stopping all stations

Taking a break

2012-01-23T12:07:00.000+11:00

We're taking some time out for a few months and will be back on track a little later in the year with a line-up of special events.

Check in from time to time for updates and some random poetry. Here's one to go on with.

Sympathy

Paul Laurence Dunbar
(June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906 – an African Americanpoet, novelist, and playwright)

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!

November 2011

2011-12-01T13:58:00.001+11:00

Thank you to everyone who came along to make the final Stopping all Stations for the year one to remember. We had some great open readings, as always, and of course Matt Hetherington was thoroughly engaging, mesmerising, poignant, funny, provocative, original ...

Thanks to Carl Boettcher for taking the pics. Enjoy ...

Matt Hetherington

2011-11-04T12:39:00.000+11:00

Thanks for dropping by. Our last event for 2011 is on Saturday November 19 at 2.30pm. After that Stopping all Stations will be having a break - so come along and help us finish up the year with MATT HETHERINGTON! Bring your poems, short stories, shopping lists, friends, neighbours, aunties and uncles and make this a Stopping all Stations to remember.

See you at the Cafe!

Matt Hetherington lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is a writer, musician, lover, non-god-father, humble self-promoter, sky-digger, vegetarian bludger, DJ, frustrated housewife, connoisseur of fine scents and dog-biscuits, twin brother, old-school soccer nut, poverty-stricken aristocrat, and a Bodhisattva wannabe (i.e. he likes the Buddhist saying “There are no Buddhists, there are just people on the way.”)

He has translated poetry from Spanish, French, and Turkish, and some selections of his own poetry have been translated into Arabic, Russian, German, Dutch, and Italian. His most recent poetry collection is I Think We Have, and he is also on the board of the Australian Haiku Society.

October 2011

2011-10-26T21:30:00.001+11:00

Thanks to everyone who made our October event such a fine occasion. Shari Kosher and Philip Salom were our stars with their poignant and engaging readings. Also several people in the open section read for the first time. A special afternoon indeed.

Only a few images to share with you this month. Wrong camera setting. Sorry those of you who were expecting to see a pic of yourselves strutting your stuff!

Stay tuned for details of our last event in November!

Philip Salom and Shari Lynelle Kocher-Campbell

2011-10-03T21:16:00.001+11:00

If you've been meaning to get along to Stopping all Stations but haven't made it yet, you'd better be quick as there are two events to go! Saturday October 15 will feature Philip Salom and Shari Lynelle Kocher-Campbell.

Philip Salom has published over a dozen books, and has received major national and international acclaim – including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in London - for collections such as Sky Poems, New and Selected Poems, A Cretive Life and Feeding the Ghost. In 2003 he was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award, recognising a lifetime achievement in poetry. His recent book The Well Mouth, a collection of voices from the underworld, was named a Sydney Morning Herald Book of the Year, also an Adelaide Review Book of the Year, and is now in its third printing. His poems have also twice won the Newcastle Poetry Prize. His novel Toccata and Rain was shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal in Literature; and Playback won the WA Premiers Prize for fiction.

Late last year Puncher & Wattmann published his satirical verse-novel Keepers, which is set in a creative arts school of some generic kind... Philip has a fascination with writing poems set within differently imagined worlds for each book - and he has now taken this into two new works written with assumed identities. So The Keeper of Fish, written through a heteronymic character from Keepers, will be published in 2011, along with the third book in the trilogy - Keeping Carter, which features the poetry of MA Carter.

