The Tundish Review Issue 4, Brisbane

The Tundish Review

The Tundish Review Issue 4 was launched on Wednesday night at Betty's Espresso & Bar in Brisbane. The zine includes poetry by Jarad Bruinstroop, Juanita Simmonds, Ankita Bellary, Sean West, Sam Bolte, Shastra Deo and two pieces from me. I was also interviewed for this edition, I don’t usually talk or write much about my process but I really enjoyed the questions from the editors, as well as some of the discussion we had about why they wanted to interview me. The launch was packed with people and was such a fun night of poetry and drinks.

The artwork by Link Raptor is really interesting and fits well with this edition of the zine, the piece he drew for my poem, Axolotl Limbo, gave me a new perspective on the work. One of the ideas I like in the zine is the use of a fictional editor, this creates space for experiments, as well as character for the publication. The two real life editors, Katelyn Goyen and Nick van Buuren, have put a lot of love into this zine, they’ve promised that there will be a call out for issues 5 & 6 shortly, so make sure you have the latest copy, submit your work, and like the zine on Facebook. 

You can probably grab a copy by contacting them through their website or facebook, and you can definitely get editions at Junky Comics.

Here are some photographs of the launch (taken by Anton van Buuren), you can find more here.

The Tundish Review Issue 4 Launch

I am part of the 22 November launch of Brisbane zine, The Tundish Review. The editors were not only kind enough to accept two of my poems, but they also interviewed me for the edition.

Putting together any publication takes commitment and effort, and putting one together full of other writers, artists and performers deserves support. So get to Betty’s Espresso & Bar at 7:30pm on Wednesday 22 November to hear poetry from Ankita Bellary, Sean West, Shastra Deo, Jarad Bruinstroop, Juanita Simmonds, Sam Bolte and me. Then grab a copy of the zine. Thanks to the editors Katelyn & Nick.

Today, the voice you speak with may not be your own, issue 8

I have a poem in the latest and last issue of Pascalle Burton’s, Today, the voice you speak with may not be your own. This is issue 8 and it also features the work of Carody Culver, Ian Gibbins, Elena Kotasvili, Jackie Ryan, Nathan Shepherdson, Renee Vaughan Sutherland and Anne-Marie Te Whiu.

My piece is A transcript of the Dungeons & Dragons opening credits. I’ve included the video source below. The series was never concluded and so these six kids have been left trapped forever in the realm of Dungeons and Dragons.

Pressure Gauge Issue 3

Pressure Gauge Issue 3 includes two of my poems alongside work by Lino Anunciacion, Natalie Catalan, Stephanie Chan, Lauren Elma, Ry Irene, Jasmine Mi, Linette Reeman, Melissa Rose Kalena Thwaits and Nyein Way. Check it out here: Pressure Gauge Issue 3.

Bareknuckle Poet Annual 002 2016

Bareknuckle Poet Annual 002 2016 1st Edition 2016 Edited by Brentley Frazer & A. G. Pettet.

Pre-order at BKP!

Including work from: Hasti Abbasi, Venero Armanno, Mandy Beaumont, John Birmingham, David Ades, John Ashbery, Peter Bakowski, Bill Berkson, Ashley Elizabeth Best, Robbie Coburn, Deborah Conway, Stuart Cooke, Brett Dionysius, Michael Dransfield, Liam Ferney, Cal Freeman, Andrew Galan, Amy Hempel, Matt Hetherington, Rose Hunter, Lachlan Jarrah, John Kinsella, Robert Lort, Sophie MacNeill, Margaret Malone, Ian McBryde, Frank O’Hara, Chuck Palahniuk, Angela Peita, Laura Ellen Scott, Tom Shapcott, Tom Spanbauer, David Stavanger, Mark Terrill, Samuel Wagan Watson, John Wainwright, Ashleigh Watson, Edward Willes, Ouyang Yu + more

The Poetry Slam inside the Phoenix Pub

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BRISBANE POETRY

From late-August into early-September I spent just over two weeks in Brisbane.

While there I featured at SpeedPoets and the Jam Jar Poetry Slam. I also took part in two events at the Queensland Poetry Festival: a workshop run by L. E. Scott, and a poetry slam run by Scott Sneddon. And I got to assist Ghostboy in his MCing of the Page vs. Stage poetry slam at the Brisbane Writers Festival where I was also the sacrificial poet.

The poetry workshop

L. E. Scott’s poetry workshop was jazz poetry; it didn’t involve studying, writing and/or workshopping jazz poetry. No we flowed with the workshop, interjected and interrupted or were confused, and we all performed at least one poem during the few hours we had.

The core of the workshop was L. E. Scott’s improvisational exploration of the writing that accompanied the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and he clearly often lost himself there. But, when I got past his calling it “the Black Arts” and me imagining cackling witches around a cauldron, the workshop gave insight into a poetry movement I had not considered and led to writers I had not previously known.  

While I think at times the workshop struggled to come to grips with his method and language, all the participants shaped the workshop through verse, questions, and puzzlement.

