Dr June Perkins is a lyrical, jubilant, compassionate and poetic writer of Indigenous Papua New Guinean and Australian background with extensive experience in conducting cultural and creative writing workshops within community settings and in tutoring and mentoring primary school, high school and tertiary writers.
She is moved to write by pressing social issues, such as the future of the planet, the need to eradicate extremes of wealth and poverty and prejudice, and the optimism of young people.
Her PhD was on the subject of writing empowerment, and since finalising that in 2004, she has been applying her research into her everyday practices as a writer in and for community.
In 2016 June won an ASA writing mentorship for picture books and successfully crowd funded and published Magic Fish Dreaming, a poetry book for children and the young at heart. In 2017 she won several Royal Dragon Fly Awards for Magic Fish Dreaming. Her work has been published in a huge variety of spaces, including ABC Open. She is working hard towards more publication breakthroughs, with a novel and picture books in progress.
June presented at the Big Draw (2016), and in (2017) at the Sandcliffe Writer’s Festival, Queensland Poetry Festival and Boonah Environment festival. She has presented workshops at bookshops, libraries, schools and exhibitions and presented at the first Baha’i Writers Festival in Australia in May.
In 2017, she presented her poetry and photographs in the Illumine exhibition which she assisted in curating and her first paid overseas publication of a photograph happened.
In 2018, the was commissioned by the QAG/GOMA for the words and pictures project. She created 12 sequenced poems for Art Adventures in the Australia Collection, in response to the reimagined Australia Collection at the QAG (Queensland Art Gallery) and is soon to present a short participatory presentation for Grandparents, children and families on October 28th 2018.
A number of writing projects are currently in process.
CONTACT: gumbootspearlzATgmail.com (at symbol not placed to avoid robots)
Profiles
Interviews
Five Fantastic Facts with the Young Authors Academy
Interview with Ali Stegert on Spilling Ink
