Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: published author

  • Dystopian Dreams

    Eye To the Telescope Banner

    Eye to the Telescope is an online journal form the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association that has been publishing speculative poetry since 2011. They publish science fiction, fantasy and horror and even pay their authors for their poems! Each issue has a different editor which keeps things fresh and interesting.

    I can't remember how I came across this journal but I decided to have a crack at writing a poem for Issue 46.  I had a great time attempting to combine my twin loves of sci-fi/fantasy and poetry. The theme for the issue was quest, which felt apt given writing speculative poetry proved to be quite an adventure. 

    Luckily for me, the editor Wendy Van Camp liked my poem, Dystopian Dreams. A lot of the poems I write in response to themes end up being in some way a negation or a rejection of that theme. Like the time the prompt was to write about a movie I'd watched and instead I wrote a poem about how I was too tired and sleep deprived from breast feeding to watch movies!

     

    In this case, my poem was about how 

     

    It’s always thrusters and jetpacks

    cargo bays and airlocks

     

    but

     

    It’s never washing diapers

    and cleaning toilets.

     

    If you want to check out the rest of my poem and read all the great poetry of Issue 46 of Eye to the Telescope, head on over and check it out.

     

  • The Poisoned Path

    The Crow

    The environment has been on my mind of late. From day to day I don't give it much thought but when I have a moment to be still or quiet, a sense of unease creeps into my thoughts. At times it feels overwhelming, this tide of humanity that has over taken this fragile and precious planet. And then it comes out in my poetry.

    I wrote A Poisoned Path a couple of years ago after a morning walk down to the local creek. It runs between houses and a golf course until the houses turn into an industrial estate. I was standing at the water's edge looking through the trees to the sun shining on the green when I saw a rabbit bounding down the path. She seemed so out of place, here in the suburbs at the edge of a sprawling city.

    I've been sending this poem out the various publications since then and I am so pleased that Brenda Eldridge of Ginninderra Press has decided to publish it in the September edition of The Crow. You can subscribe to The Crow or grab a copy for only $5 – it's the best value poetry journal in the country!

     

  • Gems Zine

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    I'm not sure what is about certain poems. You know the ones – they've got something about them that you feel says something important. So you keep dusting them off and sending them in to journals and competitions hoping that they will find the reader they're looking for.

    Way back in August 2020 I did my very first online poetry workshop with the award-winning Australian poet, Dr Mark Tredinnick. What The Light Tells was a six week masterclass on the art of writing poetry. At the time I had only been writing poetry again for a couple of years and it pushed and stretched me in so many ways.

    As part of that class I wrote fifteen poems. An astonishing number and in the workshops I've done since then I haven't even been able to come close to that effort. Not all of the poems were good. Not all of them I liked. But there are a handful that I still have faith in after all these years. And so I keep sending them off.

    Happily for me, two of those poems - paper garden and Life Support - have just been picked up by Gems Zine, the publishing collective based in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). I am beyond thrilled that they saw something in these pieces and that they are now out in the world and able to be read!

    Thanks Gems for publishing them!

     

  • Mantissa Poetry Review

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    Sometimes a poetry journal comes along and it blows you away. Mantissa Poetry Review is one such journal. I fell completely in love with Issue One. The gorgeous cover and its design. The typography and coloured endpapers. 

    I love everything about it from the lush feel of the velvety matt cover under my fingertips to the gorgeous matching endpapers. The layout, design and typography are stunning. And it incorporates verse, text, colour and illustrations to make a visual feast. If all that isn't enough to convince you to go out and buy a copy now, it's printed in Australia on recycled paper.

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    And the poems. Oh my. The poems. These are poems that take what you think a poem is and twist it, turn it on its head and turn you inside out. The poets play with white space and mess with your mind. There is colour and illustrations. And fabulous experiments. This is most definitely a journal to savour and one to own.

    The poetry that Mantissa publishes is ‘other’. It is what floats behind and around the literature that aims to erupt. We hope this gives voice to, perhaps, ideas less spoken.


    ‘Mantissa’ by definition, is the fractional part of a floating point. It is the addition of comparatively small importance.

    Imagine my joy when I found out that not one, but two of my poems (Attention: Ferntree Gully (December 2020) and Uncanny Valley) were going to appear in Issue Two of the Journal. I was over the moon! 

