Loading...

Lawnmowing poetry

Asa Gray wrote Increase Lapham: pay particular attention to my pets, the grasses. — by Lorine Niedecker (1940). This semester, I’m teaching a poetry course for third year undergraduates. I’ve never been one  to divide a semester into the usual kind of weeks (week one: line, week two: stanza, week … Continue reading

Filed under : On Reading , On Teaching
Author : nike

seventy-three (the arc of a bird’s flight)

after we are dead nobody will remember the way you looked at me this afternoon or the way your hand / grazed by sunlight perfectly described the arc of a bird’s flight someone else will walk along this road / and see that same tree / older now and bent … Continue reading

Author : nike

‘Celia’ by Ashlyn Butler

So many talented students! I am blessed with a great many talented writing students, and am really pleased when they’re brave enough to allow me to share their work with you. Today’s poem was produced after the first-run of the first half of a course that’s partly about writing poetry. … Continue reading

Author : nike

forty-five (spirits of the earth)

Today’s guest post is brought to you by a young performance poet I first met at a strange little poetry gig at Rick’s Garage in Palmwoods. Indie Adams blew the rest of the poets off the stage with her combination of strength and vulnerability. This short piece was inspired by … Continue reading

Author : nike
Comments : 4 Comments

fairytales and other forms

Woohoo! Approval has just come through for a course I’ll be teaching at USQ in semester one next year. The course is called CWR2001 Fairytales and Other Forms. According to the newly-approved synopsis (not yet available on the uni website, but soon, I promise!): Through close study of a range … Continue reading

Author : nike

transcendence and uncertainty

Many moons ago, Jessica White tagged me in a ‘blog hop’. I only had to answer five questions, but it has taken me more than a month to get to it. In my defence: the questions were HARD! What am I working on now? I’m a bit of a bower-bird … Continue reading

Filed under : On Writing , Rupetta , Work in Progress
Author : nike
Comments : 4 Comments

the invitation to cut

I remember discovering this poem once, which evoked that particular kind of feeling – a cross between pain, nostalgia and something else – that is akin to the feeling you get when you put your tongue into the place where your tooth used to be. This was many years ago. It was a … Continue reading

Author : nike

2013 Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition

Entries are now open for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition Entry Fee: £10 +VAT for two entries Prizes: £500 plus publication and a selection of complementary books Length of entries: 2000 words for short fiction, 40 lines for poetry Deadline for entries: 31 August 2013

Author : nike

Fire Diary

Last night, I had the pleasure of launching Mark Tredinnick’s book of poetry, Fire Diary, at Avid Reader in West End. It was a beautiful, early summer evening. As usual, Avid Reader was the perfect venue: a real bookshop, filled to bursting with books of all kinds, from poetry to … Continue reading

Filed under : On Reading , On Writing
Author : nike

Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards (shortlists)

For the past several years, I have had the honour of being one of the judges of Emerging Author Category of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. Judging this award is always exciting and challenging, calling on each of us to reconsider – each year – what it is the award … Continue reading

Filed under : On Reading , On Writing
Author : nike
1 2
Page 1 From 2