B&W profile shot

Reneé Pettitt-Schipp is an award winning writer and educator who lived in the Indian Ocean Territories from 2011 until 2014. Renee’s work with asylum seekers in detention on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) islands inspired her first collection of poetry, ‘The Sky Runs Right Through Us’. This manuscript was shortlisted for the inaugural Dorothy Hewett manuscript prize and released by UWA Publishing in February 2018. Reneé’s work has been recognised through many literary awards, including the ACU literature prize, the Ros Spencer Poetry Prize, the Grief Poetry Prize and the Trudy Graham Biennial Literary Award.

Read Renee’s blog from her time on Christmas Island:   http://schippahoy.blogspot.com.au/

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Buy a copy of Renee’s debut collection here

Curriculum Vitae

Download PDF version here   

Qualifications and Associations

2017 – Vice President of the Out of the Asylum Writer’s Committee (OOTA)

2015 – commenced Doctor of Philosophy – Media, Culture and the Creative Arts, Curtin University

2014 – joined the OOTA Writers’ Committee

2013 – awarded First Class Honours in Creative Writing, Curtin University

2011 – attained full accreditation as an English as a Second Language teacher, Education Department of W.A.

2010 – Member of OOTA writers’ group

2000 – 2003 Graduate Diploma in Education, Murdoch University

1999 – Photo Media (one year only), Edith Cowan University

1992 – 1996 Bachelor of Arts (Double Major in English and Comparative Literature and Philosophy), Murdoch University

Awards

  • Ros Spencer Poetry Prize (‘After Your Mother’s Fall’, Commended, 2017)
  • Grieve Poetry Prize (‘My Father Comes to the Island’, Shortlisted, 2017)
  • Glen Phillips Poetry Prize (‘On Forgetting’, Third Place, 2016)
  • Ethel Webb Bundell Literary Award (‘What the Rain Said’, Commended, 2016)
  • Poetry d’Amour Love Poetry Contest (‘Love Letter’, Second Prize, 2016)
  • The Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript (‘Returning to Land’, Shortlisted, 2015)
  • Katherine Susannah Pritchard Poetry Awards (‘Black Stone’, Commended, 2015)
  • Poetry d’Amour Love Poetry Contest (‘Autumn at the Cidery’, Highly Commended, 2015)
  • ACU Literature Prize (‘Parting Glass’, Shortlisted, 2014)
  • First Class Honours ( ‘In the Shadow of a Palm Tree’, poetry manuscript and exegesis, Curtin University, 2013)
  • Ethel Webb Bundell Prize for Poetry (‘New Eyes at Wet Night Intersection’, Winner, 2010, and ‘Measuring Loss’, Highly Commended, 2012)
  • Trudy Graham Biennial Literary Award (‘Song to Self’, Shortlisted, 2010)

Publication History

Print Publication History

  • 2018 ‘The Sky Runs Right Through Us’ (poetry collection), UWA Publishing: Crawley, Western Australia
  • 2017 ‘Beyond the Immediacy of Things’ (poem and book front and back cover images), in Never Again: reflections on environmental responsibility after Roe 8, p70, UWA Publishing: Crawley, Western Australia
  • 2017 ‘The Politics and Poetics of Paying Attention in Un-Australia’ (article) in Axon: Creative Explorations , December vol. 7 no. 2 2017http://www.axonjournal.com.au/issue-13/politics-and-poetics-paying-attention-un-australia
  • 2017 ‘An Ambiguous Genre: thoughts on creative non-fiction and the exegesis’ (collaborative article with Rachel Robertson, Daniel Juckes, Marie O’Rourke)     Text Journal Special Issue, 44 http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue44/content.htm
  • 2017 ‘Weaving Ketupat on Pulu Cheplok’ and ‘Pinggir’ (poems) in Westerly 62(2) pp 76, 77. Australia: Westerly Centre
  • 2017 ‘Boys with Wings’ and ‘First Flight’ in Flightpath, pp25, 31, Hallowell Press: Denmark, Western Australia
  • 2017 ‘My father Comes to the Island’ in Grieve Volume Five Anthology,  Australia: Hunter Writer’s Centre
  • 2017 ‘Redtails’ (poem) in Westerly 62(1) p50, Australia: Westerly Centre
  • 2017 ’Swan River’ (poem) in Cordite Poetry Review 57(1) http://cordite.org.au/poetry/ekphrastic/swan-river/
  •  2016 ‘It Takes Time for Clouds to Cross the Sky’ and ‘Beyond the Immediacy of Things’ (poems) in Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics 3(2) https://plumwoodmountain.com/plumwood-mountain-volume-3-number-2/
  • 2016 ‘Portrait of a Poet Sitting with a Stone’ (poem) in Westerly in New Creative https://westerlymag.com.au/issues/new-creative/.
  • 2015 ‘Kings Park’ (poem) in Western Australian Botanic Garden: Celebrating 50 Years, back sleeve.  Perth: Western Australian Botanic Parks and Gardens Authority.
  • 2015 ‘Christmas Island’ (poem) in Prayers for a Secular World, p8. Victoria: Inkerman and Blunt.
  • 2015 ‘Tuesday Waits in Lodtunduh’, ‘The Haematologist Finds a Girl’ (poem and flash fiction) in Cuttlefish, pp24, 31. Cottesloe, Western Australia: Sunline Press.
  • 2015 ‘Autumn at the Cidery’ and ‘Love Song’ (poems) in Poetry d’Amour 2015, pp11, 78. Inglewood, Western Australia: WA Poets Inc.
  • 2014 ‘Pinggiran’ (poem) in Westerly, 59(2), pp224, 225. Australia: Westerly Centre.
  • 2014 ‘Soar’, ‘A Place Much Further’, ‘Returning to Greenhead’ (poems) in Poetry d’Amour 2014, pp9, 13, 22. Inglewood, Western Australia: WA Poets Inc.
  • 2014 ‘Parting Glass’ (poem) in The Language of Compassion, p1. NSW: Australian Catholic University.
  • 2013 ‘The Will of Water’ (poem) in Going Down Swinging, 35, p206. Victoria: Going Down Swinging.
  • 2013 ‘This Same Humidity’ (poem) in Regime, 3, p23. Perth: Regime Books.
  • 2013 ‘Tell Canberra They’re Dreaming’ ‘The Sky Runs Right Through Us’ (poems) and ‘Where the Light Reaches’ (short story) Jukebox; a selection of prose, soul, poetry, flash fiction, pp120-1125. Fremantle, Western Australia: Out of the Asylum.
  • 2013 ‘The Fact of You’ and ‘Tuesday Waits in Lodtunduh’ (poems) in Poetry d’Amour 2013, pp9, 59. Inglewood, Western Australia: WA Poets Inc.
  • 2012 ‘In the Shadow of a Palm Tree’ (series of poems) in borderlands, 11(3), pp1-6. Retrieved from www.borderlands.net.au
  • 2012 ‘Shift’ (poem) in Famous Reporter, 44, p18. North Hobart: Tasmania
  • 2012 ‘Advance Australia’ (poem) in Creatrix Anthology 2008-2012, p47. Inglewood, Western Australia: WA Poets Inc.
  • 2011 ‘Last time I saw you your hair was long’ (poem) in Westerly, 56(1), p216. Australia: Westerly Centre.

Publication through Exhibition and Performance