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Poets Union
Representing Australian poets

Program - State of Play: Australian Poetry Now!

6th Australian Poetry Festival

6th Australian
Poetry Festival

Saturday 6 September

10—10.45 Launch of Member’s Anthology
Chair: John Sheppard

11—12.15 What Speaks to Me; How I Speak
(readings, influences, enthusiasms, desires)
Chair: Margaret Bradstock

  1. Sarah Day
  2. Kevin Brophy
  3. Bronwyn Lea

12.30—1.30 Exploring Multilingual Spaces
Chair: Angela Stretch

A spoken word theatre piece directed by Alissar Chidiac. Featuring: Nur J Alam, Metwish Ahsan, Stephen Brooks, Farid Farid, Danny Gardner, Ali Hellany, Dorothy Makasa, Bhagavadas Sriskanthadas, Omeima Sukkarieh, Ten Chin U, Ali Ulutas.

1.30—2.15 Book Launch: Craig Powell, Poems for a Marriage (Picaro Press)
Book Launch: Louise Oxley, Buoyancy (Five Islands Press)

2.15—3.30 Lines of Development: The Emerging tradition
Chair: Tim Sinclair, Australian Society of Authors

  1. Judith Bishop
  2. Elizabeth Campbell
  3. Andy Jackson
  4. Vivian Smith
  5. Paul Hetherington

3.45—4.45 Michael Hofmann in Conversation with Michael Sharkey
Chair: David Musgrave

4.45—5.30 Scanlon Poetry Prize Presentation
Chair: John Batts
PU Poetry Prize Presentation
Chair: Anna Kerdijk-Nicholson

7.00—11pm Performance Night: Chalk Open Arts Festival.
Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour.
FREE. Live bands (coordinated by Jess Cook)

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE
  • Festival pass prices
  • Tickets available at Registration Desk
    1st floor, SMSA, 280 Pitt St, Sydney.
  • Become a Poets Union member and take advantage of member discounts.

Sunday 7 September

10.00—11.00 Coffee and Cupcakes Reading
Chair: Ann Hobson

  1. Michael Sharkey
  2. Louise Oxley
  3. Morgan Yasbincek

11.15—12.45 State of Play: Australian Poetry and Poetics Now
(What’s happening where: papers, questions, discussion)
Chair: Paul Dawson (University of NSW)

  1. Ron Pretty
  2. Kevin Brophy
  3. Bronwyn Lea

12.45—1.30 Alive to the World: Reading
Chair: Martin Langford

  1. Jan Owen
  2. Philip Salom

1.30—2.15 Book Launch: Mark Mahemoff, Traps and Sanctuaries
Book Launch: John Watson, Views from Mt Brogden
A Dictionary of Minor Poets
(All titles published by Puncher and Wattmann)

2.15—3.15 Wit, Wisdom and the Vernacular
(Reading, conversation, speculation and debate)

  1. Peter Kirkpatrick (participating chair)
  2. Joanne Burns
  3. Alan Wearne

3.15—4.15 State of Play: Final Reading
Chair: Marcelle Freiman, Macquarie University

  1. Michael Hofmann
  2. Sarah Day
  3. John Tranter

4.30—5.15 Judith Wright Memorial Lecture
Chair: Robert Dixon (University of Sydney)
Bruce Dawe: ‘Monologarhythms: the Speaker and the Spoken’

Closing remarks, drinks, close.

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE
  • Festival pass prices
  • Tickets available at Registration Desk
    1st floor, SMSA, 280 Pitt St, Sydney.
  • Become a Poets Union member and take advantage of member discounts.

Due to sudden, unavoidable circumstances Bruce Dawe will be unable to attend the festival. His Judith Wright Lecture will be read by his friend Professor Robert Dixon. Philip Salom, one of Australia's most respected and venturesome poets, has agreed to give a reading in Bruce's place