A podcast of the 2016 Adelaide Writers’ Week poetry reading is now available.
The Monday afternoon poetry reading is an enduring and eagerly anticipated tradition at Adelaide Writers’ Week. In past years, it has showcased interstate and international guests, however, this year poet and novelist Peter Goldsworthy chose five South Australian poets to read at the session, and appear in a complementary poetry feature for the March edition of Australian Book Review. The feature is part of ABR’s ‘States of Poetry’ project, a federally arranged project, funded by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, that will include poets from all states and territories.
I’m among the poets who were chosen to appear at the reading, along with Aidan Coleman, Jelena Dinic, Jill Jones and Kate Llewellyn. The reading, like all Writers’ Week sessions, was a free event and took place in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden. The poetry reading is well attended year-after-year, but this year’s crowd was the largest I’ve seen. Details for the podcast are as follows:
Laura Kroetsch: Director’s introduction (0:00)
Peter Goldsworthy: Chair (0:17)
Aidan Coleman (2:40) @AidanColeman4
Jelena Dinic (17:06)
Jill Jones (28:48) @_jill_jones, blog
Kate Llewellyn (40:50)
Thom Sullivan (53:12)
One poem by each poet appears in the March 2016 print (“dead tree”) edition of ABR, along with a poem by Ken Bolton. A further four poems by each poet will be published on ABR’s website as part of the ‘States of Poetry’ project (forthcoming). ‘States of Poetry’ anthologies for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria and Queensland are already accessible online.
I’m somewhat sympathetic to Philip Larkin’s view that “[h]earing a poem, as opposed to reading it on the page, means you miss so much – the shape, the punctuation, the italics, even knowing how far you are from the end.” With that in mind, I’m happy to indicate where the poems I read during the session can be found in print and/or online, including a poem by American poet AR Ammons (1926-2001):
“Homo Suburbiensis” (Cordite)
“Threshold” (forthcoming)
“Freehold” (The Best Australian Poems 2015, Black Inc, 2015)
“In Camera” (Australian Book Review, online and March 2016 print edition)
“Carte Blanche” (Cordite, The Best Australian Poems 2014, Black Inc, 2014)
“All Things Go” (Australian Book Review)
“Nothing Doing” (Australian Love Poems, Inkerman & Blunt, 2013)
As stated by Peter at the end of the session, South Australian poets and ABR’s ‘States of Poetry’ project will feature at Writers’ Week in future years. It’s an addition to a venerable tradition that’s well worth applauding.
Ref.
- Australian Book Review: States of Poetry – South Australia
- Adelaide Writers’ Week, 2016, “Poetry Reading: Aidan Coleman, Jelena Dinic, Jill Jones, Kate Llewellyn and Thom Sullivan”, https://soundcloud.com/adelaide-festival/day-3-poetry-reading-aidan-coleman-jelena-dinic-jill-jones-kate-llewellyn-thom-sullivan
- Larkin, P, “The Art of Poetry, No.3o”, The Paris Review, http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3153/the-art-of-poetry-no-30-philip-larkin
