QPF Artists Bios

Alan Jefferies was born in Brisbane and grew up in Cleveland. He lived in Sydney and Coalcliff for most of the 80’s and 90’s and obtained degrees in Communication and Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. In 1998 he moved to Hong Kong where he lived until 2007. He was one of the initiators of a spoken word reading in Hong Kong called OutLoud. He was recently an invited participant at the Cairo International Forum of Arabic poetry and the 2007 Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival. He has published 5 books of poems, his most recent being “Homage and other poems” (Chameleon, 2007). He now lives in Redland Bay.

Andy Jackson’s poetry comes gently out of his unusual body. Since the mid 90s, he has read at dozens of events and festivals (including The Age Melbourne Writers Festival, Newcastle Young Writers Festival and Overload Poetry Festival), self-published three collections of poetry, had poems published in a score of print and on-line journals, been awarded an Australia Council grant and an Australian Society of Authors mentorship. He is also an infrequent collaborator with musicians, sound artists and other writers. His most recent collection of poems, Among the Regulars, is scheduled for release by papertiger media in early 2009.

Ann Bermingham and Helen Rowe first worked together in the 6 member women's band, Tangled Web, in the mid 1990s and have continued their musical connection since that time.

Ann works as freelance musician, primarily as a performer, conductor of 2 community choirs, workshop leader, and on music and multi-arts projects with Festivals and community organizations. Her main focus is voice, but she also plays guitar and clarinet. In 2007, Ann was Artist-in-Residence at Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, and created some solo and collaborative vocal and instrumental compositions out of that experience. Ann sings with the trio Zhiva Voda, who perform traditional music from Bulgaria.

Helen is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist (plays guitar, violin, viola and harp for starters!) and a fine exponent of traditional Australian and British Isles music and released her first solo recording The Slow Return in 2004. Helen's current musical pursuits include playing with the Irish band, Murphy's Pigs.

Both women write songs and tunes, and their duo performance has begun to focus mostly on their original compositions. However, Ann's residency at the Gardens was the first time that they had collaborated in creating new pieces. They had such a good time doing so that they are now committed to exploring this possibility further, and to developing more improvisational pieces for performance as well.

Alicia Bennett is a Brisbane poet who has published two collections of poetry.  The Tincture of Salt was published in 2004 by Spotted Gecko Press. Faith, a verse novel edited by award winning Queensland poet Ross Clark, was launched at the Queensland Poetry Festival in 2007. Faith is currently being adapted for the stage by Brisbane playwright and theatre director Michelle Miall.  Alicia has also researched and written the true crime casebook, Death Before Dishonour: The Crime that Broke Brisbane's Heart, published by Jack Sim Publications and launched at the 2007 Brisbane Writer's Festival.
 
Alicia has performed extensively including as a feature poet at Brisbane's renowned Speedpoets, at ouTsideRs on the Sunshine Coast, The Velvet Landmine, Riverbend Books, Melbourne's Midsummer Festival, Queensland's Poets for Pride and the Queensland Poetry Festival in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Alicia has also performed at the Brisbane Writer's Festival in 2005 and 2007 in addition to the Straight out of Brisbane Festival in 2004 and 2007. She is currently completing her Masters of Writing, Editing and Publishing at UQ.
 
Alicia believes that the courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness (Morley).

Ali Coby Eckermann is an aboriginal writer who lives in Central Australia. She has 2 children Jonnie and Audrey, and an energetic gorgeous grand-daughter Shakaya. Over the past decade Ali has shared many journeys with her faithful red dog Merlin.

Poetry has proved the tonic that assists Ali to soften the miasma of her adopted childhood and the relinquishment of her baby son as a teenage mother. She met her birth mother 11 years ago, and is inspired by her strength. The resilience of her Aboriginal family has been her biggest lessons. Ali and Jonnie were reunited 7 years ago in Alice Springs. Campfires and comedy were the essence allowing mother and son to begin their life together.

Mum Frieda remains a pivotal influence in Ali’s life, along with her adopted siblings. The sharing of both families proves a new strength to Ali. This strength is nurtured by friendships new and old.

Ali has won various awards for her poetry and short story works, and been published in several anthologys.

David Gagen is a 50 year old school teacher and poet from Ipswich. A member of Undead Poets and Mouthpiece, David has been writing poetry all his life, but has only recently taken to performing his work since attending Speed Poets over the last 2 years. David was a finalist at Woodfoord Slam in 2007. A lover of the Beats, the Romantics and Bob Dylan, David is a regular Voice in Ipswich poetry.

