Ellen van Neerven (born 1990) is anAboriginal Australian writer, educator and editor. Their first work of fiction,Heat and Light (2013), won several awards, and in 2019 Van Neerven won theQueensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award. Their second collection of poetry,Throat (2020), won three awards at the 2021New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, including Book of the Year.

Van Neerven was born in 1990 to Dutch and Aboriginal parents,^[1] and is of theMununjali clan of theYugambeh nation.^[2][3]

They studied creative writing at theQueensland University of Technology.^[4]

Van Neerven first book,Heat and Light, won the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards'David Unaipon Award for unpublished Indigenous writers,^[5] the 2016NSW Premier's Literary Award's Indigenous Writers Prize^[6] and was shortlisted for theStella Prize in 2015.^[7]

Their second book, the poetry collectionComfort Food, was published in 2016. One of van Neerven's stories,Confidence Game, was featured inSBS podcast series and True Stories in 2015.^[8]

Throat (2020) is van Neerven's second collection of poems, and consists of five themed chapters:^[2] "The haunt-walk in"; "Whiteness is always approaching"; "I can't wait to meet my future genders"; "Speaking outside"; and " Take me to the back of my throat".^[9][10]Throat won three prizes at theNew South Wales Premier's Literary Awards: Book of the Year; theKenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry; and the Multicultural NSW Award.^[2]

Van Neerven has also had some of their poetry translated into their grandmother'sYugambeh language byShaun Davies.^[11]

Van Neerven published a piece inGriffith Review about sport, entitled "No Limits", in September 2021.^[12] Described as "part creative memoir, part reportage, part theoretical essay and part history lesson", the piece examines the exclusionary nature of sport, which leads to a very low rate of participation by non-binary people.^[13]

In June 2024, text from two of van Neerven's works, titledShoutlines andyaburuhma dugun (infinite sky) were shown on theFederation Square Big Screen, presented as part of 'The Blak Infinite' program at the 2024RISING: festival inMelbourne.^[14]

Their first play,swim, produced byGriffin Theatre Company, premiered at theCarriageworks in Sydney in July 2024.^[15]

They are openlyqueer^[16] andnon-binary, usingthey/them pronouns.^[17]

In September 2015, in a collaboration withPoets House inNew York, a recording of sixFirst Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) members reading their work was presented at a special event, which was recorded. Van Neerven was one of the readers, along withJeanine Leane,Dub Leffler,Melissa Lucashenko,Bruce Pascoe, andJared Thomas.^[18]

Van Neerven is co-host andcreative producer of twopodcasts,^[17]Extraordinary Voices for Extraordinary Times, launched in June 2020,^[19] andBetween the Leaves, launched in October 2020.^[20][21]

Van Neerven was a recipient of aSidney Myer Creative Fellowship, an award ofA$160,000 given to mid-career creatives and thought leaders.^[22]

• 2013:Queensland Literary Awards — The David Unaipon Award for Unpublished Indigenous Writers forHeat and Light
• 2015:Dobbie Literary Award forHeat and Light
• 2015:Stella Prize shortlist forHeat and Light^[7]
• 2015:The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist forHeat and Light^[23]
• 2016:NSW Premier's Literary Award — Indigenous Writers Prize forHeat and Light^[6]
• 2016:Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing forHeat and Light^[24]
• 2017: The poem "Mango" from van Neerven's collectionComfort Food (2016) was chosen as a sample text in the English Paper 1 examination of theNew South Wales Higher School Certificate^[25]
• 2019:Queensland Literary Awards — Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awards, winner^[26]
• 2020:University of Queensland Press' inaugural Quentin Bryce Award forThroat^[27]
• 2020:Queensland Premier's Literary Awards,Judith Wright Calanthe Prize for Poetry: shortlisted forThroat^[28]
• 2021:Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry: shortlisted forThroat^[29]
• 2021:NSW Premier's Literary Awards Book of the Year;Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry; and the Multicultural NSW Award, forThroat^[30][2]
• 2021:ALS Gold Medal: shortlisted forThroat^[31]
• 2022:Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature John Bray Poetry Award: shortlisted forThroat^[32]
• 2024:Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and thePrize for Nonfiction, winner forPersonal Score^[33]
• 2024:Queensland Literary Awards — Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance and the Nonfiction Book Award, shortlisted forPersonal Score^[34]

• —— (2014).Heat and Light.University of Queensland Press.
• (2026)Ruby's Web.Magabala Books.^[35]

• "Skin",Meanjin Literary Journal^[36]
• "Wetskins",The Lifted Brow^[37]
• "S&J",McSweeney's^[38]

• —— (2016).Comfort Food. University of Queensland Press.
• —— (2020).Throat. University of Queensland Press.^[10]

• "Invisible Spears",Overland Issue 220^[39]

• —— (2023).Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity.

• Writing Black: New Indigenous Writing from Australia, edited by Ellen van Neerven, State Library of Queensland (2014)
• Joiner Bay and Other Stories, edited by Ellen van Neerven, Margaret River Press (2017)
• Homeland Calling: Words from a new generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voices, edited by Ellen van Neerven, Desert Pea Media via Hardie Grant Publishing (2020)^[40]

• Birch, Tony (27 August 2014)."Heat and Light, [by] Ellen Fan Neerven".Readings.
• Patrić, Alec (September 2014). "[Untitled review ofHeat and light]".Australian Book Review.364: 48.

• Official website

• Indigenous Australian writers
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• Living people
• Australian LGBTQ poets
• Queensland University of Technology alumni
• Australian people of Dutch descent
• 21st-century Australian poets
• 21st-century Australian writers
• Australian non-binary writers
• Australian non-binary people
• Australian queer people
• LGBTQ people from Queensland
• Indigenous Australian LGBTQ people
• Indigenous Australian poets
• Yugambeh people

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