The Newcastle Writers Festival

I am part of the 2017 Newcastle Writers Festival. As one of the people who created and runs BAD!LSAM!NO!BISCUIT! I was invited to be part of the Slam! Poetry and Performance panel on the Saturday. The panel includes Australian Poetry Slam founder Myles Merril, and Sarah Mansour from Bankstown Poetry Slam. David Grantham will be the host. I am looking forward to the discussion and learning about some of the different poetry slams that are run in Australia.

On the Sunday I will be performing some of my work alongside Michael Aiken, Magdalena Ball, Joanne burns, Eileen Chong, John Foulcher, Judy Johnson, Sara Mansour, Ravi Nagaveeran, Philip Salom, Berndt Sellheim, Melinda Smith and Maggie Walsh as part of Port of Newcastle – Poetry in the Place.

I lived in Newcastle for about ten years, mostly in the East End, Cooks Hill and Bar Beach but I haven’t been back since one of the early This is Not Art festivals, so I am looking forward to seeing how much it has changed. The Newcastle Writers Festival runs from 7-9 April, the events I am part of are free, come along and check them out.

Cordite 44: Gondwanaland

I grew up liking maps, liking continents, liking supercontinents, and fossils. So anything connected to Gondwana, aka Gondwanaland, is to me pretty awesome. 

'Oldest' Gondwana land creature discovered

Having my first ever poem in Cordite be in Cordite 44: GONDWANALAND feels pretty cool.

Her French Toast, the poem I have in this issue, draws together a couple of inspirations for me. 

A friend who was on a ship called USS Blue Ridge, and I know it’s not a submarine.

USS Blue Ridge

Listening to music from DVA for the game Botanicula, and there is a submarine in there. 

And sitting in the upstairs food court of the Canberra Centre wanting to be underwater at Newcastle beach.

This is the song I most listened to while I wrote the earliest drafts of the poem.