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Three Australian Poets You Have Probably Never Heard Of (And Their Poetry)

It’s inspiring to read outside of what we know

Books mentioned below that I have in my library © Sherryl Clark 2023

I moved back to New Zealand last year, and was keen to read local poets’ work — and very soon realized how many writers I had never heard of. No doubt there are poetry readers in Australia who are the same.

It has always seemed weird to me that the two countries are so geographically close, share the same copyright territory, and yet the movement of books across the Tasman Sea (both ways) is abysmal.

So of course readers in the USA, UK and other countries are very unlikely to have heard of or read any of our poets’ work. Hence this article about three Australian poets (NZ article coming soon). Sharing poetry is always good!

Ellen van Neerven

Ellen is an author, editor and teacher, with three poetry collections published so far — Heat and Light, Comfort Food and Throat. Ellen is of Mununjali (Yugambeh language group) and Dutch heritage. Their website says they write “fiction, poetry, and non-fiction on unceded Turrbal and Yuggera land”.

Ellen’s poetry has its own unique voice, one that is both lyrical and sharp. They take on all kinds of subjects, from landscape and people to political and personal issues…

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Sherryl Clark - writer, editor, poet.
Sherryl Clark - writer, editor, poet.

Written by Sherryl Clark - writer, editor, poet.

Writer, editor, book lover — I've published many children's books and three crime novels for adults so far. I edit other people's fiction and poetry.

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