Write Out Loud's February Newsletter
G’day cobbers,
Wow, so it’s still early February and spring is already springing? Last year there were ducklings in mid-September, devastating weather and natural catastrophes, wars and atrocities, someone said the ice caps are melting…oh and I’ve got another cold.
But enough doom and gloom and let’s get on with the poetry newsletter.
This month our guest contributor Earl Livings from Australia tells us what’s happening down under (see below). Earl has had poetry and fiction published around Australia, USA, Canada, UK and Germany. He is the editor of online poetry journal Divan. When not teaching aprofessional writing course, Earl is revamping the verse novel he wrote for his PhD and working on his second collection of poetry. He lives in Melbourne with his partner and two cats (one social, one anti-social). elivings@optusnet.com.au
You can find a number of poetry competitions amongst our news items at the moment including a new, prestigious Manchester prize from MMU that is judged by Carol Anne Duffy and has a £10k first prize. Good luck if you enter any of them and don’t forget who told you!
We have a new poem of the month from East Sussex-based Catherine Smith which you can find at http://tinyurl.com/294yo3. Keep an eye on Poem of the Month, because next month it could be you!
Yes, it could be you, but only if you have a profile on our showcase with samples of your work. If you haven’t done it already done it then feel free to put your profile on the site, it’s easy to do but, if you need any help, email admin@writeoutloud.net and one of our friendly tech support people will be pleased to help.
Check out our news and gig guide for details of what’s on around the country, including The London Word Festival and the Children’s Literature Festival.
Anyone fancy helping start a new open-floor night in Newton-Le-Willows Contact Johnny Dee and offer your support: johnnydee@blueyonder.co.uk, or if you want to get involved with an open-floor in Halifax (UK) contact Sean Kavanagh: bigsean@btinternet.com
Finally, to help us to help you more, we'd like to thank the Arts Council England that has backed our vision with a grant to cover some of our basic costs. With this extra funding we will start the process of making step-change improvements to the web site and using new technology in increasingly innovative ways.
Have a good month!
Regards
The Press Team
www.writeoutloud.net
Downunder Muse: Poetry in Melbourne
The poetry scene in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, is the second largest in the world, as measured per capita. There are four weekly readings, two fortnightly, 18 monthly and three bi-monthly, which is fabulous for a city with a population around 3.7 million.
Some of these venues are long-standing. The Spinning Room, established by Jon Garrett, has been running virtually every Tuesday night since 1999 when Jon migrated to Australia from London. Then there’s The Dan, as it is affectionately called, running at the Dan O’Connell pub on Saturdays since 1994 and has featured virtually every top poet Melbourne has produced. There’s also the Boroondara Soiree, which is now a bi-monthly event. Finally, there’s La Mama Poetica, which has been running continuously every month since itse stablishment by the late Mal Morgan in 1985 at the famed La Mama Theatre.
As to what goes on at these events and others, there’s everything from straight readings, with a mixture of featured poet and open mic, to slams, tribute nights, performances with music and multimedia, experimental sound work (generally inspired by the Dadaists ), electronic cabaret, and, in keeping with Melbourne’s multi-cultural environment, multi-lingual presentations of new and translated works. There are venues, such as Melbourne Poets Union, that provide opportunities for beginners to take their first tentative steps from page to stage, and events, such as the monthly Sunday afternoons at the Australian Poetry Centre, these involve readings by top Australian poets and in-depth discussions on poetics. As with all poetry readings the world over, the quality can range from brilliantly rendered and performed lyrics and narratives to boring look-at-me, woe-is-me pieces. Yet all these venues and events give local poets, as well as national and international visiting poets, a welcome number of opportunities to strut their stuff before appreciative and supportive audiences. And if you can’t see this action live, there’s always TV and computer. Red Lobster is a poetry program that has been running on an irregular basis since 2003 on channel 31, Melbourne Community Television.
Episodes were filmed at many of the venues mentioned above and the website (http://redlobster.davidmcl.id.au/) has all of them available for purchase and has 48 of them as streaming video.
Melbourne is also a flourishing publishing arena for Australian poetry. There are a number of small presses, including Five Islands Press (established by Ron Pretty, who also established the Australian Poetry Centre and Blue Dog magazine), Black Pepper Publishing, Bystander Press, and Flat Chat Press. In print media there are such literary magazines as Blue Dog, Going Down Swinging (publishing since1980), Meanjin (1940, in Melbourne since 1945), Overland (1954), and Voiceworks (for writers under 25), while in electronic media there is Divan,
Australia’s first all-Australian online poetry journal (running since 1998), and Cordite e-zine (originally a print journal, established in 1997). There is also the recent innovative Poems on Trams project, which involves the regular publishing of haiku-type poems (colloquially called roo-ku) on public transport.
