Brook Emery
Chairperson
Brook has worked as a swimming instructor, beach inspector, removalist and contract cleaner. For 25 years he was a teacher and head teacher of English at high schools in NSW and London. He has a PhD in Creative Arts from the University of Newcastle. Brook's first poetry collection and dug my fingers in the sand (Five Islands Press), 2000) won the Judith Wright Calanthe Award at the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. It was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was runner-up in the Anne Elder Award and the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize. His second collection, Misplaced Heart was published by Five Islands Press in 2003 and shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Prize. Brook's third collection Uncommon light, (FIP)was published in 2007.

Martin Langford
Deputy Chairperson
Martin was born in Plymouth and migrated to Australia at the age of eight. A former secondary teacher, he was Director of the Fourth and Sixth Australian Poetry Festivals. Martin has been associated with the Poets Union since 1984 and has published four books of poetry and the book of aphorisms and short prose Microtexts, 2005 Island Press.

David Musgrave
Treasurer
David is the Publisher at Puncher & Wattman. He has a PhD in literature from the University of Sydney and is a poet and critic who is widely published in both poetry and scholarly journals. He has published two books of poetry, To Thalia (fip 2004) and On Reflection (Interactive Press 2005).

Rosemary Huisman
Minute Secretary
Rosemary is a retired Associate Professor from the Department of English at the University of Sydney. She is the author of the highly regarded poetry text The Written Word and is widely published in journals. Her first collection of poetry The Possibility of Winds was published in 2006 by Interactive Press.

Anna Kerdijk Nicholson
Public Officer
Anna is the Principal of a Sydney law practice, specialising in litigation. In 2001 she received the Arts Queensland Award for Unpublished Poetry. Her poetry collection, The Bundanon Cantos, was published by Five Islands Press in 2003 and was mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Books of 2003.

John S Batts
Member
John is a retired academic. For many years he taught English at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is the compiler/editor of British Manuscript Diaries of the 19th century (NJ: Barns and Noble, 1976) and North American Journal: The Diary of Art Critic Eric Newton (NY: Mellen, 1997).

Margaret Bradstock
Member

Margaret Bradstock is a Sydney poet, editor and critic. She is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of NSW, a long-term committee member of Poets Union and co-editor of Five Bells.. She has published five collections of poetry, the most recent of which,The Pomelo Tree (Ginninderra, 2001), won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize for Poetry, Coast (2005) and How Like the Past (2009). She has also won Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson awards. Margaret was Asialink Writer-in-residence at Peking University, Beijing, in 2003. She reads with the performance groups DiVerse and Harbour City Poets.

Ann Hobson
Member
C. Ann Hobson is putting together her first poetry collection after several years making other people's words and publications look good. Before that she did some radio programs, hitch-hiked across the Nullabor a few times, drove a mining truck, watched the first post-Franco democratic elections in Spain, and sang in the Sydney Opera House. At some time she might have questioned you for Newspoll or sold you a CD.

John Sheppard
Member
John Sheppard is a retired academic. He was Professor of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at the University of NSW. He is currently writing poems about the Napoleonic Wars and about the battles of Joan of Arc.

Angela Stretch
Member
Angela Stretch was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is the founder of Wordjammin', a Sydney based organisation that fosters poetry and spokenword. She holds a Masters degree in Journalism from the Sydney University of Technology. Angela has held various positions from Canterbury Rugby Union referee through to hair model. She is currently a radio producer and teacher of English as a Second Language.

Tom Thorpe
Member
Thomas was born and grew up in England. He read Geography at the University of Nottingham, served in the Royal Air Force and worked as a secondary teacher. He migrated to Australia in 1962 and worked as a university lecturer until his retirement in mid-2003. Tom has been writing poetry for the last seven years, returning to the challenge after a gap of 35 years.