Friend in Hand Hotel resident cockatoo

Friend in Hand Hotel resident cockatoo
watching over the Poets Union Poetry Party

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Poets Union e-news for poets from August 9

Dear Poets Union Members and Friends,

Bookings open now and a booking form is attached for...
INVENTING THE TRADITION –the 7th AUSTRALIAN POETRY FESTIVAL
3, 4, 5 September: The Rex Centre, Kings Cross, Sydney

Inventing the Tradition is designed to be challenging and, above all, to be entertaining and stimulating. It is a festival not a conference but it has the serious aim of investigating the relationship between the mainstream and the margins, between tradition and the avant-garde. Poets will be reading from their own work but they will be contextualising their readings by reference to poets whom they admire and by briefly mentioning the theories, traditions (or anti-traditions) from which they write. Readings will mix ‘n match poets from different aesthetic theories and practices to expose the audience to different ways of thinking about poetry. It is hoped you will hear poets and ideas that you may not have met before in Sydney.

Visit the IMPROVED WEBSITE NOW!
The program outline, ticket prices and booking forms for the Festival are now up on our website. www.poetsunion.com
BOOK NOW TO SECURE YOUR PLACE!
+
Australian Poetry seeks a National Director
Australian Poetry is a new organization about to be launched in 2011 as a merger between the Australian Poetry Centre based in Melbourne and the Poets Union based in NSW. It will be the peak industry body for poetry in this country with a charter to promote and support Australian poets and poetry locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Australian Poetry is seeking a National Director to oversee every aspect of the organization, including managing staff, stakeholders, membership, a national program of events, publications, festival involvement, an education program, an array of special projects, funding, revenue raising and financial matters. The Director should have a clear vision of where how the organization should evolve over the next three years (and beyond) and work towards executing a plan to achieve this vision. The selected candidate must be based in Melbourne for the time of employment.

Deadline for applications is Friday September 3rd.
To find out more information or apply, please email admin@australianpoetrycentre.org.au for a position description and the selection criteria.

**************************************************
POETRY, EVENTS, FESTIVALS AND READINGS
**************************************************

In Canberra Poetry at The Gods – Aug 10 with Andrew Landsdown (WA) and Michelle Cahil (Sydney)

Date: Tuesday August 10
Guest Poets: Andrew Lansdown from WA and Michelle Cahill from Sydney (more details below).

Andrew Landsdown is one of Australia's best 'Imagist' poets and has written extensively in the haiku and tanka fields as well as in free verse and traditional metres. Andrew is a Western Australian poet, essayist and novelist. He has published sixteen books and six chapbooks. His most recent poetry collections are: Fontanelle, Little Matters (a gathering of 89 haiku and senryu), Consolations (80 tanka) and Birds in Mind: Australian Nature Poems.

Michelle Cahill is another of the new group of young(ish) Australian women poets who have been making a big impact lately. She's also the editor of the on-line poetry magazine, Mascara.
Michelle Cahill’s books include The Accidental Cage and Poetry Without Borders (ed.) Her work appears in many Australian and international journals. ‘Vishvarupa’, her sequence on Hindu gods, was highly commended in the 2009 Blake Poetry Prize.

More info:
Geoff Page - 8/40 Leahy Close, Narrabundah ACT 2604 Australia
+61 2 6239 4027 0400 800 340

What’s on next at The Gods
Tues Sep 14 Alan Wearne and Kate Llewellyn
Tues Oct 18 Elizabeth Lawson, Leon Trainor and Jeremy Nelson

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Canberra 13 August – Science Made Marvellous

1. Science in Poetry
7:30–9:30pm Friday 13 August

Hear some of the best ACT region poets in this cabaret-style event, a great opportunity to meet and mingle with other poetry lovers. Science Made Marvellous, a national poetry anthology, will be launched and read from on the night. Supported by National Science Week, the Poets Union and Belconnen Arts Centre Inc.

Cost: $15, $10 ACT Writers Centre and BAC members.
Venue: Belconnen Arts Centre, Emu Bank Crescent, Belconnen
Booking: admin@actwriters.org.au or 6262 9191

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Daylesford 14th August – Poetry Wonders (Words in Winter festival) with with Idan Ben-Barak and Ray Liversidge

“Poetry Wonders” is a special panel discussion celebrating Science Week, presented by the Australian Poetry Centre and Words in Winter.
Idan Ben-Barak is the author of the award-winning Small Wonders: How Microbes Rule Our World - a fascinating expose of life at the microscopic level. Ray Liversidge's most recent book The Barrier Range is a verse novel about the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860. These two worlds of research come together to show how the little things really do matter.

Event: “Poetry Wonders” will be presented during the Words in Winter festival
Time: at 4pm
Date: on Saturday 14th August, 2010.
Venue: the “Omnibus” - a double-decker bus, generously donated by the Daylesford Cider Company, which features a beautiful and stimulating selection of Australian poetry for the public to browse and read.
Address: The bus will be parked on the day outside the Daylesford Town Hall, 76 Vincent Street.
Cost: Entry to the event is by gold coin donation.

The Omnibus is supported by Arts Victoria, through its Touring Projects program, and this event is supported by National Science Week.

For more information – http://www.daylesfordonline.com/wordsinwinter/HOME.html
Library Co-ordinator – Andy Jackson
Website – www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au
Email – admin@australianpoetrycentre.org.au
Phone – 03 9094 7826

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Perth Poetry Club: guest poet 14 August – Andy Jackson (fresh from Goolwa, completely awesome)
2-4 pm at the Moon Café
Guest poet this Sat. 14 August : Andy Jackson (Melbourne)
+
Plus open mike. Professional sound. Come listen and hang out with poetry lovers in the comfy back room of The Moon http://www.themoon.com.au/

Date: 14 Aug: Andy Jackson (Melbourne) (Fresh from Goolwa Festival, completely awesome)
Venue: The Moon Café,
Address: 323 William Street, Northbridge.
More info (yes, more!) : http://www.perthpoetryclub.com
Enquiries email: perthpoetryclub@gmail.com
Phone: Janet 0406 624 578

COMING UP AT PERTH POETRY CLUB:
21 Aug: Allan Boyd (antipoet: the radical hack)
28 Aug: WA [Spring] Poetry Festival MEGA-GIG with four festival guests

Have you seen our Perth Poetry Links ? Readings, groups, poets, journals, publishers... WA poetry. Perth Poetry club lineups until 12 June are now online at
http://perthpoetryslam.com/perthpoetryclub/node/71

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Glebe – launch of verse novel ‘Ani Lin: the journey of a Chinese Buddhist nun’ by Pip Griffin

Event: the launch of Pip Griffin’s verse novel Ani Lin: the journey of a Chinese Buddhist nun
Launch: to be launched by Sydney poet, Les Wicks

In 1892, 18 year old Lin enters a mountain nunnery, where she begins a journey that will take her on a difficult spiritual and physical path. Her dream is to work for equality for women in the Buddhist world. Five years later, taking Buddhist scrolls and her beloved bamboo flute and accompanied by the Tibetan monk Lobsang, she sets out to travel the remote and mountainous Horse Tea Road that leads to Tibet…

PIP GRIFFIN invites you to the launch
Date: Sunday 15 August
Time: 3:30pm for 4:00pm
Venue: Upstairs at Gleebooks
49 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe NSW 2037

RSVP to gleebooks:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Sydney: Science Made Marvellous – 3 poetry anthologies
launch at the State Library 17th August, in National Science Week


Event: Launch of Science Made Marvellous – A celebration of science through poetry.
The evening will launch Science Made Marvellous, three collections of poems curiously investigating the facts, themes and language of science, from both scientists and writers selected from with hundreds of poems submitted from all corners and all backgrounds.

