Kwoorabup Writers Festival

I'm looking forward to forty minutes on the open road and then three days in beautiful Kwoorabup/Denmark WA in the company of a great line up of writers from the Great Southern Region and other literary folk, including the team from Westerly magazine. A full program and bionotes are available here on the Denmark Arts website. Artist Director Vivienne Robertson talks about Denmark Arts and Westerly Magazine's collaboration in Westerly's Online Special Issue featuring writers of the Great Southern here Link to the Online Special Issue coming soon. Watch this space!

Just two more sleeps and we'll be pointing our car in the direction of Denmark WA and the

2021 Denmark Festival of Voice!

Maree Dawes, Yann Toussaint, Kim Scott, Reneé Pettitt-Schipp, Graham Kershaw, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Maria Zajkowski, Tim Dunn and myself have been working with musicians Marianthe Loucataris and Jen Lush on the Music of Poetry project for the Denmark Festival of Voice. Due to the impact of Covid-19, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Maria Zajkowski are not able to join us in person, but they will have a virtual presence.

Saturday will see the premiere of Aqueous - Water : Longing : Memory, "an installation and web based collaborative media arts work: poetry, music, field recordings, sound design, and images". Aqueous features the work of Kim Scott, Maree Dawes, Barbara Temperton, Yann Toussaint, Tim Dunn and Marianthe Loucataris. There is a taster here. Aqueous will be playing in the Artsbar's Studio Listening Lounge in Strickland Street from 10am to 4pm all weekend.

I'll be officially appearing at the Festival three times, but you'll also find me in audiences listening to some the fantastic artists on the program. My three events are:

- Saturday 11.30am to 12.30pm at the Artsbar for a panel discussion with the poets and composer/musicians from the Music of Poetry project and Chair Andrea Gaynor.

- Saturday 3.30pm to 5.30pm reading at Teahouse Books, 8 Hollings Road, with the Aqueous poets Maree Dawes, Kim Scott, and Yann Toussaint.

- Sunday 6.30pm to 7.30pm I'll read with Reneé​ Pettitt-Schipp and Graham Kershaw for Poetry and Wine at the Artsbar.

Come and join us all in beautiful Denmark!

The complete Denmark Festival of Voice programme, including all the poetry events and the venue map is available here.

More information about The Music of Poetry project and Aqueous can be found here.

Thank you to Denmark Arts and Denmark Festival of Voice for producing this project, and the WA Departments of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries & Culture and the Arts for your support!

Coming soon: Denmark Festival of Voice - June 2021

You know you're working on a great project when you get to run away from home for the day on a field trip with some of the creative team, and you end up in the forest by the Styx River in Walpole-Nornalup National Park.

What were we doing there? You can find out soon when Music of Poetry premieres at the Denmark Festival of Voice on Saturday 5 June 2021.

Our team includes musician Marianthe Loucataris, driver and photographer Tim Dunn, with poets: Maree Dawes, Kim Scott, Yann Toussaint and myself. The Poetry of Music also features musician Jen Lush working with poets Ali Cobby-Eckermann, Graham Kershaw, Maria Zajkowski, and Reneé Pettitt-Schipp

More to come...

Further information can be found at https://www.denmarkfestivalofvoice.com.au/music-of-poetry

Styx https://www.denmarkfestivalofvoice.com.au/music-of-poetry