About Raelee…

Raelee Lancaster has a dual career: firstly as an information services professional, and secondly as a writer, collaborator, and creative producer.

Raelee’s information services career focuses on library services. She has a keen interest in archives, research, and publishing. Raelee hopes to combine her information services work with her arts career to promote empathy, listening, and laughter in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) sector.

Raelee has called herself a writer since 2017. Her writing crosses poetry, nonfiction, criticism, and playwriting. Raelee’s writing has has featured in The Guardian, SBS Voices, The Saturday Paper, Overland, Meanjin, The Big Issue, Australian Poetry Journal, and more. Anthologies that feature her work include Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power Today (UQP, 2020) and The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry (MUP, 2020).

In 2018, Raelee was awarded first place for the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers. From 2018-2020, Raelee was employed by the National Young Writers Festival, firstly as a creative producer and subsequently as Co-Director. In 2019, Raelee was a recipient of a Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship.

Raelee is based in Brisbane/Meanjin. Raised on Awabakal land in Newcastle NSW, Raelee is descended from the Wiradjuri and Biripi peoples.

Photo by Josh Martoo.

What I’m doing now

A person reading at a microphone.

I’m a Brisbane-based writer (5 years experience), collaborator (4 years experience) and creative producer (4 years experience). I am also a library and information services (LIS) student and I work in an academic library (2 years).

My mission in life is to develop projects and curate programs within arts and community spaces (including libraries and galleries) to promote empathy, listening, and laughter.

My main priorities are:

  • Working full time in library services.
  • Studying a Master of Information Management part time.
  • Developing my gothic horror play, Aperture.
  • Rediscovering the joy of reading for fun.
  • Nuturing close, longlasting relationships.

Ninety per cent (90%) of my time and energy will go into these areas.

I’m willing to take on a limited amount of work so long as it does not interfere with these priorities. This includes—but is not limited to—attending and speaking at festivals, conferences and events, as well as paid writing commissions.

This statement was last updated on December 21, 2021. This statement will be revised by March 22, 2021.

This page is a public declaration and a reminder to myself. It was inspired by Thomas Frank and Derek Sivers.

Photograph by Phoebe le Brocque.

Acknowledgement of Country

I pay my respects to the land that nurtured me, the land of the Awabakal people. I pay my respects to the land upon which I currently reside, Yagera and Turrbal country. I pay my respects to the traditional custodians of the land which carries my songlines, that of the Wiradjuri and Biripi peoples, about whom I am still learning. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should navigate this site with caution as it contains images of deceased people.