Hi everyone,
The 8th Overload Poetry Festival (4-13 September 2009) seeks submissions of short poetry for public display on the scrolling text tickers of the west-facing wall in Federation Square, corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets.
... Fed Square will let us feed poems up to these digital scrolling text screens over 10 days. This is one of the busiest intersections in Melbourne, a great opportunity to take your poetry to the people.
Send us haiku, one-line poems, short poems (up to 5 lines), short prose poems (up to 50 words) to submissions @ overloadpoetry.org by 31 July 2009. Payment: the joy of being read by hundreds of thousands of people.
In submitting, please be mindful of the medium and its public nature. Push the boundaries tastefully...
And please circulate this message among your networks.
Look forward to reading your gems,
Matt Hetherington and Luis Gonzalez Serrano
24 June 2009
Call for haiku, short work
Part of Overload Poetry Festival 2009 [Australia]:
24 May 2009
Revival of North of the Latte Line
For the past 3 weeks, I have been experimenting with Twitter. Then I went to a presentation by Ivan Herman and Mike(tm) Smith of the World Wide Web consortium's W3C (Web standards committee) and suddenly the world looks different.
Importantly, it looks do-able. The problems of disparate web documents, creating pages, managing different web spaces and trying to keep it all together, will be – I think – a thing of the past one of these days; the difficulties dissipate as I slowly understand how the world of the web is undergoing yet another evolution. That evolution brings new technologies and for me they seem as groundbreaking as the mid-90s, as the days of the early browsers, the days of the browser wars ...
The ones I am watching are:
Let's see how all this helps revitalise work on The Write Stuff!
Importantly, it looks do-able. The problems of disparate web documents, creating pages, managing different web spaces and trying to keep it all together, will be – I think – a thing of the past one of these days; the difficulties dissipate as I slowly understand how the world of the web is undergoing yet another evolution. That evolution brings new technologies and for me they seem as groundbreaking as the mid-90s, as the days of the early browsers, the days of the browser wars ...
The ones I am watching are:
Let's see how all this helps revitalise work on The Write Stuff!
Follow The Write Stuff on Twitter
While The Write Stuff figures out how to re-invent itself with the Semantic Web, which has been described as mashups on steroids, follow the Write Stuff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TWS_TAS
20 May 2009
Our Digital Island will be archiving The Write Stuff
Our Digital Island will be archiving this site. To ensure long term access to the content on The Write Stuff, North of the Latte Line and Roaring Forties Press, I have asked the State Library to include those sites in their project, Our Digital Island. The first "capture" of those sites will be taking place shortly. Regards, Anne.
05 May 2009
The Write Stuff
I cannot maintain this blog and for The Write Stuff any longer.
As you will appreciate, creating and uploading new content takes time, a lot of time. Imagine trying to maintain the 40 sections of the Showcase of Tasmanian poetry and to update them with new content, edit the aged content and to create new poet pages into eternity. Over the years, it turned me into a web site provider for 40 poets, providing, in most cases, their only web presence. Most of them need an update to their section, showing their new prizes, new, books etc.
Over the years, one of the services I provided via that Showcase was postman – very often, lazy visitors who couldn't be bothered to use a telephone book or write to a writer's centre would write in saying they wanted to get in touch with one of the poets they met in the year dot and wanted to say hi. In some cases, it was a publisher who urgently needed to contact their author: that happened at least twice. I don't mind, but the sheer volume of the site has taken its toll.
When our younger son died almost three years ago, I came to a halt. The site came to a halt.
There have been a few volunteers helping with this blog over the years, but there have been no helpers with The Write Stuff (apart from volunteered help with our competitions in 2004/2005).
I have done all that web work alone. I simply cannot do it anymore, not without my own writing time evaporating altogether into thin air. I cannot keep The Write Stuff current and I cannot bear seeing it age with neglect.
So I have decided to retire from all my external web work commitments, altogether. I plan to archive The Write Stuff's content permanently elsewhere (publicly available); I will keep the site alive, and provide links from The Write Stuff to those archived pages. Keeping the site alive has its own financial cost but I am prepared to pay that.
If a miracle happens and I get offers of support for the site (practical, active and sustainable support) who knows, it might be able to be continued, and I have ideas for how it could be continued, as a wiki for easy author contributions perhaps ...
In the meantime: Having the site online as it is, with gaps and lapses, is painful to me: There are poets I have not had time to put online due to my own life's personal tragedy and lack of time, poets who are more than deserving of a place alongside others on that showcase, like Jane Williams for instance.
So. Rather than present an uneven collection, this is my plan: to find an archive at the State library and provide links from the site to that content.
I wish everyone well and thank you for your support and feedback over the years.
Regards
Anne.
As you will appreciate, creating and uploading new content takes time, a lot of time. Imagine trying to maintain the 40 sections of the Showcase of Tasmanian poetry and to update them with new content, edit the aged content and to create new poet pages into eternity. Over the years, it turned me into a web site provider for 40 poets, providing, in most cases, their only web presence. Most of them need an update to their section, showing their new prizes, new, books etc.
