Poetry Says

My dear friend Eleanor Smagarinsky joined me for this episode, in which we gossip and laugh about workshops that work, workshops that don’t work, and the erotics of language. Also, James Schuyler . Show notes A previous chat with Eleanor in which I yell at her to throw her poetry books out. ModPo Brooklyn Poets Joshua Mehigan Gertrude Stein Tender Buttons Poets House Shadiyat Ajao’s wr...

The inimitable Maddie Godfrey shares their thoughts on poetry’s public profile, what’s exciting about hearing new poets share their work for the first time, resilience versus joy, and what we don’t talk about when we talk about poetry.

Loki Liddle is a self-described mischief maker, so I thought I’d I ask him whether he ever gets any pushback for not being ‘serious enough’ in his work. He also talks about satire, playfulness, the role of the MC, and how his poems have been received (and, once, totally misinterpreted). Before that, I go on a long digression, responding to Matthew Buckley Smith , about learning h...

‘Work sucks. Do a PhD.’ So my big sister advised me, and I don’t think she was wrong (at least about the first part). In this episode I talk about grappling with work in poems, and chat with Dan Hogan about what it is to write against the backdrop of ‘multiple, overlapping crises’. (If someone could explain the Horses thing to me I’d appreciate it.) Show notes D...

I went into this interview with Maxine Beneba Clarke with a bunch of very earnest questions. Our conversation reminded me that it’s ok to have fun, even in poetry. Even, or maybe especially, right now. We also get into whether we need a poet laureate, what you can learn from bad poetry open mics, and whether publishing power structures are changing quickly enough.

In my first interview for Red Room’s Poetry Month , I spoke with John Kinsella about why poetry needs many voices, the critical response to False Claims of Colonial Thieves , travel, how his thoughts on poetry and writing have changed, and finding empathy late in the game. Show notes ‘Graphology Endgame 100: I am a dickhead’ by John Kinsella Tracy Ryan Liam Ferney reviews π. O.’s...

The podcast is coming from inside the radio! Throughout August, Poetry Says will become part of Red Room’s inaugural Poetry Month . Across four episodes broadcast around the country via the Community Radio Network, I’ll be talking to the Red Room team, and a selection of special guests… In the meantime, if you miss your fortnightly Poetry Says updates, don’t forget you can...

A conversation with my friend and co-producer, Shane Henry, about white-knuckling it through poetry open mics, learning a new art form, building something from the ground up, waiting, and a 2003 indie rock album called The Meadowlands . Find out more about Impossible Machine & Lost Weekend .

Can’t pronounce their proper title, but here are my thoughts on what poems do and don’t do when they show up at weddings, with help from Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz .

It was a joy to speak with Thuy On about Turbulence , her 2020 collection from UWAP cataloguing heartbreak, passion, loss and pleasure. She talks about writing the book in a ‘wild gush’, the mechanics of getting it edited and published, how poets around her have supported her work, and what she really thinks when she opens up a contemporary Aussie literary journal.

I’ve never been very good at sleeping. Luckily, there are plenty of poets who share this deficiency. Show notes Robbie Coburn & I interview Jordie Albiston My interview with David Brooks Acquainted with the night: insomnia poems , edited by Lisa Russ Spaar Part of ‘ Georgia ‘ by Andrew Zawacki Part of ‘ Insomnia at the Solstice ‘ by Jane Kenyon ‘ Another Lul...

Ella O’Keefe ‘s poetry works with ‘the grit and offcuts we collect in the course of living’. With her new book Slowlier just out from Cordite Books, we talk about how she puts her poems together, whether experimental work can be fun and/or personal, how slowness is different from mindfulness, and what it was like to launch a book in Melbourne in early 2021. Show notes alkaw...

For the past five weeks I’ve had the pleasure of studying the sonnet with a fabulous group of poets, led by Joshua Mehigan , in a weekly workshop through Brooklyn Poets . Here are some thoughts on the benefits (and challenges) of diving into a poetry workshop. Show notes Poetry and Performance: Writing for the Stage and the Page through Writers Victoria ACT Writers masterclasses Writing Poet...

