Gillian Swain

Gillian Swain is a poet based in the Hunter region on Wonnarua land and grew up on Awabakal land. Gillian’s poetry appears in various journals and anthologies including Burrow (Old Water Rat Publishing, v1,2,3), Live Encounters magazine: Special Australia-New Zealand edition (May 2021) as well as Poetry for the Planet: An Anthology of Imagined Futures (2021, Littoria Press), What we Carry: Poetry on Childbearing (2021, Recent Works Press) and others.

She is involved in running various poetry events including Poetry at the Pub (Newcastle) and was the Co-Director and Poetry Curator of for the writers festival ‘IF Maitland’ in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Gillian shared first place with Magdalena Ball for the Maclean’s Booksellers Award, in the Hunter Writer’s Centre Grieve Project (2019). Her debut poetry collection is My Skin its own Sky (Flying Islands Press, 2019) following her chapbook Sang Up (Picaro Press, 2001).