A Discussion on Queerness, Identity and Poetry with Kaya Ortiz

Join award-winning poet Kaya Ortiz in time for IDAHOBIT Day for a discussion on self-exploration, identity and poetry and a reading of their most recent publication, Past & Parallel Lives.

Time. Memory. Mirror. Past & Parallel Lives is a rippling reflection on being alien, queer, and other. These poems yearn for home and belonging after migration, religion, and coming out. Kaya Ortiz’s award-winning debut shines with authenticity – this is a courageous departure from a past life, towards a queer future and a poetic return to self.

About Kaya

Kaya Ortiz is a queer Filipino poet of in/articulate identities and record-keeper of ancient histories. Kaya hails from the southern islands of Mindanao and lutruwita/Tasmania and is obsessed with the fluidity of borders, memory and time.

Starting out in nipaluna’s open mic scene in 2016, Kaya has performed spoken word poetry and oral storytelling in nipaluna/Hobart, Ngunnawal country/Canberra, Tarntanya/Adelaide, and Boorloo/Perth. In 2017 they competed in the Australian Poetry Slam at the local and state levels.

Since first being published in 2018, Kaya’s writing has appeared in various online and print journals and anthologies, including Cordite, Portside Review, Westerly, Australian Poetry Journal, Best of Australian Poems 2021, Breathing Space (Tasmanian Land Conservancy 2021) and After Australia (Affirm Press 2020).

In 2019 they were a Hot Desk Fellow at the Centre for Stories in Boorloo and a participant in Express Media’s Toolkits: Poetry program. They were also a participant in Westerly’s 2019 Writers’ Development Program. In 2020, 2021 and 2023, Kaya appeared at various writes festivals, including the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Perth Festival of Literature & Ideas, and the Margaret River Readers and Writers’ Festival. From 2022-23 Kaya was a mentee of the Four Centres Emerging Writers’ Program with WA Poets. In this time they were also awarded with an Emerging Writers’ Fellowship under the Centre for Stories’ Writing Change, Writing Inclusion program, to complete their first collection of poetry.

By day Kaya lives, works and writes on unceded Whadjuk Noongar country, where their name means ‘hello’ in the Noongar language. By night, beside their beloved, they dream of wilderness and the call of the sea.

Can’t make it to Vincent Library this IDAHOBIT Day? Join our friends at Victoria Park Library for Health Conversations for Trans and Non-Binary People:

Sexual and Reproductive Health for Trans and Non-Binary People Assigned Female at Birth

Tuesday, 20 May at 6 – 7pm

Would you like to know more about cervical screening, menopause, osteoporosis, contraception, or mammograms? These topics, and special considerations for trans and non-binary people, will be addressed and there will be plenty of time for questions.

Sexual And Reproductive Health for Trans and Non-Binary People Assigned Male at Birth

Tuesday, 27 May at 6 – 7pm

Would you like to know more about prostate screening, prostate problems, breast screening for people using oestrogen therapy, and osteoporosis? These topics, and special considerations for trans and non-binary people, will be addressed, and there will be plenty of time for questions.

Find out more at https://www.victoriaparklibrary.wa.gov.au/events/