• About

    Amanda Anastasi is a Melbourne poet whose work has been published as locally as the Artist's Lane walls in Windsor to The Massachusetts Review in the US. Her poetry collections are 'Taking Apart the Bird Trap' Recent Work Press, 2024 and 'The Inheritors' (Black Pepper, 2021). Amanda's work has been published in Best Australian Science Writing 2021 and 2022, Australian Poetry Journal, Griffith Review, Cordite Poetry Review, The Massachsetts Review, FourW, Short and Twisted and Right Now. She was recently Poet in Residence at the Monash Climate Change Communications Research Hub, where wrote poetry for three years to raise awareness about ecological issues and the climate crisis.

    Awards

    Winner, Words In Winter Trentham Poetry Prize, 2017

     

    Winner, Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize (formerly Seagull PoetryPrize) 2011, 2010

     

    Winner, C.J. Dennis Poetry Award, Laura Literary Awards, 2011

     

    Australian Poetry's 'Poem of the Week', 2012

     

    Second Prize, Brimbank Writer's Festival Award, 2013, 2012

     

    Third Prize, W.B. Yeats Poetry Prize in Australia, 2016

     

    Highly Commended, Peter Cowan Writer's Centre Julie Lewis Biennial Awards, 2011

     

    Commended, Melbourne Poets Union International Poetry Prize, 2017

     

    Shortlisted, Woolhara Digital Literary Award for digital innovation in Australian literature: Poetry Category, 2021

     

    Shortlisted, Hammond House Publishing International Poetry Prize, 2021

     

    Shortlisted, Nillumbik Ekphrasis Poetry Award, 2016

     

    Shortlisted, Page Seventeen Poetry Competition, 2009

     

    Writing Residencies

     

    Resident Poet/Research Associate, Monash Climate Change Communications Research Hub, 2019-2022

     

    Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund Recipient, Writers Victoria, 2021

     

    Artist in Residence, Assembly for the Future, The Things We Did Next, 2020

     

    Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship, 2018

     

  • Media

    Articles I Reviews I Interviews

    '7 Purposeful Poets in APAC to Watch' by Sukhveer Kaur, Hive Life

    "A climate change advocate and poet, Amanda Anastasi is based in Melbourne. Amanda is the Poet in Residence at the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub, where she currently assists with research, education, and awareness on the global environmental crisis." - Sukhveer Kaur

    'How the Poet Confronts Climate Change' by Amanda Anastasi, The Gemma White Review

    "Write the poem that it scares you to write." - Amanda Anastasi

    'Questions for Amanda Anastasi' with a poetry reading of Loggers Post Fire, AOK Magazine

    "Don't underestimate your reader and their ability to be challenged and confronted." - Amanda Anastasi

    'Compelling Visions of the Future' by Geoff Page, The Weekend Australian

    "The Inheritors is a book in which Anastasi's political and aesthetic impulses work powerfully together to create mandatory reading whatever your preferred literary genre may happen to be" - Geoff Page

    'Review of The Inheritors by Amanda Anastasi' by Gemma White, Westerly Magazine

    "Anastasi offers a deep understanding of what societal change requires on an individual level. That is what makes this collection so compelling." - Gemma White

    "To someone who lives a couple of meters above sea level on a sand island, this resonates uncomfortably: an especially disturbing observation." - Martin Duwell

    "Acknowledging our reality with courage is an important step to achieving the kind of action that is required" - Amanda Anastasi

    'Does Australia Need a Poet Laureate? The answer is in.' by Jane Sullivan, The Sydney Morning Herald

    "Last year, Monash University’s Climate Change Communications Research Hub appointed Amanda Anastasi as their Poet in Residence. The Saturday Paper chose its own poet laureate, Maxine Beneba Clarke, and published a poem of hers every week." - Andy Jackson

    'Amanda Anastasi: Using Poetry to Communicate the Climate Crisis', Periodicities: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics

    "I felt that the poems need to - whatever the specific subjects chosen - look the uncomfortable truth in the eye." - Amanda Anastasi

    'Hope Despite Climate Change Denialists Indefatigability' by Noel Turnbull, John Menadue - Pearls and Irritations

    "In a sort of unacknowledged legislators of the world program David Holmes, Director of the Monash University Climate Change Communication Research Hub, writes in an annual update on its activities that: 'we are very pleased to launch the work of Amanda Anastasi who has been commissioned by the Hub to write poetry that brings in the science, the politics and the impacts of climate change.' " - Noel Turnbull

    "When seemingly necessary parts of our lives are no longer present, room is created for a new kind of reflection." - Amanda Anastasi

    'Diamond Scraps of Sound' A review of The Silences by Angela Gardner, foam:e 14

    "A poet needs all their experience, all their senses, all their attention and all the silences to give us this insight. Amanda Anastasi makes this look and sound effortless." - Angela Gardner

    'Collaborations!', Mark Roberts Reviews 'The Silences' and 'Scar to Scar', Rochford Street Review 

    "The Audenesque opening of Anastasi’s ‘The Prodigal Ones’ highlights her confidence in constructing near perfect lines and the setting up of unexpected rhythms." - Mark Roberts

    'Best of 2012: The Top 10 Poetic Works' by Ali Alizadeh, Overland Literary Journal

    "A confident and very promising debut." - Ali Alizadeh

  • Poetry Online

    Published poems available to read online

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    Live Encounters June 2024

    'Scratches'; 'Ways I Said I Love You Without Saying I Love You'; Monostich Poems in Live Encounters

    2024

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    KalliopeX

    'Playing Detectives' in KalliopeX

    2024

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    The Climate Poetry Project

    2019-2022

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    AOK Magazine

    'Loggers Post Fire' in  AOK Magazine

    2022

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    Global Poemic

    'The Mask's Weight' in

    Global Poemic

    2021

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    Live Encounters May 2021

    'The Meeting'; 'The Thinker'; 'Monostich Poems' in Live Encounters

    2021

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    Pendemic

    'Melbourne April 2020' in Pendemic

    2020

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    Cordite Poetry Review

    'Interlocutor', 'The First Moments of his Absence', 'Suburban Deer' in

    Cordite Poetry Review

    2012, 2016, 2018

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    StylusLit

    'Upon the Extinction of Frogs' in StylusLit

    2018

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    Verity La

    'Portrait of a Departed Lady' in Verity La

    2018

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    Optimum

    'Denial' and 'Unexiled' in Optimum Poetry Zine

    2018

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    Vscorpiozine

    'Original Thought', '2012', 'Two Hands' in

    Vscorpiozine

    2012

  • Links

    Poetry Books

  • Contact

    Email: amandaanastasi12@gmail.com