Spoken Word

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.

A poet, publisher of Rochford Press and co-editor of Rochford Street Review, as well as an emerging artist, Linda Adair grew up on Dharug country without knowing whose land she stood on. She now lives and works on Dharug and Gundungarra lands in the Blue Mountains, Australia, and pays her respect to the Traditional Custodians of the unceded Country which always was, and always will, be Aboriginal...

The 2023 Radiothon edition of 3CR Spoken Word, presented by Waffle Irongirl and Brendan Bonsack. Featuring poetry readings from:Chae PatersonLinh TranSteven AtkinsonJazz MoneyJosh CakeFrances HorneJennifer MackenzieThank you to everyone who pledged their support for the show this year!

Fotoula Reynolds launched her fourth book of poetry, Kairós, at Cherry poets on Saturday 3 June 2023.This episode of the Spoken Word show replays a recording of the event. Fotoula's book is available from Litoria Press below:www.litoriapress.com/kairos-fotoula-reynolds 

Poet Peter Bakowski talks to Di Cousens about his recent work, including spending time on retreat in Gippsland and at a virtual residency with the City of Manchester.

In Part 2 of this two-part interview, Patricia Sykes, Angela Costi and Marion May Campbell talk with Tina Giannoukos about their works in the Spinifex Press anthology, "It's All Connected. Feminist Fiction and Poetry" along with editor Pauline Hopkins. Pauline Hopkins is an editor at Spinifex Press and a bookseller. She majored in psychology at university and completed further studies in English a...

In Part 1 of this interview, Editor Pauline Hopkins and poet Sandy Jeffs talk about the Spinifex Press anthology, "It's All Connected.  Feminist Fiction and Poetry".In Part 2 of this interview, poets Patricia Sykes, Angela Costi and Marion May Campbell talk about their works in the anthology along with editor Pauline Hopkins. Pauline Hopkins is an editor at Spinifex Press and a bookseller. She maj...

In this episode, Pauline Sherlock is in conversation with Waffle Irongirl. Pauline Sherlock is a performer of Stand-up comedy, musical comedy, Butoh, Singing, Acting. In this interview, Pauline shares her expansive world of performance, bringing multiple of her characters to the radio. 

Di Cousens reads at the Cherry Tree Poets. Recorded by Brendan Bonsack in 2022.

 Antonia Poet practices poetry, philosophy and yoga. She is also Associate Professor Writing, Literature & Culture Group, at Deakin University. Her debut poetry collection, You Will Not Know In Advance What You'll Feel (2019), is published by Rabbit Journal in its Rabbit Poets Series. She is also the author of A Philosophy of Practising with Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition (2021) through Edinb...

In this episode of Spoken Word, we play poetry by:Ibtisam ShahbazRichard MudfordLea RunasSteven AtkinsonRebecca Louise ClarkePanda Wong  

3CR Spoken Word presents a recording of Lish Škec's feature performance at Passionate Tongues, recorded at The Brunswick Green on the 4 April 2023.For more information on Lish's fortnightly gig, PoetrySpective, please visit www.poetryspective.net.

The Detective's Chair is a new book of prose poetry by Anne M. Carson. It takes its inspiration from the place where the detectives do their thinking, where they put the clues together and solve the mystery. Interviewed by Di Cousens.

Carmen and Brendan present a collection of poems from around Melbourne, including recent listener contributions. This episode contains pieces by:Luke You and the Zine MistakesStephanie PowellSteven AtkinsonCorinne PhillipsBrad EvansIf you would like to contribute a poem or story to the show, please click here.