FIRST BLOOD GINNINDERRA PRESS
Press on First Blood
Video - Reading "A Hollow in the Bones"
from the Fire and Mud reading in Ventura, CA, USA.
Westerly Magazine
"First Blood’ is delicate and shows that power can come from that which is fragile, bleeding, or in the process of blooming."
- Amy Lin Read more here
Rochford Street Review
"First Blood illuminates, enthrals and moves. It deserves to be savoured."
- Dominique Hecq Read more here
StylusLit
"This is highly cerebral poetry that nevertheless hits you in the guts."
- Alison Clifton Read more here
Writing WA
"Natalie D-Napoleon’s words go straight for the heart of the reader...."
- Writing WA Read more here
John Kinsella, Poet
"'First Blood: A Sestina' is an unsettling poem...a critique of self and society in terms of the female body, a strong undoing of form working hand-in-hand with the application of that form, the sestina.”
Debut Poetry Book
First Blood
In First Blood, Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize winner Natalie D-Napoleon brings us a collection of poems that challenge our preconceptions of girlhood. Girls are sung about the world over, yet the selfhood of girls remains unknown: ‘her body was not hers, a stitch / of animal, a pinch of dirt, a girl / is made of words plus liquid minus time’.
OUT NOW THROUGH GINNINDERRA PRESS.
Purchase the book here.
Poetry Chapbook
Border Crossings: Immigration advice for those attempting to cross borders, is a pamphlet of poetry as advice. Through erasure poetry Border Crossings asks questions about our how we define ourselves, raising issues about our tenuous understandings of nationality, borders and the circumstances of migration.
These are poems both created and found. Revealing and concealing.
OUT NOW through BLURB Books. Purchase the chapbook HERE.
Recent Poetry Anthology
What We Carry: Poetry on childbearing
What We Carry brings together the voices of more than 60 contemporary Australian poets to provide accounts of childbearing that are both lyrical and embodied. Featuring diverse voices and perspectives on experiences of infertility, conception, termination, loss, pregnancy, birth and the early postpartum period, this collection illuminates the endlessly different ways the potential to carry life is experienced. They provide powerful insights into the potential for childbearing experiences to shape us, change the trajectories of our lives, and teach us about what it means to be human. For after all, all of us were carried, at the beginning. Edited by Ella Kurz, Simone King and Claire Delahunty.
Erasure Poems
Los Cementeros 69 and Sound of Borders
Two of Natalie's erasure poems - "Los Cementeros 69" and "The Sound of Borders" - were published in Poetry WTF!'s Sculpture Poems edition. Read the poems here.
BIOGRAPHY
Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon (D-Napoleon) is a writer, singer-songwriter and educator from Fremantle, Australia who lived in the United States for a decade.
Natalie holds a MA in Writing from Swinburne University and worked a Coordinator at a Writing Centre in a city college in California. Currently Natalie is completing a PhD on erasure poetry and historic amnesia while also teaching writing at university. Her poetry has appeared in Cordite, The Australian, Entropy, Griffith Review, StylusLit, Southerly
and Australian Poetry Journal.
In addition to he poetry, Natalie's essays and creative non-fiction have been published in Westerly, Meanjin, StylusLit, The Manifest-Station, LA Yoga Magazine, Larry Smith's The Best Advice in Six Words, and Writer's Digest.
She is a two-time finalist for the Penelope Niven Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and her poem 'First Blood' won the 2018 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize through the University of Southern Queensland. In 2019 she won the KSP Poetry Prize for "If There is a Butterfly That Drinks Tears". She has placed in the Tom Collins Poetry Prize and been shortlisted for the AALS, Antipodes Poetry Prize.