David Stavanger's poetry has been published in various Australian & international magazines, newspapers and anthologies including The Courier Mail, Going Down Swinging, The Broadkill Review (US), Foam:e, Staples, & Blackmail Press (NZ) as well as on the Brisbane City Cats as part of the QPF - Poem for a Week project. Following being offered a Arts QLD Grant, his first book Station to Station was released in 2006 featuring photography by Justin Leegwater. He completed a writers residency in Broken Hill in 2007 following featuring at their 2006 Poetry Festival. Known for his unique live performance he has also featured at the Montselvat Poetry Festival, Noosa Long Weekend Arts Festival, QLD Poetry Festival 2005-7, The Brisbane Writers Festival, and The Poets Union Reading @ The Brett Whitely Studio in Sydney as well as most of Melbourne's & Brisbane ’s regular poetry events. www.myspace.com/davidstavanger .

He in no way associates with performance poet Ghostboy.

Doug Poole was born Nov 1970. He isf English/Samoan descent.

He lives with my beautiful Whanau, wife Anja and three children Jarah, Waipapa & Parone-Vincent, in Waitakere City, Auckland, New Zealand.

He has been published online in, NZPEC OBAN 06, NZEPC Fugacity, Trout 11, Stalking Tongue Vol 2 : Slamming the Sonnet, Softblow (edited by Jayne Fenton Keane), Nexus Collection, Poetry Downunder, Poetry Magazine.com. He has been published in mulitmedia world poetry CD Paper Tiger 04 (edited by Mark Pirie, 50 Poems by 50 poets), most recently published in print in Huia Publishers, Niu Voices - Contemporary Pacific Fiction 1 (Edited by Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh).

Bula Vinaka, my name is Daren J Kamali. I was born and raised in Fiji and have been residing in New Zealand for 13 years. I’m of Wallis and Futuna/Fijian/ palagi decent and have been involved in the New Zealand/Pacific Poetry and music scene for over 10 years. I released my debut album Immigrant Story in 2000 and an EP album 'Keep it real' in 2002.

Chris Mansell's Love poems appeared with Kardoorair Press in 2006. Mortifications & Lies (2005) also published by Kardoorair was described as "…an important book, both stylistically and thematically a ground-breaking book. One emerges from the experience of reading it disturbed and challenged." Previous books include: Head, Heart & Stone, Redshift/Blueshift, Day Easy Sunlight Fine, The Fickle Brat (audio + text CD from Interactive Digital, Stalking the Rainbow and other smaller publications. Interactive Digital will soon publish Café Sun, a collection of video/digital poems on dvd. Although primarily a poet, she has also had a number of plays performed and indulges in short fiction from time to time. She has won a number of awards and been short-listed for others. For more information please see her site at: www.chrismansell.com.

Claire Gaskin was born in 1966 and lives with her two teenage daughters in Melbourne. She has also lived in country Victoria, most recently in Mansfield. She is a yoga teacher and has taught literature and professional writing for eighteen years, and has been publishing her poetry in literary journals since 1985. Her first full length book, A Bud, was published by John Leonard Press in 2006, and was shortlisted for the John Bray Award for Poetry (National) in 2008.

Ghostboy -  www.myspace.com/holyghostboy  - won the prestigious Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup in 2005 and was runner-up in 2007 in the process establishing himself as one of Australia ’s most innovative spoken word artists. He also operates as QLD’s “slammaster” including running the highly successful inaugural 2006 QLD Poetry Festival slam with his mentor and friend Marc “So What” Smith (US)  - the founder of the slam form. Describing himself as a hybrid of performance poetry, spoken word theatre, and surrealist vaudeville Ghostboy has performed his work live on ABC & Triple J radio and is the first Australian performance poet to have work selected for the American anthology showcasing the best of the worlds spoken word artists The Spoken Word Revolution (2nd Ed). In recent years he has been a regular at major festivals throughout Australia including The Sydney Writers Festival, Brisbane Writers Festival, Woodford Folk Festival and NightWords at the Sydney Opera House.  The Daily Telegraph recently described him as "an underground star". Ghostboy's debut album -  If I Were a R"N"R Girlfriend   - recorded with his muses Golden Virtues was released in 2006 and a new EP will be coming out this year. 

Gina Mercer is a poet who has taught creative writing and literature in universities and communities for over 20 years. She is currently the editor of Island. She has published four collections of poetry, Handfeeding the Crocodile (Pardalote Press, 2007), Seasoned with Honey (Walleah Press, 2008 - a collaboration with 3 other poets), Night Breathing (Picaro Press, 2006), The Ocean in the Kitchen (Five Islands Press, 1999) as well as a novel, Parachute Silk (Spinifex Press, 2001).

