www.traversepoetry.org

Thanks to all of you who made it to yesterday’s science-themed slam. It was another great night and guest poet Randall Stephens did a fantastic job.

Here’s what the Traverse Poetry High Score Table looks like after last night (and, just to make things interesting, I’m doing the full top 10):

1. CJ
2. Benjamin Keaney
3. Anthony Hayes
4. Tasnim Hossain
5. Miranda Lello
6. Andrew Galan
7. Adam Hadley/Jacinta
8. Ryan Schipper
9. Wes
10. Big/Flying V

Remember: top 3 poets receive a Marvellous Magical Secret Surprise at the November event (26 November @ The Front). Next chance to raise your ranking: 24 September.

I’ve just updated the events page with details of the ACT heat of the Australian Poetry Slam. This is the big one: $600 in prizes, plus your chance to win a shot at the national prize of $5000 and a gig at the 2010 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali!

Australian Poetry Slam ‘09 – ACT heat
6 November 6:00-10:00pm
Foyer National Library of Australia
Parkes Place

As in previous years you’ll need to book a slot by calling the library on (02) 6262 1271.

For the benefit of those who haven’t attended an Australian Poetry Slam before, the rules are slightly different to the slams at The Front. The time limit is 2 minutes, not 3. Also, there will be five audience members judging you out of 10 with the highest and lowest scores disregarded. If there’s a draw (as there has been on the previous two occasions) we’ll get you to perform a second piece – so make sure you prepare for this possibility!

Meanwhile, you’ll be able to practice your pieces at the Halloween Slam next week:

Halloween Slam
30 October 7:30-11:30pm
The Front Gallery and Café
Wattle St, Lyneham

We’ll be doing some special fun things for this slam, including awarding a prize for the scariest poem of the night!

It’s possible that this month’s slam may be the last one at The Front for the year, given that the ACT heat is next month and December’s slam will take place at the National Museum of Australia (more on that later).

I’ll be gauging people’s interest in a November Front slam next Friday so speak up if you want it to happen! Note that if it does go ahead it will probably be quite a low-key event.

May is shaping up to be a very exciting month for Traverse Poetry!

First up:

Getting Published: Secrets from the Writers & Editors!
Free Q&A panel featuring: Paul Magee, Jack Heath, Rachel Longhurst, Julia Winterflood, George Poulakis and Emily Stewart
16 May 2009 2:00-3:30pm
The Hub @ Civic Library
London Circuit, Civic

Then, at the end of the month:

‘Girls Own’ Poetry Slam
Ladies only performers – open audience!
Featuring music from Julia from the Deep Sea Sirens
29 May 2009 7:30-11:30pm
The Front Café and Gallery
Wattle St, Lyneham

A few weeks ago I had a request to publish the winners of the April slam, so here they are:

1. Seung Baek
2. Farida
3. Michael Klapdor

Stay tuned for some more interesting posts soon – I’ve got a bunch of cool things in my notes to let you know about.

This week I did a spot at a CIT creative writing class on performance poetry. It was a bit rough but the students seemed to enjoy the pieces. One of the ones I performed was mentioned in this earlier post which has links to a video and transcript. On the subject of video, you can now watch the grand final of the 2008 Australian Poetry Slam on the ABC website, as well as pieces by indiviudal poets.

E-news subscribers already know this but, for your benefit, the next slam:

Friday 24 April
7.30pm – 11.30pm
The Front Gallery and Café, Wattle St, Lyneham
Featuring new local band ‘ah, pandita!’

Hope your weekend is truly egg-cellent!

Wow! What a weekend. We managed to fit over 100 into the main room of The Front and were treated to fantastic new work by poets both new to the night as well as old favourites. And Santo Cazzati did a very fine job of taking us through a kaleidoscope of aural worlds.

The next day, the always delightful Vanessa Berry led an excellent workshop on zine making, each of the participants creating a their own one page zine.

On the subject of zines (and there’ll be plenty of news about it to come) I wanted to let you know that Andrew Darragh (who designed the awesome zine fair poster), Gemma Nourse and myself are starting up a zine distro called Long Arm, which will be running out of Smiths Alternative Bookshop. More details available on the Facebook page.

