Queanbeyan author's poems honour his Malaysian and Australian identity

The Malaysian-Australian author, rapper and poet from Queanbeyan learned the art of woodcutting at a workshop in his family's homeland Borneo when he visited in 2018.

He said he became "addicted to the form" of artmaking and worked on various woodcuttings in Malaysia, Canberra and Queanbeyan over three years.

"I created all of the work from a different place I would say, a more joyful, playful place than my other work," he said.

"Not only because it opened up this more playful side of myself, but also because it tapped into a long lineage of woodcarving in Borneo.

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"Obviously I did a much different form of it, a modern form, but something that resonated with me because my ancestors have carved wood."

Killernova explores themes in Mr Musa's other poetry books Parang and Millefiori and his novel Here Come the Dogs.

This is the first time the author and poet has incorporated visuals into his poems, which gave him another opportunity to express thoughts with readers.

"I do feel even though I primarily worked with words, I've always conceived of my work quite visually..." he said.

"...often times even with something like a novel, it sets off an image that I had in my head that I then reverse-engineered into a story, and I often do that with my poems as well."

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Readers will discover prints with annotations, which Mr Musa said was a way to show his thought process and celebrate imperfections.

"You can endlessly edit something on your laptop, but you're carving a piece of wood," he said.

"If you make a mistake, it's kind of done and you just have to accept it and move on, especially with the letters because you carve them backwards in a mirror image to print them.

"But that was kind of good for me because sometimes I can really torture myself about my words, and just endlessly edit and drive myself a bit crazy."

Whilst showing this vulnerability, the author felt it was important to show readers who mentored and collaborated with him in the project.

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"We are all the summation of people who have helped us and inspired us and the work that came before and the work that surrounds us," he said.

"I wanted to make sure that I celebrated that."

Omar Musa has also released four-hip-hop records, the acclaimed one-man play Since Ali Died and was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.

Here Come the Dogs was long listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Miles Franklin Award.

Killernova was published on November 30.

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