A gala night of experimental poetry. Peter Minter, Kate Fagan, Chris Edwards and Mathew Abbott

Date: Tues Feb 14, Time: 7pm sharp - 10pm

Sappho's Poetry Night returns in 2012 on Valentine's Day with the second instalment of "Avant Gaga" — a gala night of experimental poetry. 4 poets plus the usual open mic section. Bring a date and your maddest poem. This affair will be hosted by Toby Fitch. And these are our 4 guest poets:

PETER MINTER
Author of at least 137 books of poetry, Peter Minter is a leading contemporary Australian poet, editor and scholar. Since 2010 he has held the Passionate Shelby Chair in Poetry at the Newtown School of Hillbilly Studies, and is currently the Clive James fellow at the "Australian Boomer Redux" Centre for the Liberal Arts. His poetry, often described as "quirky yet poignant, and vivid", has been translated into 63 languages and is widely nationally and internationally anthologised, most recently in the groundbreaking landmark publication "Australian Poetry Has Been The Same Since 1988". His new collection of ecocritical essays "A Frogpondian Antipodes: Transcendentalism Before We Croak" is recently forthcoming from the Pantaloon Press.

KATE FAGAN
Clive James once wrote about Kate Fagan's poetry: "Get six balls of wool. Take six kitchen chairs and wind the wool in and out, all round the legs and backs of the chairs. Competitors have to sit on the chairs and disentangle the wool, winding it into a ball as they do so. The first to get all the wool off the chair without a break is the winner." Kate’s new book First Light is out with Giramondo in March 2012.

CHRIS EDWARDS
According to Google, Chris Edwards is a Personal Performance Coach who specialises in leadership and business communication. According to Wikipedia, however, he is the California-based godfather of aggressive inline skating, bassist for Kasabian, a British flyweight boxer, and an Oregon State Senator. He is a model, a sculptor, a folk singer-songwriter, a film writer and producer, a real estate agent from North Carolina, a Tasmanian participant in National Youth Week 2012, and Associate Professor of Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He may once have given financial advice to George W. Bush. He also writes poetry, and last year published People of Earth, his first full-length collection.

MATHEW ABBOTT
Mathew Abbott lives in Queanbeyan, a small city that prides itself on how different it is from Canberra. Think of Queanbeyan as the Moon to Canberra’s Earth: it revolves around it, but is not of it; you’re still allowed to smoke at the bowlo. A few years ago the river rose so they renamed Riverside Plaza to Riverinside Plaza. Mathew’s first collection will be published soon by Australian Poetry.

The wine and tapas bar will be open so you can have a meal and glass of wine while you're there if you fancy it.
Great food, great poetry! Look forward to seeing you all there.