Professional Bio
Lesh Karan is a poet, writer and editor. Her work has appeared in Best of Australian Poems, Cordite, Island, Meanjin, Overland, Rabbit, Strange Horizons and other publications. She won the 2023 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the 2022 Judith Wright Poetry Prize. A former pharmacist, Lesh holds a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing from the University of Melbourne, and a Certificate IV in Professional Writing and Editing from RMIT. Of Indo Fijian descent, she lives in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, on unceded Wurundjeri land.
When-making-a-new-friend Bio
(aka: answering the ‘What do you do?’ Q)
I’ve worn many hats, as they say. Pharmacist, aerobics instructor, medical writer, food blogger, recipe maker, copyeditor, digital content specialist — sometimes several of these at once, blurring the borders between them. Through it all, words have stuck. Seven years ago, I fell into writing poetry and fell in love with writing it. Like love, it is tumultuous. Some of my work has been published. And so much has not. I’m currently putting together my debut collection. It has a wacky title. Btw, I live in one of Melbourne’s leafy suburbs, with another hooman and our four-legged baby. She’s 17 years old and reminds me every day that joy lives inside.
Lesh Karan 