Graham Nunn is a Brisbane based writer, co-founder of Small Change Press and a founding member of Brisbane's longest running poetry event, SpeedPoets (www.speedpoets.org). He has published 4 collections of poetry, the latest, Ruined Man is now available from www.smallchangepress.com.au.

James Norcliffe was born on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand but was educated and has largely lived and worked in Christchurch although in the late eighties he and his family spent time in China and in the nineties he and his wife spent three years in Brunei Darussalam.

He has published six collections of poetry The Sportsman & Other Poems [Hard Echo Press], Letters to Dr Dee , shortlisted for the NZ Book Awards 1994 [Hazard Press], A Kind of Kingdom [Victoria University Press], Rat Tickling [Sudden Valley Press] Along Blueskin Road [Canterbury University Press] and Villon in Millerton (Auckland University Press). In consecutive years he won the NZ Poetry Society’s International Poetry Prize. His poetry has been published in journals worldwide – for example in Southerly and Island (Australia) in the Cincinnati Review, Harvard Review, and Poetry International (USA) and in Stand and Rialto [UK].

His work has been anthologized in collections such as the Oxford Book of New Zealand Poetry in English, the Oxford Book of New Zealand Love Poems and Essential NZ Poems.

In addition to poetry he has published five novels for children, Under the Rotunda, Penguin Bay, The Emerald Encyclopedia ( which won an honour award in the Aim Children’s Literature Awards 1994) and The Carousel Experiment. His novel The Assassin of Gleam won the Sir Julius Vogel Award in 2007 for the best NZ fantasy novel and was short-listed for the Esther Glen Award. He has also published a collection of short stories, The Chinese Interpreter (all from Hazard Press). His latest fantasy novel for young people The Loblolly Boy is forthcoming from Longacre.

He has edited a number of anthologies notably Big Sky with Bernadette Hall, and the ReDraft series of young people’s writing with Alan Bunn and Tessa Duder. He is currently poetry editor for Takahe Magazine and the poetry editor for the Christchurch Press.

He has had extensive experience as a leader of poetry workshops, most notably with the University of Canterbury Summer School programmes over the last several years, but with writers’ groups and festivals throughout New Zealand.

He has been a participant in the Island of Residencies programme in Tasmania and the in the International Writing Programme, University of Iowa. In 2000 he was the Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University, Dunedin.

James Norcliffe lives in Christchurch and teaches in the Foundation Studies Department of Lincoln University.

Jason Thompson was born in Brisbane in 1965. He has been a familiar face in Poetry circles several years performing at SpeedPoets, the Powerhouse and previously for the Queensland Poetry Festival in 2005. 2008 saw the release of his first collection of poems Scrambled Over Easy. He is currently compiling another two collections for publication. He works as an aged care nurse and is unmarried with one daughter.

Queensland-born Jena Woodhouse is the author of two poetry collections, Eros in Landscape (Jacaranda) and Passenger on a Ferry (UQP), and a prolific contributor to print and web publications. Her poetry has received a number of awards, and she also reviews, and translates poetry from Greek and Russian. Her work in progress is a collection titled The Book of Lost Addresses. 

Jessika Tong is 25 years old and has been widely published in national and international literary journals with recent publications in Tears in the Fence, Verandah 22, and The Age.

"I consider myself most a book poet and QPF will be my fist public reading (there are hummingbirds in my stomach already!). my first collection of poems The Anatomy of Blue is due out later this year under Sunline Press. I plan to finish my degree in radiology through QUT (bones being another one of my passions), and travel the world with a suitcase and a pen."

Jordie Albiston was born in Melbourne in 1961. She has published five books of poetry, the most recent being Vertigo: A Cantata (John Leonard Press: 2007). The Fall (2003) was shortlisted for Premier's Prizes in Victoria, NSW & Queensland. Two of her collections have been adapted for music-theatre by Sydney composer Andrée Greenwell & enjoyed recent seasons at the Sydney Opera House. Jordie holds a PhD in literature, & is currently working on a collection of sonnets.

Karlo Mila is a NZ-born Pacific woman poet of Tongan and Palangi descent. She also has ancestral connections to Samoa. Karlo is the mother of two young boys and is married to epidemiologist, Dr David Schaaf. She is a PhD student and is actively involved with a number community groups, as well as balancing motherhood, writing and study.

One of the selected poems, Pulotu Wings, was written after spending time in Tonga at the funeral of HM King Taufa’ahau Tupou in September 2006. The other, Floorshow on the Southside, was written while attending the Absolute Rush holiday programme in Otara. She ran a workshop at Absolute Rush with fellow poet Renee Liang. In the workshop, the young people were asked to participate in a ‘five senses’ exercise, whereby they were asked what their neighbourhood ‘smelled like’, ‘looked like’, ‘sounded like’ and how it felt to ‘touch’ and ‘taste’. The poem was created using words (including “Helen Clark”) chosen by the young people in their brainstorming exercise.

