Winner of the 2024 Dorothy Hewett Award, Kaya Ortiz’s debut book Past & Parallel Lives forms a story of growth and identity, woven together with themes of time. In this interview, Kaya speaks with UWAP intern Maria Kakani on the process of curating their poetry collection and the evolution of their writing journey.
Kaya Ortiz is a queer Filipino poet of in/articulate identities and record-keeper of ancient histories. Kaya hails from the southern islands of Mindanao and Lutruwita/Tasmania. Their writing has appeared in Portside Review, Westerly, Australian Poetry Journal, Best of Australian Poems 2021 and After Australia (Affirm Press 2020). Kaya lives and writes on unceded Whadjuk Noongar Country, where their name means ‘hello’ in the Noongar language.
Maria Kakani: Can you tell me about when you began writing Past & Parallel Lives and why you submitted it into the Dorothy Hewett Award?
Kaya Ortiz: I started writing the collection during the Centre for Stories Emerging Writers Fellowship, back in May 2022. That was when I officially sat down and started putting together this collection, which I had been meaning to do for ages at that point. A lot of the poems were actually already written, so it was more a matter of curating it. Though I did end up writing a lot of new poems, as well. By the time the submission date for the prize came around, I’d been working on the collection for around a year and a half. I had already been looking at different publishers, so when the prize came around, I thought I should send it in, but I wasn’t sure if it was long enough. Then, I went to a poetry event at Rabble and spoke to a few poets – Alan Fyfe, Scott-Patrick Mitchell and Lisa Collyer – who strongly encouraged me to submit to the prize, and gave me tips on how to make it longer. They’re a big part of the reason I submitted my manuscript on time, and submitted it at all!
MK: In previous interviews, you mentioned you’ve worked with a few writing organisations. How has being an active part of the local writing community positively impacted your writing?
KO: I think community is actually a really important part of doing creative work, especially with writing. A lot of it does happen when you're alone obviously, but it's definitely not a solitary thing. Even just putting together a book, there are so many people involved.Past & Parallel Lives couldn't have happened without all the editors, writers, mentors, publishers I’ve worked with, but also, just having the support of people who know what it's like to do the same work that you are doing is really encouraging. They could also be more experienced and have a lot of advice to offer. I think it's mainly about support; being able to support each other and learn from all the other creatives around you. Also, a big part of it is networking, but for me that’s the least important aspect. I think the most important thing is just not having to do the work alone and building deeper connections.
I moved to Perth in 2019, and my first priority was to get into open mic scenes. Later that year, I got into a Hot Desk Fellowship at the Centre for Stories. Centre for Stories has been a huge connection point for me and for a lot of emerging writers here in Boorloo. So, I tried to find that community as soon as I could because I know how important it is.
MK: This poetry collection revolves around a few key themes (migration, religion, identity, sexuality). Was this an intentional choice of topic, or more unconscious?
KO: It wasn’t intentional. As I mentioned earlier, I was working with poems that I had already written which spanned all these different themes. I was just working with what I had, really. I had to figure out how to weave them all together in a way that could function as a body of work. So, I guess it was kind of a bit of both.
Experiences regarding these themes, which are really personal…I think we all make art about what impacts us and big moments in our lives. Those are the things that I have drawn from in a lot of the poetry in the book, those pivotal, coming-of-age moments.
MK: How has your experience with migration, religion, and identity impacted your writing throughout your life?
KO: Similar to the previous question, I write about what has impacted me. I feel like writing has been a way for me to work through hard emotions and make sense of those things. It’s also been a way for me to figure out who I am. Writing about identity, it’s a way of making something cohesive out of things that don’t make sense. It’s a way to reflect. It’s also nice to make art out of things like that; it feels messy, then you turn it into poetry and it becomes beautiful. A few of the poems I worked with in Past & Parallel Lives were written a very long time ago, around 6 or 7 years now. I did edit them, but it was interesting to see how my voice has evolved from back then to my newer poems now, and having them exist next to each other in this collection.
MK: Can you discuss your use of form in this collection?
