~ Photo Credit: Emma Byrnes ~

Indrani Perera is a poet, creator of The Poet's Express e-mail newsletter, publisher of the Pocketry Almanack, host of the podcast Pocketry Presents and maker of useful things from Melbourne, Australia. A self-confessed book geek, she's obsessed with reading, researching, writing, editing, designing, printing, making, binding and collecting books. When she doesn’t have her nose stuck in a book you'll find her trying not to pulverise the opposition during family games nights or riding along the Ferny Creek trail. You can follow her on Instagram (@indraniperera).

Indrani is the author of eight books including two collections of poetry published by Ginninderra Press (Defenestration and Pas De Deux), two handmade chapbooks (Wild Heart and Still:Books), two instant books (Some Thoughts On Writing a Poem For a Journal and Promote Your Poetry) and two free e-books (What's Your Excuse and Cure Creator's Block) which can be downloaded here.

Her poems have been published in Burrow, Cordite, More Than Melanin, Not Very Quiet, Rochford Street Review, The Crow, The Victorian Writer and Teesta Review (India). She has also been anthologised in Mountain Secrets (Ginninderrra Press, 2019), Brushstrokes - Ros Spencer Poetry Contest Anthology 2016 - 2019 (WA Poets Inc, 2019), Wild (Ginninderra Press, 2020), From the Inside Looking Out (Geelong Writers Inc, 2020), I Protest: Poems of Dissent (Ginninderra Press, 2021) and Milestones (Ginninderra Press, 2021). Indrani's photography and articles on making have been published in Taproot, Womankind, The Mulberry Journal and Otherways. In 2022, Indrani's poem, empty nest, was shortlisted for the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing and in 2017 she won the Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards Bonus Non Fiction prize for her piece, This Country.

In August 2020 Indrani ran an online workshop, Promoting Your Poetry, as part of the Melbourne Spoken Word Festival Online. She has also run outdoors workshops in barefoot shoe making at the Village Continuum Festival held at Hollyburton organic farm in Riddells Creek and eco-dyeing over an open fire at the Wild By Nature Village Camp in Gembrook. During the pandemic in 2020 she hosted song circles for Firekeepers' with her ten year old daughter via Zoom.

She has been hooked by the spoken word bug and now lockdown is over she is joyfully attending gigs around Melbourne and performing on the open stage. Check out the events page for details of upcoming gigs and workshops.

Want more? Follow her on Instagram.