Over the years, one of the services I provided via that Showcase was postman – very often, lazy visitors who couldn't be bothered to use a telephone book or write to a writer's centre would write in saying they wanted to get in touch with one of the poets they met in the year dot and wanted to say hi. In some cases, it was a publisher who urgently needed to contact their author: that happened at least twice. I don't mind, but the sheer volume of the site has taken its toll.
When our younger son died almost three years ago, I came to a halt. The site came to a halt.
There have been a few volunteers helping with this blog over the years, but there have been no helpers with The Write Stuff (apart from volunteered help with our competitions in 2004/2005).
I have done all that web work alone. I simply cannot do it anymore, not without my own writing time evaporating altogether into thin air. I cannot keep The Write Stuff current and I cannot bear seeing it age with neglect.
So I have decided to retire from all my external web work commitments, altogether. I plan to archive The Write Stuff's content permanently elsewhere (publicly available); I will keep the site alive, and provide links from The Write Stuff to those archived pages. Keeping the site alive has its own financial cost but I am prepared to pay that.
If a miracle happens and I get offers of support for the site (practical, active and sustainable support) who knows, it might be able to be continued, and I have ideas for how it could be continued, as a wiki for easy author contributions perhaps ...
In the meantime: Having the site online as it is, with gaps and lapses, is painful to me: There are poets I have not had time to put online due to my own life's personal tragedy and lack of time, poets who are more than deserving of a place alongside others on that showcase, like Jane Williams for instance.
So. Rather than present an uneven collection, this is my plan: to find an archive at the State library and provide links from the site to that content.
I wish everyone well and thank you for your support and feedback over the years.
Regards
Anne.
25 January 2009
Christopher Bantick on Tasmanian publishing
Once again, reviewer Christopher Bantick has had a bit of a go at the publishing scene in Tasmania, in today's edition of The Sunday Tasmanian.
I have heard of ABS statistics that Tasmania is home to more self-published authors than any other state. His comments about quality and the need to employ an editor before rushing into print are well worth heeding.
As a place that "bakes its own curtains and weaves its own bread" (Frank Moorhouse's quip), Tasmania is also home to more than a few "properly" published authors, and many of these are themselves owners or operators of small literary presses.
In defence of those small presses, it is worth saying that, by and large, the overwhelming proportion of their titles are works by other authors, not the owner-author – a signature of the generosity of spirit that operates down here.
The small literary presses all know about the need to hire a distributor, and all know the hideous costs of doing so. The mainland distributor I hire does his best and the Tasmanian-based distributor I have attempted to hire maintains a mysterious silence.
The alternative to offering one's title to a distributor at a prohibitive 60% or 70% discount is to work alone, as I did. For two years I sold my author's books at Salamanca Market (averaging 5 sales per Saturday most of the year and up to 20 sales per Saturday over the Christmas holiday season) operating a casual stall.
Buyers were mostly tourists and interstate or international visitors, and sales were superior to those at any Tasmanian bookshop.
Reviews of the book which I published The Literary Lunch (by Australian author Geoff Dean) were mostly in interstate papers and journals (The Age, The Courier Mail, and four others) and the author also made it onto Ramona Koval's Book Show a year ago for a half-hour interview with Peter Mares (due to my efforts and those of his other publisher, poet Edith Speers of Esperance Press).
Another alternative is for the small literary presses to work together to form some kind of consortium and share costs and expertise. Before establishing Roaring Forties Press, I tried to do so and invited no less than four other small presses to join me, but each was wary and preferred to work alone.
I also worked with another small press, the excellent Pardalote Press, at trying to set up a model for distributing Tasmanian literary titles here, but one way and another we were thwarted.
The photograph accompanying Bantick's article today is of Tasmanian Book Fair stall holders at the 2006 event, central aisle from foreground to the back: Quintus Publishing, operated by author David Owen at the University of Tasmania; myself; poet Peter Macrow (of Blue Giraffe) and in the far distance, Ralph Wessman of Walleah Press.
So there we are, isolated and fair game for a slow day at The Muck. We'll never know what bits from Bantick's article ended up on the cuttingroom floor, or why a 2006 photograph accompanied the article, but so what. In the end, people do what they like.
And in Tasmania, it just so happens that a lot of people like publishing, just as they like bottling fruit (again, ABS stats show we do more of that kind of thing than any other state) and making their own jam.
Which reminds me, I have lots of apricots. Anyone want some?
While I intend publishing more books, I am not making jam anymore.
Anne Kellas.
I have heard of ABS statistics that Tasmania is home to more self-published authors than any other state. His comments about quality and the need to employ an editor before rushing into print are well worth heeding.
As a place that "bakes its own curtains and weaves its own bread" (Frank Moorhouse's quip), Tasmania is also home to more than a few "properly" published authors, and many of these are themselves owners or operators of small literary presses.
