Ellen van Neerven (born 1990) is an Aboriginal Australian writer, educator and editor. They are queer and non-binary. Their first work of fiction, Heat and Light (2013), won several awards, and in 2019 Van Neerven won the Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award. Their second collection of poetry, Throat (2020), won three awards at the 2021 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, including Book of the Year.

Early life and education

Van Neerven was born in 1990 to Dutch and Aboriginal parents,[1] and is of the Mununjali clan of the Yugambeh nation.[2][3]

They studied creative writing at the Queensland University of Technology.[4]

They are openly queer[5] and non-binary, using they/them pronouns.[6]

Writing career

Van Neerven's first book, Heat and Light, won the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards' David Unaipon Award for unpublished Indigenous writers,[7] the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Award's Indigenous Writers Prize[8] and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2015.[9]

Their second book, the poetry collection Comfort Food, was published in 2016. One of van Neerven's stories, Confidence Game, was featured in SBS podcast series, True Stories, in 2015.[10]

Throat (2020) is van Neerven's second collection of poems, and consists of five themed chapters:[2] "The haunt-walk in"; "Whiteness is always approaching"; "I can't wait to meet my future genders"; "Speaking outside"; and " Take me to the back of my throat".[11][12] Throat won three prizes at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards: Book of the Year; the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry; and the Multicultural NSW Award.[2]

Van Neerven has also had some of their poetry translated into their grandmother's Yugambeh language by Shaun Davies.[13]

Van Neerven published a piece in Griffith Review about sport, entitled "No Limits", in September 2021.[14] Described as "part creative memoir, part reportage, part theoretical essay and part history lesson", the piece examines the exclusionary nature of sport, which leads to a very low rate of participation by non-binary people.[15]

Other activities

In September 2015, in a collaboration with Poets House in New York, a recording of six First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) members reading their work was presented at a special event, which was recorded. Van Neerven was one of the readers, along with Jeanine Leane, Dub Leffler, Melissa Lucashenko, Bruce Pascoe, and Jared Thomas.[16]

Van Neerven is co-host and creative producer of two podcasts,[6] Extraordinary Voices for Extraordinary Times, launched in June 2020,[17] and Between the Leaves, launched in October 2020.[18][19]

Awards and honours

Van Neerven was a recipient of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, an award of A$160,000 given to mid-career creatives and thought leaders.[20]

Selected works

  • Personal Score: Sport, culture, identity (2023) – poetry, autobiography, history

Fiction

  • Heat and light, University of Queensland Press (2014)

Short stories

Poetry

Collections

  • Comfort Food, University of Queensland Press (2016)
  • Throat, University of Queensland Press (2020)[12]
  • invisible spears

Poems

As editor

  • Writing Black: New Indigenous Writing from Australia, edited by Ellen van Neerven, State Library of Queensland (2014)
  • Joiner Bay and Other Stories, edited by Ellen van Neerven, Margaret River Press (2017)
  • Homeland calling : words from a new generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, edited by Ellen van Neerven, Desert Pea Media via Hardie Grant Publishing (2020)[36]

Critical studies and reviews

  • Birch, Tony (27 August 2014). "Heat and Light, [by] Ellen Van Neerven". Readings.
  • Patrić, Alec (September 2014). "[Untitled review of Heat and light]". Australian Book Review. 364: 48.

References

  1. ↑ "Shortlist 2015 | The Stella Prize". thestellaprize.com.au. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Jefferson, Dee (26 April 2021). "Poet Ellen van Neerven wins Book of the Year, Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and Multicultural NSW Award at NSW Premier's Literary Awards". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  3. ↑ "Ellen van Neerven, Writer, (Yugambeh) | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  4. ↑ "An Interview with Ellen van Neerven |". Sydney Review of Books. 23 October 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  5. ↑ Russell, Stephen A. "Throwing light on queer Indigenous voices". SBS.
  6. 1 2 "About". Ellen van Neerven. 2 October 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  7. ↑ jurisdiction=Queensland, corporateName=State Library of Queensland. "2013 winners". qldlitawards.org.au. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Winners announced for 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards". State Library of New South Wales. 16 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 May 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Shortlist 2015 | The Stella Prize". thestellaprize.com.au. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  10. ↑ "Ellen van Neerven". Programs. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  11. ↑ Neerven, Ellen van (2020), Throat [Catalogue entry], Trove
  12. 1 2 Neerven, Ellen van (2020), Throat, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-6434-4
  13. ↑ van Neerven, Ellen (2018). "Gibam Garandalehn (Full Moon)". The Red Room Company.
  14. ↑ Neerven, Ellen van (1 September 2021). "No limits". Griffith Review (73). Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  15. ↑ Lewis, Samantha (12 May 2022). "'No limits': How non-binary First Nations poet Ellen van Neerven is queering sports writing". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  16. ↑ "First Nations Australia Writers' Network Reading". Poets House. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  17. ↑ "UQP launches a poetry podcast, Extraordinary Voices for Extraordinary Times". UQP. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  18. ↑ "Launch of Between the Leaves podcast with hosts Ellen van Neerven and Hermina Burns". Victorian Women's Trust. 8 October 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  19. ↑ "Between the Leaves". Victorian Women's Trust. 26 November 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  20. ↑ "Past Award Recipients". Sidney Myer Fund & The Myer Foundation. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  21. ↑ Wyndham, Susan (13 May 2016). "The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists awards turn 20". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  22. ↑ "Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing 2016 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 2 September 2016. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  23. ↑ McGowan, Michael (16 October 2017). "Indigenous poet Ellen van Neerven abused by year 12 English students". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  24. ↑ Qian, Jinghua (12 November 2019). "Winners announced for the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards". ArtsHub Australia. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  25. ↑ "Van Neerven wins inaugural UQP Quentin Bryce Award". Books+Publishing. 27 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  26. ↑ "Queensland Literary Awards 2020 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  27. ↑ "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 8 December 2020. Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  28. ↑ "NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2021 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 24 March 2021. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  29. ↑ "ALS Gold Medal 2021 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 18 June 2021. Archived from the original on 18 June 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  30. ↑ "2022 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 19 January 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  31. ↑ "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 19 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  32. ↑ "Skin". Meanjin. 3 October 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  33. ↑ "'Wetskins', by Ellen van Neerven | The Lifted Brow". theliftedbrow.com. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  34. ↑ "McSweeney's Issue 41". store.mcsweeneys.net. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  35. ↑ "Invisible spears". Overland literary journal. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  36. ↑ Homeland calling. Neerven, Ellen van, 1990-, Baker, Danzal, Pitt, Lakkari. Richmond, Vic. 2020. ISBN 978-1-74117-692-6. OCLC 1126588713.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
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