Karlo’s first book of poetry, Dream Fish Floating won the Jessie MacKay Best First Book of Poetry at the Montana Book Awards in 2006. She is currently working with artist Delicia Sampero to create her second book. It is in the process of being edited and will be published by Huia in the near future.

A gay, light-hearted bastard, Ken Bolton cuts a moodily romantic figure within the dun Australian literary scene, his name inevitably conjuring perhaps that best known image of him, bow-tie askew, grinning cheerfully, at the wheel of his 1958 Jaguar D-type, El Cid. It is this image that also carries in its train the stories of later suffering—the affairs, the women, the bad teeth—and, speaking of teeth, the beautiful poems wrenched from the teeth of despair & written on the wrist of happiness “where happiness happens to like its poems written best” (in his inordinate phrase). (“Inordinate”?—can you use inordinate like that?) Born in Sydney in 1949 he works at the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide, South Australia & edits Little Esther books.

Kevin Gillam is a West Australian writer with work published in numerous Australian and overseas journals. He has had two books of poems published, "Other Gravities" (2003) and "permitted to fall"(2007), both by SunLine Press. He has been featured on Poetica (ABC Radio National), ABC Television, and been successful in numerous poetry competitions, including twice winning the Woorilla and Trudy Graham Poetry Prizes, and short-listed in the Australian Book Review Poetry Competions in 2006 and 2008. He works as a secondary school music teacher and free-lance 'cellist and orchestral conductor.

Kristin Hannaford is a poet/writer who resides in Central Queensland. Some of her recent writing appears in foam:e, 1001 nights cast, Idiom 23, and Thylazine,. Kristin has been awarded national poetry prizes for her new media work and she enjoys presenting readings and workshops – in 2008 she will be a tutor at the North Keppel Island workshop

Her new collection of poetry Fragile Context is published by Post Pressed.  www.kristinhannaford.com.

Max Ryan is a poet who works with sound, his CD White Cow, a collaboration with musician Cleis Pearce has won several music industry awards. He has won the Byron Writers Festival Poetry Prize, the Catchfire Press Poetry Prize and the FAW Far North Coast Cedar Award. His book of free verse Rainswayed Night was awarded the 2005 Anne Elder Prize.

He has appeared at QPF, Byron Writers Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, La Mama, Australian Poetry Festival, Alice Springs Word Storm Poetry Festival as well as many local and interstate poetry readings.

His work has featured in Blue Dog, Quadrant, Westerly, Famous Reporter, Best Australian Poems 2005, Yellow Moon, India Link, Eucalypt, Island and Blythe Spirit (UK).

‘His words sift deep into life, and are full of power and insight.’ – Judith Beveridge

‘"In this book [Rainswayed Night] Max Ryan asserts his qualification to serve as one of poetry’s elite Wardens at the narrow door of the particular. Something leaves you when he lets you in: ‘the need for bearings, the weight of miles." – Rob Riel

"His lyric gift and sure-footed narratives work emotion through the fire of art; the end result is compelling."– Judy Johnson

"[Rainswayed Night’s] impact lies in its elegance of language; its concision, transformative power, delicacy, and most importantly, music." – Dr. Robyn Rowland A.O.

"Ryan has the two prerequisites for a poet: something real to say and the ability to make the language work marvels for him." – Melissa Lukashenko

Poet and translator Michael Hofmann was born in Freiburg, West Germany in 1957. The son of the German novelist Gert Hofmann, his translation of his father's novel The Film Explainer won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 1995. He grew up in England and attended schools in Edinburgh and Winchester. He read English Literature and Classics at Magdalene College, Oxford, and studied as a postgraduate at the University of Regensburg and Trinity College, Cambridge from 1979 to 1983. Since 1983 he has worked as a freelance writer, translator and reviewer. Since 1993, he has held a half-time position at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and in 1994, he was Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Michael Hofmann has translated work by Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Roth, Patrick Süskind, Herta Mueller and Franz Kafka. He has twice won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (Translators' Association), first in 1988 for his adaptation of The Double Bass by Patrick Süskind (1987), and again in 1993 for his translation of Wolfgang Koeppen's Death in Rome (1992). His published poetry includes Nights In The Iron Hotel (1983), which won the Cholmondeley Award; Acrimony (1986), which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize; Corona, Corona (1993) and Approximately Nowhere (1999).

In 1994 he co-edited After Ovid: New Metamorphoses with James Lasdun, which included contributions by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney. Behind the Lines: Pieces on Writing and Pictures, a collection of Michael

Mua Strickson is Pua Aotearoa born Samoan Chinese ancestoral villages of Malaela Upolu and PapaSataua Savaii. Canton China. Aiga/whanau Purcell, Pua, and Laiman.