Panel: Join a panel of scientists, writers and poets as they discuss the connections, overlaps and divergences between poetry and science. This year a national poetry project brings together a set of science poems to celebrate National Science Week.

Discussion: there will be a panel discussion on the relationship between poetry and science with guests including Chris Winder, Professor of Toxicology, University of NSW; Paul Giles, Challis Professor of English at University of Sydney; poets Stephen Edgar, Emma Ballou and Tricia Dearborn.

Readings: There will be readings from the 3 Science Made Marvellous anthologies –
Law and Impulse, Holding Patterns and Earthly Matters

Date: Tuesday 17 August 2010
Time: 6.00 to 7.30pm
Place: The Dixson Room – State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney.
No Cost: This is free event but please RSVP by making a booking with the State Library...
RSVP: bookings@sl.nsw.gov.au or phone the Bookings Officer on (02) 92731770.
(Note – please DO NOT RSVP to the POETS UNION)

And, for those who book early, a free copy of one of the anthologies. This is free event.
This event is part of a national project co-ordinated by the Poets Union and sponsored by National Science Week.

RSVP Bookings: Please email: bookings@sl.nsw.gov.au
or phone the State Library Bookings Officer on (02) 92731770.
(Note – please DO NOT RSVP to the POETS UNION)

Snow Job on Keats?
Science Made Marvellous, a project funded by National Science Week will produce three booklets of Science poems and an audio program to be launched in National Science Week 2010. You might say this is a an experiment using 26 variables, and you can judge how well it works at the launching of the collections and a celebration of science in poetry in events organized by Writers Centres and poetry organizations in every Australian State and Territory. Chapbooks will be available free at the launch events, and also be available as a PDF download. A selection of poems and commentary broadcast as audio and downloadable from writing centres, The Poets Union and the Australian Poetry Centre and broadcast on local radio.

Science Made Marvellous launches in Sydney on Tuesday 17th August in The Dixson Room of State Library, from 6.00 to 7.30pm. There will be readings and a panel discussion on the relationship between poetry and science with guests including Chris Winder, Professor of Toxicology, University of NSW; Paul Giles Challis Professor of English at University of Sydney, poets Stephen Edgar, Emma Ballou and Tricia Dearborn, and for those who book early, a free chapbook.

Bookings to the State Library of NSW - email bookings@sl.nsw.gov.au or the Bookings Officer on 92731770.
For More Details Contact: Carol Jenkins on 0418 216 480 or (02) 99692187 or by email at: cjenkins@riverroadpress.net

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Melbourne – The Science of Poetry for National Science Week
Welcome to the age of TV space travel. Cameras and robots are our eyes and hands in alien worlds. How can film and poetry, which themselves make worlds, reflect the new worlds that science is bringing us? New poetry, rocket shards, NASA experiments, sci-fi film talk, images of newly-discovered nebulae.

Event: The Science of Poetry including a short talk from Anne Brumfitt, architect of the education program at the European Space Agency.
Date: 18 August 2010
Time: 7.00 pm
Venue: funky Melbourne Bar - The Croft Institute upstairs.
Address: Upstairs, 21 Croft Ally,
Melbourne.
Cost: $10.00 (tickets available at the door or via try booking.

This event is being run by the Australian Poetry Centre, with assistance from National Science Week.

Website – www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au
Email – admin@australianpoetrycentre.org.au
Phone – 03 9094 7826

**********************
In Sydney: You Deserve Dessert with Margaret Owen Ruckert
Event: Margaret Owen Ruckert will talk on The Poetry of Food and read from her book You Deserve Dessert
Date: Friday 20th August
Time: 10.30 -11.30 am
Venue: Randwick (Bowen) Library,
Address: 669 - 673 Anzac Parade,
Maroubra (corner of Gale Road and Anzac Parade).
RSVP - Enquiries and bookings – (02) 9314 4888

**********************
Brett Whiteley Studio – Poets Union monthly reading
– guest poet for 22nd August is Winifred Weir

Sunday 22 August 2010
The Poets Union monthly poetry reading is held on the fourth Sunday of the month, Sunday 22 August 2010

Date: Sunday 22nd August
Guest poet : guest poet for Sunday 22nd August 2010 will be Winifred Weir
Venue: Brett Whiteley Studio in Sydney.
Address: 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills (off Devonshire Street, via Esther Street and Esther Lane)
Time: 2.00 - 3.30 pm
Free entry. Open Mic included.

Winifred Weir has been published in a collection of four poets, Contours (Round Table Press, 1991), and her poetic narrative, or verse novella, Isabella, which was awarded the Women Writers’ Poetry Book Award in 2003, was published by Five Islands Press in 2001.
Weir’s poems have appeared in Southerly, Overland, Meanjin, Island, Scarp, Westerly, famous Reporter, Poetry Australia, Hobo and the Newcastle Herald as well as numerous anthologies over many years. In 1996 she won the Women Writers’ Poetry Prize. She has worked as a teacher and currently lives in Sydney’s north.

The Poets Union thanks the Brett Whiteley Studio staff and the Art Gallery of NSW for their support and we thank Rosnay wines for their wonderful wine and sponsorship.
Convenor: Angela Stretch for Poets Union Inc. Enquiries for 2010 : 0438 898 578

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Sydney 30th August – Sydney Poetry bookclub meets to discuss Judith Beveridge’s poetry collection ‘Storm and Honey’

Date: Monday 30thAugust
Book for discussion on 30th August: Storm and Honey by Judith Beveridge
Venue: Madam Fling Flong’s (upstairs)
Address: Level 1, 169 King Street, Newtown.
Time: 7.00 – 9.00 pm

About Sydney Poetry bookclub – the second sydneypoetry.com bookclub will convene at 7 pm on Monday 30th August upstairs at Madam Fling Flong’s (aka Soni’s –which is the downstairs part of 169 King Street, Newtown) to discuss Judith Beveridge’s Storm and Honey.

What you need to do between now and then: read the book (Storm and Honey), develop an opinion.

About the venue (Madam Fling Flong) – sometimes there are private functions upstairs, so if we are not there, we’ll be perched in the front bar downstairs (aka Soni’s).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Sydney – 3rd -5th September, the 7th Australian Poetry Festival : ‘Inventing the Tradition’


Bookings are now open for ‘Inventing the Tradition’ the seventh Australian Poetry Festival to be presented by the Poets Union.