In defence of those small presses, it is worth saying that, by and large, the overwhelming proportion of their titles are works by other authors, not the owner-author – a signature of the generosity of spirit that operates down here.
The small literary presses all know about the need to hire a distributor, and all know the hideous costs of doing so. The mainland distributor I hire does his best and the Tasmanian-based distributor I have attempted to hire maintains a mysterious silence.
The alternative to offering one's title to a distributor at a prohibitive 60% or 70% discount is to work alone, as I did. For two years I sold my author's books at Salamanca Market (averaging 5 sales per Saturday most of the year and up to 20 sales per Saturday over the Christmas holiday season) operating a casual stall.
Buyers were mostly tourists and interstate or international visitors, and sales were superior to those at any Tasmanian bookshop.
Reviews of the book which I published The Literary Lunch (by Australian author Geoff Dean) were mostly in interstate papers and journals (The Age, The Courier Mail, and four others) and the author also made it onto Ramona Koval's Book Show a year ago for a half-hour interview with Peter Mares (due to my efforts and those of his other publisher, poet Edith Speers of Esperance Press).
Another alternative is for the small literary presses to work together to form some kind of consortium and share costs and expertise. Before establishing Roaring Forties Press, I tried to do so and invited no less than four other small presses to join me, but each was wary and preferred to work alone.
I also worked with another small press, the excellent Pardalote Press, at trying to set up a model for distributing Tasmanian literary titles here, but one way and another we were thwarted.
The photograph accompanying Bantick's article today is of Tasmanian Book Fair stall holders at the 2006 event, central aisle from foreground to the back: Quintus Publishing, operated by author David Owen at the University of Tasmania; myself; poet Peter Macrow (of Blue Giraffe) and in the far distance, Ralph Wessman of Walleah Press.
So there we are, isolated and fair game for a slow day at The Muck. We'll never know what bits from Bantick's article ended up on the cuttingroom floor, or why a 2006 photograph accompanied the article, but so what. In the end, people do what they like.
And in Tasmania, it just so happens that a lot of people like publishing, just as they like bottling fruit (again, ABS stats show we do more of that kind of thing than any other state) and making their own jam.
Which reminds me, I have lots of apricots. Anyone want some?
While I intend publishing more books, I am not making jam anymore.
Anne Kellas.
"Varuna conversations" (prose)
From Varuna's page,
http://www.varuna.com.au/newsdiary.html
BLUE MOUNTAINS COMMUNITY WRITING PROGRAM - VARUNA CONVERSATIONS
"Varuna conversations" for poetry are currently on the drawing board. Watch this space for details.
http://www.varuna.com.au/newsdiary.html
BLUE MOUNTAINS COMMUNITY WRITING PROGRAM - VARUNA CONVERSATIONS
"Varuna is committed to offering the local community of readers and writers an opportunity to engage with visiting writers in residence at Varuna.
"Beginning in January 2009, we will have an occasional series of conversations, where we will run an afternoon session with a visiting writer. They will do a short discussion on their work and reading and then take questions from the audience. It's a chance to enjoy the ambience of Varuna and hear different writers read their work, from a diverse range of genres.
"To be kept in the loop about these and other occasional events, you need to send your email address to varuna@varuna.com.au to be put on to the Varuna Community Mailing List. We'll give you as much advance notice as possible. "
"Varuna conversations" for poetry are currently on the drawing board. Watch this space for details.
The Guardian Poetry workshop for January 2009: the elegy
Update to The Guardian Poetry workshop
This month, The Guardian's poetry workshop is all about the elegy.
Most months of the year, The Guardian asks a prominent poet to set an exercise, and choose the most interesting responses from readers with an appraisal of the poems.
The January 2009 poet is David Constantine, an award-winning poet and translator.
This month, The Guardian's poetry workshop is all about the elegy.
Most months of the year, The Guardian asks a prominent poet to set an exercise, and choose the most interesting responses from readers with an appraisal of the poems.
The January 2009 poet is David Constantine, an award-winning poet and translator.
"His collections include the award-winning Watching for Dolphins, The Pelt of Wasps and Something for the Ghosts; Bloodaxe published his Collected Poems in 2004, and he has been shortlisted for both the Whitbread and Forward poetry prizes. He has translated the work of, among others, Hölderlin, Brecht, Goethe, and Michaux, and was awarded the Corneliu M Popescu prize for European poetry in translation in 2003. His latest collection, Nine Fathom Deep, comes out this month [January 2009]". (The Guardian, 21 January 2009.)
23 January 2009
Write in Your Face: Grants for projects supporting writing practices by young people
Write in Your Face
Closing date: 24 April, 2009.
Grants (up to $5000) available for projects supporting writing practices by young people.
Express Media is proud to present Write in Your Face, a program devolved to Express Media by the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. Write in Your Face supports emerging forms of writing practice by young writers, or organisations working with young writers. We invite proposals from people who are using language in innovative ways. This may involve writing for zines, e-zines, comics, multimedia, multi-artforms or cross-media works, websites, live performances and spoken word.