KO: I really like playing with form. The book does use pre-existing forms; there’s some contrapuntals, prose poems, along with some of my own or borrowed forms. For example, one of the poem’s forms was inspired by K-Ming Chang and looks like a test paper. I just really like experimenting with it. I think form is something that is pretty unique to poetry, in terms of written mediums. It gives it that more artistic, visual element. You can play with it to expand on the content of the poem, so it’s a very good tool to have.
MK: How long have you been writing?
KO: I started writing when I was a kid. My mum loves to talk about the first short story I wrote (which was like 5 sentences long) when I was 7 years old. My parents read it and thought there was something in it, so they encouraged me to keep writing. It was definitely because of them that I continued. So, on and off since I was a kid. I remember ever since then always wanting to be a writer, so it’s cool that I am now.
MK: What poets/writers inspire your writing style? How has it changed over time?
KO: When I first started getting back into poetry, I was really influenced by the spoken word and slam poets in the American poetry scene, my favourite being Safia Elhillo and her book The January Children. This book really influenced my poetry and my voice early on. And then when I discovered the Australian scene, I, once again, started with spoken word and videos on YouTube. A few examples include Eunice Andrada, Arielle Cottingham (who is actually American, but they competed in and won the 2016 Australian Poetry Slam), and now, a lot of Western Australian poets as well like Madison Godfrey and Scott-Patrick Mitchell, and so many more. Because I was so influenced by these poets, they inspired me to start doing open mics myself. I actually started out with spoken word, which was really good for developing my voice and learning how to perform poems. I did compete in a few slams which was fun at the time, but I don’t do it anymore. I still enjoy performance but because I love experimenting with form, I start with poems on the page now.
Photograph of Kaya Ortiz (left) and Maria Kakani (right)
MK: How did the narrative of this collection develop over the course of curating it?
KO: It took a lot of time and sitting with it. I remember at the beginning, I printed out all the poems I had at the time that I wanted to include, and I sorted them into three central emotions. The first one was loss, the second was longing, and the third was acceptance. Then I had to figure out where the poems belonged in the book. It took me a while; several months of working on the book, writing new poems, and editing. But I realised as I was doing it that something wove everything together: time. It is why the collection is now called Past & Parallel Lives. There was this whole theme of losing time or wanting to go back and do things over, and imaging potential lives or different timelines, which I thought was a really interesting thread.
MK: What was your motivation for wanting to tell this story?
KO: You know when you go through something that you feel has changed you so much, and you just want to tell that story? To be like, “This is what happened to me. This is why I’m the way I am.” Not in a bad way, I just think there’s some stories we need to tell sometimes, and this was one of those for me.
MK: You mentioned in a previous interview with UWAP that you have worked on an unfinished fantasy novel in the past. Do you plan on publishing novels in the future, or just poetry?
KO: I would like to write fiction, actually. My dream is to write a science fiction novel, because I really like space and learning about astronomy. However, I know it would be really hard and require a lot of research, and would take a lot more time to write than a poetry collection. I definitely do want to write books in different genres. I sometimes write short stories just for me and call it writing practice. Every now and then, I try to write a non-fiction piece, like a personal essay or memoir. I find them kind of hard to finish, because I keep changing and redoing it, and can never reach the end. Poems are easier for me because they’re shorter.
MK: How do you see your writing evolving over time?
KO: I feel like I can feel it evolving right now. I think I am in a place right now, especially with poetry, where my style, voice, and the topics I write about are transitioning. It’s an interesting place to be, because I’m so used to writing about everything that can be found in my book. That was all the stuff I was writing about, and now that it’s in a book, I feel like I’m somewhat finished with it. I’ve just been figuring out what I’m writing now. It’s like I’m discovering it as it’s happening, which is a cool process. I have no idea what the future is going to bring, but hopefully more fiction and non-fiction.
Past & Parallel Lives by Kaya Ortiz is out now from UWA Publishing. Purchase your copy here.
Maria Kakani is a student at Murdoch University completing a Bachelor of Arts, with a double major in Sociology, and English & Creative Writing. In her final semester, she plans to move on to do her Honours in Creative Writing.