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'There was a Facebook message from Hetti Perkins, which was an odd coincidence. I was working on a poem about her late father Charlie for a collection, which I would later abandon as I grew aware that I lacked the precision for poetry. The early interest I had attracted leading to these opportunities was more about a literary industry driven to uncover diverse new voices than an acknowledgement that with hard work and patience I might become a great writer. Attention that provided motivation but pushed emerging writers in directions at once exhilarating, confusing and premature. At the time I was considering using the title ‘Peeling’ for the poetry chapbook when I noticed her message. The poem was about her father’s role in the Nancy Prasad incident, where a five-year-old Fijian girl was deported to Fiji, symptomatic of Australia’s racist immigration policies of the 1960s.' (Introduction)
Notes
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Epigraph: Being a writer can feel a lot like writing and giving up on writing at the same time. - Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- Am I Black Enough for You? 2012 single work autobiography
- The Politics of Identity : Who Counts as Aboriginal Today? 2016 single work criticism
- Lemons in the Chicken Wire 2016 selected work poetry
- Blakwork 2018 selected work poetry