Presenting at OzComicCon Panel on Authenticity of Women’s Voices in Writing March 2022
To young writers everywhere
looking for your authentic voice
and to create authentic voices
look into herstory for inspirations
listen and observe your
mothers, sisters, daughters, and yourself
Ask questions
whatever gender you are
you can do the following (see poem).
Authenticity
To write with authenticity is
choosing
to write with truth
putting aside any
shackles, biases, and oppressions
being honest, courageous,
creative, skilful, and
brilliant.
It’s moving to where there is
balance
finding our voices in all their
diversity
winging their ways into
every writing genre;
popular to poetic,
academic to artistic, protesting,
questioning
and free
respecting and remembering those
paved the way for us.
(c) June Perkins
Phyllis Wheaton, First African American Woman to earn something from her writing. She was a poet.
To find out more visit the reflection on the panel at
Sidney Long, Spirit of the Plains, Yvonne Koolmatrie’s Hot Air Balloon, June Perkins, poem Spirit of the Plains, Images Courtesy Queensland Art Gallery
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Follow the Angel, Follow the Feathers, Follow the Art!
Imagine you are in a Hot Air Balloon
Discover a fresh perspective on the Australian Collection with Words & Pictures, an ongoing project that invites local artists and writers to respond to artworks in the Australian Collection. Take inspiration, and use the pencils and paper provided at the stations to create your own response through drawing or writing.
Only small extracts of the poems and writing are here to encourage you to go visit and read them on location!
This season’s Words & Pictures inspiration comes from June Perkins, Brisbane-based poet and children’s author. June has developed an interactive journey through the Australian Collection through poems and micro-stories for visitors of all ages, with particular appeal for children and families: Art Adventures in the Australian Collection.
Look for Words & Pictures labels alongside the following artworks. If you’d like to follow the writer’s journey, visit the works in the following order.
I just love the Australian Children’s poetry blog, mainly because it shares such a variety of poets with diverse styles and many interesting prompts.
There are funny, serious, rhyming, non rhyming, scientific and reflective poems.
I have shared some interviews with some of the poets featured there on my Ripple Poetry blog in a series called Ten things about Poetry and Me if you would like to go read them.
This is my latest contribution on Australian Children’s Poetry, published earlier this week.
Presenting at Sandcliffe Writers Festival photo courtesy of Jo Hoffman
“One of the best parts of running the Children’s Book Academy is seeing the beautiful books that our students make. This one is from June Perkins who took our Self-Publishing with Crowdfunding course, co-taught by Jed Alexander and myself. Magic Fish Dreaming is truly gorgeous, getting rave reviews, and most importantly getting into children’s hands in June’s native Australia.
June did not want to wait for an editor or agent and the incredibly slow process of getting contracted and published. Because it’s a book of poems, which also makes it harder to be picked up by a traditional publisher, June was wise to follow her heart and take her destiny into her own hands to create the book that she wanted. With the help of her illustrator Helene Magisson, and a small village of both professional and non-professional help, June has created something very beautiful and meaningful.
We are so grateful that June was sympathetic with our instructions by getting her poems professionally edited and hiring a really high-quality professional illustrator and designer from the money she raised in her successful Kickstarter campaign. We are also grateful that this beautiful book exists because of its beauty, it’s diversity, and the environmental caring it subtly weaves through inspiration.
After the book came out, I was delighted to interview June for this blog in hopes that others will purchase it and learn from June’s innovative poem structures, the exquisite art, and about this magic place in far North Queensland where Magic Fish Dreaming takes place. Here’s the interview where June shares about her experiences of self-publishing and about her process in making the book.”
To find out more about our Instant Access Self-Publishing with Crowdfunding course click here. There’s currently a $60.00 discount with this Promo Code: ILOVEKidLit
When our family first moved to Far North Queensland I had only ever really thought about one kind of palm tree, the coconut palm, so often portrayed in movies of desert islands.
But I was soon to become familiar with the Licuala Fan Palm. This palm is an integral part of the environment that inspired much of the poetry of Magic Fish Dreaming. It is distinctive and common in the Cassowary Coastal area.
There is a licuala Fan Palm walk between Tully and Mission Beach. On it you may come across the Ulysses Butterfly, Green Tree Frog, Scrub Turkeys or Wallabies and sometimes if you are lucky a Cassowary (we have done this.)
Mission Beach has over 50% of the remaining fan palm forests left in the world. These palms are incredibly resilient to cyclones.