Download the application form and Frequently Asked Questions from http://www.expressmedia.org.au/projects.php
Contact: Bel Schenk
Artistic Director
Express Media
247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: 03 9663 4155, Fax: 03 9663 4544, www.expressmedia.org.au
Closing date: 24 April, 2009.
Grants (up to $5000) available for projects supporting writing practices by young people.
Express Media is proud to present Write in Your Face, a program devolved to Express Media by the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. Write in Your Face supports emerging forms of writing practice by young writers, or organisations working with young writers. We invite proposals from people who are using language in innovative ways. This may involve writing for zines, e-zines, comics, multimedia, multi-artforms or cross-media works, websites, live performances and spoken word.
Download the application form and Frequently Asked Questions from http://www.expressmedia.org.
Contact: Bel Schenk
Artistic Director
Express Media
247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: 03 9663 4155, Fax: 03 9663 4544, www.expressmedia.org.au
12 January 2009
Call for Poems: Blue Velvet
CALL FOR POEMS
'I can't figure out if you're a detective or a pervert.'
Seeking poems that explore the twisted world of David Lynch's Blue Velvet for The Private Press's next chapbook anthology.
Deadline: 28 February 2009. Payment: One copy of the chapbook.
Visit http://zoo.f2s.com/privatepress/callforpoems.html
Poems accepted via online contribution form ONLY.
Tim Thorne describes The Private Press's chapbooks as "stylishly produced" in his review, published in Famous Reporter: http://is.gd/57Oi
'I can't figure out if you're a detective or a pervert.'
Seeking poems that explore the twisted world of David Lynch's Blue Velvet for The Private Press's next chapbook anthology.
Deadline: 28 February 2009. Payment: One copy of the chapbook.
Visit http://zoo.f2s.com/privatepress/callforpoems.html
Poems accepted via online contribution form ONLY.
Tim Thorne describes The Private Press's chapbooks as "stylishly produced" in his review, published in Famous Reporter: http://is.gd/57Oi
03 January 2009
WILDCARE TASMANIA 2009 Nature Writing Prize
WILDCARE TASMANIA 2009 Nature Writing Prize:
Download the entry form from one of these links:
Entry form has all the details.
The PDF can also be downloaded from Ralph Wessman's blog posting dated 7 Dec. 2008
Download the entry form from one of these links:
Entry form has all the details.
The PDF can also be downloaded from Ralph Wessman's blog posting dated 7 Dec. 2008
10 December 2008
Vale, Dorothy Porter
> Sadly, Dorothy Porter passed away this morning at 6.00 am. Her cancer had returned and she'd been in hospital for two weeks, but hadn't wanted people to know. There will be a service at Springvale crematorium on Sunday 14th, 1.15 pm.(From an email message sent by Tim Thorne, 10 December 2008)
02 November 2008
Di Bates honoured
Good news! Di Bates, the much acclaimed children's writer from the 'Gong who is also a great champion of writing for children, has been given Lady Cutler Award.
The Lady Cutler Award has been presented annually since 1981 for distinguished service to children’s literature. It is sponsored by Hachette Livre & hosted by the Children’s Book Council of NSW.
28 October 2008
Poets and compost
Here are some links to the Forgodot exercise, which began with a posting, "Coming soon to Forgodot" that said they would soon be publishing new poems from .... 3,500 poets or so, some long-dead like Chaucer etc. The new poems were to be published online, as Issue 1, in a PDF ...
Here are the links:
http://www.forgodot.com/
Blogs picked up the story everywhere ...
e.g. http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/10/3785_page_pirated_poetry_antho.html
Eventually the Forgodot bloggers explained themselves in a Polite clarification,
http://www.forgodot.com/2008/10/issue-1-polite-clarification.html
Another of the explanations:
http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/10/anthology_spoiler.html
Their project to teach a machine, Erika, to write poetry, uses whatever the Erica T Carter algorithm is ...
They harvested names from the Poetics e-list, and maybe from Ron Silliman's blog (which for example, has links to this blog, North of the Latte Line).
Anyhow, the part that interests me is the whole association of a person's "Name" with a "Work" and how we understand that association on a page. For me I think I was most angered by the long silence before the college students explained themselves.
I am perversely amused that the poem attributed to me has bad line breaks, something that really annoys me intensely.
Well for the Erika project, the experimenters are now asking for poets to send them chapbooks so they can feed those into the machine -- because they need lots and lots of stuff for it ...
- - -
Gwen Harwood was apparently very good at making compost but I wonder if she would ever have composted her poems in this way. The question is not very interesting, either poetically or horticulturally, to me. What interests me more is the Gwen Harwoodness of her words, not the generation of them.