Inventing the Tradition is designed to be challenging and, above all, to be entertaining and stimulating. It is a festival not a conference but it has the serious aim of investigating the relationship between the mainstream and the margins, between tradition and the avant-garde. Poets will be reading from their own work but they will be contextualising their readings by reference to poets whom they admire and by briefly mentioning the theories, traditions (or anti-traditions) from which they write. Readings will mix ‘n match poets from different aesthetic theories and practices to expose the audience to different ways of thinking about poetry. It is hoped you will hear poets and ideas that you may not have met before in Sydney.

We are pleased that the Judith Wright Memorial Lecture will be delivered this year by Chris Wallace-Crabbe. Chris is one of Australia’s most respected poets and academics. He is also Chair of the Australian Poetry Centre and Interim Co-Chair of Australian Poetry.

Papers from the festival will be published in a special edition of Five Bells towards the end of the year. They will make a significant contribution to discussions about the nature and scope of contemporary poetry in Australia and spread the ideas beyond the festival’s specific time and place.

Event: Inventing the Tradition - the seventh Australian Poetry Festival
Dates: Friday 3rd September – Sunday 5th September
Time: between 10am — 5:30pm, Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 September.
Location: Central Sydney festival events take place in Kings Cross over 3, 4 and 5 September.

The cocktail party: will be held at The Sugar Mill on Friday 3 September
Date: Friday 3rd September
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm, Friday 3 September.
Venue: in the cocktail bar of the Sugarmill Hotel,
Address: 33-37 Darlinghurst Road,
Kings Cross

Main festival events: will take place in the Rex Centre at Kings Cross.
Address: 58A Macleay Street
Kings Cross (entrance across the square from the El Alamein fountain and next to the post office, near Baroda Street),

BOOK NOW TO SECURE A PLACE
Ticket Prices:
– Full Festival Pass $80/$70
– Weekend Pass $60/$50
– Day pass $40/$30)

Accommodation: Festival guests are staying at the De Vere Hotel,
Address: 44 - 46 Macleay Street, Potts Point.
Accommodation, restaurants, cafes and pub are plentiful.

DOWNLOAD A BOOKING FORM and return with payment by 18 August
A copy of the program and a booking form is available on the Poets Union website www.poetsunion.com

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Melbourne on Sept. 4 – Overland 200 launch party

Date: Saturday, September 4
Time: at 7:00pm
Location: Feddish, Federation Square,
Melbourne

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Pearl Beach – Central Coast Poets anthology : launch and readings from ‘Off the Path’

Event: Jean Kent will launch the Central Coast Poets Inc. latest anthology, "Off the Path" (Picaro Press)
Date: Saturday, 11th September, 2010,
Time: at 1.30pm,
Venue: Pearl Beach Memorial Hall,
Address: Diamond Road, Pearl Beach, NSW 2256.

Jean Kent will launch the Central Coast Poets Inc. latest anthology, "Off the Path" (Picaro Press) .
This biennial anthology highlights selected poems from the Henry Kendall Poetry Award, 2010 & members' work.

Readings will be followed by light refreshments.
RSVP : Enquiries or RSVP to Gillian Telford, gilltel@optusnet.com.au

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
4 poetry events at The Sydney Fringe festival - 12th to 22nd Sept:

- City Nightfall
- Mad Woman’s Breakfast. Eat my Bush!
- PUFF - Poetry Underground Film Festival
- Candy Royalle: Love Spectacular
Visit www.thesydneyfringe.com.au/

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sun. 12 & Mon. 13 September – Poetry Underground Film Festival (PUFF) at The Sydney Fringe

Event: Poetry Underground Film Festival –PUFF, at The Sydney Fringe
Venue: Madam Fling Flong
Address: Upstairs, 169 King Street,
Newtown
Directions: (Just south of the Missenden Road intersection with King Street)
Shows: 2 performances 12/9 8pm, 13/9 6.30pm
Dates: Sunday 12th September at 8.00 pm, (after Madwoman’s Breakfast)
+ Monday 13th September at 6.30pm (before Madwoman’s Breakfast)

PUFF is a collection of poetry on film, in film, about film, about poetry, about film
about poetry, with poetry on film. PUFF is the collision of two worlds - the literal
and the visual - to form a lisual, viteral, visceral experience, the likes of which you
have probably seen before, but in a totally different way. PUFF is uncensored, incensed,
insensitive, desensitised and nonsensical; may offend some viewers (with any luck),
contain adult themes and strong language…expect the unexpected and enjoy a series of
predictable surprises.

PUFF has been co-ordinated by the Australian Poetry Centre

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sun. 12 & Mon. 13 September – Mad Woman’s Breakfast at The Sydney Fringe


Event: Mad Woman’s Breakfast. Eat my Bush!
Venue: Madam Fling Flong
Address: Level 1, 169 King Street,
Newtown
Directions: Just south of the Missenden Road intersection with King Street
Shows: 2 performances 12/9 6.30pm, 13/9 8pm
Dates: Sunday 12th September at 6.30 pm (before PUFF)
+ Monday 13th September at 8 pm (after PUFF)
Tickets: $20 and $16 concession
Bookings: www.thesydneyfringe.com.au/

About the show Madwoman’s Breakfast. Eat my Bush!
From Federico Garcia Lorca to Phyllis Diller, from Gloria Steinem to Jerzy Kosinski : it’s a
madwoman’s breakfast! One Australian’s mixmaster of metaphors and emotions about America - opening up a Pandora’s pantry of photos, poetry, quotes and smirks. By Cathy Bray.

About the Madwoman – Cathy Bray has been writing poetry and thinking about America for a very long time. She combines her photos of New York with her own poems and every American literary, film and comic influence she can muster.

Cathy Bray has had her poetry published in a number of anthologies (Phoenix, Prismatics, ILLUMINA 2007) websites and journals (Five Bells). In 2010, her first chapbook of poems ‘The Owl’ was published by Picaro Press

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tues. 14 & Wed. 22 September : City Nightfall – reflections on Kenneth Slessor at The Sydney Fringe


Event: City Nightfall
Venue: The Seymour Centre, Downstairs
Address: corner of Cleveland Street and City Road, opposite the University of Sydney
Shows: 2 performances
Dates : Tuesday 14th September (14/9)
+ Wednesday 22nd September (22/9)
Time: at 8.45pm (both nights)
Tickets: $28 and $24 concession
Bookings through www.thesydneyfringe.com.au/

About City Nightfall –
TAKE A STEP BACK IN TIME with a series of shapes from the pages of much loved Australian modernist poet, Kenneth Slessor. Proceeding from experience of a past Sydney through visions that hold a momentary exaltation extending from the 1930s. Poetic images that evoke the sensory qualities of experience in flesh and blood, lived with ‘feel’.
“Writing poetry is a pleasure, ...a pleasure out of hell”
Kenneth Slessor 1947
Poems from Darlinghurst Nights, used by kind permission of P Slessor and HarperCollins. Virgil Reilly drawings used by kind permission of T Thompson and ETT Imprint.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
19th & 20th September - poet Candy Royalle: Love Spectacular at The Sydney Fringe