    Not only that, the editor Erin Lyon, asked me to write a statement of poetics to be published in the journal along with my poems. You know me, I love thinking and writing about the creative process so to be asked to do exactly that and then have those words included in the journal was an honour.

    Thank you Mantissa Poetry Review for publishing my poems and a statement about my creative process!

     

  • Going Viral

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    If you live in Victoria and you're not already a member of Writers Victoria, go join it right now! Don't worry, I'll wait here till you're done.

    Oh good, you're back! Now why did I want you to join Writers Victoria? Well they run a great bunch of courses throughout the year on all things writing from poetry through to fiction and non-fiction. The courses range from free lunchtime seminars for members to full day workshops either online or in person.

    And if that's not enough to convince you, they also publish the excellent The Victorian Writer magazine four times a year. That's a gorgeous print magazine featuring the best writing right now. And I am super flattered to be included in the December 2021 issue, Transformation, with my poem going viral.

    If you don't have the funds for a membership at the moment I would highly recommend singing up for their newsletter which will keep you up to date with current writing opportunities.

     

  • too late

    Milestones Cover

    Another fine anthology from independent Australian publisher, Stephen Matthews of Ginninderra Press. Filled with poetry from some of the finest Australian poets. Including yours truly with the poem, too late.

    When I read my very first Ginninderra Press anthology, way back in 2018, I had a go at writing a poem to fit the theme. It was too late to be included in the anthology but I was interested in writing the poem as an exercise and a challenge. Reading the poems in the book had inspired me. The poets had such a diverse and broad reaction to the theme of wild. However, I really struggled to write something as original or as compelling.

    Fast forward to four years later and a poem of mine is in a Ginninderra Press anthology. I am becoming better at writing poems for themes. At looking at them from the corner of my eye and taking a journey to somewhere new. Or as was the case with this poem, realising that it would it the theme. I love it when I've already written something that would be perfect for a journal or anthology!

     

  • Brushstrokes

    Brushstrokes Cover

    Earlier this year I entered the Ros Spencer Poetry contest with my poem, Recipe for a Poem. It didn't win any awards but it was selected to be published in the anthology for the competition featuring poems from 2016-2019.

    It's been a long time since I've had any poetry published (twenty-two years in fact *ahem*) and I'm so happy to have a poem published after such a long break. It feels like a sign from the muse that I am on the right track and that writing poetry is worthwhile.

    Of course writing for it's own sake is always worthwhile and I will keep writing no matter what. Like writing this blog which I do mainly to express my thoughts and record my adventures in living a creative life. Not because I have to but because I want to and it brings me joy to create something with words and pictures. That said, it's nice to receive some external validation every once in a while. Keeps you going, you know?

    WA Poets Inc have done a fabulous job with this anthology and I am super excited to have one of my very own poems featured in its pages.

     

  • Dream Come True

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    I was half asleep the morning I grabbed my phone to check my emails. It's my daily before breakfast ritual. My thumbs flicked on one from Amanda Soule Blake before my brain registered what was happening. I started to read the email and light suddenly dawned. This was an email from the Amanda Soule Blake, aka Soulemama. She's an author, blogger, crafter and mama extraordinaire. I've been quietly following her blog for years with equal part awe and inspiration. I've never commented on any of her posts because I always felt a little bit shy and awkward about talking to someone who I've never met and yet feel I know so well.  I never dreamed that I would actually be getting an email from her. But get an email I did!

    The email was to tell me that my article on eco-dyeing had been accepted for publication in the magazine Taproot. Soulemama is also the editor of this wonderful ad free and independent magazine devoted to family, food, farm and craft. Whenever I get an issue, I feel so inspired and comforted by the contents of its pages. The pages are filled with so many wonderful things to make, inspiring ideas to try and thoughtful articles to read.

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    I couldn't quite believe that my article had been accepted. Even through the whole editing process I was pinching myself and half believing that it would all turn out to be a dream or a mistake. But now I've got the magazine in my hands and it's true. My article has been published. I'm so excited!

    I have to say a big thank you to my lovely friend Kate Horne who helped with the article by reading, editing and making suggestions about what to include. Thank you so much Kate!

     

     

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