Spoken Word

Eddy Burger talks about his recent publications and shows with Michael Reynolds.

Bosnian-Australian poet talks to Di Cousens about her new book, After War.

A. Frances Johnson is an award-winning writer, artist and recovering academic. Her most recent poetry collection is Controlled Burn (Puncher and Wattmann, 2025). She has published four collections of poetry, a novel and a monograph, Australian Fiction as Archival Salvage (Brill, 2015). In 2020, she won the International ABR Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Other awards include the Griffith University–Jo...

Michael Reynolds talks to poet and gig organiser, Jason Voss.

Bosnian-Australian poet, Dzenana Vucic, talks about her new collection of poetry, After War. Interviewed by Di Cousens. 

Caroline Williamson has been living in Melbourne, Australia, since 1990. She was born in London and spent school holidays with her grandparents in Merthyr Tydfil as a child. Her debut collection, Time Machines (Vagabond Press,  2023), was Highly Commended in the 2023 5Islands Poetry Prize for a First Book of Poetry. Carboniferous (Rabbit, 2025) is her second collection. Carboniferous is available...

‘I caressed my future todaybut its cheeks held no time’- from Interstellar by Sasha de Motte In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 21st May 2026, you will hear poet Sasha de Motte talk about identity, authenticity and intuition. Sasha de Motte (they/she) is a writer and poet. As a queer person of colour and a spiritually inclined soul, they pride themselves on all parts...

Maria Van Neerven's first full length collection, Two Tongues, is published by the University of Queensland Press. Described by Maxine Beneba Clarke as 'a stunning, masterful debut', Maria is a First Nations' poet and she reflects on the legacy of colonisation and racism and the aftermath of intergenerational harm. At the same time, she shines a light on the importance of family and culture, celeb...

Maria Van Neerven's first full length collection, Two Tongues, is published by the University of Queensland Press. Described by Maxine Beneba Clarke as 'a stunning, masterful debut', Maria is a First Nations' poet and she reflects on the legacy of colonisation and racism and the aftermath of intergenerational harm. At the same time, she shines a light on the importance of family and culture, celeb...

Grant talks about his book, The Soundless Sound.

Madeleine Dale is a poet and researcher from Brisbane/Meanjin. She holds first-class honours and a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland, where she is currently completing her PhD. Her work has been published in Westerly, Cordite, Meanjin, and Best of Australian Poetry, among others. Her first full-length collection, Portraits of Drowning, won the 2023 Thomas Shapcot...

‘I give myself permission to go outside’from On the First Day of Autumn by Jason Allen-Paisant In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 16th April 2026, you will hear UK poet, Deb Alma talk about The Poetry Pharmacy. The Poetry Pharmacy is a UK-based bookseller, with three physical bookshops, an online presence and a lively programme of events. It reimagines poetry as a fo...

Eddy Burger and Joel O'Connor talk about the new book, Millennium Poets Two. This is a new anthology which revisits the poets writing at the turn of the millennium and presents their contemporary work.

Marion May Campbell's novels include Lines of Flight (1985), Not Being Miriam (1989), Prowler (1999), Shadow Thief (2006), and konkretion (2013).She has also published the cross-genre collection Fragments from a Paper Witch (Salt, 2008), an experimental memoir The Man on the Mantelpiece (UWA Publishing, 2018), the poetry collections third body (Whitmore Press 2018) and languish (Upswell 2022).Her...

‘like acommercial mirage selling an over-lit dream’- from James Joyce’s Fart Fetish by Alex Creece. In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 19th March 2026, you will hear poet Alex Creece talk about collage, reclamation and the profane. This episode has a warning for strong language and mature themes.  Alex Creece is a writer, editor, collage artist and average kook livin...

In this show we are hearing from poets and performers from the Festival of Surrealisms, which will be on 14th and 15th March at Temperance Hall in South Melbourne, midday to 8.30pm of each day. Discover Melbourne’s most pioneering independent poets, theatre makers, comics, puppeteers, filmmakers and experimental artists as they uniquely celebrate the absurdities of life at this year’s Festival of...

Rodney Williams is a tanka poet from Gippsland. Tanka is a five line form of Japanese poetry that predates the haiku. Rodney talks about what makes a tanka and looks at old and new poems, including some of his own. He is a contributing editor of the poetry journal Catchment, Poetry of Place, which is published within the website of the Baw Baw Arts Alliance. https://www.bawbawartsalliance.org.au/b...

Marion May Campbell's novels include Lines of Flight (1985), Not Being Miriam (1989), Prowler (1999), Shadow Thief (2006), and konkretion (2013).She has also published the cross-genre collection Fragments from a Paper Witch (Salt, 2008), an experimental memoir The Man on the Mantelpiece (UWA Publishing, 2018), the poetry collections third body (Whitmore Press 2018) and languish (Upswell 2022).Her...

‘one blind spot is all forgetting takes’- from One Last Thing by Amanda Collins. In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 19th February 2026, you will hear poet Amanda Collins talk about art, music, life and death. Amanda Collins is a poet, death doula, author and songwriter who currently lives in the hills of Taungurung Country. She is a fierce advocate for humanity and h...

Di Cousens talks to Peter Friedlander about his new book, Pearls of Light. This is a translation of the Sufi-Sant songs of the seventeenth century Indian mystic, Yari Sahib. Translated with Harry Eveling and published by Manohar publications.

‘a round of silencewhere the voice of our oceansshore into one song’- from Please my dear neighbourby Benjamin Theolonius Sanders (IQ). In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 18th Decmber 2025, you will hear poet Benjamin Theolonius Sanders (IQ) talk about sport, music, lineages and the voice as an instrument. Benjamin Theolonius Sanders (IQ) is a native Memphis griot, p...

On a lovely Tuesday evening on the 2nd of December, upstairs of the Alderman pub in Brunswick, Melbourne poets Dominique Hecq, Eugen Bacon, and visiting from York, Oz Hardwick collaborated on a special performance of their poetry. Today you will be listening to a partial recording from that evening. 

This is part 2 of a conversation with Grant Caldwell about his new book of haiku, The Soundless Sound, and about haiku in general.

Jennifer Mackenzie lives in Naarm/Melbourne, and is a poet and occasional editor and reviewer. The Wallace Line: A Poem follows her previoius collections, Borobudur and Navigable Ink, in a series of what has become the home of her Imagination, Indonesia. She has appeared at a number of conferences and festivals across Asia, and has launched The Wallace Line: A Poem at the 2025 Ubud Writers & Reade...

‘I found myself inside myself’- from Cluster B, to AuADHD by Sarah St James. In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 20th November 2025, you will hear poet Sarah St James talk about performance, transitioning and representation. Content Warning: This episdoe contains references to mental health, drug use and suicide. Sarah St James- or ‘Sadie’- is a trans woman and spoken...