We are pleased to announce the guest poet for June as Geraldine McKenzie.

This will be followed by the very popular open mic. competition.
The 2011 poetry series are hosted by Amanda Moriarty.

Reviews of Geraldine McKenzie’s poetry have claimed her as one of the most exciting lyrical poets currently working in Australia. Her eclectic style gives her poetry an energy and individuality, which renders anew the old themes of love, loss, sexuality, tradition, family connections, art - and poetry itself. In their contribution to 'the great dance of plurality' her poems are an inspiring and revitalising force. Her first publication, Duty, written with a preoccupation of Nazi Germany and into a European-Jewish context, is constantly imaginative, musical (in rhythm, language, content), and interested in language and poetic form. It uses a range of verse forms in ways that are innovative and yet technically accomplished. Geraldine McKenzie is a poet who is not limited to blank verse. McKenzie has won the Gilmore Prize for Most Outstanding First Book of Poetry 2001-02, and has been published in a wide array of magazines and anthologies such as The Age, Antipodes (US), Meanjin, Elixir (US), Jacket (online), Poetry New York and New Music: an anthology of new Australian poetry (Five Islands Press), Salt (UK), and Westerly. http://www.paperbarkpress. com/authors/McKenzie.htm

Come and enjoy the readings, share your own work, or just sit back and relax - all poetry is good for the soul! To read your work in the open mic comp.. just turn up!

The wine and tapas bar will be open so you can have a meal and glass of wine if you're feeling peckish.
Starts at 7.00 pm (free entry) in the garden at Sappho's wine and Tapas bar. Great food, great poetry! Look forward to seeing you all there