Event: Candy Royalle: Love Spectacular,
Venue: Madam Fling Flong
Address: Upstairs, 169 King Street,
Newtown
Directions: Just south of the Missenden Road intersection with King Street
Shows: 2 performances 12/9 6.30pm, 13/9 8pm
Dates: Sunday 19th September at 6.30 pm
+ Monday 20th September at 8.00 pm
Tickets: $20 and $16 concession
Bookings through www.thesydneyfringe.com.au/

About the show:
Candy Royalle: Love Spectacular is an hour-long journey into the euphoric highs and the dark depths of love from one of Sydney's best loved performance poets. Using song, storytelling and poetry, this one-woman show draws on the personal experiences of Candy and her intimates. At times confronting and sexually-charged, this intense show will take its audience to the brink and back...
Candy Royalle recently performed at the launch of Guerilla Poetry (organised by Jess Cook and Token Imagination in conjunction with the Poets Union and the city of Sydney) and has appeared at many gigs and festivals all over Australia.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Poetry Pilgrimage to Broken Hill 2-4th October
POETRY PILGRIMAGE TO BROKEN HILL
AN EXTENDED WEEKEND OF HOSPITALITY SIGHTSEEING HISTORY ART POETRY
THE MAYOR OF THE SILVER CITY – BROKEN HILL INVITES
POETRY AT THE PUB in NEWCASTLE - THE CITY OF STEEL
TO
POETRY AT THE PUB in BROKEN HILL
AND EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

Date: 2nd - 4thth October 2010
the main event will be on Sunday 3rd October - from 4pm
Venue: ‘Mulberry Vale’ – about 5k from Broken Hill Central

(free transport will be available from Broken Hill Central)
...beyond the Darling River on the edge of sundown... Broken Hill and the inspirational outback... the vibrant earthy colours and magical light of this landscape have drawn film-makers and artists here to capture its special quality... it packs a powerful emotional punch, this dark red soil... there’s definitely a spiritual element in this country... graphic testimony to the struggles of the mining pioneers... the Hill that changed a Nation...
- from: Broken Hill: the accessible outback, edition 17, 2010
Why a Pilgrimage?
Broken Hill and Newcastle have rich traditions as mining/industrial towns, but they also share poetic heritage with their ’Poetry at the Pub’ groups. Both groups have been going continuously since the early 1980s – this is the first time they will officially ‘face off’
Accommodation: The Tourist Lodge 100 Argent Street Broken Hill – ph: 08 8088 2086
(we have organised a great deal for you ) thetouristlodge@bigpond.com
OR
Choose your own from many options
http://www.visitnsw.com/town/Broken_Hill/Broken_Hill_Visitor_Information_Centre/info.aspx
Need more detail? Bill Tibben 0404 210 438 in Sydney OR Ray Cook 08 8088 4272 in Broken Hill

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
COMPETITIONS, PRIZES and SUBMISSIONS
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ****


The APC Poetry Underground Film Festival (PUFF) at The Sydney Fringe – entries sought by 20 August

PUFF (Poetry Underground Film Festival) is coming… the APC is seeking films ‘most connected to the art form of poetry’

Seeking: The APC is seeking poetry films on any theme, subject, of any rating, from any city or location around Australia, inspired by any poem, poet or muse, or written by yourself.
Film: It may have text or voice-over…or not. It may be surreal and esoteric…or narrative driven.
Language: It may be in English or another language.
Length of film: No longer than 5 minutes.
Themes and types of film: It may contain adult themes and strong language…or be animated and family friendly.
Only requirement: that it be poetic. As long as it feels poetic in nature to you, we are happy to accept it.
Winners: The top fifteen films deemed ‘most connected to the art form of poetry’, with the best production values, will be selected by a panel of established poets and film makers and officially screened at The Sydney Fringe festival in September.

Please read the terms and conditions on the APC website www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au and attached (on both the PU and APC websites) and
submit your film (no longer than 5 minutes long) by Friday August 20th to:
Australian Poetry Centre
PUFF
PO BOX 21082
Little Lonsdale St
Melbourne, 8011, VIC
www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
QLD Poetry Festival
to be run from 27-29 August 2010
The Queensland Poetry Festival invites proposals from poets and other performers and artists interested in being part of the 14th annual festival in 2010. QPF 2010 runs from 27-29 August and will be held at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane.
QPF would like to hear from both individuals and groups for performances at the festival and for other projects in association with the festival. While all projects should have a relationship to poetic language, we encourage applications from artists wishing to explore the relationship between poetry and other art forms. An expression of interest form is now available for download from www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com.
For further information please email info@queenslandpoetryfestival.com
Graham Nunn - Chair, QLD Poetry Festival

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sentences Annual Literary Competition 2010 – due August 31

The Bridge Foundation is a charity based in Sale and advocates for prisoners, and their families on release.
SENTENCES ANNUAL LITERARY COMPETITION 2010 - entries are invited in the following sections:
SECTION 1 OPEN SHORT STORY Limit 2,500 words
SECTION 2 OPEN POETRY Limit 40 lines

All entries to be previously unpublished work.
PRIZES : lest - $100 2nd - $75 3rd - $50
Entry fees $5 for one entry $12 for three entries
No entry form necessary. Separate cover sheet with name and address please.
Winners notified by mail. Results published on our website www.bridgefoundation.net.au
Entries to : The Bridge Foundation, P O Box 9279, Sale, Victoria 3850
Closing date : August 31st, 2010

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Cricket Poetry Award – value $2,000 entries due 1st September


Calling artists and poets… The organisers invite painters and poets from test playing nations to submit a painting or composition that depicts life in and around the game and sport of cricket.
The Cricket Poetry Award offers AU$2000 to the winning poet with international exposure for the top twenty poems.
Click here for overview –> complete 2009 exhibition including poet Andy Kissane reading his winning poem ‘The Catch’ from 2009 Cricket Poetry Award.
Entry forms and conditions on the Poets Union website www.poetsunion.com under ‘Competitions and Prizes’ Entries close: September 1st. 2010

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize – ENTRIES CLOSE MON. 13 Sept

Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize – please visit http://www.islandmag.com/index.html for more details .
$2000 first prize for A single poem or suite of linked poems not longer than 80 lines.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Nature Conservancy Australia - NATURE WRITING PRIZE

A Biennial national prize of $5000
NATURE WRITING PRIZE – entries close 30 September
Inaugural winner published in indigo journal
Judges: literary journalist, Sally Blakeley and poet and nature writer, Mark Tredinnick.
Entries Close: 30 September 2010
The prize will be awarded for an essay between 3000 and 5000 words set within an Australia landscape and exploring the author's sense of 'place'.

