“Youth with disability is still disability.‘
Kaitlyn Plyley
Writer & Performer
Specialty Areas
Arts, Music, Literature, Disability Rights/Issues, Entertainment, Feminist Policy and Politics, Women’s Affairs, M.C. and Facilitator, Media and Communications, Youth
About Me
Kaitlyn Plyley has been working in the creative industries for 10 years, establishing herself in poetry, spoken word, comedy, independent theatre, pop culture writing, community radio, and podcasting.
Beginning as a Perth slam poet known for high energy performances, clever lyrics and comedic delivery, Kaitlyn finished her Bachelor of Arts (Communications Studies) degree and spent a year editing the University of Western Australia’s student newspaper, Pelican. That year she was flown to Sydney to represent WA in the Australian Poetry Slam. Her work appears in the ‘Fremantle Poets 3: Performance Poets’ anthology, available from Fremantle Press.
Kaitlyn became a regular at Fringe World festival as a founding member of Perth’s premier storytelling event, Barefaced Stories. She later joined Yarn Storytelling in Brisbane, MCing events and developing workshops on how to adapt your life stories for the stage.
Following a tour as Express Media’s WA Ambassador for National Young Writers’ Month, and a writing residency with Australian Poetry, Kaitlyn moved to the east coast where she became a regular guest at Brisbane Writers’ Festival, Anywhere Theatre Festival and National Young Writers’ Festival.
Kaitlyn became an outspoken Australian voice for disability rights after coming to identify as disabled herself in 2013. She has been featured for her advocacy by Frankie magazine, The Age, ABC Radio and triple j. Kaitlyn writes about the experience of living with an incurable and stigmatised disease like Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and how Australia can better include people with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Kaitlyn also writes about women’s rights and how rape culture is perpetuated through media representations and interpersonal microaggressions. In 2014 her debut solo show ‘Not Much To Tell You’, an autobiographical combination of poetry and storytelling that examined the toxic logic of rape culture, ran for two seasons at the Queensland Poetry Festival and The Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights Program, respectively.
Kaitlyn’s conversation podcast Just A Spoonful, which only features guests who are young and disabled, has charted in the Australian iTunes Top 100 twice, appeared in iTunes’s New & Noteworthy multiple times, and been featured on ABC Radio, triple j and 3CR.
Kaitlyn Plyley is currently living in Melbourne and working on her first book.
