6th Australian
Poetry Festival

Welcome to State of Play: Australian Poetry Now!, the sixth Australian Poetry Festival presented by the Poets Union Inc. Australian Poetry is at an intriguing stage in its development. The critic and academic Peter Pierce has written ‘this is — unflamboyantly — one of the richest periods in the meandering, controversial story of Australian poetry.’

As a title, State of Play: Australian Poetry Now! is a reflection of that opinion. As a festival, it has been designed as an exploration of that idea. The central festival panel is the most obvious expression of this intent. Parallel panels have been sponsored in Melbourne and Perth and a similar one has already been successfully conducted at the Sydney Writers Festival. The papers from these panels, and from other festival events, will be published in a special double edition of Five Bells which will appear early in 2009. We hope this will be a serious contribution to thinking about Australian poetry.

In it’s programming the festival tries to acknowledge tradition and history as well as ‘the now’. Lines of Development unites emerging poets with much published, respected poets; What Speaks to Me: How I Speak invites the readers to reflect on what delights them and what has informed their practice; Wit, Wisdom and the Vernacular invites the poets to consider the place of the funny, satiric and demotic within their own poetry and the poetic tradition.

We are delighted to welcome the distinguished British poet Michael Hofmann to provide an international perspective on these explorations. We are similarly delighted that the much loved Bruce Dawe will deliver the Judith Wright Memorial Lecture, the now traditional closing event of the festival.

I’d like to draw your attention particularly to the seminar Creative Reading - Poetic Literacy in Contemporary Australia which will take place at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts on Saturday 23 August. This is an important intellectual event. It asks and tries to answer the questions ‘Have people forgotten how to read poetry?’ and ‘How do you read contemporary poetry?’. The respected academic, anthologist, and now publisher John Leonard is flying from Melbourne to present the opening address. This is not to be missed. There are only 50 places available so book early!

The festival does not pretend to be exhaustive or definitive — it couldn’t be. My biggest frustration as director was my inability to invite many fine poets whose work I enjoy and admire. We have tried to make the festival as inclusive as possible with a series of preceding events in the weeks leading up to the festival. I encourage you to attend these events and hope to see as many of you as possible at the Free Monster Open reading which is a celebration of that inclusiveness.

The Poets Union exists to assist in the promotion of poetry in all its forms throughout Australia. It is not the only organisation which does this and I’d like to acknowledge
the contribution of all the other organisations with similar aims, all the readings and reading convenors, and all our sponsors and partner organisations whose work makes Australian poetry the vibrant phenomenon it is today. I’d also like to thank the members of the Poets Union committee for their hours and years of unpaid work and all the other volunteers who have made this festival possible.

Enjoy!
Brook Emery

Chairperson,
Poets Union
Director, Sixth Australian Poetry Festival

» Full program - State of Play: Australian Poetry Now!