SHASTRA DEO
  • the agonist
  • the exclusion zone
  • portfolio
Shastra Deo
Photo by Kate Lund

about

Shastra Deo was born in Fiji, raised in Melbourne, and lives in Brisbane, Australia. Her first book, The Agonist (UQP 2017), won the 2016 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize and the 2018 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. Her second book, The Exclusion Zone (UQP 2023), was longlisted for the 2024 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal.

Shastra holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts in Writing and English Literature, First Class Honours and a University Medal in Creative Writing, a Master of Arts in Writing, Editing and Publishing, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing from The University of Queensland.

articles and interviews

Cordite Poetry Review: ‘The slippage of speakers’: Lia Dewey Morgan in Conversation with Shastra Deo
ABC Radio National: The secretive history and uncertain future of nuclear technology
ABC Radio National: Choose your own poetry adventure with Shastra Deo
Contact Magazine: Writing the next chapter by Michael Jones
The Courier Mail: Meet Australian Literature Society gold medalist Shastra Deo
Express Media Toolkits: Modes of Ekphrasis: Fandoms, Pop Culture and Poetry with Shastra Deo
Hello Poet: Episode 1: Shastra Deo
Liminal: Interview #68—Shastra Deo by Sumudu Samarawickrama; 5 Questions with Shastra Deo
Messenger's Booker: The Agonist—Shastra Deo
Poetry Says: Ep 159. Shastra Deo: Pressure, persona & the ‘I’
The Wheeler Centre: Working with Words
Writers Victoria: Shastra Deo on writing The Agonist
Writing Queensland: Artist Spotlight—Shastra Deo

  • the agonist
  • the exclusion zone
  • portfolio