Ellen van Neerven
Ellen van Neerven (they/them) is an award-winning author, editor and educator of Mununjali (Yugambeh language group) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, and non-fiction on unceded Turrbal and Yuggera land. van Neerven’s first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014), a novel-in-stories, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. van Neerven’s poetry collection Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) won the Tina Kane Emergent Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize. Throat (UQP, 2020), van Neerven’s latest poetry collection, and recipient of the inaugural Quentin Bryce Award, is now available
[A Queer writer told me he wanted to teach]
A Queer writer told me he wanted to teach
heteros how to write Queer and I’m still
thinking about it. Why. Will they climb over
the fence into my backyard like neighbours
searching for a ball or paper aeroplane
in a tree? Here. Will they shine a light to find
me in whatever liminal space I have claimed
as sovereign and try to pick my eyelashes from
my lids. How. Maybe this is an overreaction.
Maybe this is an underreaction. Come. I never
got keys x
[the queer apps]
the queer apps
advertise vaxed 4 vaxed
vaxed & waxed
vaxed & not waxed
we call out medical apartheid
India
stigmatising status
reminiscent of the HIV AIDS crisis
queers on the app disclose
a preference for outdoor dates (less risk)
two or three picnics in the park before they
decide whether to get ‘bubbled’
I ask where are the trans and GNC
FNPOCS in my city
I don’t want to venture
out of my home
Xicanx babe (they/them) in LA likes my post
the distant the better
a bit of digital comfort
while I care for my dad