Kaya Ortiz

Kaya Ortiz is a queer Filipino poet of in/articulate identities and record-keeper of ancient histories. Kaya hails from the southern islands of Mindanao and lutruwita/Tasmania and is obsessed with the fluidity of borders, memory and time. Kaya's writing has appeared in Cordite, Westerly, Portside Review, Australian Poetry Journal and Best of Australian Poems 2021, among others. Their poetry collection Past & Parallel Lives won the 2024 Dorothy Hewett Award, and was published by UWAP in 2025. Kaya lives on unceded Whadjuk Nyoongar country, where their name means ‘hello’ in the Nyoongar language.