While Teena was Administrator of Australian Children’s Poetry (2015-2017), she set some fascinating Poetry Prompts. As well as having interludes for “no rhyming verse”, she would set innovative word combinations such as “platypus/pumpkin/purple/prodded”, where poets were challenged to include all these disparate words in a single poem. (That’s how I came up with the poem Eggshell Animals!).

Teena would also invite short comments from poets submitting their creations. This gave readers insights into how a poem was created, or shared a little bit extra about its author or topic.

I’d complete a Poetry Prompt challenge, eager to submit my latest poem … then realise it wasn’t always easy to explain how or why a poem came out the way it did.

When I began submitting poems to Australian Children’s Poetry (during Teena’s reign), I made a promise (to myself) that I’d submit one poem for every prompt. Not all my poems were published of course, but I learnt heaps from following the lead of Teena-The-Task-Master!

by Celia Berrell

About Teena Raffa-Mulligan

Teena Raffa-Mulligan grew up in Western Australia, surrounded by natural-born storytellers and plenty of books. All of this helped validate her ambitions to become a writer. During her long-term career as a journalist and editor, she never lost sight of the fact that writing can be fun for everyone.

Her list of children’s books includes: Friends (Serenity Press 2017); True Blue Amigos (Wild Eyed Press 2018); Who Dresses God? (Sea Song Publication 2018); When the Moon is a Smile (Daisy Lane Publishing 2019); Solo Dan (Daisy Lane Publishing 2020); You Can be a Writer (Sea Song Publications 2021); Can You Guess Who? (Serenity Press 2022); Looking After Grandma (Serenity Press 2022); The Parent Tamer (Dixi Books 2022).

Teena’s Podcast channel, Not The Plot, celebrated its first birthday in December 2025 with over 30 readers, writers, authors, and poets sharing conversations about books, art and living a creative life.

Teena dares and declares to be a word weaver, a reader and a daydream believer who chooses to see the magic in every day.