Here are the links:
http://www.forgodot.com/
Blogs picked up the story everywhere ...
e.g. http://poetryfoundation.org/
Eventually the Forgodot bloggers explained themselves in a Polite clarification,
http://www.forgodot.com/2008/
Another of the explanations:
http://poetryfoundation.org/
Their project to teach a machine, Erika, to write poetry, uses whatever the Erica T Carter algorithm is ...
They harvested names from the Poetics e-list, and maybe from Ron Silliman's blog (which for example, has links to this blog, North of the Latte Line).
Anyhow, the part that interests me is the whole association of a person's "Name" with a "Work" and how we understand that association on a page. For me I think I was most angered by the long silence before the college students explained themselves.
I am perversely amused that the poem attributed to me has bad line breaks, something that really annoys me intensely.
Well for the Erika project, the experimenters are now asking for poets to send them chapbooks so they can feed those into the machine -- because they need lots and lots of stuff for it ...
- - -
Gwen Harwood was apparently very good at making compost but I wonder if she would ever have composted her poems in this way. The question is not very interesting, either poetically or horticulturally, to me. What interests me more is the Gwen Harwoodness of her words, not the generation of them.
19 October 2008
Adelaide reading
16th Reading OCTOBER 21st
o LEE MARVIN IN
YO-YOs WITH MONEY
Aidan Coleman
Ken Bolton
Jill Jones
Kyriaki Maragozidis
Simon Robb
9 Anster St., Adelaide
(off Waymouth at the King William end, near FAD nightclub)
7.30 for a prompt 8 PM start
Price $5
o LEE MARVIN IN
YO-YOs WITH MONEY
Aidan Coleman
Ken Bolton
Jill Jones
Kyriaki Maragozidis
Simon Robb
9 Anster St., Adelaide
(off Waymouth at the King William end, near FAD nightclub)
7.30 for a prompt 8 PM start
Price $5
06 October 2008
The issue of Issue number 1
Post avant poetry defined.
The fallout of Issue 1: For Godot:
and everywhere else ...
I know it's a joke, but why is it so annoying then ... maybe it's because what I hate most about the poem attributed to me in the For Godot project are the awful line-breaks ...
The fallout of Issue 1: For Godot:
and everywhere else ...
I know it's a joke, but why is it so annoying then ... maybe it's because what I hate most about the poem attributed to me in the For Godot project are the awful line-breaks ...
Launch, Carolyn Fisher's 'The Unsuspecting Sky'
TIM THORNE
Sunday 5th October, Launceston
Tasmanian Poetry Festival
In 2004, when I decided to begin the process of closing down Cornford
Press by not accepting any more manuscripts, I did so after a fairly
agonising debate with myself. The reason for this was that there
were three collections of poetry which were crying out to be
published. Were I to bring out these three books I could retire
satisfied. A bit like an addict, I suppose, trying to convince
myself that I’d quit after just three more hits. In the end, I went
cold turkey (well, there was a bit of backsliding later, but that’s
another story.)
The three collections that I really wanted to see in print were by
Jane Williams, Ouyang Yu, and Carolyn Fisher. Earlier this year I
had the pleasure of launching Jane’s Begging the Question in Hobart,
and in the mail on Friday, just two days ago, I received a copy of
Ouyang’s The Kingsbury Tales. This morning I complete the
trifecta, and so it is with a sense of relief that I stand here
before you to send Carolyn’s The Unsuspecting Sky out on its voyage
into the world of readership and critical appraisal.
Of course it is with much more than a sense of relief. It is also
with a sense of admiration for her skill and one of gratitude for
what she has given us as readers. I remember my first encounter with
Carolyn Fisher’s poetry. It was in the Forth pub at one of those
readings organised by the indefatigable Fay Forbes. There were well
over a hundred people there and a considerable percentage of them had
a poem or two to present. As one would expect in such a gathering,
there was a fairly mixed bag, a vast range of styles, subjects and
levels of expertise. One poet stood out. I don’t think I caught
her name at the time, but I later came to know her and her work,
which was growing in quantity and quality over the next few years.
When Chris Mansell informed me that Carolyn had won the inaugural
PressPress Chapbook Award, I was really pleased. Not only did it
mean that Cornford Press was somewhat off the hook, but, more
importantly, that my judgement of Carolyn’s poetry had been
vindicated by someone whose opinions and publishing acumen I respect
immensely, someone from interstate who didn’t know Carolyn
personally (the manuscripts were submitted anonymously), but, above
all, someone who was in a position to do something practical about it.
And what a wonderful job she has done, too! This little book is, as
are all PressPress chapbooks, elegant and simple, a demonstration of
the principle that poetry doesn’t need big flashy production values,
that an inexpensive product, if tastefully and thoughtfully created,
will not only look good in itself, but will actually enhance the
presentation of the poems. Not that the poems themselves need any
enhancement. They would be great whatever the presentation, but it
is gratifying to see them given the respect they deserve.