Founded in 1951, and with more than 1 million members worldwide, The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and water for nature and people. Working in partnership with Australian conservation organizations, Indigenous landholders and government, TNC Australia programs include the biodiversity rich Godwin Link in WA, Central Australian deserts and Northern Australian grasslands.

indigo journal is dedicated to promoting Western Australian writers and their writing.
Find out more by visiting www.indigojournal.org.au

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Inverawe Nature Poetry Competition - entries due Oct 11

Message from Margaret Chestnut:
Hi - we are up and running for the 2010 Inverawe Nature Poetry Competition, now in its fifth year.

Entry forms are on the web www.inverawe.com.au and follow the poetry link.
The entry forms will also be in the June edition of Island Magazine.
First prize $1000, minor award $300, Tasmanian residents $300, emerging poet $200.
Conditions: The competition is for a poem not exceeding 28 lines, on a nature theme.
Entry fee: $6 per poem, maximum three poems per poet.
Details and feedback: Last year’s winning poem and the judges’ report are on the website www.inverawe.com.au
Judge: As last year, Adrienne Eberhard will judge the competition.
Closing date: The closing date for entries is October 11, 2010.

Regards, Margaret Chestnut
Inverawe Native Gardens
Tasmania’s Largest Landscaped Native Garden
www.inverawe.com.au
gardens@inverawe.com.au
ph 03 6267 2020

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Melbourne Poets Union – International Poetry Competition 2010 due by Friday 29 October

MELBOURNE POETS UNION - Established 1977

Competition: INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 2010
Prizes: $1,000 First Prize $300 Second Prize $200 third prize
+ $100 Martin Downey Urban Realist Award
+ Plus Book Vouchers for Highly Commended & Books for Commended
Judge: Competition Judge – Ron Pretty
Poems: not more than 50 lines
Due: Friday 29th October (see conditions below)
Entry form: Download Entry Forms from MPU’s Website http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mpuinc
More Information: Contact for MPU Inc is Leon Shann
Tel. 03 9386 6259 or email shann3056@optusnet.com.au
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY
 poems should be in English, unpublished, not accepted or submitted for publication
 elsewhere and must be your original work
 poems should not be entered in any other competition, or have previously been a winner
 in any other competition
 may be on any theme, maximum 50 lines and must be typed
 shall not bear the poet’s name
 entries should be received by Friday 29th October 2010, or postmarked that date
 entries must be accompanied by cheque/money order payable to Melbourne Poets Union
 and addressed to Melbourne Poets Union, PO Box 266, Flinders Lane, Vic 8009
 $7 per poem or $13 for 2 poems or $18 for 3 poems (no cash please)
NOTE
 entry fees are not refundable
 there is no limit to the number of entries an individual may submit
 failure to meet any of these conditions shall render the poems ineligible
 please enclose a self stamped address envelope (SSAE) for results
 the judge’s decision is final - no correspondence shall be entered into.
 MPU reserves the right to publish the winning poem/s on their website.

Entry Forms – please download from MPU’s Website: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mpuinc
Sponsors: Black Inc Books, Black Pepper Publishing, The Paperback Bookshop

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Greenhouse – Poets Union e-anthology
Submissions invited and due 15th November
for next issue.

A Poets Union e-anthology of Environmental Poems edited by Martin Langford

The Poets Union invites members to contribute poems to The Greenhouse, a collection of poems about the environment published as an e-anthology on the Poets Union website. This is one of the most important issues we have ever faced.

The Greenhouse (first mounting) NOW PUBLISHED - featuring the work of over 50 Poets Union members. The Greenhouse will be progressively mounted over three deadlines in 2010. There are now two deadlines remaining:
15 July 2010
15 November 2010.
We invite you to place your thoughts on this issue on the Union website.

Entry: Each member may submit a maximum of one poem per deadline (ie three poems over the whole year).
Editor: poet and Poets Union committee member Martin Langford will edit the submissions.
Biographical note: Members should also submit a 25 word biographical note the first time they submit work to the anthology.
Submit 1 poem: as a simple Word (.doc) attachment
Email poems to: Martin Langford martinlangford@bigpond.com
Subject: submission 'THE GREENHOUSE' + YOUR NAME
Cost: Free to members of the Poets Union

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mascara Literary Review
(Mascara Poetry has expanded! )
Submissions invited to Mascara Literary Review
Mascara Poetry has recently expanded into Mascara Literary Review and is now accepting submissions of short fiction and essays (as well as poetry).
We also have a new website: www.mascarareview.com
Mascara Literary Review is an online literary journal particularly interested in the work of contemporary Asian (as well as Australian and Indigenous) writers.
We are able to pay: $75 for two or more poems, $50 for reviews and essays.
For full submission details visit: www.mascarareview.com/submissions.html

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Islet on-line magazine
call for submissions to a new on-line magazine www.islet.com.au
from Island...
Are you an emerging writer or visual artist?
Island magazine is very pleased to call for submissions to islet, its new online publishing space.
Islet publishes a free, quarterly collection of small works by emerging writers and visual artists.
For pay rates, maximum word lengths, and detailed submission guidelines, please visit the website: www.islet.com.au
Check out the current issue www.islet.com.au and pop in to our Conversation page while you’re there!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Cordite Poetry Review

Submissions now open for Cordite Poetry Review. Writing haikus, snryus or other ultra-short poems?
Submissions are now open for the 31st issue of Cordite – EPIC.
Details available at www.cordite.org.au

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jazz and Poetry section of annotated discography on jazz and literature
- Submissions invited
From PU member Peter JF Newton :
I am nearing completion of the jazz & poetry section of a three-part annotated discography on jazz & literature which I expect to publish next year. The scope of this section includes recitation accompanied by jazz in any of its many varieties, poems converted to jazz vocal performances and instrumental compositions inspired by the work of individual poets. The emphasis here is on poetry with jazz and improv music as I know them; I have no wish to stray into the world of rock, rap, hip-hop and so on because they are well beyond my domain of competence.
I have adequate access to the world literature for this type of work and am in touch with a number of major overseas jazz poets working in this field, so I am looking specifically for Australian and New Zealand information which sadly seems to escape the literature.
The details sought are as follows: Band or artist name, recording dates and locations, identification of poets and composers, accompanying musicians and their instruments (including the voice), poem or song titles, type of recording medium together with recording company names, catalogue numbers, and album titles. A reference point for accessibility to these products would be a useful addition.
The recording medium can be any type of modality and of commercial, private or archival provenance.
Details should be sent to me (Peter Newton) as Chair, NSW Jazz Archive Inc., 30 Boorea St, Blaxland, NSW 2774.
E-mail jpnewton@tpg.com.au Tel: (02) 4739-1715.
All advice received will be acknowledged in the book when it appears.
Best regards, Peter J.F. Newton.

