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ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN POETRY FESTIVAL
The Australian Poetry Festival (APF) is a significant biennial program of stimulating readings, panel sessions, discussion and debate, organised by the Poets Union to engage poets and the public in poetry and poetics. The program has grown from a largely Sydney-based event to a national program of parallel events in multiple city and regional venues.
The Poets Union committee, members and supporters present a diversity of programs in their own states and regional areas. While the national and regional programs are growing steadily, the Sydney base remains as strong as ever with major festival presentations, one-off readings, and a vibrant mix of local, regional and inter/national guests.
APF is also a time of celebration for the Poets Union with the announcement of major awards, the release of new publications, the finals of Poetry Slam competitions and more.
APF was first held in 1998. In some years there is a festival theme, for example, Burning Lines in 2001, Ngara/Listening in 2004 and Between! in 2006. APF was held during National Poetry Week (NPW) in 2004 and as a joint Poets Union and NPW initiative in September 2006.
6th AUSTRALIAN POETRY FESTIVAL
The 6th Australian Poetry Festival will be held in 2008. Director, dates and themes will be announced at a later date.
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5th Australian Poetry Festival: Between!presented in partnership with |
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| 2006 National Poetry Week |
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Invitation
The opening of 5th Australian Poetry Festival: Between!
and the launch of the special festival edition of
Five Bells
with Peter Kirkpatrick, Libby Gleeson and Judith Beveridge.
Meet, mingle and enjoy an informal festival dinner.
When: 7.30 pm Friday September 8
Where: The Hotel William, 47-49 William St, East Sydney
Cost: $30 (Main Course and Dessert)
Bookings essential: 02 9818 5366 Mon Wed or Fri.
Please book early as numbers are limited. Bookings close 31st August.
Pay by cheque or credit card. Please make cheques payable to the Poets Union Inc. |
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About the Australian Poetry Festival
5th
Australian Poetry Festival: Between!
September 1-10, 2006
Breaking News
Announcements
Where is it?
5th APF Director
Committee
About NATIONAL POETRY WEEK
Themes
How to become involved!
Deadline
Awards & Competitions
Membership
PoeticA on ABC RN
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5TH AUSTRALIAN POETRY FESTIVAL:
BETWEEN!
September 1-10, 2006
Third-time APF Director, Martin Langford, announced in March that the theme of this year's 5th APF is Between! 'The 5th Australian Poetry Festival: Between!, will explore interactions, responses and collaborations.
'5th APF: Between! will build on the successful collaborations component in '4th APF: Ngara, which generated some exhilarating and original cross-art works. We expect the Between! theme to result in a bigger range of interactions and collaborations - between poets, between poets and arts practitioners, between poets and other fields, between communities and between states.'
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Confirmed guests in the major Sydney program include:
John Batts, Judith Beveridge, Margaret Bradstock, Bravo,
Colleen Burke, Joanne Burns, Michelle Cahill, John Carey, Jess Cook, Jenni Doherty (Ireland), Stephen Edgar (Tasmania), Dan Eggs (Ireland), Brook Emery, Carolyn Gerrish,
Alan Gould (Canberra), Phillip Hammial (Blue Mountains), JS Harry,
Gordon Hewitt (Ireland), Rosemary Huisman, Jill Jones,
Gorica Jovanovic, Tom Keily, Nora Krouk, Dang Lan, Martin Langford, Kery Leves, Yve Louis (Armidale), Kathryn Lomer (Hobart),
David McCooey (Melbourne), Chelley Mclear (Ireland),
Chris Mansell (Berry), Gabriella Mehedinteanu, Miles Merrill, Lizz Murphy (Binalong), David Musgrave, Norm Neill, Jenni Nixon, Esther Ottaway (Tasmania), Sheryl Persson,
Claire Potter (Perth), Craig Powell, Brendan Ryan, Jaya Savige (Queensland), Michael Sharkey (Armidale), Jutta Sieverding, John Sheppard, Jutta Sieverding, Peter Skrzynecki, George Szirtes (England), Maureen Ten, Tom Thorpe, Helen Turovic, Louise Wakeling, Simon West (Melbourne), Les Wicks, Libby Wong, Fay Zwicky (Perth).
International Guest (Sydney Grammar program)
TS Eliot Prize winner GEORGE SZIRTES
George Szirtes was born in Hungary in 1948 and came to England as a refugee following the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. He has written some dozen highly-praised books of poetry since 1979, most recently Reel (Bloodaxe, 2004) which won the Eliot Prize. He is also a translator of poetry and fiction from the Hungarian and has won various prizes and awards for his work in this field. Anne Stevenson has praised his poems as ‘A major contribution to post-war literature’.
