Mykaela Saunders

1 month ago | artshub.com.au | Dylin Hardcastle |Mykaela Saunders |Melanie Cheng |Michelle de Kretser |Thuy On

Now in its 30th year, the Stella Prize has just announced its longlist for 2025, appropriately enough in the surrounds of the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden at the Adelaide Festival as part of Writers’ Week. This year the Stella – worth $60,000 – received over 180 entries, with the judging panel comprising Astrid Edwards (chair), Debra Dank, Leah Jing McIntosh, Yassmin Abdel-Magied and Rick Morton.

Jun 23, 2024 | liminalmag.com | Mykaela Saunders

When Liminal offered me this commission I had so many ideas. Too many. And all amazing ones too. But I love to sit at the feet of older and wiser people, and given the smaller scope of this project I thought poetry would be the best fit. I made a list of all the poets who influence my writing and thinking; people whose work I have loved, who have comforted me in hard times and spurred me on with their generosity and energy as I set to work on my own writing.

May 22, 2024 | missingperspectives.com | Hannah Diviney |Mykaela Saunders

As a voracious bookworm, an author myself, and now, the host of a podcast all about books, I read a lot. I read all sorts of genres and sometimes I have multiple books on the go at once. As a kid, it would drive the adults in my life slightly crazy that I could so easily float and pivot between two or three wildly different stories at a time. I like to think I’ve sampled most genres at least once and haven’t met too many that I don’t know.

Apr 29, 2024 | australianbookreview.com.au | Mykaela Saunders |Arts Highlights

The concept of Woven, a Fair Trade project from Red Room Poetry, seems simple but the reality is complex: one local First Nations poet is paired with another First Nations poet from another continent, and together they create a poem. This is an ambitious undertaking for the poets themselves and especially for the editor, Māori poet Anne-Marie Te Whiu, who should be commended for stewarding this project through the last few tumultuous years.

Mar 6, 2024 | killyourdarlings.com.au | Mykaela Saunders

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For March that debut is Always Will Be by Mykaela Saunders (UQP), a timely collection of speculative fiction imagining futures where Indigenous sovereignty is fully reasserted. We spoke to Mykaela about the collection, her writing process and her advice for aspiring speculative fiction writers. This interview has been transcribed and edited for clarity.