****************************************
e-zines and e-anthologies for poets
****************************************
Jacket Magazine – Number 40

now available http://jacketmagazine.com/40/index.shtml
And for news about Jacket's exciting future, see the homepage at http://jacketmagazine.com/00/home.shtml
Editors: John Tranter, Pam Brown

***************************
POETICA – ABC Radio National. Saturdays and Thursdays :

Australia-wide Poetry program - Saturdays at 3.05 pm and repeated Thursdays at 3.05 pm

August
7th Burung Merek – a feature on the late, great Indonesian poet, W.S. Rendra.
14th Suburbia – an anthology about the beauty and terror of Australian suburban life.
21st Counting the Rafts – the work of Australian poet and playwright, Jack Hibberd.

28th Anne Carson – selected poems by Canadian poet and essayist, Anne Carson.

September
NATIONAL POETRY WEEK BECOMES NATIONAL POETRY MONTH ON POETICA.
4th National Poetry Week 2010 – a round-the-nation sampling of recent Australian poetry.
11th Bruce Dawe – selected poems by this well-loved Australian poet.
18th War is not the Season for Figs – the poetry of Lidija Cvetkovic.
25th Jack – excerpts from Judy Johnson’s verse novel set in the Torres Strait.

October
2nd Taha Muhammed Ali – a feature on this Palestinian poet and short story writer.
9th A Pantomime of Words – the poetry collages of Nobel prize winner, Herta Müller.
16th Neruda’s Houses – a feature on Neruda’s eccentric homes and the poetry he wrote there.
23rd Senghor – the poetry of Senegalese writer and past-president, Leopold Sedar Senghor.
30th The Journey – selected works of by Irish poet, Eavan Boland.

POETICA is presented by BRENT CLOUGH and MIKE LADD - For further details please contact the producers of Poetica: Mike Ladd (08) 8343 4928 Krystyna Kubiak (08) 8343 4271
Or visit the Poetica website at www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/poetica/

*********************************
APC Online Course – ‘The Business of Poetry’ August 2-Oct 11

The Business of Poetry - Unleash the power of language to create many streams of revenue!
CALLING ALL POETS WHO WANT TO EARN A LIVING FROM THEIR POETRY
On 28 April at 5:30pm, Entrepreneur in Residence at RMIT, Marcus Powe, and the Acting Director of the Australian Poetry Centre, Paul Kooperman, gave a free lecture at RMIT about earning a living as a poet and artist. The workshop was well-attended and a great success. There is obviously strong interest in establishing a career, making a living and sustaining a livelihood from writing poetry or creating art of any kind.

Course: ‘The Business of Poetry’ - The Australian Poetry Centre (APC) on-line course. As a follow up, or in case you missed this lecture, the Australian Poetry Centre is running an online workshop offering poets the chance to develop a strategy for earning an income from writing poetry without compromising their style or craft.
Date of course: over 10 weeks (August 2-Oct 11)
Due date: applications by 9 July

Co-ordinator: The course will be run by Marcus Powe www.marcuspowe.com
On-line course Date(s): starting Monday August 2nd, and run for ten weeks, ending Monday October 11th.
Course requirement/proposal: To be accepted into the course, prospective participants are asked to submit a half page proposal outlining why they want to earn a living and/or income from their poetry, ideas they personally have for doing so and their commitment in pursuing this goal.
Course description: Each week, participants will be asked to set goals and follow specific steps in order to achieve their goals. Together, with Marcus, participants will identify problems, solutions and strategies in order to plan for success and begin sustaining a career as a poet. You can participate from any location in the world, as long as you have an email address.

Conditions: Membership of the Poets Union or the Australian Poetry Centre, is required. If accepted into the course, you will need to be a member of the Australian Poetry Centre (APC) or a member of the Poets Union. Please check the APC website www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au or the Poets Union website www.poetsunion.com for forms and details of how to join.

Course fee: The course costs $220 (that’s $22 a week for the sake of your career) and places are limited. You do not need to pay until you have been accepted into the course. Once accepted, full payment is to be made before the course begins.
Due date for applications: The deadline for these proposals is Friday July 9th.
Send applications/proposals by email: To submit your proposal, expressing your interest to enrol in the course, please email it to
admin@australianpoetrycentre.org.au
More support for artists in business can be found at www.drbusiness.tv

*********************************
The Greenhouse – issue 3 members’ submissions due Nov.15
Email directly to martinlangford@bigpond.com
Visit the Poets Union website and click to the right of the Home Page on The Greenhouse to read poems from over 50 Poets Union members.
Congratulations to the poets and to Martin Langford the editor, for all his hard work.
And thanks to Marion Benjamin our webmeister for posting them so beautifully.
Forward the link to your friends www.poetsunion.com

***************************
FROM THIS BROKEN HILL http://brokenhill.tripod.com/BrokenHill.htm

Meuse Press has released an e-anthology titled “From This Broken Hill” – a unique combination of writing from some of the country’s top writers (past & present) combined with a dazzling array of photography. A place of near mythic proportions, this city deep in the outback. A mine that put the money into Melbourne. Arts hub while simultaneously isolated by distance.
But in some ways Broken Hill was the experiment that became multicultural Australia – it had the country’s first mosque, many communities continue to thrive within its boundaries. The rough heart of Unionism still stands strong. People escape to this city, others escape a childhood there. It has its horrors and highlights, once there you’ll never forget.
Read an excerpt from a Napoleon Bonaparte set in the city, read the view back from leading poet Rae Desmond Jones who grew up there and wonder at the mining waste turned into a thing of beauty surrounded by red soil. Edited by Barbara De Franceschi, Marvis Sofield and Les Wicks.
Supported by Broken Hill Regional Writers’ Centre, Broken Hill City Council, Countrylink & ArtsNSW Available at http://brokenhill.tripod.com/BrokenHill.htm

*********************************
Islet Magazine
–new online publishing www.islet.com.au
Are you an emerging writer or visual artist?
Island magazine is very pleased to call for submissions to lslet, its new online publishing space.
Islet publishes a free, quarterly collection of small works by emerging writers and visual artists.

For pay rates, maximum word lengths, and detailed submission guidelines, please visit the website: www.islet.com.au .
Check out the current issue and pop in to our Conversation page while you’re there!

*********************************
Guide to Sydney Beaches - http://sydneybeaches.tripod.com/guide.htm

Guide to Sydney Beaches – a driftwood concept. A new web anthology saunters the sand with some of Australia’s leading poets.
Guide to Sydney Beaches - http://sydneybeaches.tripod.com/guide.htm - is aimed at an audience that may not normally access this artform.
This is a driftwood concept – people seeking information about a certain beach stumble across this collection & discover fine Aust poetry. 20 great beaches, 30 superb poets. Hit numbers indicate it is already a huge success. This will increase as we move into Spring. The anthology is from Meuse Press, edited by PU member Les Wicks.

