Inlandia

In this debut collection, Judith Wright Poetry Prize winner, K A Nelson surveys a life lived in inland Australia. Inlandia traces the inner self, recording discoveries as she feels the place out and comes to an understanding of what ‘place’ means. Nelson’s direct poetry makes us think again about what keeps us returning, physically and in memory, to the terrains and people who occupy our shared history.

In the early hours my thoughts fly north to the desert—
to a woman I call mother, who took me to Dinner Camp
told me a story, taught me a song, showed me a dance.

About the Author

K A Nelson is a Canberra poet who began writing full time in 2010 after winning the Overland Literary Journal’s Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets. Her work has been published in The Canberra Times and journals such as Mascara Literary Review, Arena, Rabbit, and Not Very Quiet (several times). She was Guest Editor for Issue 4 of Not Very Quiet.

Her work has also been published in several anthologies including The Best Australian Poems 2015, edited by Geoff Page, To End all Wars (2019), and No News (2020). In 2018 K A Nelson was shortlisted for the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the same year Recent Work Press published her first collection, Inlandia. It was runner-up in the ACT Writers Centre Book Awards for poetry in 2019.

K A Nelson likes collaborating with artists. She has co-facilitated poetry/art workshops in Alice Springs, at the Warraweena Artists’ Camp 2015/2017, and Burra Regional Art Gallery in South Australia.