away for 'home and away'

Later this month I will be off to Auckland for Part 1 of the Home & Away 2010 poetry symposium (details below). It will be my first time to the North Island (unless you count one hour in transit through Auckland airport). I have spent some time on the South Island over the last few years and am always ready to return. It will be interesting to see what I make of the north.

HOME & AWAY 2010
The New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre - nzepc - will hold a two-part poetry symposium in Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia in 2010.

The first part of HOME & AWAY 2010 will feature readings, launches and forum-style talks with trans Tasman colleagues at the University of Auckland, 30-31 March. For details of the program visit this site.

And just to note, that the night before the symposium, on Monday 29 March from 7pm, there will not only be a pot luck dinner at Michael King Writers’ Centre, but from
8-9 pm Michael Farrell and myself talk about and read from our anthology (yes, the square orange one) Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets. The session will be chaired by Martin Edmond. Venue: Michael King Writers’ Centre, Mt Victoria, Devonport.

Digital Bridge
The Centre will also establish a digital bridge and invite poets and others to contribute text, images, audio or video that reflects or extends the symposium's trans Tasman focus. Another round of contributions to the bridge will be uploaded as HOME & AWAY convenes in Sydney 1-2 September. In this way they hope to create two-way traffic between points in time and places where poets connect.

Anyone interested in poetry and its current conversations can send a submission to the digital bridge. Submissions will be considered by an editorial team and you will be notified when your contribution has been accepted or declined. For further information on the digital component click here.

Poems and prose (prose no longer than 2000 words) should be sent to nzepc@auckland.ac.nz as attached files. If you are sending images, audio or video check about suitable formats for upload. Submissions should reach the Centre by 15 March for inclusion in the first upload, and by 15 August for the second. You should be the copyright holder of the material you are submitting.

The bridge will go live 30 March 2010.

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