Esther Ottaway is an award-winning Australian poet from Tasmania/lutruwita. In 2020, she was shortlisted in the global poetry prizes, the Montreal and the Bridport. Her work has been shortlisted for the Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry and has won the Tom Collins Poetry Prize, the Queensland Poetry Festival Ekphrasis Award, and a Varuna Fellowship. Her work is widely published in literary and other journals, The Australian newspaper, and in national and international anthologies, particularly those on women’s experiences.
She co-edited the Australian Poetry Journal’s Divergence issue. Esther is neurodiverse and has multiple disabilities, and she received Australia Council for the Arts funding to write her third poetry book, She Doesn’t Seem Autistic, a collection of works illuminating the experiences of women and girls on the autism spectrum. Her featured poem comes from this collection. She Doesn’t Seem Autistic was released in 2023. You can learn more about Esther on her website esther-ottaway-poet.jimdosite.com or find her on Facebook at Esther Ottaway Poet or Instagram at estherottaway.poetry