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Svetlana Sterlin

@svetlanasterlin

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through the years & lately

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Exactly one year ago, the Brisbane Writers’ Festival saved my soul.

In a year when it felt like I didn’t accomplish much, the opportunity to volunteer as a stage manager, work alongside an incredible team to deliver the first ever BWF at the Powerhouse, and hearing such a wide range of authors talk about their work, truly revitalized me, to the point where I partly credit the 2025 Festival with getting me out of my writing slump.

In 2026, I wasn’t able to volunteer, but still wanted to be as involved as I could. I spent all four evenings of the festival at the incredible precinct around the Powerhouse and New Farm Park, taking in the most sublime jacaranda sunsets I’ve ever seen, and listening to five awesome events which I didn’t want to end.

- The Queensland Literary Awards - special congrats to my friend @svetlanasterlin and to @mama_sita_1981 whose incredible book I read in a single Sunday!
- Luke Bateman and the Debutants, with my friend @hannah_ruby_writes - helped me think about the process of querying and submitting my own manuscripts, and how to maintain the joy of writing in doing so.
- Messy and Magnificent - the work of female authors has changed my life and I wouldn’t be where I am without it. This was one of my favourite panels I’ve ever attended; all five of these amazing ladies were radiant.
- Alice Oseman at City Hall - great to catch up with some uni friends and hear from one of the first people I ever called an inspiration in writing.
- Josh Silver, Fruit Fly - starting this book immediately today and I’m so excited. We need more men like Josh in writing.

I cannot believe my gorgeous hometown book festival is over for another year. Time to keep looking forward to the next one like it’s Christmas 🥺.

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Aching, Obsessive, Adrift - Issue 1, now available for purchase online / A$30 / Featuring fiction by Oscar Revelins, Sarah Uheida, Zay Amsbury, Hope Loveday, Edmario Lesi, and John Saul / Essays by Tom Wade and George Salis / Poetry by Stuart Cooke, Duc Van Khanh Tran, Megan Alpert, and Svetlana Sterlin / And an interview with Patrick Marlborough / Artwork by Zi Qin.

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Poets being poet-y with Svetlana Sterlin, D. Frederick Thomas, and Kim Kenyon. Thank you again, Karen and Michael, for hosting Poets@Stones and Jane Frank for joyful MC’ing during Brett Dionysius’s break. 💐

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We couldn’t be more excited to present both Svetlana Sterlin & Rae White reading their winning poem of the 2025 Pen Pal Poetry Challenge, “Somewhere Light.”

Follow Svetlana Sterlin on Instagram @svetlanasterlin and Rae White on Instagram @rae.elliot.white.

Svetlana Sterlin is the author of Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award winning poetry collection, If Movement Was a Language (Vagabond Press), which was Commended in the 2024 Anne Elder Award. A swimming coach and former swimmer, she lives in Meanjin (Brisbane, Australia), where she writes prose, poetry, and screenplays. Her work appears in Westerly, Island, Cordite Poetry Review, Australian Poetry, and has been recognized in the Queensland Literary Awards, Richell Prize, State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award, and others. She is also the founding editor of swim meet lit mag.

Rae White is a queer non-binary transgender writer, and author of poetry collections Milk Teeth (UQP 2018) and Exactly As I Am (UQP 2022). Rae was awarded the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize in 2017, and has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Queensland Literary Awards, and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. Their debut picture book All the Colours of the Rainbow (Lothian Children’s Books/Hachette), with illustrations by Sha’an d’Anthes, was published in January 2025. Rae is the Creative Director and Founder of Uplift Poetry, a community poetry initiative; the Founding Editor of #EnbyLife, a journal for non-binary and gender diverse creatives; and a co-host on the 4ZZZ radio show Tranzmission.

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Aching, Obsessive, Adrift – Varnish, Issue 1 / Thirteen works of exceptional written art, exhibited in print / Coming soon / Artwork: Zi Qin, ‘Leon Gin’, 2021

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Poetry readings and writing groups!
So amazing to get to listen to friends reading their incredible stories.
I have been meaning to post these for a while.
The image of me and Shastra, who I admire a lot, captures the moment where I confessed one of the creepiest things I've ever done 😂. I still get really nervous talking to published authors and poets but I'd heard Shastra speak a lot and we were at the bus stop after one of her readings and I whispered while walking past, "I like your poetry". Like a weirdo. To her credit of kindness and warmth she just smiled and looked in the void of people around for who had just said that 😂.
I'm such an awkward human but I think I've found my place among writers who accept it so gracefully. ❤️
Much appreciation to the writing group people and Rae and Svet as well. ✨️

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Another great turnout yesterday for the @justiceforpalestine.magandjin rally ❤️🇵🇸🕊️

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In what may be the most delayed social media update ever, I wanted to share a couple of photos from the Brisbane launch of Sirens. 🧜‍♀️ 🚨

Friends, family (minus my 4th son, who was sick), neighbors, coworkers, literary peers, etc. came from multiple corners of my life to support me, which was a little overwhelming TBH but in the very best way.

We ate together, acknowledged Country with a poem generously lent by Kirli Saunders, looked at photos of New England where I grew up, and listened to guest poets, Nikita Kostaschuk and Trudie Murrell (also with Calanthe), as well as Natalie O’Driscoll and her friend Oddur singing Kate Rusby’s arrangement of “The Mermaid” and my 12YO nephew playing “She Moved Through the Fair” on his harp. The event was everything I’d wished for, and left me filled with love. ❤️

Thank you to everyone who came, and thank you, Poppy Gee, Karen Hollands, Kat MacArthur, and Jo Skinner for some of these photos. 🫶

Sirens is now available for purchase on the Calanthe website: https://www.calanthepress.com.au/books-and-authors/nicole-melanson. If you’d like a signed copy, let me know and you can order it directly from me instead.

Lastly, if you missed the Tamborine and Brisbane launches and would still like to hear selections from this collection, I’ll be the featured poet at SpeakEasy at echo & bounce in Woollongabba on Thursday, May 21st, and reading with Rosanna E. Licari and Vanessa Page at Poets@Stones on Thursday, May 28th. Hope to see some of you there! 📕

@poppygeenovelist
@katmcart
@khollands25
@running.writing
@calanthepoetry
@kirli.saunders
@nikita.kostaschuk
@natatatalatilie
@trudiemurrell

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REPOST • @palette_poetry “Somewhere Light” by Svetlana Sterlin & Rae White is the winning poem of the 2025 Pen Pal Challenge, selected by Palette editors. We’re honored to share this scintillating poem with you. Read more by following the link in our bio.

#palettepoetry #challengewinner #penpalchallenge #poetry #poetrycommunity submityourwork poetryofinstagram poetryisnotdead poetryofig poetrylovers poetryaccount poetrycorner poetry

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new year new yaoi

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