*********************************
Melaleuca – monthly e-zine of Australian poetry
MELALEUCA is a free e-zine of Australian poetry, delivered monthly
through your email in-box. For submissions and subscriptions, contact
the editor, Phillip A. Ellis, at phillip.a.ellis@gmail.com

*********************************
Folk Odyssey – The Magazine http://www.folkclub.com/folkodyssey/

As you browse Folk Odyssey – the Magazine, you will discover that several sections offer an invitation for you to contribute your work to this enterprise. You may do this in the form of:
-a Letter to the Editor, -an article for Features,
-information for Event Horizon,
-photographs for FolkShot Gallery,
-poetry
-autobiography for Poet in Profile
-a story for StoryBoard.

*********************************
Longlines e-anthology
Now up on the Poets Union website www.poetsunion.com : the 2008 Longlines e-anthology (from the 2008 Australian Poetry Festival is now up on the Poets Union website. The 2008 Longlines Fellows were:
Ali Cobby-Eckermann, Helen Hagemann, Kimberley Mann and Andrew Slattery.
What is Longlines? In 2008, the Australian Poetry Centre, together with the Varuna Writers’ Centre, devised a fellowship for poets who lived more than 100 kilometres outside Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or Canberra. Four Fellows were invited to spend a week at Varuna workshopping their poetry with Ron Pretty. The manuscripts were then published in a series which effectively became a continuation of the Five Islands New Poets collections.
The New Poets Series 2009, comprises:
- little bit long time by Ali Cobby Eckermann
- Evangelyne & other poems by Helen Hagemann
- Awake During Anaesthetic by Kimberley Mann
- Canyon by Andrew Slattery

*********************************
PIFF - Poetry in Film Festival

launched – INVITATION TO JOIN THEIR MAILING LIST
PIFF (Poetry in Film Festival) is officially launched. Invitation from the APC (Australian Poetry Centre in Melbourne) to join their mailing list for the Poetry in Film Festival. Click here to subscribe to their mailing list www.poetryinfilmfestival.com.au

*********************************
Poetry Lab by email with poet Julie Chevalier 29 April-9 Sept.

POETRY LAB BY EMAIL With Julie Chevalier (10CHEV4)
Course dates: Thurs. 29 April – Thurs. 9 September
Full price: $450
Venue: on-line course
Enquiries: NSW Writers’ Centre Phone (02) 9555 9757
Email: workshops@nswwriterscentre.org.au

Want to write poetry but can’t make it to a course or workshop? Need individual feedback on your work without leaving the house? Join widely published poet and teacher Julie Chevalier for an online, interactive poetry writing course.
This course is suitable for someone who is interested in writing contemporary poetry and has reliable email. It fills the gap between working through exercises in a book (although books are recommended) and working with a mentor. It enables people who are unable to access courses and workshops because of isolation, time or distance to receive personal feedback to improve their poems. Students are offered the opportunity to contact each other. HSC students are welcome.

Enquiries: NSW Writers’ Centre
Phone (02) 9555 9757 Fax (02) 9818 1327
Email: workshops@nswwriterscentre.org.au
Website: www.nswwriterscentre.org.au

*********************************
Knopf’s National Poetry Month http://poem-a-day.knopfdoubleday.com/

If you register with Knopf’s National Poetry Month, they will email you a poem every day in April...Every year in celebration of National Poetry Month, Knopf Poetry offers a free poem—along with bonus features like beautiful broadsides, audio clips, and signed books—each day during the month of April through our Poem-a-Day emails.
Enter your email address to sign up http://poem-a-day.knopfdoubleday.com/

*****************************
OTHER NEWS FOR POETS
*****************************

Poet Philip Gross is the winner of the Wales Book of the Year 2010 for his collection of poems ‘I Spy Pinhole Eye’

The Winner is … Philip Gross, I Spy Pinhole Eye (Cinnamon)
Poet Philip Gross has won the Wales Book of the Year 2010 for I Spy Pinhole Eye - a collection of poems published by Cinnamon Press. The announcement was made on Wednesday 30 June at a Gala Dinner at St David’s Hotel in Cardiff, introduced by BBC Wales Political Editor, Betsan Powys. Gross was presented with the £10,000 prize by Minister for Heritage, Alun Ffred Jones.

Philip Gross is the author of twelve poetry collections, including The Water Table which won the T S Eliot Prize 2010, as well as a fiction writer, dramatist and Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University. He lives in Cardiff.
I Spy Pinhole Eye is a collaborative work between poet and photographer. Simon Denison uses a pinhole camera to transform that most mundane of objects – the footings of electricity pylons - while Philip Gross’s poems explore the act of seeing and interpretation.

*********************
Congratulations to Nathan Curnow winner of the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize
for his poem endtime

Nathan Curnow is the winner of The Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize 2010 for his poem endtime.

2010 Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize winners:
First Prize ($10,000) ‘endtime’ by Nathan Curnow, Victoria
Second Prize ($5,000) ‘Always Sometimes Never’ by Andrew Slattery, New South Wales
Commended ($2,500) ‘One Broken Knife’ by Carmen Leigh Keates, Queensland
Commended ($2,500) ‘Dead Sea Psalms’ by Jill Pattinson, Victoria

Judges' comments: http://www.textjournal.com.au/ulrick
Read the 2009 and 2010 winners and see the judges' comments at http://www.textjournal.com.au/ulrick
Visit the Griffith University website http://www.griffith.edu.au/arts-languages-criminology/school-humanities/news-and-events/josephine-ulrick-prizes

*********************
Jordie Albiston winner of the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
(NSW Premier’s Award for Literature) for her collection ‘the sonnet according to ‘m’
Jordie Albiston lives in Melbourne, where she was born in 1961. She is a poet whose work frequently reflects historical research. Australian composer Andrée Greenwell has adapted two of her books (Botany Bay Document, 1996 - retitled Dreaming Transportation - and The Hanging of Jean Lee, 1998) for music-theatre: both enjoyed seasons at the Sydney Opera House. Nervous Arcs won the Mary Gilmore Award for a first book of Australian poetry in 1995, and was also shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Prize. Her fourth collection, The Fall, was shortlisted for Premier's Prizes in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Here fifth, Vertigoa cantata was published by John Leonard Press, in 2007. She holds a PhD in literature.
The letter ‘m' is emblematic of recurrence and precipitousness in these poems. They emerge with the wantonness of sensations in everyday life. In this case three lives: maternal grandmother, paternal great-great grandmother and the poet. Jordie Albiston, with characteristic delicacy and zest, limns these very different women as perspectives to each other.
Recurrence is intrinsic to sonnets. They are patterned internally, and are often paroxysmal: a perfect form and formation for poems which worry the distinction between the fatal and the banal. The sequence tells what happens when you admit the existential into everyday life, in small or large doses. The results can be desolate, or sublime. And comedic as well: Albiston knows how to play between darkness and send-up, when it comes to an arduous and animating tension between body and mind.
The Sonnet According to 'M' is published by John Leonard Press
Jordie Albiston, the sonnet according to ‘m'

****************************
Derek Motion - winner of the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets
for his work “forest hill”
07 Apr 2010 : A national prize held in honour of Australian poet Judith Wright has been awarded to Charles Sturt University (CSU) postgraduate student, Mr Derek Motion. The 2010 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets, valued at $3 000, has been won by the poet and PhD student for his work, ‘forest hill’.
The successful poets featured at a presentation event at the Melbourne Emerging Writers’ Festival on Saturday 29 May, alongside Keri Glastonbury and Gig Ryan (poetry editors of Overland and The Age respectively).
In addition to the prize money, Mr Motion’s poem will be published in the next issue of Overland, a quarterly e-bulletin about events, politics and literature. He was presented the poetry award at the 2010 Emerging Writers’ Festival in the Melbourne Town Hall on Saturday 29 May.