Co founder of STREET POETS BLACK 1982 Maori & Pacific Islands street theatre telling our stories. Formerly based in Palmerston North. North island "Polynesian Time" tour of 86.

Pioneer of P.A.T.H. Pasifika Art & Therapy for Healing programme at Tagata Pasifika Resources & Development Trust working with at risk youth, damaged families, and Pacific nations communities. 1995-2005.

Producer of CAFE SPACIFIC venue to Pasifika Hip Hop and Poetry 1996-2002 Karangahape Rd the only Pacific Hip Hop & poetry venue promoting Pacific artists for the community telling our stories. Hosted by Pasifika Poets Collective.

Community Arts Curator Tagata Pasifika Space Karangahape Road 1996-2005.An opportunity for students and family members to tell their personal stories through their individual or group exhibitions. Aiga/whanau exhibitions are welcomed.

Producer of Samoa House Pasifika Hip Hop & Poetry venue 2003-2005

Hosted by Pasifika Poets Collective.

Radio projects:

Koori Radio Sydney fortnightly 10 minute slot 2004-2005
Niu FM Breakfast Show Gig guide fortnightly 2003-2005
Reo Atumotu 1593 Breakfast host, Sports, & Youth programme producer 1994-1998.
Otago FM Student radio Pacific weekly hour show DJ & Producer 1987-1989.

I have always incorporated poetry & Pasifika Poets Collective for readings and performances. I am a performance poet, exhibited artist via Lavalava Arts, Story teller, Comedian, Free style rapper/MC, and Community Arts Curator. My Kaupapa is telling my Pacific stories via Pasifika Hip Hop, Arts, & Poetry. Empowering, Educating, and Entertaining.

Nicola Scholes is a Brisbane-based poet. Her poems have appeared in several journals, including HECATE, The Broadkill Review (USA), Cordite, dotlit, Social Alternatives, The Mozzie and SpeedPoets magazine. Nicola regularly reads her poems at Brisbane spoken word event SpeedPoets (www.speedpoets.org). In 2007, she won the open mic competition at Queensland Poetry Festival event Love Poetry Hate Racism. In the same year, her poem “City Cat” was selected to be displayed on the digital screens inside Brisbane’s CityCats as a part of Poem of the Week, a project collaborated by Queensland Poetry Festival, Brisbane City Council and 4UTV. Nicola also acts in community theatre, having performed in many plays with Villanova Players and St. Luke’s Theatre Society.

Since his first poem was published in the Bulletin (in 1957), Paul Sherman is one of many who this year mourns that iconic Australian magazine's demise. Paul, an actor as well as a poet, has acted in two of the verse plays of the late Douglas Stewart, who was the Bulletin's poetry editor.

It was Douglas Stewart who promoted the early poetry of such Queenslanders as Judith Wright, Val Vallis, John Blight and David Rowbotham.

Since Paul and Val acted together in the Twelfth Night Theatre's production of Macbeth in 1956 , and have been friends over the half century since, Paul is this year presenting in the QPF some of Val's poems in their Italian translation by Aldo Magagnino, of Presicce, in the south of Italy.

Aldo, a keen translator of Australian poetry and prose, was inspired by Professor Bernard Hickey who vigorously promoted Australia) writing from centres in Italian universities from Venice in the north to Lecce (where he died last year) in the south.

Aldo has also translated Paul's poems into Italian but Paul will this year be presenting (in the Judith Wright Centre) Aldo's translation of Val's poems. These will include three poems set on the Queensland coast near Gladstone , as well as The Ballad of Changi Chimes, which Val based on a bizarre incident in Singapore's Changi Prison in 1945 where Val, a soldier in the AIF, was helping with the repatriation of Australian prisoners of war.

Paul will perform the poems in both English and Italian.

Paul's own poetry has been published in newspapers and journals in Queensland and interstate, and in translation in Italy. He has presented Australian poetry in Venice, Bologna, Bari and Lecce in Italy and in the University of Le Havre, France. His plays have been published by UQP, Heinemann and Macmillan.
His verse collection, Creeks to be Crossed, was published by Sweetwater Press (ed. Ross Clark).

Emerging spoken word performer, Pascalle Burton, has been called "the best dressed poet in Brisbane" and is the most decorated SLAM poet in Queensland.