Shari Lynelle Kocher-Campbell has published widely and is an award winning emerging poet. Her work has been published in literary journals and magazines across Australia, including Blue Dog, Famous Reporter, Going Down Swinging, Island, Meanjin, The New England Review, Overland, Page Seventeen, and Swamp Writing. In 2002, she won first prize in the UNE Literary Awards for her sequence poem ‘Unborn Child’, and since then she has been nominated for various awards, including recent commendations in the Martha Richardson Memorial Poetry Prize, the John Masefield Poetry Prize and first place in the Page Seventeen poetry competition for 2010. Shari holds an MA in Creative Writing from Melbourne University, where she is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate. She has lived in many places, including Townsville, Sydney, Adelaide, rural NSW, and Dublin, Ireland. For the moment, she finds herself based with her family in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, going back and forth between Melbourne and Millgrove on a fairly constant basis. She is currently working on her second book, a discontinuous verse novel inspired by the archaeological discovery of the three perfectly preserved five hundred year old Inca child mummies atop Mt. Lullaillaco on the border of Argentina and Chile by Johan Reinhard and Constanza Ceruti in 1999. Shari will be reading from some of this new work, as well as several poems from her first collection a small cup of sky.

September 2011

2011-09-25T18:41:00.000+10:00

Our September event provided a wonderful afternoon of poetry with Michelle Leber and Vicki Thorton featuring. The open section also offered an amazing array of talented readers.

Vicki Thornton and Michelle Leber

2011-09-05T20:37:00.000+10:00

This month Saturday September 17 at 2.30pm we have another fantastic line-up with Michelle Leber and Vicki Thornton our featured readers.

Vicki Thornton is a writer of fiction, non fiction and poetry, and lives in the Dandenong Ranges. She has four children’s readers (Thomson Nelson and Oxford University Press) and the Last Days of Summer (Ginninderra Press), her short story collection, was published in 2007. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of publications including Divan, Page Seventeen, Tamba, Poetrix and Polestar. She is proud to have a poem in the AP Dear Dad anthology, now in it’s 2nd edition.

Michelle Leber is a coastal poet living close to the beaches of Port Philip Bay, with a special interest in myth, birdlife, botany, habitat and art. She was born to Slovenian parents who had migrated to Australia, has been involved in the Melbourne poetry community for over 20 years and in recent years has performed her work locally and interstate. Her poetry has been published in newspapers, journals and anthologies, including in The Best Australian Poems series in 2009 and 2010; it has been showcased as electronic banner text at Federation Square and has travelled on trains (under the Moving Galleries project). Her poem about the artist Ellis Rowan was commended in the Rosemary Dobson Prize. In 2009, Michelle received a writing residency at the Varuna Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains of NSW, and in 2010 she became one of four poets published by the Australian Poetry Centre. There were over 200 attendees at the launch of her first poetry collection, The Weeping Grass.

August

2011-08-25T23:42:00.000+10:00

Everyone who attended the August event was treated to a feast of poetry as Robyn Rowland - who dragged herself out of her sick-bed to be with us - read from her latest collection, Seasons of doubt and burning: New and Selected Poems. Our open readers provided a richness and diversity you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere. A great afternoon indeed.

Next month, Saturday September 17, our features will be Michelle Leber and Vicki Thornton.

Robyn Rowland

2011-07-28T22:04:00.001+10:00

Stopping all Stations is back on track for our August event with guest feature Robyn Rowland. Put Saturday August 20 in your diaries now as this is definitely one you don't want to miss!

Robyn Rowland is third generation Irish-Australian, and has also been reading and teaching in Ireland for 28 years, where she lives part-time in Connemara. She has published seven books of poetry. Silence & its tongues (Five Islands Press, 2006) was runner up for the 2007 ACT Minister’s Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Her new collection Seasons of doubt & burning: New & Selected Poems (Five Islands Press, 2010) covers almost 40 years of publishing. These poems show growth from open simplicity to a rich, resonant maturity. Their hallmark is deep honesty and emotional accessibility.

