Poets Union Inc

The Poets Union Inc

THE 2007 COMMITTEE    

	Patron
	Ron Pretty Patron Ron Pretty has been publishing poetry for more than 30 years. He has published four books of poetry, the most recent being Of the Stone: New and Selected Poems which was published in 2000. His book of the writing of poetry, Creating Poetry, was first published by Edward Arnold and was reissued in 2002 in a revised edition. He was editor of the litterary/arts magazine Scarp from 1984 until its demise in 1999. He has taught writing in schools, universities and to community groups throughout Australia and in the US, England and Austria. From 1983 until he took early retirement in 1998 he was head of writing in the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong. He is director of Five Islands Press, the leading publisher of contemporary Australian poetry, runs the Poetry Australia Foundation, a community-based, Non-profit organisation which has been established to promote the writing, reading, reviewing and promotion of poetry in this country. He is managing editor of Blue Dog: Australian Poetry, the first edition of which was published in June 2002. Ron Pretty won the NSW Premier's Special Prize for services to literature in 2001 and received an AM for services to Australian literature in 2002.

	Staff
	Jutta Sieverding Office Manager Jutta Sieverding was born in Germany and came to Australia as a child. She has worked in the publishing industry most of her adult life. Her first book of poetry, Uneasy Weather, was published by Island Press in 1993. She has also written a children's book, Sunshine Stories (AH & AW Reed, 1981). Her second book of poetry, A dangerous place, will be published by Island Press in 2005.
	NSW POETRY DEVELOPMENT OFFICER The NSW Poetry Development Officer (PDO) position was established in 2004 and is funded by Arts NSW. The PDO works to priorities set by the Poets Union. They include: promoting state-wide regional involvement in the Australian Poetry Festival (APF) and National Poetry Week (NPW); promoting state-wide Poets Union activity (particularly APF and NPW events) to the media; campaigning for increased media coverage for poetry and considered programming of poetry in festivals; increasing the regional presence of poetry leading to the development of a poetry reading circuit.
	Poets On Wheels Coordinator (Honorary)
Photo by Melina Wicks	LES WICKS LES WICKS has toured widely and has been published in 9 countries in 7 languages. He runs Meuse Press, which focuses on poetry outreach projects. His seventh, most recent book of poetry is Stories of the Feet (Five Islands Press, 2004). Wicks was part of the original steering committee that set up the Poets Union in NSW in the 1970s. He has held positions of NSW Co-Secretary/Treasurer & National Secretary.

THE 2007 COMMITTEE

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 scools in NSW and London. He has a PhD in Creative Arts from the University of Newcastle. His first poetry collection 'and dug my fingers in the sand (fip, 2000) won the Judith Wright Calanthe Award at the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. It was shortlisted for the NSW Premiers 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. It was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's prize.

Martin Langford
Deputy Chairperson
Martin Langford was born in Plymouth and migrated to Australia at the age of eight. A former secondary teacher, he was director of the Fourth Australian Poetry Festival in 2004. Martin has been associated with the Poets Union since 1984 and has published four books of poetry. He is currently working on a book of aphorisms and short prose called Microtexts, to be published in 2005 by Island Press.

David Musgrave
Treasurer
Information Services Manager at Manchester Unity, Australia. He holds a PhD in literature form the University of Sydney. He is a poet and critic and has been 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
Minutes 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. She is widely published in journals.

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
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
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 three collections of poetry, the most recent of which, The Pomelo Tree (Ginninderra, 2001), won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize for Poetry. A new collection, Coast, is to be published later this year. She has also won Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson awards. Margaret has an ongoing interest in the history of the Chinese presence in Australia, and was Asialink Writer-in-residence at Peking University, Beijing, in 2003.

Michelle Cahill
Michelle Cahill's first collection of poetry The Accidental Cage was Best First Book with Interactive Press and was positively reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Poetry Books 2006. Her poems have appeared in Jacket, Cordite & have been broadcast on ABC Radio National. She is co-editor of Mascara Australasian Poetry Zine.

John Sheppard
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
Angela Stretch

Thomas Thorpe
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.