Reneé Pettitt-Schipp lived in the Indian Ocean Territories from 2011 until 2014. Renee’s work with asylum seekers in detention on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) islands inspired her first collection of poetry, ‘The Sky Runs Right Through Us’. This manuscript was shortlisted for the inaugural Dorothy Hewett manuscript prize and released by UWA Publishing in February 2018. Reneé’s work has been recognised through many literary awards, including the ACU literature prize, the Ros Spencer Poetry Prize and the Trudy Graham Biennial Literary Award. Renee is currently completing a creative non-fiction manuscript about her time on the islands, as part of her PhD at Curtin University.
