Immerse yourself in poetry

Queensland Poetry Festival calling - Feb 24

How do you get into a poetry/literary festival? Well sometimes you are just invited, sometimes your publisher or agent lobbies for your involvement, sometimes there will be a positive response to an individual enquiry or submission (send a promo pack earlier rather than later). Or you might respond to a call for expressions of interest! You have until February 24 to submit an individual or group proposal to the 2011 Queensland Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word to be held in Brisbane August 26-28. Special interest in an exploration of relationships between poetry and other art forms. More info here.

Poetry Alive weekend - Mar 4-6

Livewire poetry activists Nicola Bowery and Harry Laing are organizing the poetry program for the Two Fires Festival (see below). Don’t wait for April to visit the Southern Tablelands – get into the mood with an early autumn visit to Nicola and Harry’s property Geebung for 'another of their unique PoetryAlive weekends offering an immersion in poetry and the chance to write it'. The Fruits of Poetry will be held March 4-6. Phone 02 48461075 or email geemonga@bigpond.com

Rotterdam - June 14-19

Poetry International Rotterdam 2011 will be held June 14-19 in the Rotterdam Schouwburg city theatre. Twenty poets at least, from around the world; lectures, readings, discussions, on-stage interviews; intimate and large-scale locations. Poets present their work in their own language with Dutch and English translations made available. Some info here. To learn about Dutch poets visit www.poetryinternational.org