Carolyn’s strengths include a remarkable eye for telling detail, an
ability to cast that detail into crystalline imagery, and an
overarching compassion which not only informs the work but fixes it
in the heart of the reader. To take just one example, in first
stanza of the poem “Pademelon” we are shown “the sunrise / of
her underbelly”, a well-observed and delightfully captured detail,
but the poem immediately goes on, “…slowly setting / by the side
of the road”, building the original metaphor into a conceit, but
maintaining the tone while deepening the emotional content and
advancing the narrative. All this in about a dozen words. But
that’s not all. The poem has started, a couple of lines earlier,
with “the full stop”. This is in itself an arresting opening.
After all, we are used to poems ending with a full stop, not
beginning with one. That this is more than just a clever device,
however, is clear when we realise that the poem has started with the
ending of a life. The “full stop” is more than a conceptual
metaphor, however; it is also, from the perspective of the driver/
poet, a visual one: one tiny corpse in the whole scheme of life,
roadways, traffic, busy-ness. That it is followed, “a couple of
hops / further on” by the “tiny comma” of the joey, is not only
felicitous as reinforcing and unifying imagery, but it marks the
significant shift in the dynamic of the poem, out from observation to
engagement. So, having started with a full stop, the poem restarts,
as it were, with a comma.
I could go on with this sort of analysis of each of the poems in this
collection, but this is a launch, not a lecture, so I shall leave
you, the readers, to discover such joys for yourselves. Even if you
don’t dig so deeply into the way the textual richness of Carolyn’s
poetry has been constructed, there is a great deal of pleasure to be
obtained from just revelling in the results of this construction.
And pleasure, after all, is the whole point of reading.
So, buy the book, enjoy it, and wait, as I am waiting, for the next
collection by one of Tasmania’s most exciting poetic talents. It is
with great enthusiasm that I launch Carolyn Fisher’s The
Unsuspecting Sky.
Sunday 5th October, Launceston
Tasmanian Poetry Festival
In 2004, when I decided to begin the process of closing down Cornford
Press by not accepting any more manuscripts, I did so after a fairly
agonising debate with myself. The reason for this was that there
were three collections of poetry which were crying out to be
published. Were I to bring out these three books I could retire
satisfied. A bit like an addict, I suppose, trying to convince
myself that I’d quit after just three more hits. In the end, I went
cold turkey (well, there was a bit of backsliding later, but that’s
another story.)
The three collections that I really wanted to see in print were by
Jane Williams, Ouyang Yu, and Carolyn Fisher. Earlier this year I
had the pleasure of launching Jane’s Begging the Question in Hobart,
and in the mail on Friday, just two days ago, I received a copy of
Ouyang’s The Kingsbury Tales. This morning I complete the
trifecta, and so it is with a sense of relief that I stand here
before you to send Carolyn’s The Unsuspecting Sky out on its voyage
into the world of readership and critical appraisal.
Of course it is with much more than a sense of relief. It is also
with a sense of admiration for her skill and one of gratitude for
what she has given us as readers. I remember my first encounter with
Carolyn Fisher’s poetry. It was in the Forth pub at one of those
readings organised by the indefatigable Fay Forbes. There were well
over a hundred people there and a considerable percentage of them had
a poem or two to present. As one would expect in such a gathering,
there was a fairly mixed bag, a vast range of styles, subjects and
levels of expertise. One poet stood out. I don’t think I caught
her name at the time, but I later came to know her and her work,
which was growing in quantity and quality over the next few years.
When Chris Mansell informed me that Carolyn had won the inaugural
PressPress Chapbook Award, I was really pleased. Not only did it
mean that Cornford Press was somewhat off the hook, but, more
importantly, that my judgement of Carolyn’s poetry had been
vindicated by someone whose opinions and publishing acumen I respect
immensely, someone from interstate who didn’t know Carolyn
personally (the manuscripts were submitted anonymously), but, above
all, someone who was in a position to do something practical about it.
And what a wonderful job she has done, too! This little book is, as
are all PressPress chapbooks, elegant and simple, a demonstration of
the principle that poetry doesn’t need big flashy production values,
that an inexpensive product, if tastefully and thoughtfully created,
will not only look good in itself, but will actually enhance the
presentation of the poems. Not that the poems themselves need any
enhancement. They would be great whatever the presentation, but it
is gratifying to see them given the respect they deserve.
Carolyn’s strengths include a remarkable eye for telling detail, an
ability to cast that detail into crystalline imagery, and an
overarching compassion which not only informs the work but fixes it
in the heart of the reader. To take just one example, in first
stanza of the poem “Pademelon” we are shown “the sunrise / of
her underbelly”, a well-observed and delightfully captured detail,
but the poem immediately goes on, “…slowly setting / by the side
of the road”, building the original metaphor into a conceit, but
maintaining the tone while deepening the emotional content and
advancing the narrative. All this in about a dozen words. But
that’s not all. The poem has started, a couple of lines earlier,
with “the full stop”. This is in itself an arresting opening.