‘Her poems are richly wrought, sensuous, full of passion and restraint. They're luminous and earthy at the same time and open the reader's ear to hear the silence of the lost. In these difficult times, she's the poet I'm looking for: 'an angel she could be, or hope in flight'. Lorna Crozier, Canada

'In this passionate volume, Robyn Rowland’s sensuous imagery is crafted by a fine intellect; the music of her lines vibrates in the memory’. ' Robert Adamson, Australia

Robyn’s work has been awarded a number of prizes. She has read her poetry in Portugal, Ireland, the UK, the USA, Greece, Austria, Bosnia, Serbia, Turkey and Italy, where, along with Canada and Japan, she has been published. Her poetry featured often on Australian national radio’s Poetica and The Spirit of Things. Robyn is known for her moving readings, available on her CDs, Off the tongue and Silver Leaving - Poems & Harp.

John Nettles, the BBC actor (Midsomer Murders and Bergerac), who recorded Sir John Betjeman, has named Robyn as ‘among the first rank of poets’, impressed ‘by her use of language, control of verse and wonderful delivery’. Her accent, he said, ‘gives an added piquancy to her delivery’ and the poetry is ‘extraordinarily moving, wonderfully insightful’ with ‘a control of language I haven’t come across since, well, TS Eliot. Like Dylan Thomas and Betjeman, you have to hear her yourself. She is the voice.’

An Honorary Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Robyn was Deputy Chair of the Board of the Australian Poetry Centre (2007-2008). Previously Professor of Social Inquiry and Women’s Studies at Deakin University, she retired in 1996 after breast cancer and burnout. She was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for her contribution to higher education and women's health in 1996.

NO event in July!

2011-07-10T17:44:00.000+10:00

Just a reminder, everyone, that there is NO event this month.

Extra time to come up with something to read in the open section in August when Robyn Rowland will be featuring!

Happy writing.

Carole

June 2011

2011-06-21T22:42:00.000+10:00

Here's some snapshots from our June event with feature readers John Jenkins and Ray Liversidge. Thanks to all the open readers who helped make the afternoon so successful. Lovely to have my old school friend, (old as in long ago!) Ursula, visiting all the way from Mallorca. She's pictured trying very hard to pick her own ticket number for the lucky door prize. Which she did. And you can see she didn't cheat!

AND notice Ray and I wore matching boots for the occasion!

(Sorry, Alex, no photo of you this time as you had your eyes firmly shut.)

REMEMBER NO EVENT IN JULY.

Robyn Rowland August 20.

John Jenkins and Ray Liversidge

2011-06-06T20:16:00.000+10:00

Time to put Saturday June 18 in your diary for the next Stopping all Stations event. Don't forget we are starting half an hour later this time in the hope that some of the cafe's regular lunchtime clientele will have finished their noisy noshing on (thanks MM).

See you at 2.30pm for John Jenkins and Ray Liversidge.

John Jenkins lives in Kangaroo Ground, at the edge of the Yarra Valley. He has written, co-written or edited 23 books. He has won the international James Joyce Foundation Suspended Sentence Award (2004) and the National Shoalhaven/Artsrush Prize for Poetry. His verse novel, A Break in the Weather was short-listed for the FAW Christina Stead Award. His most recent book, Growing Up with Mr Menzies was named in Australian Book Review as her poetry book of the year by Morag Fraser. John has co-edited anthologies of short fiction, The Outback Reader, and Soft Lounges and published a collection of his travel stories, Travelers’ Tales of Old Cuba.

Ray Liversidge has written two books of poetry, Obeying the Call and The Barrier Range. In 2010 his poems appeared in Triptych Poets: Issue One and his chapbook The Divorce Papers was also published. His verse novel The Barrier Range was adapted for stage and performed as Seeking Fabled Waters at the 2010 Melbourne Writers Festival. He was also a guest at the 2010 Tasmanian Poetry Festival. He is the winner of the 2010 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize. A new book of poems based on the lives of dead poets will be published either later this year or in early 2012. Ray has his own website at www.poetray.wordpress.com.

