[image error]And here, the mandatory 2017 recap:

It has been a big year for me, beginning with Painting Red Orchids shortlisting for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2017 and ending with it shortlisting for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2017.

In between, I have judged the Newcastle Poetry Prize 2017 with Kevin Brophy, and am in the process of judging the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2018 with Jen Webb and Peter Minter.

I launched Lachlan Brown’s second collection, Lunar Inheritance, at Ashfield Library. You can read a version of the launch speech here at the Sydney Review of Books. I also published an essay, ‘The Common Table’, in Meanjin, reflecting on my experience as a writer of colour shortlisted in the PM Literary Awards 2017.

I had poems published in numerous journals this year — I am especially proud of my publications with Peril Magazine, including a poem I wrote in support of Ellen van Neerven, ‘Common Words’, following the attack on her from high school students after her poem, ‘Mango’, was used in the Higher School Certificate exam. Other notable publications this year include ‘The Task’ in Overland, ‘Warhol: Notebooks’ in Meanjin,  several poems in ‘Westerly’, and ‘Pulau Ujong’ in Glass Poetry, complete with reflection and a recording of me reading the poem.

I wrote a response to Dorothea MacKellar’s iconic Australian poem, ‘My Country’, as part of Toby Fitch’s wonderful series with Australian Poetry, ‘Transforming My Country’. The poem was performed at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, and published in the Australian Poetry Journal 7.1, along with many other complex responses to the MacKellar poem. I also had a great time at the Queensland Poetry Festival in Brisbane, where I met the most incredible people, like Mindy Gill, Eleanor Jackson, Chloe Callistemon, among others, and ran a poetry workshop while sharing dumplings with my workshop participants.

I’m proud to have a poem, ‘Butterfly Lovers’, in Metamorphic: 21st century poets respond to Ovid, published by Recent Work Press. But most of all, I’m thrilled that my American book, Another Language, is finally out in the world, from George Braziller in New York, with a stunning and thoughtful foreword by the poet and editor Paul Kane, who edits the Braziller Series of Australian Poets.

The micropress I run, Potts Point Press, which produces letterpressed broadsides of Australian poems, released ‘Yachts’ by Judith Beveridge in a limited edition of 50, signed and numbered. (They are AUD45 each, plus shipping. I have a few copies left. If you are keen on owning a copy, email me.)

I’m also over the moon to be able to announce that my next collection of poems, titled Rainforest, will be released in May 2018 with my supportive and wonderful Australian publishers, Pitt Street Poetry. 2019 will see my first collection, Burning Rice, studied on the New South Wales Higher School Certificate syllabus for English (Advanced).

This past week, my beloved grandmother, Yeap Ah Choo, turned 85 in Singapore. I was unable to be there with her and with my family, but I am with them always in spirit. My biggest joy of the year, and for all the ones to come? Being with family, and being part of family.

As always, follow me on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram for updates that are a bit more frequent than the website, although I can be contacted through the contact form here, always.

Here’s to 2018 — whatever the new year might bring, let it be light, bright, and full of positivity.