Blue Bottle Journal

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Blue Bottle Journal

Online poetry journal for words with sting 🪼

12/10/2024

This tender, hyper-colourful portrayal of grief grabbed our attention and wouldn't let go 🩵

Kate worked as a counsellor in the NHS, then voluntarily in a hospice setting. She lives by the Atlantic in Cornwall, has been involved with XR, and is trying to learn BSL. (She dislikes abbreviations …) She feels writing itself is enough to quicken the blood — publication an affirming bonus 🙌

We especially loved Kate's final stanza, where her tactile-visual poem reaches its crescendo 👀

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/a-brief-history-of-touch

28/09/2024

Blue Bottle is a journal that prides itself on rewarding perseverance and kindness. Glen Hunting has both of these in spades as a poet, human, and good egg 🩵

Glen Hunting is a poet living in Mparntwe on Arrernte country (Alice Springs, NT). Amongst other things, he writes about notions of home, belonging, and estrangement, as well as the hopes and frustrations surrounding allyship, reciprocity, and empowerment 👏

We're so pleased that Glen has cracked the Blue Bottle code (whatever that means), seeing his work develop and shine brighter with every new submission ✨

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/marking-time

18/09/2024

We know what we like at Blue Bottle but when something totally out of the box comes along and grabs us, it really doesn't let go. This utter gem from utter gem still has us in its grip 💎

Zoe Odessa (she/her) is a 23-year-old poet and writer who wishes to be utterly consumed by words. Currently based in Cairns, Australia, on Yirrganydji land, she is at the tail end of her USYD B.A in English Literature. She loves difficult women and challenging feminist literature. She has previously had poetry published in Sour Cherry Mag. You can find her on her instagram

Savour this fiercely devoted, infectiously sensory, cyclically confessional new piece online now ❤️‍🔥💥✨

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/girly

14/09/2024

The day's finally here where we get to publish the endlessly kind, fabulously talented 🩵

Dave Clark is a reliable human with unreliable health.
He is a writer-poet with chronic fatigue syndrome, living in Mparntwe (Alice Springs).
His writing speaks into grief, illness, justice and how we love and laugh together.
Dave works as a counsellor, creating space for stories of significance.
Instagram/X:

We had a conversation with Dave months ago about unlocking difficult subject matter in poetry and letting the subject let you in. It's so wonderful to see how Dave has let this topic lead the way in his new work 🙌

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/youre-doing-a-lot-more-than-usual

02/09/2024

This is the second outing in Blue Bottle for Angela Arnold and it compliments her first poem SUPER well. Highly encourage you to jump back to 2023 to re-read "cracking you open" then come right back for this beauty! 🐅

Angela Arnold (she/her) lives in Wales. She’s also an artist, a creative gardener and an environmental campaigner. Her poems have been published in print, anthologies and online, in the UK and elsewhere. Collection: In Between (Stairwell Books, 2023). Twitter:

This piece moved us with its fine attention to detail, abstract and surreal use of language and mastery of tone 👏

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/snare

28/05/2024

It's better late than never at Blue Bottle with this stunning piece on birds and innocence from John Bartlett 🐦

John Bartlett is the author of eleven books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. He was winner of the 2020 Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize, Highly Commended in the 2021 Mundaring Poetry Competition. His latest poetry collection is Excitations of Entanglement 📚

Head over to our journal now to read John's piece in full. John has been a persistent submitter and it's wonderful to finally give his work a welcome home here 🏡

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/magpie-song

14/05/2024

Occasionally, we'll get knocked off our feet with a piece that's unlike anything we've ever published. This experimental, fierce poem by Tony Norris is one such work ✨

Tony (he/him) is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based performance poet. He has been a state finalist for the National Slam Championship and has hosted Rainbow Open Mic Nights with Gold Coast Libraries. Tony started out at Ruckus Youth and Voices of Colour and has been a featured poet at numerous creative events across Brisbane 👏

Hearing Tony read this one aloud is a special treat. If you get the chance, make sure to catch Tony around the traps 🩵

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/boy-becomes-venus

03/05/2024

We've been so excited to bring you this one from Izzy Roberts-Orr, whose work we've been fond of for quite some time 🩵

Izzy Roberts-Orr is a poet, writer, broadcaster and arts worker based on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Izzy is Creative Producer for Red Room Poetry and a 2020-2022 recipient of the Australia Council Marten Bequest Scholarship for Poetry. Her debut collection, Raw Salt (Vagabond, 2024) was the recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship, and longlisted for the Colorado Prize for Poetry 💪

This stunning piece holds true to Country and is so tender in its speaker's voice. Enjoy it online now 👀

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/spotted-gum

22/04/2024

Apologies for being a day late on this one but Maddy is currently flying home to Brissie from the US now, so it feels like a timely coming home present 🥰