May 2011

2011-05-27T15:55:00.001+10:00

This is what one happy customer - Josie - had to say about the May reading with Andy Jackson and Marian Spires:

Thank you so much for yesterday - an absolute triumph. My friend Bev and I will be there again - our treat to selves once a month! I was a little too bold reading yesterday given the quality of so many others, but as I said to Bev on the way home - it is an inspiration to write more! My preference is prose, but we'll see. Your singing was extraordinary and Marian's work... well it was to be expected... just *wonderful*. As were so many of the other readers' works. What a wonderful thing to find that we have this so locally!

Thanks Josie.

Thanks too, to Andy, who was feeling less than well on the day, but came along to read anyway. You're a star. So glad you did!

NOTE EVERYONE

Next month we're going to start at 2.30pm. Our cafe, it seems, is becoming more popular with the local lunchtime set who love a chinwag with their nosh. Make a note now so you don't forget.

Andy Jackson and Marian Spires

2011-05-01T15:26:00.000+10:00

The next Stopping all Stations event will take place on Saturday May 21 with Andy Jackson and Marian Spires. As always we'll have an open section where you can read whatever you like as long as you can do it in less than five minutes! And of course there will be LUCKY DOOR PRIZES.

Put the date in your diary now.

Marian Spires is a poet, writer and teacher who explores the internal landscapes of personal and cultural myths with concrete language. She has performed her poetry on radio, television, at festivals and featured at poetry events. Her first collection, red angels rising, was published by Woorilla (2004).

In 2009, she won the Melbourne Writers Festival Poetry Idol Award and used her prize money to travel to Europe to view the original canvases and walk the landscapes where Vincent van Gogh painted. Her verse novel about van Gogh called Knowing Vincent (Picaro Press) was launched at the 2010 Melbourne Writers Festival.

Andy Jackson's poetry explores the emotional, cultural and political dimensions of embodiment and identity, and has been published in many print and on-line journals, including Heat, Going Down Swinging, Island, Blue Dog, Mascara and Stylus. He has performed at the Australian Poetry Festival in Sydney, Queensland Poetry Festival, and the Newcastle Young Writers Festival. His poem Secessionist won the 2008 Arts ACT Rosemary Dobson Award for an Unpublished Poem. He was an Emerging Writer in Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth in 2010, and he is currently the Librarian for Australian Poetry and the co-convenor of the La Mama Poetica series of readings. His first full-length collection of poems – Among the Regulars - was published by papertiger media in 2010. This year, he will be an Asialink resident at the University of Madras in Chennai, India.

April 16

2011-04-20T22:33:00.000+10:00

What a line-up and feast of words we had! Glenys Osborne talked about winning the Barbara Jefferis Award (worth $35,000!) and read from her winning novel, Come Inside. Our feature readers, Alex Skovron and Claire Gaskin had everyone leaning forward in their seats - and not because of the noisy coffee machine behind! Our open readers - including two first-timers! - added a richness and diversity to a thoroughly entertaining afternoon. And to top it all off my 86-year-old Dad turned up under his own steam to give me a surprise. Which he did! Lovely.

G.L. Osborne

2011-04-13T13:07:00.000+10:00

STOP PRESS

G.L. Osborne, winner of the 2011 Barbara Jefferis Award, will be making a guest appearance alongside Claire Gaskin and Alex Skovron at Stopping all Stations this Saturday, April 16. She will be reading from her prize-winning novel Come Inside.

A literary feast not to be missed.

Claire Gaskin and Alex Skovron

2011-03-26T19:58:00.001+11:00

Saturday April 16 is the next scheduled Stopping all Stations with limited open section and Alex Skovron AND Claire Gaskin featured readers.

Alex Skovron was born in Poland, lived briefly in Israel, and came to Australia aged nine. He is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Autographs (2008), and a short novel, The Poet (2005). Awards for his poetry include the Wesley Michel Wright Prize, the John Shaw Neilson Award, the Australian Book Review Poetry Prize, and for his first book, The Rearrangement (1988), the Anne Elder and Mary Gilmore awards. His novella was joint winner of the FAW Christina Stead Award for fiction. Alex’s New & Selected Poems is in preparation. He lives in Melbourne and works as a freelance editor.

