Australian Poetry Ltd: Working around the country

Opening Lines by Lizz Murphy

Canberra Forum

About 40 poets rolled up for the Australian Poetry (Ltd) forum in Canberra on May 1. Paul Kooperman, National Director, provided background to the establishment of Australian Poetry, appointments of other staff, programs already on the go and others in planning. The full story of Australian Poetry is at the looking good website.

He mentioned that most, if not all (I can’t remember exactly) staff, are part-time. So I guess we need to be a bit patient and give everyone a chance to settle into their new roles and set up all programs.

Intention is for the new Australian Poetry Journal to be equal in quality to the journals it will replace: Five Bells (former Poets Union) and Blue Dog (former Australian Poetry Centre). Poets will receive payment for contributions and at ASA rates. By the way, since the Canberra forum, Bronwyn Lea has been appointed editor. Submissions are now open — for more info click here. 

There was a bit of a run-down on various activities/special projects including: Café Poets, Poem on a Pillow (Sydney), Vow Wows, PROD! — Poets Ride Online Dangerously (in partnership with RMIT), Tee-shirt Poems, Poetry to Inspire Fashion, etc. Apparently this area attracts the most criticism says Paul, but I think, provided it doesn’t spread the resources too thin and that collaborations with other sectors retain a focus on the poet and contemporary poetry, it adds variety and liveliness.

The more ‘serious’ programs include the journal mentioned above, the Australian Poetry Symposium coming up in Newcastle, the Poet in Residence with Sandra Thibodeaux working her way around the country one way or another, workshop programs including online opportunities and an education program. I believe the regional poetry festivals established by the Australian Poetry Centre will continue, and there also are plans for poets to visit refugees on Christmas Island.

The e-bulletins are welcome and the website is working. Go to www.australianpoetry.org for more on programs and activities, competitions, an events calendar and a whole lot more.

Paul Kooperman is based in Melbourne but there is also a NSW Director, Leah Greengarten, based in Sydney, and the so far unfunded Director positions in WA: Katrina Bercov, and ACT: Hal Judge.

The Canberra forum was hosted by Hal, and vino was contributed by the ACT Writers Centre. We ran out of time for the local discussion which was unfortunate, but there was an opportunity to mingle and hear something of what other poets are doing to promote poetry. Some of us really enjoyed the chance to catch up and in some cases meet, so many poets in one spot.

You can contact Hal with enquiries or your ideas for the ACT — and I hope the Canberra Region — on hal@australianpoetry.org I have to say thanks not only to Paul but to both Hal and Leah since due to my regional location I straddle both NSW and the ACT.  

Tracking Poetry Centres

The new look Australian Poetry is imminent. So am tracking directions other poetry centres are taking - poetry centres of one kind or another, in one part of the world or another, by one name or another. Some highlights:

• The Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre’s new anthology titled See How I Land: Oxford Poets and Exiled Writers, is the result of a project bringing together 14 established poets and 14 refugees. It is supported by the Poetry Centre and the Oxford-based charity, Asylum Welcome.

• The Electronic Poetry Centre (EPC), Buffalo, is planning E-Poetry 2011, “a renowned biennial international artistic gathering founded on dialog over emerging issues in digital, visual, sound, and language-based artistic practice. Participants should keep in mind that its emphasis is on literary practice in an encompassing sense, i.e., the practice of thinking through engagement with the material aspects of media forms, the building of community, and the exchange of ideas across languages, borders, and ideologies. Accepting papers (250 words) until December 15.

 • The Seamus Heaney Poetry Centre, Queens University, Belfast, held the British and Irish Contemporary Poetry Conference in September. You can access a range readings by poets invited to regular readings at the centre through its online Poetry Audio Library.

• Just launched at the NZ Electronic Poetry Centre is All Together Now: A Digital Bridge for Auckland and Sydney. An impressive selection of text, audio and video – you’ll need time to work through it.

 • The San Francisco State University Poetry Centre has run regular poetry readings since 1954 – possibly a US record (world record?). Their American Poetry Archives will be available to the public online from April 2011.