From her win at the 2006 Queensland Poetry Festival Slam competition, featuring a mesmerising poem about poets hijacking a plane – 'Poetrified' brings new meaning to the power of poetry – to her victory at the Woodford Folk Festival Wordfood Poetry Slam, Pascalle appears as feature poet and workshop facilitator (Random Acts of Poetry [Coordinator], Brisbane Writers Festival, Speedpoets, QPF 2007 [performer and QPF committee member], ouTsideRs, National Library Slam and Poetry Unearthed). She has also performed in London’s Poetry Café, Farrago Poetry, and Y Tuesday Poetry Club.

Her spoken word performances include layers of sonic art. Pascalle sees a strong connection between poetry, music, sound and art and is completing a Masters of Arts Media focussing on these concepts.

Pascalle is also and one half of avant-garde Poetry-Pop duo Maiden Speech, merging spoken word and 80's inspired pop. They perform regularly at festivals, music venues and poetry events, including a 2007 UK/Cyprus tour. She co-hosts the club night ouTsideRs with Ghostboy and Almaryse Murphy, championing performance artists, musicians and poets.

Her debut collection, A Vast Laugh, with illustrations and collaboration by Joshua Norman, has recently been released through Small Change Press.

Born in Melbourne in 1954 to Polish-German parents, Peter Bakowski’s aim as a poet is to write clear and accessible poems, to use ordinary words to say extraordinary things.

His poems have appeared and continue to appear in literary magazines worldwide and have been translated into Arabic, Bahasa-Indonesion, Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Polish.

Peter has been writer-in-residence at:- the B.R.Whiting Library in Rome; the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris; the University of Macau; the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre in Greenmount, Western Australia; the Hobart Writer’s Cottage in Battery Point, Tasmania; The Arthur Boyd Estate of “Bundanon” near Nowra, New South Wales; the Broken Hill Poetry Festival, New South Wales.

Peter has giving poetry readings and poetry workshops in schools and universities and to U3A and writing groups in Europe, Asia and thoughout Australia.

Over the past few years he has specialized in giving poetry readings in private houses to groups of eight or more.

No matter how many books Peter writes in his lifetime they will all be about what it’s like to be a human being.

Petra White was born in Adelaide in 1975 and lives in Melbourne, where she works in Indigenous education. Her first book, The Incoming Tide (John Leonard Press, 2007), was shortlisted for the 2007 Queensland Premiers Literary Awards.

Renowned for his fiery sermons and breast-beating screeds, the Reverend Hellfire started life as a subsidiary personality of the late rogue poet, Guy Free. However, the Reverend soon evolved from blasphemous cliche to lovable archtype and became an individual in his own right, complete with housekeys and tax-file number and everything. Speaking in Tongues and Teeth, the Reverend serves as a humble vessel through which the Great Poetic Forces may manifest. There are many voices crying out in the wilderness, to be sure, and the Reverend Hellfire hears them all.

Unbelievers beware! You WILL feel the Power of Poetry!

Ron Moss lives in Hobart and works at the Archives Office of Tasmania and has been a volunteer fire-fighter for 10 years.

Ron has been deeply interested in Eastern art and philosophy from an early age. He has pursued this interest through extensive reading and the exploration of Japanese writing forms including haiku. He also studies and practices martial arts, Zen meditation, sumi-e (ink painting) and haiga (an art form that combines haiku and watercolour painting). His work has been widely published in journals and anthologies, and he has won numerous awards both within Australia and overseas (including Japan) over the last 10 years. He is a five time winner of the Yellow Moon poetry forms. He is one of Australia’s best known exponents of haiku and haiga and his work is published in several languages. Ron reads poetry at local venues in Hobart and leads haiku walks during the mountain festival there.

Ron has participated in several exhibitions, including haiku and wilderness photography. One was at the Country Club Casino where his watercolour work, was sold and also reviewed by local newspapers and Kate Poetschka of Tasmanian Life magazine, where she wrote:

"In Ron’s combined artistic expressions, through his art and poetry, there exists a common thread – the charm and dignity of simplicity and harmony with the underlying backdrop of ancient traditions”

Artist’s Statement:

I use the ancient art of haiku to capture moments in nature and explore the human interplay of the senses and emotions. A fine haiku, is one that allows the reader to see a picture through suggestion rather than description, feeling the deep resonance of the moment from within. I paint with ink and watercolour, and use other creative mediums like photography to explore that same resonance in the visual field.

As a fire-fighter on 24 hour call, these powerful experiences have found their way into my artistic expression. Being able to recall these emotional events in this way, has become a vital part of my health and well being.

Sarah Holland-Batt is the recipient of the Thomas Shapcott Prize for Poetry and the Dorothy Hewett Fellowship. Her first collection, Aria, was published by UQP earlier this year.

