4 May 2008

With winter only a few weeks away, I'm warmed by autumn's colours; maple and plane trees losing their chlorophyll pigments for carotenoids, and masses of mauve-pink tibouchina. The sight of heaped up leaves and the anticipated crunching underfoot is irresistible. I'm reading The Heart Garden a biography by Janine Burke about the intense and incredible life of Sunday Reed, a muse to the artist Sidney Nolan, as well as to many other artists. Marlena gave me the book. We walk our daughters home from school each afternoon, and talk a little about art and poetry and womens' secret business. Marlena and Michael have bought a house that Sidney Nolan lived in, here in Wahroonga, around the corner from where we live. 

I've been reading also, Judith Bishop's Event and Jane Gibian's Ardent, both very impressive and beautiful collections. 

Oh, btw, the CAL have awarded me a grant to attend the New Delhi Poetry Workshop in October :) so I'll be back in India soon; may even get to Ajmer to visit Pradeep Trikha. Other news is that Debbie Lim has won this year's Inverawe Nature Poetry Prize, in which one of my poems was highly commended. I think that's awesome and would not have been easy. I'll get to meet Deb at Poetry Without Borders in a few weeks.

5 April 2008

Poetry Without Borders ( Picaro Press) will be launched at the Sydney Writers' Festival on 22 May at 5.30 pm by Judith Beveridge, with readings by Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Juan Garrido-Salgado. Hey and I get to read a poem or two as well, along with Sam Byfield, Debbie Lim, Maria Freij and Jamal Al Hallaq. Hope you can join us for a drink to celebrate this.

I'm enjoying reading poems about India from Kerry Leve's A Shrine to Lata Mangeshkar, which is dedicated to the memory of Vicki Viidikas. The book was launched last week-end at Benledi by Nicolette Stasko, and it was a really pleasant event.

There's a new review by of my book by Kristin Hannaford on foam:e at this link... http://www.foame.org/Issue5/reviews3.html

I've also made a few more friends on Facebook.

17 March 2008

Mascara#3 is now on-line www.mascarapoetry.com, with Adam Aitken now as our Reviews Editor. You should check it out ... there's some great poetry here.

I'm reading Natasha Tretheway's Native Guard and a book I found in a bookstore in Varanasi, "Rabindranath Tagore: his Mind and Art" by B.C. Chakravorty. I have poems forthcoming in Lemuria and Philament.

15th December 2007

David & I flew to Mumbai, then Varanasi, Rishikesh and Himachal. Om asato ma sad gamaya...Om shaantih
shaantih...Pics taken near the ghats in Varanasi, and a stunning temple for Ganesh in Himachal Pradesh.

5th December 2007 

I'm reading poetry at the "Moving Cultures/Shifting Identities" conference at Flinders Uni, with PEN writers.

I'll also be presenting a paper on "Poetry Without Borders": Theories of Identity & Subjectivity in Migrant Writing.
The PWB chapbook is forthcoming with Picaro Press.

5th October 2007

 Poetry reading: Viva La Gong Arts Festival Michelle reading with Alan Wearne contact scwc@1earth.net

2 September 2007

Chris Wallace-Crabbe reading from his chapbook The Thing Itself.  More pics of this event will be posted here soon.

16 September 2007

Michelle will be a guest reader at the Brisbane Writers Festival at 2pm

8 July 2007

Michelle will be reading at the New Voices Festival, Eltham VIC with Claire Gaskin, Elizabeth Campbell and Petra White, facilitator John Jenkins - 6pm. Contact 94398700 or elthambookshop@bigpond.com

2-4 July 2007

Michelle will be Speaking at the ASAL Conference 'The Colonial Present' 2-4 July 2007 on Reimagining Ourselves: The Women in Contemporary Australasian Poetry

23 May 2007

I'll be reading poetry with my friend and fellow poet Kate Waterhouse at Live Poets Don Bank, 6 Napier St, North Sydney. Kate's chapbook Keep Breathing was published in 2006 by Five Islands Press.

21 April 2007

Mascara  www.mascarapoetry.com is launched.  An online journal jointly edited by Michelle and Boey Kim Cheng

April 2007

The Accidental Cage is reviewed by two online poetry journals, Jacket & Stylus. Links to those items can be found by following the Media link above.

24 March 2007

Michelle will be a guest speaker at the Contemporary Fiction Festival at the NSW Writers' Centre

26 February 2007

The Accidental Cage is reviewed by Geoff Page on Radio National's The Book Show, introduced by Ramona Koval. Read the full transcript by selecting the media link above.

2 Dec 2006

The Accidental Cage is positively mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald's Spectrum liftout (Professor Peter Pierce.)  The full text of the Best Books of 2006 poetry section can be found by selecting the media link above.

Current

Michelle's first book is now in print.  Initially launched at her publisher's studio in Brisbane, then as part of the Ourimbah Campus Festival Of Literature and finally, the Sydney launch by Adam Aitken held at Gleebooks on 25 November.

Click on the image of the book cover above to move to the site created by the publisher of Michelle's book "The Accidental Cage".  There you can read examples of her poetry and place an order to purchase the book.

 25 November 2006

The Sydney launch of The Accidental Cage was a thrill. I read a few of my poems, after Adam Aitken's launch speech. Grant Young played keyboard to accompany a first live performance of our collaboration on the DVD  "Girlfriend".  My friend, Pamela Hewitt hosted a small party in Glebe to celebrate the occasion. Clicking here will take you to the full set of photos taken on the day and shown in the montage below. If you would like a print of any of the pictures please email ian@computerian.net.

The Central Coast launch for The Accidental Cage was a great event, with lots of family and friends. A wonderful introduction by Paul Crittenden MP was followed by Michelle speaking of her work and then reading a selection of poems from the book.  Afterwards we had drinks at Terrigal. Clicking here will take you to the full set of pics taken on the day and shown in the montage below. If you would like a print of any of the pictures please email ian@computerian.net.

9 November 2006

I was interviewed by Scott Levi live on ABC local Radio 92.5FM  in the "fishbowl" studio at Erina Fair.  Scott's a lovely guy and it was nice chatting about poetry in the middle of a shopping centre in suburbia. Tegan was waving to me from outside, her face pressed against the glass; so cute. This was part of promotion for the Ourimbah Campus Festival Of Literature. Clicking here will take you to the full set of photos taken on the day and shown in the montage below.