Madeleine Dale grew up on Tamborine Mountain and now lives in Brisbane. She holds first-class honours and a Masters degree in creative writing from the University of Queensland, where she is currently completing a PhD. Her first chapbook, On Fire with Dangerous Cargo, was published by Queensland Poetry in 2023. Her first full length collection, Portraits of Drowning, won the 2023 Thomas Shapcott Prize and is forthcoming from UQP ✨

What a fantastic title and a sharp, polished poem to join our catalogue. We know Maddy's aesthetic was destined to align with ours one of these days 🩵

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/the-pearl-as-immune-response

14/04/2024

We're making time and holding space for this gentle, fierce poem by Rae White amid personal chaos 🐟

Rae White (they/them) is a non-binary transgender poet, writer and zine maker. They're the award-winning author of poetry collections Milk Teeth (UQP 2018) and Exactly As I Am (UQP 2022), and the Bitsy game stand up. Rae is the founding editor of , a journal for non-binary creatives 🩵

Head over to our journal to read Rae's second Blue Bottle outing, which tells such a local, vital tale 🙌

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/gibbous-season

07/04/2024

A couple of sparkling gems from Genevieve Osborne tonight, so rousing in their sensory detail and touching in their personality 🩵

Genevieve Osborne is a Sydney writer. Her poems have appeared in various journals including Southerly, Meanjin, Island, Red Room Poetry's The Disappearing and The Emma Press Anthology of the Sea (UK). She was joint winner of the Henry Lawson Prize for Poetry and runner-up in the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize. Genevieve spends a fair amount of time thinking about food and cooking. Her favourite place to be when growing up was in the kitchen, watching her mother cook. She says her mother was the best cook she has ever known 🍝

Genevieve is one of the most patient and resilient poets we've ever published. Take your time with these two 🐟

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/two-poems9337735

30/03/2024

We do love a good heron poem! The attention to detail from Alisha Brown here is something to behold. Take in every detail on our journal now 👀

Alisha Brown is a poet and traveler born on Kamilaroi land in Australia. She won the 2022 Joyce Parkes Women’s Writing Prize and placed second in the Judith Rodriguez Open Section of the 2021 Woorilla Poetry Prize. You can find her work in Westerly, Griffith Review, and the Australian Poetry Anthology, among others 🌞

It's a pleasure to provide a home for this piece that marvels on the strange sight and mannerisms of a heron 🩵

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/no-room-in-a-herons-beak

26/03/2024

This poem by Caroline Reid knocked our socks off with gorgeously sonic, sensory lines such as "we sniff out honey in the hull." There's so much to love about this one! 🍯

Caroline Reid (she/her) found her feet as a writer in theatre and has since developed a diverse writing and performance practice. Her debut collection SIARAD is published in print and audio by Spineless Wonders (ES-Press). Storytelling, dark humour and a whiff of rage are at the heart of all her art.

The formatting is a bit jumbled up on a mobile browser. Best to hop on a laptop for this gripping read 👀

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/impressions-of-hate-and-love

15/03/2024

We love a bit of schlocky body horror on a Friday afternoon! Enjoy this visceral, bloody piece by Andrew Millar 🩸

Andrew Millar is an emerging writer based in Brisbane/Meanjin, studying literature and philosophy. He writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction essays. Some of his poems and non-fiction can be found in Jacaranda Journal and Exordium. His neverending project is a quest for a poetics of embodiment that feels authentic to lived experience 🩵

As indicated on our site, content warning for some gorey details on this one. You've been warned 👀

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/elegy-for-a-cannibal

08/03/2024

Our site has been playing up today, so we're coming in late with this fantastic, synaesthetic poem by former contributor, Clare Roche 🐟🐠

Clare Roche (she/her) lives and loves on Gadigal land in Sydney's inner west. Her poetry has been published in online journals in the UK, the US, Germany, and Australia. Her commercial fiction manuscript 'The Garden' was shortlisted for the Harper Collins Banjo Prize (2022) 👑

Enjoy this highly tactile, finely visual treat online now 🔥

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/restless-fish

03/03/2024

We're lucky to be bringing you more high calibre international work with this new, finely-honed piece by Carl Griffin 💥

Carl Griffin is from South Wales. His first poetry collection, Throat of Hawthorn, was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2019. In 2020, his book-length poem, Arrival at Elsewhere, written for charity with the help of one hundred poets, was published by Against the Grain 🌾

"Survival is the highest privilege" feels especially timely for where we're at right now 🇵🇸

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/a-mans-well

26/02/2024

I personally hadn't seen snow until I flew to Japan in 2022, taming my tropic fascination. Explore the strange joy of snow in Mark O'Flynn's new poem ❄️

Mark O’Flynn’s novel The Last Days of Ava Langdon (UQP) was short listed for the Miles Franklin Award, 2017, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award as well as winning the Voss Literary Award, 2017. His most recent collection of poetry is Einstein’s Brain (Puncher & Wattmann, 2022) 🩵

