📣 Congratulations to the QRAA Ekphrasis Challenge winners!
Dear poets and poetry lovers,
This month has been jam-packed with poetry goodness to end 2021 on a high note.
We’re excited to announce the revival of the Queensland Poetry Festival for 2022! Held from 7-10 April at the Judith Wright Centre, the theme for next year’s festival will be ‘Emerge’. We look forward to welcoming you back.
Congratulations to winning and shortlisted poets of the QRAA Ekphrasis Challenge. And to Huda Fadlelmawla, who’s been crowned 2021 Australian Poetry Slam Champion.
Last but definitely not least, we’re proud to introduce you to our new Arts Queensland Poets in Digital Residence: Eileen Myles, Andy Jackson and Laniyuk.
Keep scrolling to read more about these important announcements and more!
Yours in poetry,
— The QP Team
📣 Queensland Poetry Festival - claim the date!
After a couple of years hiatus, the Queensland Poetry Festival is back in its live form in 2022. Held from 7-10 April at the Judith Wright Centre, the theme for 2022’s festival will be ‘Emerge’ – speaking not only to the sense of ‘coming through’ the significant challenges of the last few years, but also to the way poetry emerges into the world, and to poets taking those first (tentative, terrifying, courageous) steps into the poetry community.
The full program will be released early in the new year. We look forward to welcoming you.
📣 QRAA Ekphrasis Challenge
The results of our QRAA Ekphrasis Challenge are in! Congratulations to winning poets Kai Jensen, Anna Black, Ben Walter, Dave Drayton, Linda Albertson, Judy Durrant, Pri Victor, Carlo Caponecchia and Roger Callen.
And to shortlisted poets Rose Lucas, Anne Elvey, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Ellen Shelley, Jos Glencross, Owen Bullock, Michael Farrell, Mike Gilmour, Benjamin Dodds, Lauren Rae, Pru McAlpin and Max Ryan.
With thanks to our co-producer Flying Arts, and judges Josie/Jocelyn Deane and Paul Hetherington.
📣 Meet our Poets in Digital Residence
Established in 2005, our Arts Queensland Poet in Residence Program invites national and international talent to engage directly with Queensland's poetry and spoken-word communities. In 2021, we welcome Eileen Myles, Andy Jackson and Laniyuk for our Poet in (Digital) Residence program, delivered remotely.
Eileen Myles
Eileen Myles (they/them) came to New York from Boston in 1974 to be a poet. Their books include For Now (an essay/talk about writing), I Must Be Living Twice/new and selected poems, and Chelsea Girls. They showed their photographs in 2019 at Bridget Donahue, NYC.
Eileen has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
They live in New York and Marfa, TX.
Andy Jackson
Andy Jackson is a poet, essayist and creative writing teacher. He has been shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, the John Bray Poetry Award and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry. Andy has co-edited disability-themed issues of Southerly and Australian Poetry Journal, and his latest poetry collection is Human Looking (Giramondo, 2021).
Laniyuk
Laniyuk is a Larrakia, Kungarakan, Gurindji, and French writer and performer of poetry and short memoir. She contributed to the book Colouring the Rainbow: Blak, Queer and Trans Perspectives in 2015, has been published online in Djed Press and the Lifted Brow, as well as in print poetry collections such as UQP’s 2019 Solid Air and 2020 Fire Front. She received Canberra’s Noted Writers Festival’s 2017 Indigenous Writers Residency, Overland’s 2018 Writers Residency and was shortlisted for Overland’s 2018 Nakata-Brophy poetry prize. She runs poetry workshops for festivals, moderates panel discussions, and has given guest lectures at ANU and The University of Melbourne. She is currently completing her first collection of work to be published through Magabala Books.
📣 Australian Poetry Slam winner!
The 2021 National Final of the Australian Poetry Slam was an amazing night - a mix of screen, stage and cheering crowd.
Congratulations to Queensland's own Huda Fadlelmawla AKA Huda the Goddess, who was crowned 2021 Australian Poetry Slam Champion!
And congratulations to Queensland finalist Bea Mazur, who won second place in 2021 Australian Poetry Slam!
Watch Bea’s performance on our YouTube.
Help poetry grow!
Want to see poetry grow and flourish? Want more spoken word on the stage and creativity on the page?
Make a tax-deductable donation to Queensland Poetry today at qldpoetry.raisely.com
Your donation will help grow poetry in Queensland and beyond!
New poetry writer’s group for Brisbane
A new Brisbane poetry writer’s group is being formed with a focus on Australian poetry.
The primary purpose of the group is to provide a safe forum for poems to be critiqued for poetic devices, rhythm, structure, images, metaphors/similes, etc. As well, the group can use the forum to discuss Australian poetry themes and topics.
Expressions of interest are sought from Brisbane poets interested in participating in the group.
The inaugural meeting will be held at 4pm Thursday 27 January 2022, at the Brisbane City Council Square Library, 266 George Street Brisbane.
The venue, day and time of future meetings can be discussed at the inaugural meeting.
The group formation has the support and encouragement of the Fellowship of Australian Writers Queensland (FAWQ) and Queensland Writers Centre (QWC). Please express your interest to Mike Gilmour mgilmour92@gmail.com
📣 Poetry opportunities
Judith Wright Poetry Prize: 7 January 2022
Backslash Lit: 4 February 2022
Cordite - No Theme 11: 13 February 2022
Strange Horizons: Open year-round for poetry.
Rattle: Open year-round.
Overland Journal: Open for poetry submissions.
#EnbyLife Journal: Submissions open to non-binary and gender diverse creatives.
Got a call-out you'd like poets to know about? Email marketing@qldpoetry.org.
📣 Upcoming Qld events
Poetry Writer's Group: Thursday 27 January 2022 at 4pm at the Brisbane Square Library
Volta Poetry at Brisbane Square Library: First Fridays starting 4 February 2022
Queensland Poetry Festival: 7-10 April 2022
Ruckus Slam: 2022 events to be announced
Voices of Colour: 2022 events to be announced
Got an event you'd like poets to know about? Email events@qldpoetry.org.