POETS AT CANBERRA WRITERS FESTIVAL

It’s a great season – plenty of rain, green pasture and the sun is shining upon us. All I need now is a major literary festival down the road. Canberra Writers Festival (CWF) to the rescue this week – October 16-18. It kicks off with the ACT Book of the Year Award announcements on Friday at 4.00 pm in the National Library of Australia. 

Yes there is poetry! And yes I am in it. CWF and That Poetry Thing That Is On At Smiths Every Monday have worked together to bring Earth, Nature, Country to you on Saturday at 2.30 pm. It's at Smith's Alternative. Myself plus these five outstanding poets: Joanna Bell, Paul Collis, Martin Dolan, Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss, Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello. More here. 

Johanna Bell of Hobart writes fiction, poetry and children’s books. Her latest book is the Tasmanian Literary Award winning Department of the Vanishing (Transit Lounge 2026). 

Paul Collis, Canberra-based poet and Barkindji man, Paul Collis, was awarded the ACT Book of the Year at the ACT Writers Centre Publishing and Awards Night for his work Dancing Home (UQP). 

Martin Dolan is a Canberra poet who has been writing and publishing for twenty-five years. He has been one of the organisers of That Poetry Thing since 2017. Martin is also chair of Australian Poetry, the national body for Australian poetry. Recent collection: On the Record (Recent Work Press).

Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss is an Anglo-Ghanaian writer and teacher based in Australia. His latest book is Hybrid Heaven & other(ed) poems (Recent Work Press).

Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello OAM is an award-winning visual artist, poet and writer of Aboriginal (Lower Southern Arrernte), Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent. One of her most recent collections is Shapeshifting, 2024. 

 

For the full CWF program go to: https://canberrawritersfestival.com.au/programs/

There is literary fiction, crime writing, food writing, family history, migration stories, hot history, women in space and a whole lot else. See you there.