Ruby Street

And here's a curiosity. The Copyright Agency has a program called Reading Australia, and as part of it they released their 'Top 200 Australian Literary Titles'. And my name appears not once but twice. First, for an older book of mine, Broken/Open , and then as co-editor with Michael Farrell, of Out of the Box . The full list is available on the Agency's website. Lot's of classic and contemporary Australian titles to consider.

I have just come back up the road from three days of a poetry festival at Goolwa, a town at the mouth of the Murray. On the drive back, cows crowding in fields, in black and white (friesians?). A flock of galahs circling the hillside and the dam. Calves, lambs, small horses. Vines in autumn modes. Dangerous drivers on holiday Monday. As part of the festival’s closing Lionel Fogarty reminded us that English is not the original language of this place, that there’s a sense all English is obscene here. He reminded us it was a white festival. Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island, of course, are contested places. I took some time of from the poeting. Saw the mouth of the Murray, the breakers of the southern ocean, the many flocks of birds. Walked on the Goolwa barrage, watched the dredging. The huge problems of water and country, and the failure of policy and practice. The festival raised and confirmed a number of things for me - positives and other. I got the impression this was the case for some ...

Michael Farrell, Bel Schenk and myself will be doing a lively panel on the making and being of Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets at this weekend's regional poetry festival at Goolwa. It's on Sunday 25th April at 11am in the Regional Arts Building at Goolwa. And if you are in Melbourne in May, there will be a reading from Out of the Box at Readings bookshop in Carlton. The date is Monday 10 May at 6.30pm and the readers will be Peter Rose, Susan Hawthorne & Michael Farrell. If you missed the Melbourne launch, here's your chance to catch up with some of the great poetry in the book. Don't be late or presume it's running on poet's time - it's a short and sweet event, but running to schedule.

Announcing the February Melbourne launch of the ground-breaking anthology, Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets , edited by Michael Farrell and Jill Jones ( Puncher and Wattmann ). To be launched by Christos Tsiolkas and Kathleen Fallon Tuesday 2nd Feb, 7pm Hares & Hyenas 63 Johnston St, Fitzroy Readers at the launch include: Javant Biarujia, Bel Schenk, Maria Zajkowski, Terry Jaensch, Peter Rose, Michael Farrell, Jill Jones and, we hope, Susan Hawthorne. The event is part of Midsumma , Melbourne's annual gay and lesbian festival. Other poets in the anthology include David Malouf, Dorothy Porter, Pam Brown, Chris Edwards, Lee Cataldi, Martin Harrison, joanne burns, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Tricia Dearborn, Kate Lilley, and many others. Out of the Box is the first contemporary Australian gay and lesbian poetry anthology. These are poems of the 21st century: sexy, sassy, innovative, and real. Read an interview about the anthology with Michael and me, by ...

Out of the Box: Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Poets is celebrating with its second launch, this time offshore. If you are in Singapore, come along to: Books Actually Tuesday December 15, 7.30-9.30pm There will be readings by Michael Farrell (co-editor) and guest reader, Cyril Wong. *** And watch this space for more details of launches in Melbourne (2 Feb) and Sydney (26 Feb).