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Damen O'Brien

@damenobrien.bsky.social
237 followers 143 following 88 posts

Poet and father. Not necessarily in that order. Author of 'Walking the Boundary' (Pitt Street Poetry, 2024) and 'Animals With Human Voices' (Recent Work Press, 2022)

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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Thanks, IS&T! A vote for me is a vote for world peace. You all want world peace, don't you?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
My thanks to the judge, Deanne Leber and WA Poets.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Surprised but happy to win the Poetry D'Amour Prize last week, announced at the Perth Poetry Festival for my poem 'Sleeping In'! I don't typically write love poetry because I can't resist being transgressive and questioning the whole concept. This poem was closest to the brief!
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Denise O'Hagan @deniseohagan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thrilled to share news of the publication of my third poetry collection 'What the Mirror Tells'! Gratitude to my publisher @5islandspress and #NorthSydneyCouncil for my residency at the #DonBankMuseum where I completed it 🎉 www.5islandspress.com/product-page... #poetry #poetrycommunity #booknews
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
My thanks to Helen Ivory and the Ink, Sweat and Tears team for publishing my poem. Memory is an old road but we drive it when we can.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Thankyou, ANTAE for publishing my poetry!
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Well, I got through the last day of the month with only 8 rejections. Should I get the t-shirt?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
My dog wasn't very impressed with my poem 'The Evolution of X' published in Issue 95: Architecture of Magma Poetry Magazine. Everyone's a critic.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Some days I not only don't know where my poem is going when I am writing it but I don't know where my poem went once it is written.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
My poem 'The Skellig Island Conversions' has won the Poetry Prize in the 2026 AAALS Creative Writing Prizes! I wrote this poem leaning out of a tiny boat just off the coast of Kerry during my time in Ireland for the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I think they should extend the social media ban to adults.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I just passed 500 acceptances and 5000 rejections. It never gets easier.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Okay, I have written nothing but terrible poetry for weeks. Please send me recommendations for great poetry books so I can be inspired again!
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
...and another one in 8 days...which is worst?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
12 months for a rejection - my favourite.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Every journal I submit to wants me to subscribe before submitting. I subscribe to 9 journals and my wife already gives me 'the look' when one arrives. How the hell do I get published in any of the others if that is a pre-condition?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I wrote a poem and realised that the best lines described something which couldn't possibly occur due to basic physics. Now what?
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The Poetry Society @poetrysociety.org.uk · 07/04/2026
Second Prize Winner in the National Poetry Competition 2025 Damen O'Brien offers an inventive prompt for this year's #NaPoWriMo. You can read his winning poem 'Axe' in the Spring 2026 issue of The Poetry Review, available at the link in our bio.
A dark purple square. Text along the top reads NaPoWriMo 2026, underlined by a glowing yellow line. Beneath this is text reading “One way to get the writing started is to imagine the speaker of a job that does not exist: a train track polisher; a lightbulb tester; a sneeze catcher; a tortoise encourager. What is their job? What are their lives like? What do their families think of them? Write the poem that lets them speak.” Beneath this to the right is the name Damen O'Brien. In the bottom left hand corner is a drawing of a turtle swimming, with the words Prompt 7 overlaid on its shell.
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The Poetry Society @poetrysociety.org.uk · 25/03/2026
Damen O'Brien is the Second Prize winner of the National Poetry Competition 2025 for 'Axe'.
A blue square with the National Poetry logo, which is three feathers above the words 'National Poetry Competition', in white text. Beneath this are the words 'Second Prize', 'Damen O'Brien', and 'Axe'. Beneath this is The Poetry Society logo in white.
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Ian Duhig @ianduhig.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/axe/?f...
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
I am doing a reading and a workshop at the Booranga Writers' Centre in Wagga Wagga in two week's time. I will be reading my best poems, new and old. Come and join us! Details here: mailchi.mp/1705ff379aa1...
mailchi.mp
March News
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Proud to have two poems in Volume 9 Issue 2 of the Antae Journal of Creative Writing. Read them here: www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/...
um.edu.mt
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
National Poetry Laureate by Application not Nomination. That's going to end well.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
My poem, Basement, a reminiscence from childhood with mythic overtones is available to read in @islandmag.bsky.social: islandmag.com/read/basemen... I love this journal (always great poems) but it has been a loonng time since I was last in it (if you don't count Gwen Harwood)! So happy to be back.
islandmag.com
Basement – by Damen O’Brien | Australian Literary Arts Magazine | ISLAND
A hatch left open where we played, so we descended   into a subterranean place visited only by men in helmets   and hi vis as though preparing to navigate a labyrinth…
