Terms & Conditions This is an annual prize for a first already-published book-length collection of poetry by an Australian poet or a poet living and writing in Australia. The author of the prize-winning book will receive $2750 and the publisher will receive $1100. A book can be entered by the author or publisher. The book…
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Stuart Barnes – new poem and interview in Welsh journal ‘Modron Magazine’
(from an interview with Glyn F. Edwards, published in the Welsh journal Modron Magazine (Writing on Nature & the Ecological Crisis), April 14th 2024. Q4. Sexuality and ecology are central themes in your poetic voice – do you consider them disparate or allied? I’ve always felt very comfortable writing about ecology and the sexuality of…
Adrianne Lenker, ‘Sadness as a Gift’
(song) Adrianne Lenker, Sadness as a Gift (2024)
Martin Flanagan and Cameron Hindrum in conversation
Thursday 21st March 2023 — 18:00 to 20:00 UTAS Inveresk Library celebrates Tasmanian Reads Week with ‘The Place that Made Us: Martin Flanagan in conversation with Cameron Hindrum’. Martin Flanagan explores what it is about Tasmania – its places. its stories, its people and its ghosts – that seep into the bones and the imagination…
Research journals and gatekeeping
Caitlin Cassidy, The Guardian, 10th March 2024 “We’ve set up a crazy system where publishers own and control knowledge and we’ve let them do that,” Foley says. “Researchers give content for free, sign over copyright, and publishers make a lot of money. “You can get rubbish, nonsense and misinformation online for free but you have…
More Margaret Drabble….
A throw-away line from her novel, ‘The Peppered Moth’ | ‘Bessie is a widow now, and she and Chrissie are … pretending to watch BBC nine o’clock news. (Bessie refuses, in company, to acknowledge the existence of commercial channels, though she has occasionally and inadvertently betrayed her acquaintance with them.)’
Australian poetry
Winners of the 2023 Troubadour International Poetry Prize (1st Prize 2000 pounds, 2nd 1000 pounds, 3rd 500 pounds) have been announced. And of the three prizewinners and 19 commended, four are Australian – one each from NSW and Victoria and two from Tasmania, with the overall winner the Victorian (Jennifer Harrison). Not a bad effort….
Anne Elder Award —Australian Poetry announces Call-Out
KEY DATES FOR THE 2023 AWARD, for first books published during 2023. Open call for entries – Monday, 15 January 2024 Close of entries – Tuesday, 12 March 2024, 5pm (AEST). Books must be postmarked no later than Tuesday, 12 March 2024. Winner announcement – May 2024 Information and enquiries Jacinta Le Plastrier Email: ceo@australianpoetry.org…
The magazine Overland has been targeted for its solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
A discussion group that includes Australian writers, teachers and academics is campaigning to get an editor and academic sacked and funding withdrawn, in response to a literary journal’s publication of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel articles. Messages from a WhatsApp group, which were posted to X/Twitter by Evelyn Araluen, appear to show an “urgent call to action” against Jonathan…
Koraly Dimitriadis — book launch, Launceston 29th February 2024
The TPF 2024 kicks off its first pre-festival event with a book launch by Koraly Dimitriadis – a Melbourne poet, performance artist, film maker and short story writer. Join us upstairs at 6 pm on the 29th February at the Plough Inn (lift available) 170 Brisbane St., Launceston to hear this wonderful and multi-talented woman….
Grace Yee wins at Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
Huge congrats to Grace Yee (and Giramondo) whose debut collection Chinese Fish, published by Giramondo, was this evening awarded both the Victorian Premier’s Award for Literature, and the Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry.
‘Into The Blue’ – Drever McCusker Woomble
‘Into The Blue’ … Recorded at Celtic Connections 2009, Glasgow,Scotland. Kris Drever, John McCusker and Roddy Woomble . Harmony vocals – Heidi Talbot
Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (2009)
The Hollywood Inn, Co. Wicklow: “Scottish Hebrides singer Julie Fowlis & Kerry singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh singing ‘Dá bhFaighfinn Mo Rogha de Thriúr Acu’ (0:00), Dhannsamaid Le Ailean (1:24) & Cairistion’ Nigh’n Eoghainn (2:16) with accompaniment from Éamon Doorley (Bouzouki) and Martin Ross (Guitar). This clip was recorded for the Geantraí music series on TG4…
Seasonal Poets Summer Reading — 26th February, Hobart
2024 is bringing changes to Seasonal Poets. Seasonal Poets will be partnering with Fullers Bookshop for each of its Seasons. The format will continue as it has always been, with three poets each reading for 20 minutes. The biggest change is the venue. After seven years at Hadley’s Hotel, Seasonal Poets will now be meeting…
Simon Grove’s ‘Seasons in the South’ (launched Hobart, 23rd Nov 2023)
Author Simon Grove, illustrator Keith Davis and Dr Sally Bryant AM joined in conversation to mark the launch of Simon’s new book ‘Seasons in the South’, at Fullers Bookshop in Hobart on 23rd November 2023. Simon Grove is Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. He hails…
Booranga Writer’s Centre, publisher of literary journal ‘fourW’, loses Create NSW funding for 2024
The Booranga Writers’ Centre has been unsuccessful in it’s bid for annual funding from Create NSW under Chris Minn’s Labor government. This came as a real shock to the Booranga Committee as Wagga Wagga Writers Writers, to give Booranga its full legal title, has been operating for 30 years. Booranga serves its members and the local…
Bruny Island Bird Festival — March 15th-17th 2024
The Bruny Island Bird Festival: Bringing together Science, Conservation, Community and Creativity to create three days of enjoyment and education about the birdlife of this wonderful island. Packed with new features as well as old favourites, there will be Expert Speakers, Birdwatching Tours & Walks, a Market Day, Art Exhibition and evening events to celebrate…
… the Aran jumper crowd
… the Aran jumper crowd (Pat Carty, ‘The Sunday Times, 3rd December 2023) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shane-macgowan-the-man-who-made-irish-music-cool-gj0fvk505 (apologies, it’s probably behind a firewall) Rum Sodomy & the Lash made it into the UK Top 20 in 1985 and it was likely the first time most of us heard of them. MacGowan’s songwriting had taken a quantum leap and…
Metric — ‘Formentera’, live at the Fillmore Philadelphia (2022)
Metric — ‘Formentera’, from their 2022 album ‘Formentera’. Live at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, 2022.
