Q&A with Rae White
“A single partner does not this polycule make.”
~ Discussing polyamory in the workplace: by Rae White
Your poem Discussing polyamory in the workplace: tackles issues of queer visibility in contemporary Australia. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your piece?
Absolutely! When doing temp or other jobs outside of the arts industry, I often talk to folks who are a bit conservative or outright queerphobic, and so I find myself merging together my partners into one mega-partner: “Oh yes my partner is both an economist and a writer and they’re definitely just one manly man and not many gender diverse humans …” This is mostly because I don’t want each temp job I do to be a teaching moment – that gets very tiring! So instead I’ve started writing about polyamory more, in poems and non-fiction, in order to get information out there. I think perhaps if I’d read a poem like this one 15 or so years ago, I wouldn’t have felt so alone with my multi-love feelings.
Your poetry collection Milk Teeth (2017) has been described as original, edgy, playful and provocative, with poems that define "new ways, new languages." Is experimentation with form and language an important part of your writing practice?
Yes definitely! I don’t think I could write without pushing the boundaries of form and language, without pushing myself as a writer. Perhaps because experimenting feels like play, and that’s both enjoyable and also something we don’t often get to do as adults. It’s one of the reasons I love poetry so much – the capacity it has for play and exploration.
You're the founder and co-editor at #EnbyLife, a journal for non-binary and gender diverse creatives. How did the journal first begin and how has it evolved?
#EnbyLife started out as a zine, born in July 2016 and launched at the much-loved Junky Comics in Meanjin. It was a paper and digital zine of collected stories, poetry, comics and art by non-binary and gender diverse people. After it’s publication, I received enthusiastic responses to revive #EnbyLife, so I decided to recreate it as a journal. This gave me the opportunity to bring on board my wonderful co-editor Alison Evans, and make #EnbyLife more accessible to folks as an online iteration with rolling submissions that pays for creative work.
Who are some great writers or poets we should be adding to our reading list?
Ooh excellent question! I’m currently writing and editing my first YA verse novel, so I’m reading many other amazing YA books like: The Little Wave by Pip Harry, We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, and Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans. As for poetry, I’ve recently been reading/re-reading Ask Me About the Future by Rebecca Jessen, blur by the by Cham Zhi Yi and Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith.
Rae White is a non-binary transgender poet, writer and zinester. Their poetry collection Milk Teeth (University of Queensland Press) won the 2017 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and commended in the 2018 Anne Elder Award. Rae is currently completing a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship for their YA verse manuscript Welcome Home. They are the editor of #EnbyLife (enbylife.net), a journal for non-binary and gender diverse creatives.