Behind many of these ventures and others are a number of excellent support organisations, including the Melbourne Poets Union and Australian Poetry Centre (supported by Melbourne University), Overload Poetry Inc (annual Overload Poetry Festival, held in August), and the Victorian Writers’ Centre. Melbourne poets are often involved in the annual international Melbourne Writers’ Festival, also held in August, and in the variety of local and regional festivals. With the recent announcement that the State Government has allocated $9 million for the establishment of this country’s first Centre for Books and Ideas, at the State Library, there will be even more opportunities for poets to be involved in expanding Australia’s literary culture. And as far as poetry book readers are concerned, there are more bookshops (new and second-hand) in Melbourne than in any other city in the country. One of the best is Collected Works, the premier ‘poetry and ideas’ bookshop in the Southern Hemisphere, and possibly in the world, which was founded by Kris Hemensley and others under a government employment scheme in 1984. Hemensley conducted poetry workshops at La Mama Theatre in the 60s and 70s, published magazines, and was an early advocate of a forward-looking, international and experimentalist approach to Australian poetry.
In summary, the Melbourne poetry scene is a vibrant and extensive one, and is recognised as a major component in the recent application by the City of Melbourne to become the second UNESCO City of Literature (Edinburgh was the first). If you plan to visit Melbourne and wish to read here, the most comprehensive resource is Pam’s Poetry Pitch (http://pamspoetrypitch.com/). And just in case you were wondering, apparently Amsterdam has the biggest poetry scene, per capita, in the world. That city has its other attractions, but Melbourne has great weather
(sometimes four seasons in the one day), many sporting activities (if you’re into that sort of thing), access to inspiring natural wonders such as the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians National Park, a rich and invigorating night life, including cafes and restaurants of Asian, Middle-Eastern and European cuisines, and a generosity of poetic energy. You will be most welcome.
Earl Livings
Websites for further information:
Australian Poetry Centre: http://australianpoetrycentre.org.au/
Black Pepper Publishing: http://blackpepperpublishing.com/
Blue Dog: http://australianpoetrycentre.org.au/information.html
http://zestemag.wordpress.com/blue-dog/
Cordite: http://www.cordite.org.au/
Divan: www.bhtafe.edu.au/divan
Flat Chat Press: http://www.nmit.vic.edu.au/flatchatpress/default.html
Going Down Swinging: http://www.goingdownswinging.org.au/
Meanjin: http://www.meanjin.unimelb.edu.au/
Melbourne Poets Union: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mpuinc
Melbourne Writers’ Festival: http://www.mwf.com.au
Overland: http://www.overlandexpress.org/
Overload Poetry Inc. http://www.overloadpoetry.com/
Poems on Trams: http://movinggalleries.org
Poetry/Spoken Word events: http://pamspoetrypitch.com/
Red Lobster: http://redlobster.davidmcl.id.au/
Victorian Writers’ Centre: http://www.writers-centre.org/
Voiceworks: http://www.expressmedia.org.au/voiceworks.php
Wow, so it’s still early February and spring is already springing? Last year there were ducklings in mid-September, devastating weather and natural catastrophes, wars and atrocities, someone said the ice caps are melting…oh and I’ve got another cold.
But enough doom and gloom and let’s get on with the poetry newsletter.
This month our guest contributor Earl Livings from Australia tells us what’s happening down under (see below). Earl has had poetry and fiction published around Australia, USA, Canada, UK and Germany. He is the editor of online poetry journal Divan. When not teaching aprofessional writing course, Earl is revamping the verse novel he wrote for his PhD and working on his second collection of poetry. He lives in Melbourne with his partner and two cats (one social, one anti-social). elivings@optusnet.com.au
You can find a number of poetry competitions amongst our news items at the moment including a new, prestigious Manchester prize from MMU that is judged by Carol Anne Duffy and has a £10k first prize. Good luck if you enter any of them and don’t forget who told you!
We have a new poem of the month from East Sussex-based Catherine Smith which you can find at http://tinyurl.com/294yo3. Keep an eye on Poem of the Month, because next month it could be you!
Yes, it could be you, but only if you have a profile on our showcase with samples of your work. If you haven’t done it already done it then feel free to put your profile on the site, it’s easy to do but, if you need any help, email admin@writeoutloud.net and one of our friendly tech support people will be pleased to help.
Check out our news and gig guide for details of what’s on around the country, including The London Word Festival and the Children’s Literature Festival.
Anyone fancy helping start a new open-floor night in Newton-Le-Willows Contact Johnny Dee and offer your support: johnnydee@blueyonder.co.uk, or if you want to get involved with an open-floor in Halifax (UK) contact Sean Kavanagh: bigsean@btinternet.com
Finally, to help us to help you more, we'd like to thank the Arts Council England that has backed our vision with a grant to cover some of our basic costs. With this extra funding we will start the process of making step-change improvements to the web site and using new technology in increasingly innovative ways.
Have a good month!
Regards
The Press Team
www.writeoutloud.net
Downunder Muse: Poetry in Melbourne
The poetry scene in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, is the second largest in the world, as measured per capita. There are four weekly readings, two fortnightly, 18 monthly and three bi-monthly, which is fabulous for a city with a population around 3.7 million.
Some of these venues are long-standing. The Spinning Room, established by Jon Garrett, has been running virtually every Tuesday night since 1999 when Jon migrated to Australia from London. Then there’s The Dan, as it is affectionately called, running at the Dan O’Connell pub on Saturdays since 1994 and has featured virtually every top poet Melbourne has produced. There’s also the Boroondara Soiree, which is now a bi-monthly event. Finally, there’s La Mama Poetica, which has been running continuously every month since itse stablishment by the late Mal Morgan in 1985 at the famed La Mama Theatre.
