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  • 30th June 2026
  • By Ellen van Neerven

Episode 6: Love

Episode 6
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The poems selected are about love. Some also touch on the grief we feel when we lose a loved one. One poem in particular is about the loss of a child. If this raises any issues for you, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit our support services page.

Poems on love, desire and loss selected by Ellen van Neerven and Hermina Burns. Special guest: Andrea Goldsmith.

Featured poets: Dorothy Porter, Ellen van Neerven, Judith Wright, Emily Dickinson, Josie Arnold, Hermina Burns.

Poems (in order):
Porter, Dorothy. ‘Why I love your body’. Crete, Hyland House, 1996.
Dickinson, Emily. ‘1731’. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Little Brown, 1924.
Burns, Hermina. ‘Considering a long marriage’. Against Separation Creek, Bristlebird Press, 2019.
Wright, Judith. ‘Stillborn’. Judith Wright: Collected Poems, Angus and Robertson, 1971.
Arnold, Josie. ‘Patchwork’. Love Laughing among the Trees, Longman Cheshire, 1982.
van Neerven, Ellen. “This deadly love”. Throat, University of Queensland Press, 2020.

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Between the Leaves is a poetry podcast hosted by Ellen van Neerven and Hermina Burns. In each episode, Ellen and Hermina illuminate poems written by women and the gender diverse, as well as their own original works, moving through themes like love, race and feminism.

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Ellen van Neerven
Ellen van Neerven (they/them) is a writer, editor and educator of Mununjali and Dutch heritage. Ellen’s fiction debut Heat and Light (UQP, 2014) was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Their first poetry collection Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) won the Tina Kane Emergent Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize. Throat (UQP, 2020) was the recipient of Book of the Year, the Kenneth Slessor Prize and the Multicultural Award at 2021 NSW Literary Awards and the inaugural Quentin Bryce Award. Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity (UQP, 2023, Two Dollar Radio, 2024) received the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non Fiction and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Their first play, swim, produced by Griffin Theatre Company, premiered at Carriageworks in Sydney in 2024. Ellen’s latest book Ruby’s Web (Magabala, 2026) is a middle grade novel. It is a powerful story about finding your voice, seeking help, and addressing cyberbullying and victimisation.