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Lovely to be shortlisted in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award with some of my favourite poets: Denise O'Hagan, Julia Webb, Angela Costi and many more. I thought of the title first and had to write the poem that goes with it: aestheticamagazine.com/creative-wri...
aestheticamagazine.com
Aesthetica Magazine - Shortlist 2025
Aesthetica is a worldwide destination for art and culture. In-depth features foreground today’s most innovative practitioners across art, design, photography, architecture, music and film.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Five of my poems written during my trip to Ireland have been published in Unborder, a new online journal alongside some wonderful Australian poets. Read them here: unborder.au/poetry-by-da...
unborder.au
Poetry by Damen O’Brien
Beautiful Words Know this: the gorse that scratched a ragged runein your sleeve, can’t read, the Jackdaw coughing loudly overhead, will not speak to you, the bees skirling the crisp air in arabesques ...
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
I am thinking of putting together a third book, but I can't help wondering: what is the point? No one is going to read it. Such is poetry.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Fun fact: most of the matter in the universe is made up of cat hair. My cat's hair.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
It's on this Friday! If you are in Brisbane please join us.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Arguably, garden shears are a non sequitur.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
I think I am only going to submit to journals with 'review' in their name. I am going for the full set.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
I once wrote an ekphrastic poem about a painting that doesn't exist.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
I got so excited I got the date wrong - 24 OCTOBER! Be there!
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Gardening on Mars, the new book from Jane Frank is out now through Shearsman Books! I can't speak highly enough about Jane's poetry. If you are in Brisbane on 26 October, come join us at Avid Reader for Jane's Launch. The details are avidreader.com.au/pages/12930-... I hope to see you there.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
I was only in it once in 25 attempts but that publication was one of my proudest - very sad to see Meanjin go.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Since 2019, one Australian journal has rejected me 11 times. Should I give up?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
If you are going to reject my poetry, take a couple of days. Don't reject me in 24 hours - it makes me wonder if you read the poems at all.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Looking forward to attending Victoria Kennefick's workshops on 02 August and 09 August. There might still be spots available. If you are interested, find the details here: queenslandwriters.org.au/events/strok...
queenslandwriters.org.au
Poetry Workshop with International Poet-in-Residence Dr Victoria Kennefick — Queensland Writers Centre
Be inspired by the poetry of Ireland, write beyond your comfort zone and into the dark. Book your place .
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Should poetry be memorable?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
I have been feeling down about poetry lately - wondering what is the point of working so hard when no one is reading any of it. Then I read a new book from one of my good friends - and it's so good, I was inspired to pull out the pencil and write some lines.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
What monster includes the heading in the line count?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
It turns out that I am a member of the poetry bourgeoisie because my poems mostly don't rhyme. I stumbled across an exchange where I was described as a member of 'academia' and my poetry a jumble of random words and obscure references. Should I feel insulted?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
My poem ‘False Pastoral’ received 2nd Prize in the Plough Art Centre’s Poetry Prize. You can see me reading it at www.theploughartscentre.org.uk/poetry-prize.... Great to see @triciadearborn.bsky.social in amongst the Highly Commended. Thankyou to @pascalepetit.bsky.social for choosing my poem
theploughartscentre.org.uk
2025 Winners
First Prize: £1000 Jane Burn Second Prize: £500 Damen O’Brien Third Prize: £250 Mary Gilonne
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Everywhere I went on my travels in Ireland I came across poetry: memorials, centres, museums, quotes in public places, posters, even water-bottles. Why can't Australia have the same respect for its writers? Imagine a bottle of water with Patrick White's face on it! ...Maybe not.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
This was a nice surprise.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
If you missed it (like me), my poem 'I Followed a Dollar' was recently in The Weekend Australia Review'. My thanks to Jaya Savage for choosing my poem.
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Issue 17 of StylusLit is now available for reading. It contains great poems, books reviews and interviews, including one with me! Read it, if you want to learn unnecessary things about my childhood....oh and a poem about native bees and fascists. Find it all here: styluslit.com
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
How is it a journal can reach their monthly submission cap on the same day that they open?
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
To all editors: even if you hate the poems, please allow a week to go by before rejecting them. Please do not reject them within 24 hours. Leave us our dignity!
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Damen O'Brien @damenobrien.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
9 poems won't go into 4 (or 3). Which ones should I get rid of and which ones should I read? What it Might Take 123m The Puzzle Piece The Plot The Everything and All Pulling Out the Tablecloth The Devil's Wife Love and Other Junk Your Bones of Glass
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