Claire Gaskin has been publishing for over twenty years. Her collection entitled, a bud, was published by John Leonard Press in 2006, and was shortlisted in the John Bray SA Festival Awards for Literature in 2008. She was the 2009 recipient of the Alan Marshall scholarship. She has been a long term teacher of writing and literature in adult education. She was the Victorian editor of the literary journal Blue Dog from 2007 till 2010.

March 19

2011-03-25T14:30:00.000+11:00

Stopping all Stations has choofed off down the tracks and into another year of readings. And what a way to begin. Aside from our open readers, Sandy Jeffs had the audience a hundred percent engaged – either transfixed or falling off their chairs laughing. Her poetry was inspiring and a testament to her creative strategies for living with schizophrenia. (Check out how it moved Amber Beilharz, a regular at Stations and one of our open readers.)
Next month, Saturday April 16, we have Alex Skovron and Claire Gaskin. Tell your friends and put the date in your diary now.

Sandy Jeffs

2011-01-21T13:01:00.001+11:00

Happy New Year lovers of the spoken word and welcome to another Stopping all Stations line-up. So far it's looking good! I'm away for some of February so we're starting back on Saturday March 19. Can't wait.

We're kicking the year off with the amazing Sandy Jeffs. Check out her bio below.

In the meantime, get writing. See you in March!

Sandy Jeffs has published five books of poetry and in late 2009 the Vulgar Press published her memoir called Flying with Paper Wings which was awarded SANE Australia's book of the year 2010 and short listed for the Age book of the year and a Human Rights award. Much of her writing has been concerned with madness, based on her experience of schizophrenia. She also writes about living in a family traumatised by her violent father and alcoholic mother. On a lighter note, Sandy has written about the trials and tribulations of playing midweek ladies' tennis. She has performed at various venues and has been published in many journals. Sandy appeared at the Melbourne Writers Festival in 2010.

November

2010-11-22T12:54:00.002+11:00

Having Lisa Dempster read from her book Neon Pilgrim was a great way to finish up the year for Stopping all Stations. Loads of fun and, as always, a great vibe. Thanks to all the open readers and especially to Shari Kocher-Campbell, who read out her winning poem from the 2010 Page Seventeen Poetry Competition, 'Dreaming in Auslan: a Study in Yellow and Grey'.

And thanks to our sponsors, and Tiggy donating a copy of the latest Page Seventeen and Lorraine McGuigan some back issues of Poetry Monash, everyone went home with a door prize!

We're taking a well-earned break until next year when we kick off again in March with Sandy Jeffs, author of Flying with Paper Wings.

All the best to everyone for the festive season. See you in 2011.

Lisa Dempster

2010-11-14T15:57:00.000+11:00

Lisa Dempster, our feature reader for Stopping all Stations this month, is the author of Neon Pilgrim and editor of The Australian Veg Food Guide. She is also the Director of the Emerging Writers' Festival.

Lisa assures me she is NOT a poet, but if you check out her website you'll see she's had quite a year and will have plenty to talk about.

Looking forward to seeing you at the LAST Stopping all Stations event for the year. (We'll be starting up again in March 2011.)

October

2010-10-20T13:11:00.000+11:00

It was great to see so many people turn out to enjoy some good company, good food and of course some excellent poetry on such a cold and wet day. Tiggy read from her new collection, First taste, and then some of her new material after the break. Tiggy's poetry is always accessible and taps into what we can all relate to. And it's guaranteed to make you laugh somewhere along the way.

Some fantastic open readings, too. If you weren't there you missed hearing about bossy bus drivers and a wonderful poem about a giant.

Pics are a bit fuzzy. Sorry. A new camera is on the list.

