‘Sometimes a poem just needs to “find the right home”. I believe it’s crucial to remain optimistic and never give up on your craft. Be true to your own unique experience: what you know, feel, and wish to communicate — and the manner in which you want to do it.’
‘Try to find communities wherever you are and wherever you go, one friend at a time. Creating art itself can take turns being exhilarating, boring and painful. Having friends and mentors to wade with you through times of doubt is the reason I’m still able to write.’
‘I don’t want to read a romantic comedy where the romance looks like red roses and diamond rings and sounds like an Ed Sheeran ballad … The most romantic moment in Five Bush Weddings centres around a meat pie being dropped on the ground.’
‘Process, for me, is a compound and an evolution of the known and unknown. Eventually I wound up here as a poet obsessed with this ineffable substance I hear in the storytelling of my Elders. I don’t know if should call it poetics or spirit but it exists in just about everything …’
‘Dirt Town started as a short story. I wrote about a group of small-town kids, describing all the different ways they’d made their way home from school on a Friday afternoon. After I’d written that, it occurred to me that there needed to be a reason for them to be talking about that day, in particular.’
‘Having a background in research helps me apply methods for gathering and assessing information necessary to ground my work and colour my stories with fascinating historical details.’
‘The theme and style of stories are varied, some are close to magic realism, some directly related to Persian folklore and some realistic experience of first-generation migrant life experience in Australia.’
‘The story is very much about friendship, and it’s been an interesting parallel that the people I’ve met while writing it have helped me understand what community truly is.’
‘By exposing all members to memoir, poetry, screenplay, historical fiction, even musicals etc, our constructive criticism allows all members to develop skills outside their comfort zones owing to the diversity of genres canvassed.’