Oh, and, by the way, my A Zine about Canberra is back in print with a lovely colour cover! I’m selling them for $3 (cheap!) and should be getting some stock to Sticky soon, if you’re down south. Also considering making a PDF available if people don’t want to pay for postage.

In other exciting news, Adam Hadley tells me a new poetry slam is starting up on the third Tuesday of the month at The Phoenix. It’s called BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! (I kid you not) and apprently there’ll be cheap beer for poets. Yay! First slam on 21 April. More details to come.

I also hear Hadley is in need of young poets (25 and under) to perform at the National Folk Festival as part of hiJinx, in exchange for a day ticket. If you fit the bill then yank on Mr Hadley’s ear quick smart.

That’s it for now, except I was just listening to an interview with a Melbourne poet called Pi O in which he mentions a workers magazine called 9 to 5. I’d be interested if anyone knows anything about this publication – please let me know!

Time for a bit of off-topic self-promotion. Back in 2007 I was hired by Vignette Press to edit The Sex Mook: what is our sex? , a unique blend of book and magazine focusing on sex and sexuality from the perspective of young people.

Two years later and Vignette Press is back with a brand new mook: The Death Mook: how do we die? This time it was edited by a lovely chap, Dion Kagan (who also contributed to The Sex Mook), and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

Check out the free sample of the mook.

Here’s the official blurb:

In a culture both death-denying and death-obsessed, The Death Mook creates a space for writers and artists to talk about death in creative and unorthodox ways. Thus, this collection of essays, stories, vignettes and illustrations contains some provocative, engaging, beautiful and downright crackpot perspectives.

If you happen to be in or anywhere near Melbourne, The Death Mook is being launched this week, Thursday 26 February at Dantes, 150 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. Otherwise, you can order copies through Vignette Press or your local bookshop. Look out for my contribution – it’s an essay explaining why I love horror movies.

For those of you who use the ‘book of faces’ there’s a group devoted to Canberra poetry slams set up by my lovely housemate. Another easy way to keep track of the slams as they come up.

Speaking of which… don’t forget about the Benedict House poetry slam in Queanbeyan (more info in this post).

Traverse Poetry is kicking off 2009 with a huge poetry slam in Queanbeyan!

The first Traverse slam for 2009 will take place on the opening night of the Benedict House art:house festival – so, as well as the usual open mic and slam competition (with cash prizes!), there will also be a huge range of artwork to view and buy, including paintings, drawings, 3D artworks and photography.

Plus the wonderful Julia of the Deep Sea Sirens fame will be serenading us with delightful music!

Queanbeyan Poetry Slam
Benedict House
39 Isabella Street
Queanbeyan

23 January 2009
7.30-11.30pm – book your spot in the slam at 7.30pm.
$3 entry / free for performers (all proceeds go to Julia and the slam winners).

Check out who’s going to be there on Facebook.

I’m going to be a bit unconventional and post about 2009 Traverse events out of chronological order – as you can see from the events page, there are a couple of activities planned for next year before the exciting Canberra Zine Fair. I’m doing this because I want to give people as much lead time as possible to get cracking on their zines.

Here are the details:

Canberra Zine Fair as part of SCRIBBLE: young writers, young readers festival
7 February 2009
Q2 Foyer
Gorman House Arts Centre
Ainslie Avenue, Braddon

Times are unconfirmed at the moment, but it’s most likely they’ll be like this year’s – i.e. doors open 9.30am and it wraps up in the early evening.

It’s entirely free to come a sell/trade your work (and we’re encouraging not just zinesters to be there – anyone who’s into self-publishing, DIY and etsy are welcome) but if you don’t have your own table the ACT Writers Centre are renting trestle tables at $10 per table (fits three people comfortably), payable on the day. Chairs will be free and plentiful.

Please send me a quick email if you’d like to book a spot!

There’s also a facebook event if you want to check out who’s going to be there (or at least claiming to be).

Just letting you know I’ve added an events page so you can keep track of what’s happening through 2009. I’ll be posting much more about each event on the blog in the coming months – stay tuned!