 George Szirtes
POETS ON WHEELS 2006
South & West of the Range
Sarah Attfield, Harry Laing and Bee Perusco
Congratulations to Poets Union members, Sarah Attfield (Carringbah), Harry Laing (Braidwood) and Bee Perusco (Thirroul), on their selection for this year's Poets On Wheels (POW) tour. They will give readings and facilitate workshops at Albury, Cootamundra, Goulburn, Griffith, Tumbarumba and Wagga Wagga, September 1-7 as part of 5th APF/2006 NPW. More information about the 2006 POW poets, the South & West of the Range itinerary and for background information on the POW program. Or go direct to the NSW list of 5th APF events for full tour detalls.
Watch this space for more
guests and other highlights.
BREAKING NEWS
Fay Zwicky to give Judith Wright Lecture 4.30 pm Sunday September 10, Big School Room, Sydney Grammar. Fay Zwicky has been a concert pianist and an academic. Kaddish & Other Poems won the NSW Premier's Award for Poetry and the collection Ask Me, the WA Premier's Award for Poetry. She was awarded the Patrick White Award in 2005. She lives in Perth. Fay Zwicky's new book Picnic (Giramondo Publishing) will be launched after the lecture.
Robert Adamson now confirmed as a 5th Australian Poetry Festival: Between! guest.
WHERE IS IT?
In 2006, APF will again be a national multi-location, multi-venue program.
Sydney components will be held mainly at Sydney Grammar School (College
Street), Riverside Theatre, Parramatta (in conjunction with Homeword), and
at the Broadway Shopping Centre.
5th APF Director
Martin Langford (Director)
Martin Langford has published five books of poetry, the most recent being Sensual Horizon (Five Islands, 2001). He has directed two Australian Poetry Festivals: Burning Lines, 2001, and Ngara, in 2004, and will be directing 5th Australian Poetry Festival: Between!, in 2006. In 2004, he co-edited, with John Muk Muk Burke, a companion volume for Ngara, of poems and essays exploring the festival themes of interaction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures. His most recent publication is Microtexts (Island, 2005), a collection of aphorisms and condensed argument about poetry and poetics.
Publications:
Faultlines (with Y.Christianse and N. Krouk): Round Table Press, Sydney, 1991;
The Great Wall of Instinct: Island Press, Sydney, 1993;
In the Cage of Love's Gradings: Island Press, Sydney, 1997;
Be Straight with Me (for teenagers): Island Press, 1999;
Sensual Horizon: Five Islands Press, 2001;
Ngara: Poems, Essays and Meditations: ed. with John Muk Muk Burke, Five Islands Press, 2004.
Microtexts: Island Press, Sydney, 2005
HOW TO BECOME INVOLVED!
Organise a 5th APF: Between! event in your locality during September 1-10 - we value every activity as a parallel event however small. Please keep us informed. Notify Martin Langford on martinlangford@bigpond.com if you are in another state or the Sydney metropolitan area. If you are in a NSW regional area please send information to the NSW Poetry Development Officer: lizzmurphy@bigpond.com
Deadline
We will continue to add events, information and updates to the website through July and August.
PoeticA
PoeticA gets into the swing of 5th APF: Between!/2006 NPW with a whole month of special poetry programs presented by Mike Ladd, on ABC Radio National, Saturdays at 3 pm. For more information visit www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica
September 2: Round the Nation 1 - an anthology program drawn from new poetry collections from all around Australia.
September 9: Round the Nation 2 - more new works from contemporary Australian poets, coast to coast.
September 16: Mal McKimmie - an extraordinary sequence of poems from the collection Poetileptic.
September 23: Goossens - Tom Shapcott's suite of poems about the famous conductor Eugene Goossens.
September 30: The Taronga Poems - selected works by young Australian poets who have been published in the Taronga Foundation Poetry Prize anthologies.
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NATIONAL POETRY WEEK
The Director of NPW is Jayne Fenton Keane
ABOUT NATIONAL POETRY WEEK
September 1-10, 2006.
National Poetry Week (NPW) is now officially part of the poetry landscape of Australia and each year it gets bigger and better due to the number of people participating and organising events. NPW began in 2002 when Founding Director Jayne Fenton Keane took on the task of designing and managing National Poetry Week on a voluntary basis. As always, NPW is looking to foster imaginative partnerships with poets, artists, bookstores and arts/literary organisations. A set of themed days helps provide a structure to celebrate poetry in all its forms.