It's a pleasure to publish an established, celebrated voice in the poetry community in Mark. Enjoy! 🪼

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/fifty-one-words-for-snow

17/02/2024

When we say we adore colourful work, look no further than these two new poems by Laurie Donaldson for what we mean 💛

Laurie Donaldson (he/him) is a member of the Greenock Writers’ Club and the Federation of Writers (Scotland). He reads at open mics, and has had poems in Dreich, Cold Moon Journal and the Primo Poetica Collection, and in anthologies, and he reviews new poetry for the Glasgow Review of Books 📚

Take in these fine details, these vivid colours online now at Blue Bottle Journal 🪼

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/two-poems4817743

11/02/2024

If there's one thing we're drawn to more than anything here, it's a close eye / attention paid to nature. Grant Shimmin has this in spades in this new work 👀

Grant Shimmin is a South African-born poet long resident in New Zealand. He counts humanity, nature, and their relationship as poetic passions. He has work published/forthcoming at Roi Faineant, Does it Have Pockets?, The Hooghly Review, underscore_magazine, Amethyst Review, Dreich and elsewhere ✨

Plunge your beak into the full poem online now 🌊

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/bridge-dance

22/01/2024

We couldn't be more chuffed to share this next poet's brilliant water work with you. Enjoy these two heartfelt pieces by Lucy Norton online now 🌊

Lucy Norton is a storyteller of Koori & Quechua heritage living on Gadigal land. Her work explores lived experience, and aims to navigate the complexities of relationality and memory. They're a recipient of the Varuna First Nations Fellowship 2023, Red Room Emerging Poet's Residency 2024 and their work has been published in kindling & sage, Sunder Journal and Right Now Magazine 👀

It's a gift to see an emerging poet rocket into the scene with a self-assured and controlled voice. Take your time with Lucy's work (reading them aloud is a special treat) ✨

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/two-poems2463870

08/01/2024

This poem hums with colour and the lived experience of chronic illness and disability. Please welcome Damien Becker to our journal 🩵

Damien Becker is a disabled writer and community development worker from Murwillumbah NSW on Bundjalung Country. An award-winning spoken word artist, his poetry has been published by Australian Poetry Journal, Verity La, Bramble Journal, and Sunder Journal, among others. He lives with cystic fibrosis and is a double-lung transplant recipient.

It's really lovely to publish Damien, whose work we've been a fan of for years and a piece set in Meanjin feels like the perfect fit for our journal 🌞

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/chapel

19/12/2023

And here it is: our final published poem of the year! Peter Viggers takes us deep into earth with this sonic feast 🪱

Peter Viggers gained an MA in Poetry (2016) from the University of Manchester; poems shortlisted for the Bridport Competition, the Anthony Cronin International Poetry Award and Brian Dempsey Memorial Poetry Award; and published, amongst others, in Orbis, SMOKE, Ink Sweat and Tears, Best New British and Irish Poets Anthology (2021) 👀

Enjoy this last gasp of Blue Bottle work in 2023 🩵

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/elvis-worms

10/12/2023

With one of the hands-down coolest, most spell-binding titles we've ever published, Lisa Zerkle makes a splash in Blue Bottle Journal. Never underestimate the power of a strong title 💚

Lisa Zerkle’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Quartet, Heavy Feather Review, The Collagist, Ni**od, storySouth, among others. She was the creator and curator of 4X4CLT, a public art and poetry series for Charlotte Lit. In January 2023, she was awarded an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband and a 100 pound slobbery bulldog named Ozzie. Follow her on Instagram 🪄

Enjoy this slippery, slithering poem in full online 👀

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/incantation-avianreptilian

03/12/2023

Although it's heating up here at home, we couldn't resist publishing this autumnal gem from Kris Spencer 🍁

Kris has work published in journals in the UK, US, Eire, Europe, Australia, India and SE Asia. His debut collection, Life Drawing, was published in 2022 by Kelsay Books. His second collection, Contact Sheets, is due for publication early 2024. Also by Kelsay Books 📚

it's true that some of the best poetry is stolen from what children say off the cuff. Enjoy this little bit of innocent creative theft 🩵

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/after-the-leaves-fall

18/11/2023

"it sounds like you speak in birdsong" and "that plastic bag choking your whalesong" are some beautifully aural images from Tom Nutting 🔥

Tom Nutting (he/they) is a writer from Bristol, UK. He is a practising psychiatrist but also has an MA in English Literature. His work focusses on mental health and medical humanities, on gender and queerness, and on nature and climate. He is currently working on his first collection of poetry and short stories 📚

Enjoy this impactful piece that weaves the difficult subject of the pandemic with seeming ease 🩵

www.bluebottlejournal.com/home/anthropause-anaphora

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