After all, we are used to poems ending with a full stop, not
beginning with one. That this is more than just a clever device,
however, is clear when we realise that the poem has started with the
ending of a life. The “full stop” is more than a conceptual
metaphor, however; it is also, from the perspective of the driver/
poet, a visual one: one tiny corpse in the whole scheme of life,
roadways, traffic, busy-ness. That it is followed, “a couple of
hops / further on” by the “tiny comma” of the joey, is not only
felicitous as reinforcing and unifying imagery, but it marks the
significant shift in the dynamic of the poem, out from observation to
engagement. So, having started with a full stop, the poem restarts,
as it were, with a comma.
I could go on with this sort of analysis of each of the poems in this
collection, but this is a launch, not a lecture, so I shall leave
you, the readers, to discover such joys for yourselves. Even if you
don’t dig so deeply into the way the textual richness of Carolyn’s
poetry has been constructed, there is a great deal of pleasure to be
obtained from just revelling in the results of this construction.
And pleasure, after all, is the whole point of reading.
So, buy the book, enjoy it, and wait, as I am waiting, for the next
collection by one of Tasmania’s most exciting poetic talents. It is
with great enthusiasm that I launch Carolyn Fisher’s The
Unsuspecting Sky.
29 September 2008
Tanka workshop in Hobart
"In Tempo with Tanka"
This is a workshop on how to write these Japanese 'short songs' or short poems, conducted by Jenny Barnard -- who writes: "Tanka are beautiful, melodic and contemporary".
11 October 2008, from 1 to 4 pm
at Salamanca in Hobart:
Salamanca Arts Building 77 Salamanca Place (first floor – meeting room)
Cost: $25 dollars for members of the Tasmanian Writers Centre
$50 for non-members
To book, contact the Tasmanian Writers Centre, ph: +61 3 6224 0029
Source: Jenny Barnard, email, 29 September 2008.
This is a workshop on how to write these Japanese 'short songs' or short poems, conducted by Jenny Barnard -- who writes: "Tanka are beautiful, melodic and contemporary".
11 October 2008, from 1 to 4 pm
at Salamanca in Hobart:
Salamanca Arts Building 77 Salamanca Place (first floor – meeting room)
Cost: $25 dollars for members of the Tasmanian Writers Centre
$50 for non-members
To book, contact the Tasmanian Writers Centre, ph: +61 3 6224 0029
Source: Jenny Barnard, email, 29 September 2008.
24 August 2008
Gwen Harwood poetry prize winners announced
At Living Writers Week in Tasmania, the final event was the announcement of the winner of the annual Gwen Harwood poetry prize, organised by Island and supported with funding from both the Hobart City Council and the Hobart Bookshop.
Winner: Angela Malone
Highly commended:
Joan Kerr
Kirsten Lang
Mike Ladd
Also see Ralph Wessman's blog post about the prize.
Winner: Angela Malone
Highly commended:
Joan Kerr
Kirsten Lang
Mike Ladd
Also see Ralph Wessman's blog post about the prize.
23 August 2008
The Versatile Man, by Terry Whitebeach, launched by Peter Read
Terry Whitebeach recently gave a lecture to the Indigenous Biography group at the National Museum in Canberra on 4 August on The Versatile Man, her biography of Kaytetye stockman and cattle station owner, Don Ross.
Published by IAD Press, The Versatile Man was launched by Peter Read at the Indigenous Lives conference at the National Museum in 2007.
The book provides an important perspective to Indigenous history, and has already been listed by several universities in their curriculum materials.
Overseas it's been listed by the University of Barcelona, Spain as a set text in their Australian Studies course.
Asked why she thought her biography had appealed to people in Spain, Terry said the book can be read on a number of levels:
The Versatile Man is an account of the working life a stockman, of Kaytetye and European ancestry, who lived through the momentous changes brought by the 20th century on both sides of the frontier in outback Central Australia.
Terry Whitebeach, author of two collections of poetry, three radio plays and two novels for young adults, has a PhD in history/biography. Currently, she is on the board of the Tasmanian Writers Centre and is one of the two Australian Society of Authors' Tasmanian board members.
Published by IAD Press, The Versatile Man was launched by Peter Read at the Indigenous Lives conference at the National Museum in 2007.
The book provides an important perspective to Indigenous history, and has already been listed by several universities in their curriculum materials.
Overseas it's been listed by the University of Barcelona, Spain as a set text in their Australian Studies course.
Asked why she thought her biography had appealed to people in Spain, Terry said the book can be read on a number of levels:
"Many people identify with the story of someone who had no legitimate place in the society in which they were born, but who made their own way, against the odds, through sheer skill and personal charisma. Also, the pastoral focus of much of the book is familiar to many Spanish and South American students."
The Versatile Man is an account of the working life a stockman, of Kaytetye and European ancestry, who lived through the momentous changes brought by the 20th century on both sides of the frontier in outback Central Australia.