Tiggy Johnson

2010-10-07T17:40:00.000+11:00

Come along on Saturday October 16 to hear Tiggy read from her new collection, First taste. It's the penultimate Stopping all Stations for the year so write something to read in the open section or dig out something from the archives.

Tiggy Johnson began telling tales as a youngster when she told her mum her brother had hit her. With maturity, she developed skills to make stuff up that doesn’t necessarily come true. Her science degree and past life as an insurance loss adjuster did little to prepare her for her current work as a stay-at-home mother, writer and editor of literary magazine Page Seventeen. Her short story collection Svetlana or Otherwise was released in 2008 and her poetry collection First taste in 2010. Tiggy lives in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges with her husband, Bryden, and their children, Hamish, Claudia and Dylan.

September

2010-10-07T17:19:00.000+11:00

How lucky we were not only to have Jennifer Harrison and Myron Lysenko as featured readers, but to have the services of the most beautiful fairy butterfly to draw the lucky door prizes!

Myron and Jennifer

2010-09-10T16:01:00.000+10:00

Stopping all Stations has come around again. Come and check us out on Saturday September 18 to hear Myron Lysenko AND Jennifer Harrison. Not to be missed!

Myron is a poet, editor, songwriter and musician. He is the author of six books of poetry, a founding editor (with Kevin Brophy) of the vibrant literary journal Going Down Swinging, and a member of accoustic folk band Dyana Gray and the Creme Brulees. Myron started to earn his living as a poet in 1989. He began his career by writing long narrative poems and these days he concentrates on writing haiku.

Jennifer Harrison is a Melbourne poet. Her fourth poetry collection, Folly & Grief, was published by Black Pepper Press in 2006. She has been awarded both the Anne Elder Poetry Award and the Martha Richardson Poetry Medal. Her poems have been widely anthologised in the Best Australian Poems and The Best Australian Poetry series and most recently in The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry and The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry. She has taught poetry in Turkey and Japan as well as Australia. Colombine, a volume of new and selected poetry is forthcoming from Black Pepper Press in 2010.

August

2010-09-10T15:38:00.000+10:00

Sorry these are a bit late if you've been waiting for a post to appear.
(Been busy book launching! Dog Gone - my children's novel - should be hitting the shops anytime soon.)
Thank you, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, for a thoroughly entertaining afternoon of poetry!

Chris Wallace-Crabbe

2010-08-04T23:00:00.000+10:00

Stopping all Stations is coming around fast, so pencil Saturday August 21 on your calendar. This month Chris Wallace-Crabbe is featuring and it's an opportunity not to be missed. Come along and enjoy some great poetry, short story and spoken word in general. Who knows - maybe someone will burst into song? It's a friendly atmosphere with great door prizes and food.

See you there.

Chris Wallace-Crabbe was born in 1934. After leaving school he worked at the Royal Mint, Melbourne, then, at diverse jobs. . He was Harkness Fellow at Yale University, 1965-67, Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard, 1987-8, and Visiting Professor at the University of Venice, 1973 and 2005. His first book of poems was published in Australia in 1959, but in the eighties he began to publish with OUP, with The Amorous Cannibal. Has given many readings of his poetry around the world, but never in Africa. His most recent books of verse include By and Large (2001), The Universe Looks Down (2005), Telling a Hawk from a Handsaw (2009 )and the bilingual Each Line of Writing Still Is to be Done (2006 ). He chairs the Australian Poetry Centre at the Wheeler Centre. Also a public speaker and commentator on the visual arts, he specializes in "artists' books", and all that might mean. Read It Again, a volume of critical essays, was published in 2005. Among other awards he has won the Dublin Prize for Arts and Sciences and the Christopher Brennan Award for Literature. Since his retirement he has been Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne. Chris draws, plays tennis, and has penned the couplet, "Consumption of Australian wine/ Is a large part of my design."