2 paragraphs from Doris Lessing’s ‘Under My Skin’
2 paragraphs from Doris Lessing’s ‘Under My Skin’ (vol one, autobiography to 1949) Something else happened, which I have had to think about ever since. At a Mission in Old Umtali there was an afternoon’s fete, and black people as well as white wandered about under the trees drinking tea and eating cake. I had…
Pub to Park – a Bothwell storytelling event, Tasmania, Fri 1st December
A Bothwell storytelling event featuring Kim Nielsen-Creeley, Marilyn Arnold, Tim Hurburgh and Mallika Naguran. Friday 1 December at the BoHo (Bothwell Hotel) from 3-6 pm. Listen to stories and poems on highland life and love, over wine, cheese and crackers. Kim Nielsen-Creeley is a Launceston-based writer and poet. She has released a chap book titled Roughly, and…
Courtney Marie Andrews, ‘Loose Future’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ZaU2hCdOY&list=RDj2ZaU2hCdOY&index=1
Launch speech—Karen Knight’s & Jules Witek’s ‘AT FIRST GLANCE’
Launch also covers Jules Witek’s photographic exhibition, both were launched by Liz McQuilkin, at Triabunna on 12th November 2022
Small Press Network—2022 Book of the Year Award: winner Eleanor Jackson
The Small Press Network (SPN) this evening announced the winner of the 2022 Small Press Network Book of the Year Award (BOTY): Gravidity and Parity by Eleanor Jackson, published by Vagabond Press! Below, from Small Press Network’s Fiona Wallace’s interview with Eleanor earlier in the month: Q. Your poems have a powerful sense of immersion in the…
The Joan Didion estate sale
Sophie Haigney, writing for ‘The Paris Review’ (17th Nov 2022) about the artefacts being auctioned in the US at the Joan Didion estate sale…. Then there were the three lots of blank notebooks, tied with twine. They went for $9,000, $11,000, and $11,000 each. They were empty, some still wrapped in plastic, yet they were…
Csik Zenekar—Hungarian folk music ensemble
Jane’s poetry residency in Slovakia in 2016 led to an introduction to Hungarian and Slovak music. This, from Csik Zenekar, (recorded 2009)….
Anne Collins—book launch
Lovely to see that Anne Collins has launched her newest collection of poems and prose—’Listening to the Deep Song’ (Bright South)—in Hobart last week. The book was launched at Hadley’s Hotel on 11th November by Petrina Meldrum: I’d like to say how happy I am to be back in Hobart to share in the…
Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology—Call for submissions
The Australian Haiku Society has announced a call for submissions for the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology (4AHA) that will showcae the work of poets who are writing haiku in Australia today. It is almost a decade since the previous Australian haiku anthology was released and the landscape has changed significantly since then. The society’s mission…
Myron Lysenko: ‘If we lose this war, we’re going to lose our country, our language and our culture….’
Myron Lysenko, in conversation with Tina Giannoukos on 3CR Spoken Word this morning, Thursday 27th Oct 2022. “A lot of the Ukrainian people believe that we will win the war, even though we’re fighting against extreme odds. If we lose this war, we’re going to lose our country, our language and our culture so it’s…
2022 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature
MR_2022_Adelaide_Festival_Awards_for_Literature_Winners_Announced
War Poetry in Ukraine: Serhiy Zhadan and Lyuba Yakimchuk
An essay by Maria G. Rewakowicz, published in ‘Los Angeles Review of Books’, 22 Feb 2022 Ever since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and soon after stirred the conflict in the southeast region of Donbas, the theme of war has figured prominently in Ukrainian prose and poetry. The ongoing war has inspired two poetic anthologies…
thinking aloud
The Tasmanian Poetry Festival committee is holding its AGM tonight. Half tempted to go along and put my hand up, but not sure how well I’d perform within a committee.
Island 104
Thursday 27th April, 2006 – 5.30pm, Hobart Bookshop, Hobart. Island 104 was launched in Hobart this evening by Norman Reaburn, Chair of Island’s Management Committee. Norman spoke of the procedures followed for finding a new editor, how in the past the committee had met behind shut doors and scratched its collective head till coming up…
E-Panel: October Literary Journal Editors
Interesting – from an Australian point of view – to come across this blog, Emerging Writers Network, by Dan Wickett in the US, given that one of the panellists is Christina Thompson, a former editor of Meanjin, and editor these days of Harvard Review. I was a journal editor in Australia before I became editor of Harvard Review,…