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Svetlana Sterlin

@svetlanasterlin

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@swimmeetlitmag

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feel like i’ve won something 🧅🥲

big writing month/year:
✨ @qldliteraryawards Young Writers and Publishers Award 🤯 (hair & makeup by @exe.edddie❣️)
🌔 poetry in schoolfriends’ backyards, philanthropy conferences, @booksstones and on islands
🦋 @storytellerspinks Heath-Blues launch
🫐 @uniofqld Creative Writing Fellowship Celebration & Translation Slam

to reiterate a sliver of the gratitude expressed in my speeches over the last couple weeks: Anna Jacobson, my incredible mentor for the Fellowship, has been beside me literally every step of my career and seen my new manuscript through its entire life cycle. she has held my work so generously, so tenderly, while maintaining a firm sense of direction in guiding me 💜

the local literary community for valuable advice, Fryer Library reading recs, and constant inspiration 🥰

my friends, showing up again and again—you are so special 🥹

and Matt, (my personal photographer hehe) one of this manuscript’s first readers, your love and support means the most ♥️ by @svetlanasterlin

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2 days ago

Australian poetry 🌶️❤️‍🔥

Gobsmacked to—alongside @genevieve__osborne with TWO shortlisted poems!!—be runner up for the 2026 Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize (!!) to @felicity_plunkett , who hosted my first poetry workshop at my first QPF (RIP) in 2021. Congratulations, Felicity—I am in perpetual awe of your grace, and the precision with which your poetry moves 🫶🏼

‘Day Drinking on Caxton Street’ wouldn’t exist without Chilli Fest 2025 (RIP), Ballistic Salisbury (RIP?), Darling & Co’s dank and dimly lit underground car park/smoko/food markets (?), and above all @abbybananapants 🍻

THANK YOU @islandmagtas and @katemid for supporting my poetry so tangibly over the last few years. Thank you judges @timloveday_ and Graeme for your discretion.

All twelve shortlisted poems will be in the next issue of Island!! by @svetlanasterlin

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15

8 months ago

receipts for the fans to prove that i have in fact been scribbling this year 🙂‍↕️🙏🌗🌱🐀🫡 by @svetlanasterlin

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a year ago

it’s @redroompoetry Poetry Month!! mid-week poetry night, anyone? with an open mic section?? to the tune of travel & water??? special opportunity to see @storytellerspinks in Meanjin @itsstillasecret33 😌 you should come ✨

tix 🌀 $0 🌀 $10 🌀 $20

more info in the ether 🔗 taken in It’s Still A Secret by @svetlanasterlin

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a year ago

thank you so much @stevedrewphotos for these headshots!! i may not believe i’m a Real Writer (yet!!), but Steve certainly made me feel like one 💅✨ by @svetlanasterlin

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2 years ago

feeling nostalgic (me writing this whole book)

If Movement Was a Language out now, floundering in the shallows of a water body near you 🌀 by @svetlanasterlin

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2 years ago

majestick & maarvolus 🥹 If Movement Was a Language is alive in the world 🤍

cannot thank you all enough for encouraging my slightly unhinged ideas:

MC: Rae, an absolute pro without whom I would not be holding my book in my hands 😭

guest readers: Anna, who began this journey with me on the HAB shortlist 💜 Maddy, fellow water poet whose wit and erudition is amazing to witness 💖 Bec, fellow swimmer-writer hybrid, for your eagerness and adaptability 🩵 George and Napier, for being far braver than me in revealing your creative sides at the pool!

glam team: Emily for working magic on my chlorinated hair 🪄Steve for the gorgeous photos 🌀

manual labourers: Toby and Felipe for the midnight planning meetings and cooking up the Pool Water (Oliver for apt name) 🧪 Heidi for baking 40+ blue cookies, Mitch for being decorating assistant 👩‍🍳

and the person who gave me courage to send this MS out: Krystal, for taking care of business 📈

in a true reflection of the book’s themes, two very different circles overlapped—thank you everyone who dipped their toes into untread waters ☯️ let’s do it again!! this is only the beginning 🔮 by @svetlanasterlin

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2 years ago

in our glam era?? ✨

thanks to everyone who came along to the Bris Vagabond Press launch 🥹

Dave, Ashley, Shastra, and Michael are all superstars 🩵 pls support their work!!

one more to go 🌀 save the date! by @svetlanasterlin

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2 years ago

Recent milestones: out of the womb and into the world…live birth still to come (chronology irrelevant in poetry) 🩵✨

THANK YOU: Gasoline Pony for hosting Syd launch, Louise for organising, Dave for transporting precious cargo, Jo for generosity, Luke for graciousness, Vagabond/Michael for everything, and my number one fan/hand model (pictured) for all the photos 🥰

Our books are all available now!! @gleebooks in Sydney, Vagabond website, and elsewhere 👀 by @svetlanasterlin

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2 years ago

Come witness a live book birth @yerongapool 🩵 Feel this mythical object tactile in your hands, listen to pool water lap its rhythm around lines of poetry, laugh at swimmers attempting to poem, learn a new language under fairy lights and a balmy sunset ✨🔮

6pm Saturday December 7!! More info on the Facebook event—please RSVP ASAP so I can organise surprises 🎀 link in bio, etc.

There will also be a Vagabond launch on November 27 at @thecaveinnstagram 💖 also linked

AND I will be in goth mode at the next @qutlitsalon 🖤🤍 October 30 @withlovetheunderground by @svetlanasterlin

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2 years ago

vagabond assembly announcement!!

3pm Sunday November 10 @ The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville 🐎

join us in celebrating the release of not one, not two, not even three or four or five, but SIX new Vagabond titles PLUS the 25th anniversary Vagabond Press Anthology 💫 all titles are available for preorder now!!

…Meanjin launch TBA 🤠 by @svetlanasterlin

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2 years ago

Wowowowow okay so HAPPY WORLD POETRY DAY (belated). What a a way to celebrate—endless thanks to @artss_sydney @sydney_uni and Helen Anne Bell and her family; Vagabond Press, who I’m so excited to work with; Annette Hughes, who moved heaven and earth putting all this together; the tireless judges, Cassandra, Jeanine, and Maxine; my insanely talented fellow shortlistees, Angela, Holly, and Anna—especially Anna, who was by my side for the craziest 24 hours of my career 💖 see slide 10 for a snippet of one of my fav Anna poems!!

I think I said it all in my speech, but obviously this is the most incredible opportunity and honour!! THANK YOU 😭 and WATCH THIS SPACE?!! by @svetlanasterlin

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3 years ago