In addition to her literary pursuits, Natalie is a singer-songwriter who has toured Australia, Europe and the United States - with an album that made #1 on the AIR Record chart - www.nataliednapoleon.net
AWARDS
Night Stitches
Shortlisted | 2022 AAALS/Antipodes Poetry Prize
I've Been Dreaming About Eating Salmon
Third Place | 2022 Tom Collins Poetry Prize
The Contents of My Son's Pockets on Wash Day
Highly Commended | 2022 MPU International Poetry Prize
Highly Commended | 2021 OOTA Spilt Ink Poetry Prize
Campus Writing Prize | April 2021
If There is a Butterfly That Drinks Tears
Winner | 2019 Katharine Susannah Prichard Poetry Award
First Blood: A Sestina
First Place | 2018 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize | Australia
Bhreus
Winner | Annette Cameron Award for an Unpublished WA Poet | 2018 Katharine Susannah Prichard Poetry Award | Australia
Border Crossings: Immigration advice for those attempting to cross borders
Finalist | 2018 Laurel Review Midwest Chapbook Prize | USA
Finding Napoleon
Finalist | Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award | 2018 International Literary Awards | USA
Finalist | Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award | 2018 International Literary Awards | USA
PUBLICATIONS
CREATIVE NON-FICTION
The Short Story Dispenser
(via Short Edition), Raine Square Perth, WA
Meanjin
Three Ways to Awaken Your Mind to Poetic Thinking
Writer's Digest
Six Lessons Learned from a Year of 101 Rejections
Writer's Digest
The Squeeze
The Manifest-Station
ARTICLES
Farm Stay USA
Santa Barbara News-Press
Desert Art Magic
Santa Barbara News-Press
All You Need is Love
Santa Barbara News-Press
A Peddle Powered Van-cation
Santa Barbara News-Press
Street Food Fast
Santa Barbara News-Press
The Gaviota Coast: Last Jewel of Southern California
LA Yoga Magazine
Shaken To The Core
LA Yoga Magazine
POETRY
Westerly: Caretaking
Cordite Poetry Review
Westerly 67.1
MONA Magazine
What We Carry: Poetry on childbearing
'On Becoming' and 'The Morning After'
Antipodes Journal - Shortlist AAALS/Antipodes Poetry Prize
Singing Statistics from Rottnest Island (Wadjemup)
StylusLit (Issue 11)
Australian Poetry Anthology (vol. 9), Ed. Lucy Dougan.
Bluebottle Journal
On Day One, We Will Begin Working
Cordite
Griffith Review
Right Now
In Your Hands (Red Room Poetry Anthology)
If There is a Butterfly That Drinks Tears
The Weekend Australian (Review)
Cordite (Earth Issue)
Psalms of Cinder & Silt, Solo Novo Vol. 7/8
Mountain Secrets (anthology) (Ginninderra Press) Ed. Joan Fenney.
Kaleidoscope: The Colours of Katharine (anthology), KSP Writers’ Centre, 2019
Poetry d’Amour (anthology), WA Poets
StylusLit (Issue 6)
Griffith Review (65)
Southerly Journal (Issue 78.2)
StylusLit (Issue 3)
EVENTS
FORTHCOMING
Perth Poetry Festival
October 2nd, 5.30pm - Knowing Perth Canyon Reading for Red Room Poetry
Voicebox - Fremantle
October 9th, 3pm - Fremantle Library
October 11th, 7pm - Poetry at the Pub @ The Leopold
Beacon of Hope: The Human Experience of Conflict (Moderator)
Featuring Max Rosochinsky and Oksana Maksymchuk (Ukraine), and Hassan Al Nawwab (Iraq).
October 23rd at 4pm, Rechabite Hall (Tix $12)
First Blood - Sydney Book Launch
November 4th - Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf
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A SELECTION OF PAST READINGS
Mission Poetry Series (USA)
2021 | November 13, 1pm (PST)
Experimental Poetry Showcase
2021 | Sat, 20th March
WA Poets | The Queen's Building, Perth | 7pm
Under a WA Sky - Eco-Poetry for World Poetry Day (Host)
2021 | Sun, 21st March
WA Poets | The Queen's Building, Perth | 6pm
with Josephine Clarke, Allan Boyd, Liana Joy Christensen and Soul Reserve
Shifting Sands Poetry Reading (BRINK Festival) -
2021 | Mon, 29th March
Voicebox Fremantle, WA | The Navy Club, 7pm
First Blood Book Launch - Fremantle
Saturday, 19 October 2019 | 6.30pm - 8.30pm
THREEO | 244 South Terrace, South Fremantle WA | Australia
Spring Into Poetry
Friday, 25 October 2019 | 6pm - 8pm
Albany Public Library | 221 York St, Albany WA | Australia
Perth Poetry Club
Saturday, 9 November 2019 | 2pm - 4pm
The Moon Cafe | 323 William St, Northbridge WA | Australia
SERVICES
EDITING & WORKSHOPS
Professional Editing Services Available
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I have over 12 years' experience as an ESL teacher, writing teacher and academic in the US and Australia
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I've assisted students and writers for over 12 years to improve their writing and get published
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I can provide:
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big picture and structural edits
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detailed line-edits and grammar checks
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or both for your manuscript
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Workshops
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Extensive experience designing and facilitating workshops at a City College in the US
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Sold out workshops for WA Poets Inc.
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Host and member of the Voicebox poetry collective
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Host for Perth Poetry Festival Events
Qualifications
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PhD in Creative Writing candidate (current)
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MA (Writing)
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BA (Hons)
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CELTA Certificate
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Working with Children Check
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Member of Writing WA and WA Poets Inc.
CONTACT