To participate all you have to do is organise an interesting event, reading, workshop or exhibition along a set of themes. Every year there is an open theme for those who wish to create their own. This year it is called 'Open Books.' National Poetry Week aims to excite poets and the public about poetry and poetry's ability to offer interesting experiences. Events are generally organised on a voluntary basis with the goodwill of venue managers, volunteer coordinators, poets, organisations and individuals who share an interest in poetry. If you would like to organise an event, act as NPW Coordinator for your State or contribute resources to any events, please contact the Director Jayne Fenton Keane.
Contact details.
National
url: www.nationalpoetryweek.com
email: jfk@nationalpoetryweek.com
NSW
Lizz Murphy: lizzmurphy@bigpond.com
WA
Maureen Sexton: mairs54@iinet.net.au
NSW REGIONAL APF/NPW PROGRAM
In 2004 the Poets Union expanded its APF activities into the regions as part of its contribution to National Poetry Week (NPW). Both APF and NPW programs and themes were promoted. Nearly thirty regional locations participated, organising everything from one-off readings to festival-style programs. Some locations embraced the Ngara (Eora/Sydney word meaning 'listening') theme including Broken Hill, which presented an eight-day festival titled Communities Listening to Each Other. Many groups and communities selected themes from the stimulating 2004 NPW list.
In 2005, the numerous locations which participated in APF/NPW for the first time, were so enthused that they joined regular poetry activists and developed programs for 2005 NPW. The NSW regional participation grew to about thirty-five locations and an extraordinary seventy-five events! There was an array of venues and contexts.
In 2006, we hope once again that this passion for poetry will see events and activities right across the state. The Poets Union is encouraging regions to develop programs on the theme of Between!, which has also been adopted as an NPW theme. We encourage you to explore the Between! theme in your own way, and to consider new ways to interact and collaborate through your poetry.
The NSW regional program is coordinated by Lizz Murphy, PDO. This year the PDO emphasis will be on helping to facilitate regional interactions and collaborations, and state and national publicity for the regional and Sydney programs.
THEMES
5th APF: Between!
2006 NPW - Between, Wild Parties, House Arrest, Fruit, Freedom, Loud, Friendship, Open Books
AWARDS AND COMPETITIONS
BROADWAY SLAM 2006
An Exciting Competitive Poetry Event
Performance poetry takes the place of the big screen as the Broadway Hoyts Cinema hosts the Broadway Poetry Slam. With over a thousand dollars worth of prizes up for grabs, the slam will showcase some of Australia's most talented performance poets. It's Poetry at the movies! full details
Broadway Poetry Prize 2006 Entry Form
The Broadway Poetry Prize is one of Australia's most prestigious competitions for poetry. Sponsored by the Broadway Shopping Centre and the Poets Union, this year the prize for the winning poem is $3000.
The winning poem will be announced on September 10 at the Australian Poetry Festival. The 2006 judges are Professor Elizabeth Webby and Associate Professor Peter Kirkpatrick.
Closing date: 28 July 2006
BETWEEN THE SHREDDER AND THE SMILING PUBLIC NARRATIVE:
A POETS UNION JOURNEY INTO SPIN
As part of 5th AUSTRALIAN POETRY FESTIVAL: Between! (September 1-10) the Poets Union invites poets throughout Australia to submit work which explores the exciting new world of truth management.
The Union will present a selection of the best poems at a special reading on Saturday September 9 during 5th APF, and will also curate a selection for the Poets Union website.
Poems may be in any format, and may take any approach to the subject they wish. Work may have been previously published, provided it is accompanied by publishers' contact details. Hard copy only should be sent to:
A Poets Union Journey into Spin
PO Box 91, Balmain 2041
The deadline is July 20th. All submissions should be accompanied by an SSAE. The Union also welcomes suggestions of outstanding Australian historical examples (with texts) for inclusion in the presentations.
SMOOTH THE RIPPLES!
IGNORE THE QUESTION!
SOOTHE AND PANDER WITH THE FRANKLY ANOMALOUS!
MEMBERSHIP
You don't have to be a Poets Union member to be involved in APF - but of course we encourage you to join this family of poets and to enjoy the benefits. See Membership or contact the Poets Union office.
SPONSORS
The Poets Union thanks the following for their invaluable support:
The Australia Council
NSWArts
The Broadway Shopping Centre
The Copyright Agency Limited
Giramondo Press
Sydney Grammar School
Gleebooks
Leichhardt Council
Picaro Press
The Red Room
The University of Western Sydney
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