AustLit

'When I contacted Ellen van Neerven in May to see if they would talk with me about Personal Score, I was working in a bookstore. The new release, with its distinctive earth-toned, soccer ball-patterned cover, was piled in different places in the shop: facing out in Australian Studies, propped up in the window-seat, sitting on the counter. It seemed to migrate as well. One week it was in a NAIDOC display, nestled among First Nations new releases and classics, including van Neerven’s debut story collection Heat and Light. At another point it found a home in our queer writing display. As the Women’s FIFA Football World Cup approached, it could well have found a place next to Sam Kerr’s My Journey to the World Cup or the upbeat board book I Can Be a Matilda.' (Introduction)

'Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction.

'Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. They have written two poetry collections: Comfort Food, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize, and Throat, which was shortlisted in 2021 for the Queensland Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, and won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, the Multicultural NSW Award and Book of the Year in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.' (Introduction)