The Sky Runs Right Through Us

Winner of the WA Premier's Book Award for Premier's Prize for Emerging Writer

'This deeply personal book is also an important historical record. Written from the heart and covering a period of time working on Christmas Island with asylum seekers until her return to Australia with an urgency to bear witness, Pettitt-Schipp’s steady eye is levelled at a façade of Australian inclusivity and openness “this land’s edge /has always been an invitation/a white-toothed smile/ to walk on”. To those denied entry, those white teeth become menace, exclusion, shark, crocodile. In a book filled with heart-breakingly tender portraits, borders and bodies, sanctions and sanctuary are held close to each other in ways which articulate the space but also, the common ground between “us”.' – Amanda Joy

About the Author

Reneé Pettitt-Schipp is an award-winning writer and educator living in Western Australia. From 2011 until 2014, Reneé lived on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean Territories, where she taught English and Art to asylum seeker and islander students. Reneé’s recent work shares her experiences of living in our nation’s most marginal territory, as well as her reflections on returning to the Australian mainland.

Reneé’s poetry has appeared in major Australian publications, multiple exhibitions, been recorded with singer-songwriters, as well as performed on national and local radio. Reneé has won or been shortlisted for many literary awards, including the ACU literature prize, the Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, the Grief Poetry Prize and the Trudy Graham Biennial Literary Award.