As to what goes on at these events and others, there’s everything from straight readings, with a mixture of featured poet and open mic, to slams, tribute nights, performances with music and multimedia, experimental sound work (generally inspired by the Dadaists ), electronic cabaret, and, in keeping with Melbourne’s multi-cultural environment, multi-lingual presentations of new and translated works. There are venues, such as Melbourne Poets Union, that provide opportunities for beginners to take their first tentative steps from page to stage, and events, such as the monthly Sunday afternoons at the Australian Poetry Centre, these involve readings by top Australian poets and in-depth discussions on poetics. As with all poetry readings the world over, the quality can range from brilliantly rendered and performed lyrics and narratives to boring look-at-me, woe-is-me pieces. Yet all these venues and events give local poets, as well as national and international visiting poets, a welcome number of opportunities to strut their stuff before appreciative and supportive audiences. And if you can’t see this action live, there’s always TV and computer. Red Lobster is a poetry program that has been running on an irregular basis since 2003 on channel 31, Melbourne Community Television.
Episodes were filmed at many of the venues mentioned above and the website (http://redlobster.davidmcl.id.au/) has all of them available for purchase and has 48 of them as streaming video.
Melbourne is also a flourishing publishing arena for Australian poetry. There are a number of small presses, including Five Islands Press (established by Ron Pretty, who also established the Australian Poetry Centre and Blue Dog magazine), Black Pepper Publishing, Bystander Press, and Flat Chat Press. In print media there are such literary magazines as Blue Dog, Going Down Swinging (publishing since1980), Meanjin (1940, in Melbourne since 1945), Overland (1954), and Voiceworks (for writers under 25), while in electronic media there is Divan,
Australia’s first all-Australian online poetry journal (running since 1998), and Cordite e-zine (originally a print journal, established in 1997). There is also the recent innovative Poems on Trams project, which involves the regular publishing of haiku-type poems (colloquially called roo-ku) on public transport.
Behind many of these ventures and others are a number of excellent support organisations, including the Melbourne Poets Union and Australian Poetry Centre (supported by Melbourne University), Overload Poetry Inc (annual Overload Poetry Festival, held in August), and the Victorian Writers’ Centre. Melbourne poets are often involved in the annual international Melbourne Writers’ Festival, also held in August, and in the variety of local and regional festivals. With the recent announcement that the State Government has allocated $9 million for the establishment of this country’s first Centre for Books and Ideas, at the State Library, there will be even more opportunities for poets to be involved in expanding Australia’s literary culture. And as far as poetry book readers are concerned, there are more bookshops (new and second-hand) in Melbourne than in any other city in the country. One of the best is Collected Works, the premier ‘poetry and ideas’ bookshop in the Southern Hemisphere, and possibly in the world, which was founded by Kris Hemensley and others under a government employment scheme in 1984. Hemensley conducted poetry workshops at La Mama Theatre in the 60s and 70s, published magazines, and was an early advocate of a forward-looking, international and experimentalist approach to Australian poetry.
In summary, the Melbourne poetry scene is a vibrant and extensive one, and is recognised as a major component in the recent application by the City of Melbourne to become the second UNESCO City of Literature (Edinburgh was the first). If you plan to visit Melbourne and wish to read here, the most comprehensive resource is Pam’s Poetry Pitch (http://pamspoetrypitch.com/). And just in case you were wondering, apparently Amsterdam has the biggest poetry scene, per capita, in the world. That city has its other attractions, but Melbourne has great weather
(sometimes four seasons in the one day), many sporting activities (if you’re into that sort of thing), access to inspiring natural wonders such as the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians National Park, a rich and invigorating night life, including cafes and restaurants of Asian, Middle-Eastern and European cuisines, and a generosity of poetic energy. You will be most welcome.
Earl Livings
Websites for further information:
Australian Poetry Centre: http://australianpoetrycentre.org.au/
Black Pepper Publishing: http://blackpepperpublishing.com/
Blue Dog: http://australianpoetrycentre.org.au/information.html
http://zestemag.wordpress.com/blue-dog/
Cordite: http://www.cordite.org.au/
Divan: www.bhtafe.edu.au/divan
Flat Chat Press: http://www.nmit.vic.edu.au/flatchatpress/default.html
Going Down Swinging: http://www.goingdownswinging.org.au/
Meanjin: http://www.meanjin.unimelb.edu.au/
Melbourne Poets Union: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mpuinc
Melbourne Writers’ Festival: http://www.mwf.com.au
Overland: http://www.overlandexpress.org/
Overload Poetry Inc. http://www.overloadpoetry.com/
Poems on Trams: http://movinggalleries.org
Poetry/Spoken Word events: http://pamspoetrypitch.com/
Red Lobster: http://redlobster.davidmcl.id.au/
Victorian Writers’ Centre: http://www.writers-centre.org/
Voiceworks: http://www.expressmedia.org.au/voiceworks.php
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:27 pm
