Spoken Word

The Flirtation of Girls is the first full length poetry collection by Australian poet, Sara M. Saleh. She brings to her poetry the experience of her Palestinian, Egyption and Lebanese heritage, with much that, to quote the back cover, "brings the politics of occupied homelands into sharp, unapologetic focus".

Amelia Walker is a poet who lives and works on Kaurna Yerta, also known as Adelaide, South Australia. She has published four poetry collections and three books of poetry writing activities for educational and community settings, based on her extensive work as a poet in schools and with arts-health projects. Alogopoiesis (Gazebo Books, 2023) is her fifth poetry collection. She lectures in courses o...

Carolyn (Caz) Masel's new book is entitled, Singing In Each Cell. Caz talks to Di about writing the poems and reads from the book. Photo: Di Cousens

In this episode of Spoken Word, Nikki Viveca performs her poem, "Welcome to Womanhood" (aka the "Thou shalt..." poem!) and chats about her art and memories in Melbourne, before heading up to Sydney to perform at the famous Griffin Theatre. We also hear her collaborative work with musicians Meta Cohen, Coady Green, and the Divisi Chamber Singers.

Christos N. Fifis was born in Greece in 1940. He migrated to Australia in 1965. He studied Economics and History at La Trobe University in Melbourne and Modern Greek Literature at the universities of New England (Armidale) and Melbourne. He was a member of the founding staff of the Interpreter and Translator Program at RMIT and VICTORIA COLLEGE, Melbourne between 1975 and 1986. In 1987, he was app...

Hal Simons is our guest in this episode of 3CR Spoken Word, sharing works from his new collection, "The Hapless Mortal". Plus readings from previous works, and wide-ranging discussion. Love, grief, chronic pain, and the joy that community brings! 

This episode features Dominique Hecq, who shares with us a snippet of a new work due to be published in early 2024. Now living in Melbourne, Dominique grew up in the French-speaking part of Belgium. She is a novelist, short story writer and poet in multiple languages. In addition to new works, Dominique reads from Endgame with No Ending, winner of the James Tate Prize for Poetry (2022). 

Di Cousens talks to haiku poet and editor, Rob Scott, about the new Australian anthology of haiku, Under the Same Moon.

Linda Weste is the author of three books. Her verse novel, Nothing Sacred (2015), won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize. As editor, she has published two non-fiction collections: The Verse Novel: Australian & New Zealand (2021) and Inside the Verse Novel: Writers on Writing (2020); these feature interviews with writers of the genre discussing verse novel poetics. For five years, she held the position...

This week's show features spoken word performances by:Biasino PezzimentiMusetrap And The LairdWill CrawfordAyse BalkosSteven AtkinsonDylan Owen-BuoyPeter Siahna Wadham  

This week's show features spoken word performances by:Bend The WestMusetrap And The LairdSangita KansalAyse BalkosSteven AtkinsonDylan Owen-BuoyAlbert Lin  

The anthology, Poetry of Encounter, brings together poems from all over Australia on the theme of encounter and it was edited by Anne M. Carson and Rose Lucas. In this program Di Cousens talks to Rose Lucas and the poems are read by Ezra Bix.

In this episode, Waffle Irongirl chats with Farah Beaini, Fleassy Malay, Amanda Santuccione and Katie Lohner about their upcoming Fringe Festival shows.** This episode contains some course language and references to suicide, death and grieving **To find out more about each of the performers' Fringe shows, check out the links below:Fierce-GentleThe Hungry PoetAza: stories of grief in diasporaTwenty...

Mark Roberts was born on the unceded lands of the Wallumedegal people of the Eroa nation (Ryde, NSW) and currently lives and works on the land of the Darug and Gundungurra people (Blue Mountains, NSW). In 1982, he published the first issue of P76 magazine along with Adam Atiken and set up Rochford Street Press (named after the street in Erskineville he lived in at the time). Early publications wer...

A live recording of poet Nadia Rhook and Jag performing at local poetry event, Radio Laria, as part of the Sonic Poetry Festival 2023. Radio Laria is a community collective for poets, writers, and storytellers to gather, be heard and inspire one another. Nadia Rhook is the author of the outstanding poetry collections, Boots and Second Fleet Baby. She has recently returned from Perth to live in Mel...

Kabir was a 16th century Indian mystical poet and a weaver. Peter Friedlander talks to Di Cousens about his new book of translations of Kabir's poems, 'Kabir In Transformation'. Peter is an Associate Professor of South Asian Studies and a Reader in Hindi at the Australian National University in Canberra.

In this episode of Spoken Word, Carmen Main talks with Charaf Tartoussi and Parminder Kaur about the upcoming Melbourne Fringe Show, Aza: stories of grief in diaspora.

Caroline Williamson is a poet and editor. She was born in London, and worked there and in Beijing as a teacher, before turning her hand to editing academic books, museum publications, and a campaigning anti-nuclear magazine. She moved to Melbourne with her Australian partner, where she has worked at Lonely Planet, Museum Victoria and Melbourne University Publishing. Her poems have been published i...

Waffle Irongirl speaks with Izzy Roberts-Orr about Red Room Poetry and Poetry Month, with poetry readings from Lulu Houdini, Stuart Barnes, Andrea Goldsmith  and Barrina South.

Waffle Irongirl is on location at the National Museum in Canberra, speaking with poet, Sarah St Vincent Welch. Sarah is a Canberra based writer and image maker who’s known for chalking her poetry on footpaths at arts festivals, which you can see on social media under the handle “litchalk”. Her poetry can be read in Chalk Borders by Flying Islands Pocket Poetry, and Open, published by Rochford pres...

Haibun is a Japanese form of poetry which combines prose and poetry. In this program Di Cousens talks to Alice Wanderer about writing and understanding haibun.

 In honour of the much-loved and respected poet, editor, publisher and teacher, Ron Pretty AM (1940-2023), 3CR Spoken Word runs a program from its archive from 2022 in which friends of Ron Pretty and fellow poets Kevin Brophy AM and Alex Skovron discuss the poetry of and read poems from Ron Pretty's last collection of poetry, 101 POEMS. The collection contains poems from Ron Pretty's earlier colle...

In this episode, we present a live recording of Simone Spittle performing at Cherry Poets on 1st July 2023.Having recently moved back to Naarm/Melbourne, Simone is returning to the spotlight after an extended hiatus to record her album, fall in love, adopt a few fur babies and heal intergenerational trauma. Simone has toured nationally several times, most recently with her one-woman cabaret show B...

A live recording of John McKelvie at Cherry Poets, 24th June 2023.John was born in Scotland, moved to Melbourne in the 1980s, and has been writing poems, songs and stories for over 50 years. He is a very familiar and friendly face at poetry gigs, and a generous supporter of poets and writers. His work has been published in a number of anthologies including Best Australian Poems. He has also produc...

Justin Clemens and Thomas Ford talk to Di Cousens about their new book, Barron Field in New South Wales, the Poetics of Terra Nullius.