Where to begin summarising the work of Christian Bök ? He’s a Canadian poet, the author of the bestselling experimental poetry collection Eunoia , a founder of the poetic school of Conceptualism , and most recently, Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne . In this interview Christian talks about what it’s been like to move between poetry worlds over the years, whe...

Open Bella Li’s collections Argosy or Lost Lake and you’ll immediately be struck by the beauty of her imagery. In this chat, recorded on a rainy Melbourne afternoon, I check in with Bella after the year that was. We discuss how and why she works with the materials she does, her relationships to both poetry and genre, and get a sneak preview of her new collection. Show notes The Witch:...

Thoughts on a workshop I got to do with Brooklyn Poets , led by the amazing Jay Deshpande , on prosody and the decolonisation thereof. Also on Emily Dickinson and her poem Because I could not stop for Death . Show notes Terrance Hayes on Commonplace The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry A Quiet Passion

I got to speak with Justin Clemens —Melbourne poet and academic— in person in mid-February 2021. Melbourne had just come out of a five-day hard lockdown, Facebook had recently wiped news in Australia, the tennis was still happening…what a time to be alive! We go everywhere in this conversation, from Justin’s book The Mundiad to the work of contemporary poets, then all the way back to 1...

Describing Michael Aiken as a ‘poet’ only tells a tiny part of his story—Michael’s creative interests span everything from fiction writing to video games. Last year, all those interests came together in Sydney’s Newtown, where Michael now runs Garden Lounge Creative Space . We talk about what it’s been like to get Garden Lounge up and running (and to keep it going dur...

If you haven’t yet come across Anne-Marie Te Whiu ‘s writing, you’ve definitely felt the ripple effects of her work in poetry. She co-edited UQP’s S olid Air, Australia and New Zealand Spoken Word , co-directed the Queensland Poetry Festival from 2015-17, and this year we’ll see the publication of Whisper Songs by Tony Birch, which Annie also edited. In this episode w...

Fiona Wright’s work resists classification in the best way. Through some magic combination of essay and poetry—by both zeroing in and staying open—she reveals the beauty, grief and absurdity that makes up our lives. In this episode we talk about her latest project, the recurring themes in her work, how she thinks about narrative, and the fact that she’s actually hilarious. Show notes F...

Mid-October, 2020. Some more thoughts on energy, writing, not writing and the lesser poems of Anne Sexton. Show notes Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way Nine Days in Wuhan by Peter Hessler Wuhan poet Xiaoyin on writing during the pandemic The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton Anne’s Letter Written During a January Northeaster

My first full-length poetry collection, The Empty Show , is now officially launched. What a crazy thing to be able to say! I’m so grateful to everyone who helped me bring this book into the world. You can see what the launch looked like below, and check out three reimagined poems from the book at theemptyshow.com .

Poems have weird jobs when they show up in movies. Sometimes they have to make up for a broader lack of meaning, or frame the theme of the movie in just a few seconds. Almost always, they’re positioned as something only a chosen few can truly understand. Guest starring Robin Williams Andrew Scott Michelle Pfeiffer Quinton Aaron Matthew Broderick

I first encountered Liam Ferney’s poetry on an afternoon trip to Hill of Content . I liked his book so much it made me jealous, so I didn’t buy it (nice). In this chat we talk about everything from what can’t be a poem to writing from within a dominant community, masculinity, complicity, the pageantry of public opinion, and how Liam sometimes feels like he’s in dialogue wit...

Speaking to me from Alyawarre Country in the Northern Territory, Michelle Cahill shares how this new environment is shaping her poetry and her thinking. We talk colonialism, cross-cultural writing and the flowering of POC voices in Australian poetry. We also touch on what the writing life asks of us as people and some of the challenges that have been brought to the Australian literary establishmen...