 • “English poetry has yet to engage with the rich poetic traditions of the many languages now spoken in the UK…” according to the London-based Poetry Translation Centre. Click here for African, Asian and Latin American poetry by poets with significant reputations in their own language base, translated into English and available as chapbooks and podcasts. Check out the very attractive boxed set of multilingual books – there may be some still available.

 • If you are going to London you could also catch up with Emergency Verse: Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State, an e-book with a print launch at the Poetry Library, Southbank Centre in January 2011. This is the first event in Special Edition, a new series of poetry events on the first Wednesday of each month. "...find the most comprehensive collection of poetry in the UK transformed into the backdrop for poetry-related debates, talks, collaborations and readings of live poetry."

 • The Scottish Poetry Library is expanding its European holdings to foster relationships between Scottish and European poets. On their website you can find translations, Polish e-cards, NZ poetry extracts and a list of international links. No Australian entries under the Australasian heading (but I sent some info).

 • Also visited Centre International de Poésie Marseille online. Darn – why didn’t I learn French.

A bit random but reflects my interests: multicultural, multilingual, support for refugees and migrants, social, international interactions, access and promotion through online activities.

Poetry news: Australian Poetry - Unlimited!

No limits to where Australian poetry can go now! The news is out. For full information on Australian Poetry Ltd to be officially launched in the new year, click here. You’ll also see the team of staff now in place and the diversity in the group’s professional/arts experience.

This had to happen. There are too many challenges to working effectively long-term, especially at a national level …not to mention international! We need a heightened profile for poetry as an artform and Australian poets as noted members of the world’s poetry community; apt recognition from relevant government bodies and a broader field; a growth in support for the poet activists already working to promote poetry and other poets; support and new opportunities for poets at all levels – young, old, new or established, all cultures; an inspired capacity audience; a skilled and ample employee base to ensure all of the above. You can’t scratch along with skeleton staff, insecure incomes and the goodwill of volunteers forever – not if you’re serious.

In the case of the discontinuing Poets Union, I am very grateful to the volunteer poets who have made up the committees, produced the publications, organized Poets On Wheels, found the funding, hosted and promoted readings and tours, developed poetry awards and fellowships, sustained a membership of around 600 poets, and a whole lot else. But in any organization volunteers may come and go; volunteers may not be thick enough on the ground at a crucial time; volunteers however generous do not always have enough time at any given time; volunteers may in time burn out and volunteers who are poets do put their own writing time at risk. A team of staff will ideally have enough total hours and the wide range of skills and perceptions to do the big job.

There is still a place for volunteers including volunteer poets. Poets have diverse professional backgrounds, on-the-ground experience and creativity. In the merging organizations they have brought wide-ranging skills, enriched the programs, broadened directions. The poet-volunteers will help keep the organization’s vision and priorities in sight and contribute to achievements of excellence - and so will members.

For those of us who have been subscribing to both the Poets Union and the much newer Australian Poetry Centre, from next year we will have only one subscription to pay (so there’s a saving). You can become a member of Australian Poetry, get up to date on developments and download the Australian Poetry National Strategy at the Australian Poetry Centre website. But I'll miss the Poets Union - what an act to follow.

Poets Union - end of an era

Drinking hot lemon and honey at five in the morning watching the light break on the ancient eucalypt and wondering if any other poets in this time zone are awake right now I can think of one who always is her reading pile her journal her flask of tea It’s not me I like to sleep (but cough splutter is getting in the way today) Everyone will be converging on Sydney today Everyone who is a poet and isn’t in bed with flu (sad) An end of year party that is an end of an era the Poets Union merging into the new oddly named Australian Poetry Limited Surely we want Australian Poetry UNlimited? I know – I’m not the first to make that crack All I can think of apart from missing a party (will it be a wake) is that I haven’t said thank you Thank you to all those who kept the Poets Union running since the 1970s provided the networks found the funding organised the tours awards fellowships festivals churned out the newsletters and the ever classier Five Bells journal They have to keep that It’s a lighthouse Five A.M. Only one thing for it – blog!