Salt River
Vanessa Page
Gibber plains
Nothing we reveal with age is gentle. A stony
desert surrounds the citadels we have built.
Half a life to blow away the smother of dust
that confined us; the yardsticks and mirrors
we grew dependent on.
Our vanishing has only just begun. Something
deep in our internal mysteries seems to know it.
Our gibber plains cannot be outrun.
Your hands already resemble your mother’s.
Botanical Skin
Vanessa Page
“Vanessa’s distinctive voice can articulate an unexpected sequence of words or ideas on the page like potter’s clay flung onto the wheel and pummelled into something aesthetically pleasing.”
– Ynes Sanz’ launch speech for Tourniquet, Avid Reader Bookshop
Vanessa Page
Vanessa Page is an accomplished poet, originally from Toowoomba, now living in Brisbane. Her poetry is deeply felt, with huge emotional power and exquisite writing. It explores domesticity, love, humanity (and its darkness) as well as the bright and simple joys of place, landscape and the small profound moments of living.
Her latest collection of poetry, Botanical Skin, was published by Calanthe Press in July 2021, and was launched at Under the Greenwood Tree Bookshop and Art Gallery by Michelle Taylor.
In October 2018, her previous collection, Tourniquet (Walleah Press) was launched by Ynes Sanz at Avid Reader in Brisbane. Her debut full-length collection Confessional Box (Walleah Press) was the winner of the 2013 Anne Elder Award at the FAW National Literary Awards.
Follow Vanessa at: http://vanessapage.wordpress.com
Other Collections/Manuscripts
China Bull – a chapbook (co-authored with John Koenig), published by Work + Tumble in 2015. Winner of the Work + Tumble Chapbook Prize and previously short-listed for the Whitmore Prize
Confessional Box – a full-length collection, published by Walleah Press in 2013. Winner of the 2013 Anne Elder Award and short-listed for the 2011 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Prize for an unpublished manuscript
Feeding Paper Tigers – a chapbook published by ALS Press in 2012 as part of Brisbane New Voices III
The lost art of penning you a love note – short-listed for the 2010 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Prize for an unpublished manuscript
Memory Bone – short-listed for the 2010 PressPress Prize
Performance
Vanessa has performed feature sets at a broad range of events and festivals including: SpeedPoets, the QPF Riverbend Poetry Series in 2011, 2012 and 2013, the Queensland Poetry Festival in 2012, 2015 and 2019, the Nuyorican in New York City, 2012, the USQ Bookcase festival in 2015 and 2016, Beeble Poets, Avid Reader, Whispers Literary Salon, Saturdays, Couplet (2015 and 2019) and the Calanthe Collective (2019, 2021).
Prizes
Vanessa’s poems have won a range of prizes and been short or long-listed for a range of others, including: Overall winner of 2017 Ipswich Poetry Feast and 1st prize in the ‘Picture Ipswich’ category, Winner of the 2017 Henry Kendall Poetry Prize, Winner of the 2016 and 2014 Martha Richardson Poetry Prize, Winner of the Anne Elder Award for best first book of poetry for ‘Confessional Box’ at the National Literary Awards, Winner of the 2010 USQ Poetry Prize, short-listed for the 2014 and 2021 ACU Poetry Prize, short-listed for the 2017 Kalang Retreat Residency, long-listed for the 2016 Ron Pretty Poetry Prize and twice long-listed for the University of Canberra Vice Chancellor’s Poetry Prize, in 2014 and 2018.
In Print
Vanessa’s poems have appeared in a range of journals and magazines (both print and online) including: the website of the 2021 DiBiase Poetry Competition, Poetry for the Planet (an anthology of imagined futures) in 2021, the 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017 and 2016 Australian Poetry Journal Anthology, Australian Poetry Journal 5.2, 6.1 and 9.1, Island Magazine (Issue 152), Rabbit (Biography issue), ACU Poetry Prize Anthology (Dazzled), University of Canberra Vice Chancellor’s Award Anthology (Signs), 2017 and 2014 Central Coast Poets Anthology, Plumwood Mountain (Issue 7.1 Plant Poetics), Verity La, Stylus Lit Review (Issues 7 and 5), Regime, Writ Review (Issues 1 and 4), Cuttlefish, The Bluepepper, SpeedPoets Zine, Kipple, Page Seventeen (Issues 10 and 11), Foam:e (issue 11), Pressure Gauge, Tincture Journal, Sotto, Southerly (Elemental issue), Not Very Quiet (Vol 7), Grapple Annual, Cordite (No Theme X, Monster, Obsolete, Gibberbird, Silence, The End, No Theme V and Explode issues) Queensland Poetry Festival Anthology and the Poetry for the Planet Anthology. Her books have been reviewed in The Australian, at Cordite, Stylus Lit Review, Foam:e and in the Australian Book Review.