Poet Meaghan Holt’s debut is sure to evoke strong feelings in listeners as she tells it like it is.
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She has even mockingly labelled her work “Hashtag Real Talk”.
Ms Holt comes from a long line of writers – Rita Huggins and Albert Holt, just to name a couple.
“Could be that the writing is in the blood,” Ms Holt said.
Ms Holt said she had always written “little bits and pieces”, but began writing “furiously” ever since relocating to the Far South Coast nine years ago
During a women’s circle, Ms Holt said she was encouraged to perform her poems.
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Indigenous actor Maurial Spearim reportedly commented after hearing her writing, saying “Sis, you need to get that out, our people need to hear that”.
“Having Maurial Spearim comment like that was inspiring. I admire her and find she has a strong powerful voice,” Ms Holt said.
Meanwhile, unaware of the power of her own work, she pushed herself to share her poetry in a workshop with Ali Cobby Eckermann at last years’s Giiyong writers festival.
“I just made myself do it, I thought if I share then others will share their work as well, I was interested in hearing others.”
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Renowned Indigenous author Bruce Pascoe walked in on the workshop and immediately spotted Ms Holt’s potential and offered to publish her work.
Shortly after her work was published in Australian Short Stories Edition 66, edited by Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood.
Ms Holt said she writes from a place of soul and healing, taking inspiration from her elders, her aunties and the women around her.