and then start submitting my work. I am so honoured to have my poem, Places You'll Never Go and Things You Won't See in issue 5 of this fabulous digital publication. Thank you to the editors for selecting my work.

     

  • Migration

    Science Write Now Issue ImageI am pleased to announce that the digital journal, Science Write Now, has published two of my poems in Issue 9: Migration.

    Light Years is a poem about the migration of light from our distant sun to our home planet. In writing this poem I was imagining what it might be like to be a particle undertaking that epic journey. What could happen to it along the way?

    Yesterday is Today: the Migration of Memory looks at a different sort of migration  - that of thoughts and their journeys through our minds. It is a very different sort of poem to Light Years as it ponders what happens to us as we age and our memories start to fade.

     

  • Shortlisted for the University of Canberra Vice Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize

    IP - Shortlisted for the University of Canberra Vice Chancellor's International Poetry Prize

    I am now officially one step closer to winning a poetry prize! I had two poems longlisted for the University of Canberra Vice Chancellor's International Poetry Prize and Landline has just been shortlisted!

    Can you believe the company I'm keeping these days? Talking about rubbing shoulders with giants!

     

  • Poetry d’Amour

    IP - Poetry d'Amour

    WA poets Inc do so much to promote and support poetry both in Western Australia and Australia through their poetry competitions, the Ros Spencer Poetry Prize and Poetry d'Amour, and their accompanying anthologies. Back in 2019, I entered the Ros Spencer Poetry Prize and they publish my entry, Recipe for a Poem in the Brushstrokes anthology. It was a huge boost for a poet who was just beginning to flex her writing muscles again.

    I am so pleased that after entering this year's Poetry d'Amour competition, two of my poems – Liquefy and The Ocean of You –  have been published in the 2023 Poetry d'Amour anthology.It's a huge honour! Thanks to WA Poets for publishing my poems and to the judges of the prize for reading my work.

     

  • At the Foothills of the Dandenong Ranges

    IP - At the Foothills of the Dandenong Ranges 1

    IP - At the Foothills of the Dandenong Ranges 2

    I am so excited to be rubbing literary shoulders with Jill Jones in the latest issue of Jacaranda Journal.

    In this gorgeous literary journal you'll find works by some incredible poets as well as my poem, At the Foothills of the Dandenong Ranges. I thought about writing 'including my poems' but I don't know if I'm an incredible poet yet or someone who is still learning how to say in words what she is feeling. In fact, I suspect that no matter how many poems I manage to have published in journals I'll always feel like a toddler learning to speak!

     

  • Complicit: A Visual History of ‘Australia’ Since Invasion

    IP - Complicit

    Complicit: A Visual History of ‘Australia’ Since Invasion is my first foray into what I am calling text art.

    I've been thinking about Australia's history and the way it and any history warps and shifts over time depending on who is telling the story.

    When I was in primary school the official history was that the settlers discovered a fertile land inhabited by nomadic hunter gatherers who didn't farm or manage the land in any way. Those same settlers couldn't believe how fertile the soil was and I was taught that we got rich 'on the sheep's back'. What I wasn't taught was that the Australia's Indigenous Peoples had the world's oldest surviving Cultures and that they used sophisticated land management techniques to live in harmony with and care for Country. I also didn't learn at school about the massacres, the stolen generations and the brutal and bloody Frontier Wars.

    This poem was an attempt to rewrite the history I had been taught in a concise format. There are many layers to any story and I decided that a visual representation would carry what I was trying to say. I wanted the poem to look like it could hang on the wall of an art gallery so I also wrote design notes like you see hanging next to paintings at the NGV. 

    Axon: Creative Explorations is an online journal published by the University of Canberra and I was so excited when the guest editor, Caren Florance, choose this poem for Issue 13.2. I am huge fan of Caren's work and I own her poetry collection, Lost in Case, which was published by Cordite Books. Working with her to refine my poem and write the Contextual Statement that appears at the end of the poem was a wonderful experience.

     

  • Statement of Poetics

    Mantissa Issue 2 RE (March 2023)

    Issue 2, Re, of Mantissa Poetry Review is finally here and it was totally worth the wait! I adore this poetry journal. The physical object itself is a work of art and the poems curated within its pages continue to expand and explode what poetry is and can do. This is audacious and genre busting publishing at its best.

    If you haven't already checked it out I recommend you rush out right now and buy yourself a copy. Of course I am somewhat biased as I have not one, but two poems published in the pages of this amazing publication. Those poems are uncanny valley and Attention: Ferntree Gully, Melbourne (2020).

    Even more excitingly, the founding editor Erin Lyon, asked to write a statement of poetics for inclusion in the journal. She wanted to hear all about my creative process. As you know, writing about the process of creating is one of my favourite things to do. Nutting out why exactly it is that I do the things I do. Figuring out how to get past blocks or fallow periods. And trying to capture that spark of inspiration that fires my synapses and lights up my cortex.

    If you want some inspiration, garb yourself a copy of the latest issue of Mantissa Poetry Review before it sells out!

     

     

  • Shoot The Breeze

    IP - Shoot the Breeze

    Shoot the Breeze, this anthology of poetry published by Girls on Key is pretty special to me. Not only does it include one of my poems which is a huge honour, it also contains a poem written by my younger daughter, Miss Twelve. Like most parents, I think my girls are amazing and super talented so it's nice to know that other people feel the same!

     

  • hakara

    HakaraSeeing poetry in other languages really excites me. I only speak English with a smattering of German, Spanish and Sinhala (which I cannot read, yet!) so I can't understand the letters I am reading. Nevertheless, my eyes drink in the beauty of those different words while my mind wonders if shaping them on my tongue and sending them out to catch a breeze will change the way I think or see the world.

    I love the shape of languages that don't use the Roman alphabet that I grew up with. Those upright and proper letters shaped my body around the page and the act of recreating it with my hand.  Unlike the Sinhala script of my father's first language which is all curves and swoops. It bends into the page as if it were still the palm leaves that were originally used to write upon.

    Given my fascination with languages other than English, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered the Indian journal, hākārā, which publishes poems in both Marathi and English. It's a bilingual online journal of creative expression. As well as a peer reviewed journal that encourages the 'innovative nature of literary and visual images, critical artistic practices and developments that inform the contemporariness of the medium.'

    When I saw that they had an open call on the theme of repetition, I set to work to write some new poems. I've come a long way in the years since I first attempted to write a poem in response to a journal's theme. Now I know to come at it sideways. To peer at it through blurry lenses. To flip it upside down or turn it inside out.

    It's hard to describe or explain the process in more detail but I must have done something right because they liked what they saw! You can now read my two poems, $7.86 and Iteration (October 2022) over on the hākārā website.

     

  • Shortlisted for the Jean Stone Poetry Award

    Jean Stone Short List - ME!!

    I am so chuffed that the judges shortlisted my poem, At the Foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, for the Jean Stone Award given by the NSW Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers.

    It’s always an amazing moment when your fellow writers see something special in your work and I don’t think that I will ever get used to the giddy feeling of excitement that comes with this sort of recognition. Especially as this is only the second time I have had a poem shortlisted for a poetry prize! Writing is a solitary pursuit, so its nice sometimes to hear things back when you send your poems out to make their way in the world!

    This poem is super special to me. I wrote it about one of my early morning bike rides to the platypus reserve near my house. The writing of the poem cemented this moment in my memory and coloured in its edges. It’s a reminder that words are powerful and that they can make things seem more real. They can also help you to remember those things that are so easily forgotten –  those precious moments of joy.