Poetry Says

I’ve never been very good at sleeping. Luckily, there are plenty of poets who share this deficiency. Show notes Robbie Coburn & I interview Jordie Albiston My interview with David Brooks Acquainted with the night: insomnia poems, edited by Lisa Russ Spaar Part of ‘Georgia‘ by Andrew Zawacki Part of ‘Insomnia at the Solstice‘ by … Continue reading "Ep 140. The poetry of insomnia"

Ella O’Keefe‘s poetry works with ‘the grit and offcuts we collect in the course of living’. With her new book Slowlier just out from Cordite Books, we talk about how she puts her poems together, whether experimental work can be fun and/or personal, how slowness is different from mindfulness, and what it was like to … Continue reading "Ep 139. Ella O’Keefe on process, offcuts and going slow"

For the past five weeks I’ve had the pleasure of studying the sonnet with a fabulous group of poets, led by Joshua Mehigan, in a weekly workshop through Brooklyn Poets. Here are some thoughts on the benefits (and challenges) of diving into a poetry workshop. Show notes Poetry and Performance: Writing for the Stage and … Continue reading "Ep 138. Workshop."

Where to begin summarising the work of Christian Bök? He’s a Canadian poet, the author of the bestselling experimental poetry collection Eunoia, a founder of the poetic school of Conceptualism, and most recently, Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne. In this interview Christian talks about what it’s been like to move between … Continue reading "Ep 137. Christian Bök’s poetic moonshot"

Open Bella Li’s collections Argosy or Lost Lake and you’ll immediately be struck by the beauty of her imagery. In this chat, recorded on a rainy Melbourne afternoon, I check in with Bella after the year that was. We discuss how and why she works with the materials she does, her relationships to both poetry … Continue reading "Ep 136. Bella Li: ‘What went we out into this wilderness to find?’"

Thoughts on a workshop I got to do with Brooklyn Poets, led by the amazing Jay Deshpande, on prosody and the decolonisation thereof. Also on Emily Dickinson and her poem Because I could not stop for Death. Show notes Terrance Hayes on Commonplace The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry A Quiet Passion

I got to speak with Justin Clemens—Melbourne poet and academic—in person in mid-February 2021. Melbourne had just come out of a five-day hard lockdown, Facebook had recently wiped news in Australia, the tennis was still happening…what a time to be alive! We go everywhere in this conversation, from Justin’s book The Mundiad to the work … Continue reading "Ep 134. Justin Clemens: The inbox at the end of the world"

Describing Michael Aiken as a ‘poet’ only tells a tiny part of his story—Michael’s creative interests span everything from fiction writing to video games. Last year, all those interests came together in Sydney’s Newtown, where Michael now runs Garden Lounge Creative Space. We talk about what it’s been like to get Garden Lounge up and … Continue reading "Ep 133. Michael Aiken: Working outside the lines"

If you haven’t yet come across Anne-Marie Te Whiu‘s writing, you’ve definitely felt the ripple effects of her work in poetry. She co-edited UQP’s Solid Air, Australia and New Zealand Spoken Word, co-directed the Queensland Poetry Festival from 2015-17, and this year we’ll see the publication of Whisper Songs by Tony Birch, which Annie also … Continue reading "Ep 132. Anne-Marie Te Whiu: Weaving a moment"

Fiona Wright’s work resists classification in the best way. Through some magic combination of essay and poetry—by both zeroing in and staying open—she reveals the beauty, grief and absurdity that makes up our lives. In this episode we talk about her latest project, the recurring themes in her work, how she thinks about narrative, and … Continue reading "Ep 131. Fiona Wright: Beyond the narrative map"

Mid-October, 2020. Some more thoughts on energy, writing, not writing and the lesser poems of Anne Sexton. Show notes Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way Nine Days in Wuhan by Peter Hessler Wuhan poet Xiaoyin on writing during the pandemic The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton Anne’s Letter Written During a January Northeaster

My first full-length poetry collection, The Empty Show, is now officially launched. What a crazy thing to be able to say! I’m so grateful to everyone who helped me bring this book into the world. You can see what the launch looked like below, and check out three reimagined poems from the book at theemptyshow.com.

Poems have weird jobs when they show up in movies. Sometimes they have to make up for a broader lack of meaning, or frame the theme of the movie in just a few seconds. Almost always, they’re positioned as something only a chosen few can truly understand. Guest starring Robin Williams Andrew Scott Michelle Pfeiffer … Continue reading "Ep. 128 Oscar-worthy poems"

I first encountered Liam Ferney’s poetry on an afternoon trip to Hill of Content. I liked his book so much it made me jealous, so I didn’t buy it (nice). In this chat we talk about everything from what can’t be a poem to writing from within a dominant community, masculinity, complicity, the pageantry of … Continue reading "Ep. 127 Liam Ferney: ‘Poetry is a galaxy’"

Speaking to me from Alyawarre Country in the Northern Territory, Michelle Cahill shares how this new environment is shaping her poetry and her thinking. We talk colonialism, cross-cultural writing and the flowering of POC voices in Australian poetry. We also touch on what the writing life asks of us as people and some of the … Continue reading "Ep 126. Michelle Cahill: A flowering of voices"

Mid-August, 2020. Some thoughts on energy, podcasting, poetry, the news, and why I dropped out of journalism school. Show notes The Poetry Gods Ocean Vuong ‘Extraordinary Voices for Extraordinary Times’ Ep 1. with Ellen van Neerven and Eunice Andrada If You Are Over Staying Woke by Morgan Parker Self-Portrait as Kendrick Lamar, Laughing to the … Continue reading "Ep 125. Letter from Melbourne"

Gayatri Nair is one of the many women of colour who are part of Sweatshop—a literacy movement out of Western Sydney that aims to empower ‘culturally and linguistically diverse communities through reading, writing and critical thinking’. We talk about how a community like this can support new writers, why critical feedback on your work is … Continue reading "Ep 124. Gayatri Nair reports from Western Sydney"

I discovered Hilda Morley and her poem ‘Song of the Terrible‘ while hunting for something else, but this was exactly the poem I needed in the moment I found it. It reminds me of one of my favourite sayings: ‘Relax. Nothing is under control.’

Every interview I do for this show offers its own rewards. Speaking with Antonia Pont, I got to hear a message of truly radical gentleness that helped me turn the corner out of a recent stretch of darkness. We also ate whiskey cake. Antonia’s stunning new book, You Will Not Know In Advance What You’ll … Continue reading "Ep 122. Antonia Pont: ‘Pessimism is very imprecise.’"

The other side of having a border collie brain is, occasionally, having to look after ‘the black dog’. In this episode I look at the persistent myth that being a poet is somehow connected to poor mental health. Show notes Quora: ‘Do poets get depression or do depressed people write poetry?‘ ‘30 depression poems to … Continue reading "Ep 121. ‘Are all poets depressed?’"