Terry Whitebeach, author of two collections of poetry, three radio plays and two novels for young adults, has a PhD in history/biography. Currently, she is on the board of the Tasmanian Writers Centre and is one of the two Australian Society of Authors' Tasmanian board members.
Register by 31 August for the Progoff Intensive Journal retreat
Intensive Journal® Retreat
A program of exploration and integration through Journal writing.
Based on the work and writings of Ira Progoff.
led by Kate Scholl
1 - 4 November 2008
Venue Maryknoll Retreat Centre, 15 Home Avenue Blackmans Bay, Hobart, Tasmania
Joseph Campbell once called the Intensive Journal process "one of the great inventions of our time". The process was invented by a student of Carl Jung's, Ira Progoff. For more details on the Intensive Journal process, see: http://www.intensivejournal.org
In Australia there are a few licenced practitioners giving the intensive journal workshops, and Kate Scholl is one of them.
You need to register before 31 August
To register, contact Kate Scholl, email: kscholl@optusnet.com.au or tel (02) 9674 1216 (evenings)
You will need to pay a deposit of $100 towards registration by 31 August.
DETAILS
The retreat includes:
* Life Context workshop: 10 am Sat 1 Nov- Sun 2 Nov and
* Depth Contact workshop (Life Context workshop is prerequisite)
7 pm Sunday 2 Nov - Tuesday 4 Nov 3 pm.
Come to one or both.
Full residential cost is $570 for both workshops + 4 nights accommodation.
$300 for one (one workshop + 2 nights accommodation).
Commuter fee is $195 per workshop or $360 for both.
About the workshop facilitator
Kate Scholl, a leader for over 20 years, began using the Intensive Journal method while studying Adult Spirituality at Loyola University in Chicago. Since moving to Sydney in 1987, she has held a variety of roles, including workshop and retreat facilitator and Executive Director of the Eremos Institute. She is currently Volunteer Development Coordinator for the St Vincent de Paul Society (NSW).
A program of exploration and integration through Journal writing.
Based on the work and writings of Ira Progoff.
led by Kate Scholl
1 - 4 November 2008
Venue Maryknoll Retreat Centre, 15 Home Avenue Blackmans Bay, Hobart, Tasmania
Joseph Campbell once called the Intensive Journal process "one of the great inventions of our time". The process was invented by a student of Carl Jung's, Ira Progoff. For more details on the Intensive Journal process, see: http://www.intensivejournal.org
In Australia there are a few licenced practitioners giving the intensive journal workshops, and Kate Scholl is one of them.
You need to register before 31 August
To register, contact Kate Scholl, email: kscholl@optusnet.com.au or tel (02) 9674 1216 (evenings)
You will need to pay a deposit of $100 towards registration by 31 August.
DETAILS
The retreat includes:
* Life Context workshop: 10 am Sat 1 Nov- Sun 2 Nov and
* Depth Contact workshop (Life Context workshop is prerequisite)
7 pm Sunday 2 Nov - Tuesday 4 Nov 3 pm.
Come to one or both.
Full residential cost is $570 for both workshops + 4 nights accommodation.
$300 for one (one workshop + 2 nights accommodation).
Commuter fee is $195 per workshop or $360 for both.
About the workshop facilitator
Kate Scholl, a leader for over 20 years, began using the Intensive Journal method while studying Adult Spirituality at Loyola University in Chicago. Since moving to Sydney in 1987, she has held a variety of roles, including workshop and retreat facilitator and Executive Director of the Eremos Institute. She is currently Volunteer Development Coordinator for the St Vincent de Paul Society (NSW).
14 August 2008
Hobart reading, Friday 15th August at 6pm
Upstairs, Republic Bar & Cafe
Morris Gleitzman in conversation with Tim Cox (6-7pm)
7:00 pm, The Tasmanian Writers’ Centre and Arts @ Work present
Readings with Geoff Dean, Karen Knight, Philomena van Rijswijk, Anne Kellas, Louise Oxley, John Biggs.
Followed by Open Section
06 August 2008
The Passionate Crone: Cento Australiana
Have a look at the Cento written by Rosemary Nissen-Wade: The Passionate Crone: Cento Australiana
06 July 2008
PressPress award goes to Carolyn Fisher of Tasmania
The PressPress chapbook award has been won by Tasmanian poet Carolyn Fisher; and talking of PressPress: its manager, NSW poet Chris Mansel is one of the featured poets today at the Republic Bar and Cafe in North Hobart (corner of Elizabeth and Burnett Streets) at 3 pm (Sunday 6 July 2008).
24 June 2008
Book Launch - Venie Holmgren
A Sense of Direction
A Travel Story Like No Other
by
Venie Holmgren
will be launched by author, June Keir
Date: Thursday July 3rd
Where: Regional Art Gallery, Zingel Place, Bega
Time: 12.30 pm
A Travel Story Like No Other
by
Venie Holmgren
will be launched by author, June Keir
Date: Thursday July 3rd
Where: Regional Art Gallery, Zingel Place, Bega
Time: 12.30 pm
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