Sarah Holland-Batt was born in Southport, Queensland, has lived in the United States and Australia, and presently resides in Brisbane, where she is completing a Master of Philosophy at the University of Queensland. She is the winner of the 2007 Thomas Shapcott Prize for Poetry and the Dorothy Hewett Fellowship, and recently returned from three months in Japan, where she was an Asialink Writer in Residence at Aichi Shukutoku University in Nagoya. Sarah teaches writing at the University of Queensland, and works as a freelance arts reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald. Her first collection, Aria, was published by UQP earlier this year.

Selina Tusitala Marsh is of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English, Scottish and French descent. She teaches New Zealand and Pacific Literature at Auckland University. She is currently completing her first collection of poetry, 'Afakasi'. The development of Pasifika Poetry is her latest research passion.

Selina recently edited Niu Voices: Contemporary Pacific Fiction 1, Huia Publishers. A collection of short stories and poems by selected Pacific writers and poets.

"My latest research project is the development of a Pasifika Poetry web site, which aims to be a comprehensive one-stop shop for anyone interested in viewing and hearing Pasifika poets performing their work and being interviewed. Check it out at ‘nzepc.auckland.ac.nz’. Enjoy!" – Selina Tusitala Marsh

Serie Barford is a performance poet of Samoan, Celtic, Scandinavian and Algonquin Indian ancestry. She was born in Aotearoa to a German-Samaon mother (Stunzner/Betham/Leaega of Lotofaga and Fulu/Jamieson of Luatuanu'u) and a palagi father. She has worked as a school teacher and is now involved in the field of Community Education in Waitakere City and lives between Aotearoa and the Loyalty islands. She writes whenever she can and was recentrly published in Whetu Moan, Niu Voices, BMP17, Snorkel, Poetry NZ, Tinfish 16/Trout 13.

Sheish Money is currently hiding out in one of Brisbane’s ferny suburbs writing and recording his descriptions of urban landscapes and hanging around street corners listening out for prayers. He can be seen at the Alibi room on the first Sunday of every month, performing with or against the SpeedPoets.

The creative core of Silver Sircus is Lucinda Shaw (vocalist/performer/writer) & James Lees (drummer/composer). In the mid-late 1990’s they were key members of celebrated Brisbane band ISIS who released four CD’s, scored 6 positions in the 4ZZZ Hot 100, toured Australia and regularly packed venues in Brisbane with their highly visual shows and special events. Following ISIS, Lucinda continued her songwriting collaboration with guitarist Brett Collery under the name, Shugafix.

As a writer & performer, Lucinda has produced a series of stage works for La Boite’s ‘Shock Of The New’, Metro Arts’ ‘Cab Sav’ and for the Magdelena Festival. As a musician, James has worked with many Brisbane bands (also including Chalk, Saturn South, Tylea & The Imaginary Music Score and Speed Of Purple) as well as producing many experimental cabaret & performance events (including ArtLoveJam and dreamGAS performance series). Together, they have produced performance & music work for ArtLoveJam and dreamGAS, Brisbane Pride Festival and Brisbane Cabaret Festival.

In 2007, their latest collaboration, Silver Sircus, was conceived. Bringing together their shared theatrical & musical backgrounds, the project represents the best vantage point to enjoy their vision of all things dark & shadowy, blackly comic, carnivelesque, beautiful & grotesque. Placed somewhere between a stage performance and a straight-up ‘gig’, Silver Sircus shows are a hybrid of spoken word, soaring vocals, drums, electronics, double bass & piano. They have performed for Brisbane Cabaret Festival (2007), supported indie darlings The Bluehouse (2008) and for the Love Poetry Hate Racism event for the QLD Poetry Festival.

In July 2008, Silver Sircus released their debut CD, an EP entitled Sovereignty. Containing four tracks, the EP was produced with musical collaborator James Kliemt and one of Brisbane’s finest exports, producer Lachlan ‘Magoo’ Gould. The EP also features the work of Stewart Barry (double bass), Matt Murphy (piano), Danielle Bentley (cello) and violinist Sallie Campbell who also contributed string arrangements.

Following this, Silver Sircus have prepared for their next appearance, a 30-minute peformance at The Judith Wright Centre Theatre incorporating spoken word, songs & visuals for the QLD Poetry Festival. This performance will also serve as the launch event for their second release Dark Back Garden. This EP contains one extended spoken word piece accompanied by tonal soundscapes and contributions from Brett Collery (loop & guitars), Tylea Goold (guitars) and Danielle Bentley (cellos).

Small Change Press is an independent imprint, located in South-East Queensland, Australia, specialising in small print runs of high quality poetry chapbooks. It’s founding publishers and editors are Graham Nunn and David Stavanger.