July

2010-07-25T16:35:00.001+10:00

What a great afternoon of spoken word - poetry, short story and a blog post! Earl Livings treated us to a fine selection of poetry which had everybody listening intently. Thanks Earl. And thanks to all our open readers. It was a feast. And as always, a great atmosphere to boot - even in the middle of renovations!

Earl Livings

2010-07-09T15:03:00.000+10:00

Stopping all Stations is on again Saturday July 17 with Earl Livings as feature. Come along and enjoy great poetry, great atmosphere and great lucky door prizes.

EARL has had poetry and fiction published in journals and anthologies around Australia and also in Britain, Canada, the USA, and Germany. He has also read his work on national and community radio and at many public venues. He is the current editor of Divan (www.bhtafe.edu.au/divan), Australia’s first all-Australian online poetry journal. His first book of poetry, Further than Night (Bystander Press), was published in 2000. In 2005 he won the Melbourne Poets Union International Poetry Competition. Earl teaches in the Professional Writing & Editing course at Box Hill Institute. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing and is working on a novel and his next collection of poetry.

June

2010-06-27T20:58:00.000+10:00

We had a terrific time last Saturday with just enough space to accommodate everyone. Catherine read from her poetry collection Marriage for Beginners in the first half and then some Rapunzel from her new collaborative work with Matt Ottley after the break. It was very well received.

Congratulations to Angelina Mirabito for her winning poem, ‘Alone together', which will be published in the coming issue of Page Seventeen. The judges certainly had their work cut out for them. (Speaking of the judges, check out Tiggy’s new poetry collection. You can order them from her blog.)

And to think while all this was going on it was raining in my house! When I got home from Stopping all Stations later that night my house was awash. The cistern in our upstairs toilet cracked and gushed out onto the floor, then kept trying to refill. It was a shocking thing to come home to. My legs were jelly. No lights either – trying to discover the extent of the damage with torches. About 60% of the house will now need renovating! The carpets have already gone and it is a very sad sight downstairs with cold concrete floors scattered with little tufts of red fibre remnants and dripping ceilings. All my clothes are scattered around friends’ houses, drying out. I’m sleeping at the local motel!

It’s a Stopping all Stations I won’t forget in a hurry!

Check back for details of next month’s gig with Earl Livings as feature.

Catherine Bateson

2010-05-20T23:05:00.000+10:00

The June 19 event is going to be extra special. Not only do we have Catherine Bateson as feature, one lucky open reader will have their poem published in Page Seventeen. Better start writing …

Catherine Bateson’s third collection of poetry, Marriage for Beginners, was published by John Leonard Press late last year. She is an award-winning writer for children and young adults. Currently she’s working on a collaborative music theatre piece with Western Australian based composer and picture book writer and illustrator, Matt Ottley. Catherine also teaches in the GippsTAFE Professional Writing and Editing course.

May

2010-05-20T22:45:00.000+10:00

Skimbleshanks reports that apart from the batty MC and her menopausal memory malfunctions, all is well. And he particularly enjoyed the singing. In fact he found himself humming a little tune all the way back to the luggage van. He was particularly moved by Kristin’s poem about the string in the night-time. He thinks he’ll remember that one for some time to come. Quite a touching image – a mum and her young son joined up at the wrists with a piece of string to keep them connected.

Thanks to all the open readers, who helped make the afternoon so enjoyable.

Not as many pics this time as the photographer was a tad zealous with her flash. The good news is next month Helen will be back - with camera-toting Carl.

Stay tuned for news about the June event.

Kristin Henry

2010-05-03T22:49:00.000+10:00

Start dusting off your poems and stories or get writing. Stopping all Stations is on again on Saturday May 15 at the Station Street Cafe. Come along and hear

Kristin Henry

who thinks the human condition is one big musical. Don't be surprised if she bursts into song!

