Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 04 August
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
The Wheeler Centre and wheelercentre.com
176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000
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Auslan Interpreted
About
A blazing line-up of talent comes together for the second annual Poetry Month Gala, upending traditional expectations of poetry with their groundbreaking work across a range of creative expressions.
Launched in 2021 by Red Room Poetry, Poetry Month aims to increase access, awareness and visibility of poetry in all its forms and for all audiences.
At this special event, discover new work from passionate poets who are also widely known for their music, memoir, fiction, performance and polemic prowess, including Anthea Yang, Laniyuk, Bebe Backhouse, Joelistics, Maria Takolander (now appearing via video link), Mia Nie and Jonathan Dunk, plus a special tribute to Archie Roach.
This event will also be live-streamed, viewable on this page from 6.30pm on Thursday 4 August.
The bookseller for this event is Hares & Hyenas
Presented in partnership with Red Room Poetry
Featuring
Joelistics
Joelistics’ great gift is the crafting of common language into evocative turns of phrase. As a rapper, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor and advocate for diversity, he is recognised as a unique voice in the Australian music scene from his early seminal work with alt rap group TZU to working as a solo artist to the critically acclaimed theatre show In Between Two.
Jonathan Dunk
Jonathan Dunk is the co-editor of Overland literary journal, and the recipient of the AD Hope prize and the Dal Stivens award.
Laniyuk
Laniyuk is a Larrakia, Kungarakan, Gurindji and French writer and performer. She has been published nationally and internationally in poetry collections such as Solid Air (2019) and Fire Front (2020), in the 2022 speculative ...
Mia Nie
Mia Nie is a Chinese-Australian comic artist, zine-maker, and award-nominated ex-poet. She has been published in Pencilled In, The Suburban Review, Comic Sans Journal, Strange Horizons, and Castles in the Sky. Her work explores the complexities, contradictions, and deeply felt desires of transgender subjectivity. She is passionate about understanding queer history and imagining queer futures. Mia is a recipient of the Wheeler Centre’s The Next Chapter 2020 Fellowship, and is currently working on her first graphic novel.
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Maria Takolander
Maria Takolander was born in Melbourne in 1973 to Finnish parents. She is the author of three previous poetry collections, including Ghostly Subjects (Salt, 2009), which was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award. Her poetry appeared regularly in The Best Australian Poems and The Best Australian Poetry, and it has been widely anthologised nationally and internationally, including in Thirty Australian Poets (UQP, 2011). A program about Maria’s poetry aired on Radio National in 2015, and she has performed her poetry on ABC TV and at numerous festivals, including the 2017 Medellín International Poetry Festival in Colombia. She won the inaugural Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, and her short-story collection The Double (Text, 2013) was shortlisted for The Melbourne Prize for Literature Best Writing Award. Maria’s words can also be found on bronze plaques in the Geelong CBD and at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
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Izzy Roberts-Orr
Izzy Roberts-Orr is a poet and arts worker based on Wurundjeri Country in regional Victoria. Her debut collection, Raw Salt (Vagabond, 2024) was the recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship, Marten Bequest ...
Anthea Yang
Anthea Yang is a writer and poet living on unceded Wurundjeri land. Her writing has appeared in Going Down Swinging, Kill Your Darlings, Mascara Literary Review and the HEIDE+Rabbit House of Ideas: Modern Women anthology, among others. She was longlisted for the 2021 Kuracca Prize for Australian Literature, shortlisted for the 2020 Dorothy Porter Award for Poetry, and has performed her poetry at the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival and the 2022 Victorian Poetry Month Gala. Anthea is a recipient of the Wheeler Centre’s 2023 Hot Desk Fellowship.
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