No Wave

I was part of a fabulous line up Wednesday evening at this month’s No Wave poetry readings at The Wheaty – Jelena Dinić, Caroline Reid and Jennifer Liston – curated by the equally fabulous Jill Jones.

Jelena was first up who shared some poems from her recent trip to Serbia that were haunting and quiet and devastatingly beautiful, just like the rest of her work. Jelena’s collection In the Room with the She Wolf published by Wakefield Press charts her journey from her former home of Yugoslavia to Australia, from childhood to becoming an adult, and won the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature Unpublished Manuscript prize in 2020.

I was next up and shared some poems from my new collection ice cream ‘n’ tar, one of the winners of the James Tate Chapbook Poetry Prize last year published by Survision Books in Dublin. Offering a surrealist take on climate change, my work produced many contemplative responses, which was exactly the reaction I’d hoped for, as the idea behind these poems was to help people focus on the human impact on our wonderful world.

After a short break Caroline took the stage, whose work was highly entertaining in its grittiness and appeal, where poets were compared to dogs with their bite and how the monthly bleed can generate associations in various guises. Caroline won the 2021 Mslexia International Poetry Prize with ‘A Poem to My Mother that She Will Never Read’, which I remember finding in the magazine and being completely wowed by it.

Last but by no means least was Jen who read poems from her forthcoming collection Grace Notes due out from Salmon Publishing later this year, about Grace O’Malley the Pirate Queen of 16th century Ireland who, despite commanding over 200 men at sea, was written out of history. Jen’s poetry is mesmerising and this was no exception, as she gave voice to this heroine once again following her sold out shows at the Adelaide Fringe in 2020.

It was a brilliant evening compered by Jill who shared witty alternative bios alongside our real ones (seem to recall I was a famous chef!) and the variety of poetry shared worked incredibly well. The readings were recorded for Vision Australia Radio‘s Emerging Writers program, to be broadcast alongside the interviews we gave to Kate Cooper, one of its volunteers, which was another fabulous opportunity to reach a wider audience. Here’s my reading and interview if you’re interested and be sure to check out the others too.

So, I consider ice cream ‘n’ tar officially launched and what better place for it than at these prestigious readings. I even managed to sell several signed copies, although of course a poet is never in poetry for the money; it’s all about the words.