c-side

Well, here it is, the first step of a new look c-side - well same look really but with a few more bits and pieces and hopefully regular updates.

Some pictures from my recent trip to China.

[Show as slideshow]

The 2008 Australian Poetry Festival State of Play gets underway tonight with a cocktail party followed by a weekend of poetry seminars, discussions and readings, as well as a few book launches.

You can get all the information you need at the Poets Union website.

The critic and academic Peter Pierce has written ‘this is — unflamboyantly — one of the richest periods in the meandering, controversial story of Australian poetry.’

As a title, State of Play: Australian Poetry Now! is a reflection of that opinion. As a festival, it has been designed as an exploration of that idea. The central festival panel is the most obvious expression of this intent. Parallel panels have been sponsored in Melbourne and Perth and a similar one has already been successfully conducted at the Sydney Writers Festival. The papers from these panels, and from other festival events, will be published in a special double edition of Five Bells which will appear early in 2009. We hope this will be a serious contribution to thinking about Australian poetry.

- Brook Emery, 2008 Festival Director