Queensland Poetry Festival

 

qpf-2014The Queensland Poetry Festival (QPF) launches tomorrow, Friday 29 August, in Brisbane. One of Australia’s premier poetry and literary festivals, the three-day event showcases some of Australia’s finest poets and writers under the banner of spoken in one strange word. In addition to the three-day event, the QPF administers and manages a year-long program of poetry workshops, programs, events, and competitions.

Peril readers may remember QPF Director, Sarah Gory, who kindly answered our festival series Q&A in 2013. One year on, it’s great to see another fabulous line of up poets, writers, musicians, multidisciplinary artists collecting at the Judith Wright Centre for another full program, almost all of which is free, and especially to see such a strong representation of writers from diverse backgrounds and practices.

Following on from our collaborative edition exploring What is Queensland, Peril is excited to announce that Peril Editor in Chief, Eleanor Jackson will be facilitating a conversation between Adam Aitken, Michelle Cahill, Cyril Wong and Marc Nair – Tongue Tied at QPF. On behalf of both organisations, we would love to invite to you the Judith Wright Centre at 10.30am this Saturday 30 August.

By way of introduction:

Adam Aitken has published four books and co-edited the anthology Contemporary Asian-Australian Poets (Puncher & Wattmann). He lectures in creative writing, and has a memoir forthcoming with Vagabond Press.

Cyril Wong has been called a confessional poet. He is the Singapore Literature Prize-winning author of poetry collections including Straw, Sticks, Brick and After You. His poems have been widely anthologised.

Marc Nair is a poet and photographer from Singapore. He has published three volumes of poetry; Along The Yellow Line, Chai: Travel Poems and Postal Code.

Michelle Cahill is the author of fiction, essays and two collections of poetry, most recently Vishvarupa, shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. Her poems have been widely anthologised.

In addition to this special session, the Festival features Warsan Shire, the first young poet laureate for London, as well renowned Murri poet and activist, Lionel Fogarty. Previous Peril contributor, Janaka Malwatta will be combining words with tabla, while Deborah Emmanuel, Singaporean educator, actor and writer will be asking if poetry is useless with Marc Nair. The full program features over 40 writers and performers, more than can be covered in this brief space and we only hope that readers based in South East Queensland might join us at the Judith Wright Centre over the weekend to add their voices to the festival.

Author: Eleanor Jackson

Eleanor Jackson is a Filipino Australian poet, performer, arts producer and community radio broadcaster. Eleanor Jackson is a former Editor in Chief and Poetry Editor of Peril and currently Chair of the Board.