Commenting on the winning entries including Mr Motion’s work, judge Dr Keri Glastonbury found, “…this loose-knit community is where a lot of the energy and action in Australian poetry is, and I look forward to seeing these poets release first books”.
Mr David Gilbey, Senior Lecturer in English at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga said, “I'm delighted at Derek's continuing success in the lists of Australian letters. Derek's poetry is concentrated, allusive, multi-faceted, drawing on literary traditions and contemporary cultural and technological practices. It is also finely human and wittily self-facing - a pleasure to read.
“Like Judith Wright's poetry, Derek combines metaphysical, personal and social concerns. He richly deserves this award and it's a mark of the modernity and integrity of the judging that his poetry has been recognised.”

Mr Motion named his poem ‘forest hill' after the area on the outskirts of Wagga Wagga where he spent some of his early years and where went to primary school.
“In particular I think I was concerned with locating imagery surrounding the time when you start to become who you are; a kind of site of individuation and thinking about what this means for the adult me,” Mr Motion said.

It is not the first time the CSU postgraduate student has had his work honoured at the national level.
In October 2009, Mr Motion received an Australia Council 2010 Emerging Writers’ and Illustrators’ Initiative Grant, valued at $15 000. Read more here.

Mr Motion is doing his PhD through the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga. His research focuses on his own poetry in the context of Australian poets, Christopher Brennan (1870-1932) and Michael Dransfield (1948-1973).
Living in Wagga Wagga with his young family, Mr Motion is also Director of the Booranga Writers’ Centre at CSU.

*****************************
Jean Kent WINNER of The Dorothy Porter Poetry Prize
Congratulations to PU member Jean Kent. Meanjin is delighted to announce that the inaugural winner of the Dorothy Porter Poetry Prize for 2009 is Jean Kent, for her poem ‘The Polish Guitarist’s First Paris Concert’ (Vol 68/4).
The prize was run this year as a tribute to much-loved Australian poet, Dorothy Porter, and her legacy of work, and is co-sponsored by Porter’s agent, Jenny Darling & Associates. Kent’s poem was chosen by judges Andrea Goldsmith and Kristin Henry out of all the poems accepted for publication in Meanjin throughout 2009. She was presented with a $1,000 cash prize at an awards ceremony to be held at Gleebooks in Sydney on Saturday 14 November at 4pm. The event featured readings from Porter’s most recent collection, The Bee Hut, which was published by Black Inc. in September 2009. ‘The Polish Guitarist’s First Paris Concert’ will also be published in the forthcoming December edition of Meanjin. Jean Kent has released three books of poetry, including Verandahs, which was recently republished by Picaro Press in its Art Box Series. Her fourth collection, Travelling with the Wrong Phrase Books, was highly commended for the 2008 Alec Bolton Prize. She lives at Lake Macquarie in NSW. Meanjin is pleased to announce that the Dorothy Porter Prize will run again in 2010

*****************************
Emma Jones WINNER Best First Collection, FORWARD PRIZE for her collection ‘The Striped World’
Congratulations to Australian poet, Emma Jones. Emma Jones's The Striped World, inspired by her home country of Australia, was named winner of the £5,000 best first collection prize. Hart called her "an ambitious and intriguing new voice" whose poems "are both elliptical and visionary – inhabiting a parallel world of strange disjointed images within which we nevertheless find echoes of familiar experience".
+
and congratulations to Forward Prize Winner: Don Paterson Scottish poet Don Paterson has triumphed over one of the strongest poetry shortlists in years to take the Forward prize for best collection with Rain. Paterson, 45, beat a line-up of acclaimed poets including Peter Porter, Sharon Olds and Glyn Maxwell to win the £10,000 award for Rain, a continuation of his personal and philosophical exploration of the world around him.

*****************************
Congratulations to Jean Valentine
- Jean Valentine has been selected as the recipient of the 2009 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets.
The $100,000 prize recognizes outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.
and to Harryette Mullen Harryette Mullen has been selected as the recipient of the 2009 Academy Fellowship. The Fellowship is awarded to a poet for distinguished poetic achievement and provides a stipend of $25,000. The Academy’s Board of Chancellors, a body of sixteen eminent poets, selects the Wallace Stevens Award and Academy Fellowship recipients. Who says poetry isn’t profitable? Full story is here: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21013

*****************************
Christine Paice WINNER of The Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize 2009

Congratulations to Christine Paice poet and long term member of the Poets Union who was the winner of the 2009 Josephine Ulrick Poetry prize with her poem The Ministry Of Going In. Sorry we are so late in acknowledging it Christine – it’s wonderful news! A copy of the poem is on the Poets Union Website under Festivals and Competitions.

*****************************
Lucy Holt WINNER of the 2009 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

Congratulations to Lucy Holt - The 2009 NSW Premiers Literary Awards were announced at the Sydney Writers Festival.
Congratulations to Lucy Holt on her receipt of the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for her collection ‘Man Wolf Man’. Lucy was a 2004 Poets Union ‘Australian Young Poets Fellowship’ holder and was mentored by the Poets Union. In 2005 the Poets Union published a chapbook of Lucy’s poems ‘Stories of A Bird’. The Poets Union is committed to raising funds to develop our mentoring, Poetry Fellowships, Poetry Scholarships, Residencies and Prizes. The full list of winners of The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and more information about the awards can be found here: http://www.pla.nsw.gov.au/

*****************************
VOICEWORKS MAGAZINE
TURNED 21 - The Words We Found: the best writing from 21 years of Voiceworks magazine.
Edited by Lisa Dempster, The Words We Found: the best writing from 21 years of Voiceworks magazine is Express Media’s coming-of-age anthology and, like all good 21st celebrations, it’s a fierce, flirtatious and furious record of our life so far.

The Words We Found available through all good bookshops and online at www.expressmedia.org.au http://www.expressmedia.org.au/ Extract rights are also available. For all media enquiries, please contact Bel Schenk, Artistic Director on 0431 054 190 artisticdirector@expressmedia.org.au

*****************************

Best wishes,
Cathy Bray
for Brook Emery and the Poets Union committee,
Poets Union Inc,
PO Box 755,
POTTS POINT NSW 1335

Tel. (02) 9357 6602 (Tuesdays & Wednesdays)
Email: info@poetsunion.com
Please visit the Poets Union website: www.poetsunion.com
and our new blog: www.poetsunioninc.blogspot.com