“VI

The poetry of life?

NO, the picture of my dreams

Flashing on my heart.”

- Lewis Grandison Alexander

SpeedPoets

I featured at SpeedPoets with Trudie Murrell. Set at the deepest end of Brew in Brisbane’s Central Business District the SpeedPoets venue is a great spot for poetry.

This performance meant a lot to me: 1) I was performing to strangers in a strange city; 2) Graham Nunn, who runs the gig, is an accomplished poet with many publications, books, and performances; and 3) he is close friends with one of the poets who inspired me to perform, David Stavanger aka Ghostboy.

And I got to hang out with Hadley who stole about two-thirds of the cider I thought I was drinking over the afternoon and evening.

SpeedPoets has a full open mic that gives a piece of Brisbane’s poetry, and the website and monthly associated publication that Graham produces for it contain a great many poems to read. As part of being features Trudie and I decided who would be the call back poet, that poet has the opportunity to perform more poems on the night, plus go into a final competition at the end of the year. We decided on Cameron Logan, his poem IPSWICH grabbed the entire room. I have seen Cameron perform often in Queensland and always enjoyed his work.

Jam Jar Poetry Slam

I could say this is the other end of the poetry spectrum in Brisbane, but it isn’t and that is a cliché. Jam Jar Poetry Slam is another piece of Brisbane poetry, this one run by Darkwing Dubs, also known as Scott Sneddon. Darkwing Dubs, side-by-side with Hadley, is one of the best poets I know to have gone to the Australian National Poetry Slam in Sydney and prove the saying that “the best poet never wins.”

So Darkwing Dubs running it is part of what makes this slam special to me. The other is that I reckon, as with Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit!, it belongs firmly in the Genus Poetry Slam due to a basis in what “So What!” should mean to a poetry slam. To me this is the most important rule of a poetry slam because a poetry slam is just “a performance space, literally a demarcated and dedicated chunk of space/time" where you can’t have too much fun.

A lot of poetry was performed, two rounds starting with twelve poets, and I really enjoyed the poem and performance of Tim Lo Surdo.

Featuring here meant a lot and I lost myself in the gig, as I did at SpeedPoets, and came out of the performance haze at dinner about an hour later. The slam runs without a mic which I found gave me the same freedom as walking the streets of Canberra memorising poems. Hopefully I thanked Scott and said goodbye. If I didn’t then it was because I was somewhere else after that performance and it was a good place.

Page vs. Stage poetry slam

Page versus stage is an engaging concept, and getting to take part in haranguing judges in the crowd about what they made of a poem was great. My favourite judge, the two-headed judge, stated content didn’t matter, they said it is all in the delivery and who cares what the poem is about. I performed The Dark Horse of Poetry as the sacrificial poem and the personal high point of this night was getting to help Ghostboy run a slam.

Thank you to everyone in Brisbane who made the trip a poetry and food filled expedition, particularly Harry, Hadley, and Tessa.

When I was in Queensland
I got this photo for you.

Poetry & two weeks

In Brisbane:

SpeedPoets last Saturday was loads of fun, both performing a set of poems and listening to new poetry, so thank you very much Graham Nunn and SpeedPoets for having me feature.

I stole this picture

This Saturday night I have a small fun part to play in the Page vs. Stage Poetry Slam at the Brisbane Writers Festival, and Sunday I am featuring at Jam Jar Poetry. Jam Jar is a poetry slam in the round with no microphone, run by Darkwing Dubs it has even more poets to listen to. A Café Kitchen Hip Hop group, Harmaphonics, will be featuring, so I am looking forward to hearing rhymes about entrées, health inspectors, tea-towels, and the heat under the condensate hood (Yeah, I’ve been in the kitchen and I managed to work my way out in a rags to riches story too); it’s gonna be rad. MC Kudos is another of the feature acts:

None of my poems are in anyway Hip Hop so I am looking forward to the mix.

The rest of the two weeks has been filled with walking, sun, finding all the comic book and non-comic book shops of the Brisbane Central Business District, some poetry at the Queensland Poetry Festival, and hanging out with Tessa and Hadley and Harry, as well as drinking coffee, and seeing some of the Brisbane people who are really nice. I have not caught up with everyone I had hoped to but I did have dinner with Doubting Thomas and Scott Sneddon, both really good to spend time with and I enjoyed seeing them again.

SpeedPoets on 1 September

I will be featuring at Brisbane’s SpeedPoets alongside poet Trudie Murrell.

SpeedPoets is a long-running Brisbane poetry gig with a large open mic section. The event is hosted by Graham Nunn (who has five books and a CD of poetry published). So I am looking forward to hearing lots of words.

filamentous bacteriophage M13

I have not read Trudie Murrell’s poems before, but I found one published in Cordite 39: Jackpot! and there is an interview of her at Another Lost Shark, along with a second poem; read all those words then travel to Brisbane in a vehicle powered by the M13 bacteriophage so you can listen to the poets at SpeedPoets on 1 September 2012.