Small Change is committed to publishing poetry, especially poetry with a Queensland connection and poets that bring together the best elements of page and performance, via work that resonates with both the reader and a live audience. Small Change Press also has plans to publish a small number of titles by invited interstate and international poets, spoken word artists & musicians. We are committed to ensuring that a diverse range of exciting emerging and established contemporary poets works are available in print to a national and local marketplace at an affordable price.

Our commitment is to produce a small number of titles each year which display a consistently excellent quality in writing, art design, and production, the most important criteria being that each work bear its own clear vision and unique voice, and be capable of translating both to the reader.

S.K. Kelen is an Australian poet whose poems have been published far and wide, and over quite a period of time.  His most recent books are Goddess of Mercy (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2002), and Earthly Delights (Pandanus, Canberra, 2006).  Earthly Delights was co-winner of the 2007 Judith Wright Award.

Suzanne Jones loves to weave words through the tapestry of visual and soundscapes. Performance poet and co-founder of seZsu (spoken word duo and multimedia feast), she will step up to the mic for the first time at QPF accompanying herself on guitar. She has featured at the likes of Woodford Folk Festival (2007/8); the QLD Poetry Festival (2005-7); The Sydney Writers Festival as a member of the QLD Poetry Slam team; and at Sydney’s legendary Friend in Hand. Her work has been published in Going Down Swinging, Page Seventeen and heard on ABC radio. She has performed with Ghostboy live at the Sydney Opera House, Brisbane Writers Festival and on Triple J radio. Finalist in the prestigious Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup 2006-2007; co-winner of the National Poetry Week Open Mic Championship 2005 and finalist in the QPF Poetry Slam 2006 and 2007, she released her first chap book, Pregnant & Tongue Tied in 2006.

Tim Page has been playing guitar since the age of 10, and branched into writing and performing his own songs in his early 20's. He has a bachelor of Theology degree from the University of Auckland, where he currently works as a digital media specialist. He is married to Sue, and they have 2 children.

Tim writes Insightful poetic lyrics set to melodic pop rock. Personally his music is reminescent of New Zealand pop rock such as David Gilgour, Sneaky Feelings and UK pop rock of Robert Wyatt, Elvis Costello. I Particularly enjoy the melodic urban landscapes in After The Rain, the Dylanesque lyrics of What is Good...Enjoy

Coming from a musical background (years spent drumming in garage bands), Tim Sinclair as always attempted to incorporate some element of musicality into his writing. His first major release, the CD Brothers of the Head (“a multi-art form work of magic” - Rip it Up) combines music, spoken word and written text. In 2005 he released the poetry collection Vapour Trails (Cottage Industry Press), and in 2006 the YA verse novel Nine Hours North (Penguin). In 2005-07 he worked at Poets House in New York, and currently works at the Australian Society of Authors in Sydney. www.timsinclair.org

Tracie Morris is an interdisciplinary poet who has worked extensively as a sound artist, writer and multimedia performer. Her installations have been presented at the Whitney Biennial and the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. She holds an MFA in poetry from Hunter College and a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. Dr. Morris is the CPCW Fellow in Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute.

Tusiata Avia is a poet, a performer, and children’s book writer. Avia is of Samoan descent, and her name, Tusiata, means both painter and artist.

She was born and raised in Christchurch. She attended Canterbury University, before moving to Auckland and then overseas. From 1990 until 2001 Avia travelled and taught. She spent time in Samoa, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Africa before returning to New Zealand in 2001. In 2002 she completed the MA Creative Writing Programme at the International Institute of Modern Letters.

Tusiata has been published and translated in literary anthologies and journals in New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Hawaii, Israel and USA. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals Turbine, Sport, and Takahe. She also works as a performer, her one woman show Wild Dogs Under My Skirt premiered at the 2002 Dunedin Fringe Festival and is part of AK07, a show not to be missed.

Tusiata Avia's first collection of poetry, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt (2004), is an outstanding collection of poems, confrontational, darkly humourous and resonant.

"Tusiata's poetry is quite revolutionary in the sense that, not only does it define the face of Pacific literature in New Zealand, but it redefines the face of New Zealand literature itself." – Sia Figiel

She was an artist-in-residence at the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies in Christchurch in 2005. She was also awarded the 2005 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers’ Residency at the University of Hawai’i.

Tusiata Avia was shortlisted for the 2006 Prize in Modern Letters.

Zenobia Frost is a poetic adventurer and protector of apostrophes studying Creative Writing at QUT. Her creative work – fiction and non-fiction – has been published in Voiceworks, The Definite Article, SpeedPoets zines, LOTL, and in Going Down Swinging with Timothy Tate in their musical duo Colouring by Numbers. Zen likes the way sea-jellies magnify grains of sand.