Kristin is a Melbourne poet who loves connecting with a live audience. She has read and sung her poetry in many venues throughout Australia, the UK and her native America over the past 25 years. She has published two non-fiction books and four collections of poetry, one of which was shortlisted for the N.S.W. Premiers Award. Her poems have appeared in many journals in Australia and overseas. She is working on a new collection and a verse novel. Kristin currently teaches advanced poetry and short story writing as part of Holmesglen Institute's Professional Writing and Editing course.

April

2010-04-22T14:58:00.002+10:00

Skimbleshanks is delighted to report that all is well on the Stopping all Stations platform. A beautiful bunch of people gathered to hear Sue read some of her haiku and longer form poems both from her published collections and current body of work. As always, Sue delighted her listeners with poetry that evokes a deep personal response. And a lovely lot of open readings…

Next month our feature will be KRISTIN HENRY. More news to follow, so keep tuned…

At the June 19 reading PAGE SEVENTEEN will be looking for a poem to publish in Issue 8. So if you haven’t chosen one already, start writing a ripper that will knock the judges (Tiggy Johnson and Vicki Thornton) off their chairs. Check out the new Page Seventeen blog.

Sue Stanford

2010-04-12T22:49:00.001+10:00

It's on again! This Saturday 17 April. Our feature reader this month is Sue Stanford.
Born in London, Sue Stanford is based in Melbourne. Her interests in the creative arts took her first towards a still-born career in ceramics and then later to some small successes in writing. Her first book of poetry, Opal, came out from Flat Chat Press in 2006 and a tiny book of haiku, The Neon City, came out from Post Pressed in 2008. A third book, We Will Come to the Sea, is taking shape. Sue's poetry has appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies. Sue is currently working on a PhD at Monash University which will take Sugita Hisajo's haiku as a case study through which to explore the effects of a range of constraints on innovation. Sue was president of Melbourne Poets Union during 2007 and 2008. She has been a judge for Moving Galleries, and has been poetry editor of POAM for the past three years.

The Inaugural event

2010-03-29T23:39:00.001+11:00

Skimbleshanks is happy to report his first gig went off like the Northern Mail at full throttle. A cosy and relaxed vibe, open readers to make your whiskers twitch and Jordie’s poems, as always, stunning. Her suite of bushfire poems had everyone in the room spellbound.

Don’t forget April 17 features Sue Stanford.

poetry is coming to nunawading...

2010-02-12T00:36:00.001+11:00

Watch out for a new spoken word event to be held on the third Saturday of each month from 2 – 5pm at the Station Street Cafe, 26 Station Street, Nunawading.

Our inaugural event, on March 20, will feature multi-award winning poet Jordie Albiston.

Jordie lives in Melbourne, where she was born in 1961. She is the author of six poetry collections, and she works as an editor, manuscript assessor, proofreader, teacher and mentor. Sydney composer Andrée Greenwell has adapted two of her books (Botany Bay Document - retitled Dreaming Transportation - and The Hanging of Jean Lee) for music-theatre: both enjoyed recent seasons at the Sydney Opera House and are available on cd. Jordie's first collection Nervous Arcs (1995) won the Mary Gilmore Award, received runner-up for the Anne Elder Award, and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Prize. Jordie's fourth collection, The Fall (2003), was shortlisted for Premier’s Prizes in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Her most recent collection is the sonnet according to 'm' (2009).

Jordie's works have been well represented in anthologies: in 2009 alone, these included The PEN Macquarie Anthology of Australian Literature, The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry, The Puncher & Wattman Anthology of Australian Poetry and Motherlode: Australian Women's Poetry 1986-2008. She has read her poetry at writers' festivals all over Australia, on radio and television (here and overseas), and is currently featured on a full-length ABC Radio National podcast. At present, Jordie is working on a sequence of commissioned poems about the 1974 invasion of Cyprus, alongside Sydney composer Raffaele Marcellino. She was original editor of the first all-Australian all-poetry ezine Divan, and she holds a PhD in literature.