Returning by popular demand, a session where local and regional poets discuss and read from their work. Purchase a drink from the bar and join us for an inspirational hour of poetry at its best.

Presented with Varuna, The Writers’ House.

Tickets:
Monday 16 May all-day pass $50/$40
Monday & Tuesday 2-day pass $70 (no concession)


Judy Johnson (Australian)
Judy Johnson is an Australian poet whose most recent book, ‘The Secret Fate of Mary Watson’, is a thrilling historical novel set in far-north Queensland. She has won numerous poetry awards and in 2007 won the prestigious CJ Dennis Award and the Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry for her verse novel, ‘Jack’. She lives in Newcastle with her three sons.
 

Peter Minter (Australian)
Peter Minter is a leading Australian poet, editor and scholar. He is the poetry editor of ‘Overland’.
 peterminter.com
 

Kate Fagan (Australian)
Kate Fagan’s books of poetry include ‘The Long Moment’, ‘Thought’s Kilometre’ and ‘return to a new physics’. She is a former editor of the US-based journal of innovative poetry ‘How2’, and is from one of Australia’s pre-eminent folk music families, The Fagans. Her album ‘Diamond Wheel’ won the National Film and Sound Archive Award for Best Folk Album.
 

Mark O’Flynn (Australian)
Mark O’Flynn once won a week's residency at Varuna as a prize for the First Page of a Novel competition - an enduring monograph of one page. He has since stayed as part of the HarperCollins manuscript award, and has also served on the board of directors. His works include the plays ‘Paterson’s Curse’ and ‘Eleanor & Eve’; a novella, ‘Captain Cook’; and two books of poetry, ‘The Too Bright Sun’ and ‘The Good Oil’. ‘Grassdogs’, a novel, was published in 2006.
 

Deborah Westbury (Australian)
Deborah Westbury published her first poetry in 1975. Since then she has released ‘Mouth to Mouth’, ‘Our Houses are Full of Smoke’, ‘Surface Tension’ and ‘Flying Blind’, for which she was awarded a two-year grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council to complete.