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Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award

2022 Shortlist 

Congratulations to the finalists! 

Rebecca Cheers, Author

Rebecca Cheers

Judges' comments 

Rebecca is to be commended for editing, writing, publishing and poetry, and her strong focus on making publishing accessible while supporting the work of emerging and more established writers and artists. 

About the author 

Rebecca Cheers is a writer, poet, zinemaker and playwright from Brisbane. She co-founded and edited the zine Woolf Pack. She holds a Masters of Philosophy from QUT, in which she researched lyric poetry as feminist biography. Her first book, No Camelias, is out now with Rabbit Poetry Series.

A black and white image of Marilena Hewitt. They are wearing glasses and resting their face on their hands. They're looking off camera.

Marilena Hewitt

Judges' comments 

Marilena's impressive body of work includes print and digital publishing work, as well as their focus on community-driven projects, writing, explorations of place, and collaborations with artists, writers, designers, creatives and architects.   

About the author 

Marilena is a small-press and digital publisher, writer, filmmaker and architecture graduate living and working on unceded Jagera and Turrbal land. Their experimental practice is centred around documenting mass extinction with tenderness, humour and hope. Since finishing their Masters of Architecture at QUTin 2018, their preoccupation with bearing witness to the anthropocene is most recognisable in their print publication, PLATYPUS. Since starting this publication in 2020, they have worked with over 75 artists locally and internationally to design and produce a number of art/ideas books. They wish to continue to unconventionally ‘make public’ immense issues and advocate for real change.

Headshot of Miranda Hine who is wearing a short sleeved black top, red lipstick and glasses. She is looking at the camera

Miranda Hine

Judges' comments 

The literary community has been vocal in calling for a greater commitment to the art of critique. The judges acknowledge Miranda’s growing body of work as a writer, curator, producer and artist committed to both supporting and critiquing the work of Queensland artists and creators.

About the author 

Miranda Hine is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based writer, curator and artist fascinated by how these disciplines intersect to construct, disrupt, and provide access to stories. Her articles feature in Garland Magazine, SUNNIE Magazine and the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, and she has produced exhibition texts for OuterSpace, Museum of Brisbane, MoanaArtspace, STABLE, QCA and MetroArts. With a Bachelor of Fine Art (QCA) and a Master of Museum Studies (UQ), Miranda has received the UQ Art Museum’s Emerging Art Writers’ Award (2016) and Editor’s Choice in the Young Art Journalism Awards (2018).

Headshot of Sean West – he wears a white button up shirt with flamingoes on it. His hair is pink and he sits smiling under a pink tree

Sean West

Judges' comments 

The judges acknowledge Sean West's substantive body of work as a poet, editor, performer and cultural producer, as well as his commitment to the arts and engagement with communities.

About the author 

Sean West is an autistic poet, disability support worker, and workshop facilitator. He was runner-up in the SCWC 2022 Poetry Award, received an Arts Queensland Individuals Fund grant in 2021, and has been shortlisted for the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize in 2021, 2020 and 2019. He has run workshops for Queensland Poetry’s SlammED!, Australian Poetry Slam, Brotherhood of the Wordless, and Upbeat Arts, among others. He is the founding editor of Blue Bottle Journal and works for Ruckus Slam in Meanjin. Find more of him and his work at http://www.callmemariah.com/