MIKE LADD

Mike Ladd was born in 1959 and grew up at Blackwood in the Adelaide Hills. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy at Adelaide University, he began to publish his poetry widely in Australia. In 1980 he formed “The Drum Poets”, a group of musicians who perform his poetry using conventional instruments, found objects and pre-recorded sounds. In the early 1980’s Mike Ladd travelled in Europe and Africa. Whilst in Senegal, he made recordings of the traditional poet-praise singers known as “griot”. In London he worked for the BBC and the British Institute of Recorded Sound. Returning to Adelaide, Mike began work with ABC Radio. After working as a sound engineer, he became a producer within the Radio Arts department and is currently producer and presenter of the Radio National poetry program “PoeticA”. “Close to Home” (2000) published by Five Islands Press, is Mike’s third book of poetry, his earlier publications being “The Crack in the Crib” (1984) and “Picture’s Edge (1994). Mike’s poetry has been translated and published in several different languages, and his writing for radio has been broadcast in many countries including the UK, Ireland, Canada, Finland, Germany and France. Mike has always been interested in collaborations between poetry and other disciplines, and has made poetic works for live performance, radio, photography, film, installations and the internet. In 2000 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to spend time at Churchill College, Cambridge, studying the relationship between poetry and radio. He has conducted many poetry workshops and master-classes for the South Australian Writers’ Centre and regional Arts councils.

DENNIS HASKELL

Dennis was born in Sydney but has lived in Perth since 1984. He is the author of 5 collections of poetry, including All the Time in the World, published by Salt in 2006, and 12 volumes of literary scholarship and criticism. All the Time in the World won the Western Australian Premier’s Prize for Poetry in 2007.  Haskell has been Co-editor of the Australia’s second oldest literary magazine, Westerly, since 1985 and is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at The University of Western Australia. He is currently preparing a New and Selected Poems for publication by Salt in 2009.

AFEIF ISMAIL ABDELRAZIG

Afeif was born in Elhassahisa, Sudan in 1962. A published poet writer, playwright, artist and human-rights activist, Afeif arrived in Australia in 2003. Afeif has many works of poetry published: “Traps and some Tracks”, 2001 and “Bet of the Argil 2003”, “A Passage to the Aroma of Invisibility2006”, and “It’s your Bird 2007”. Afeif’s plays (in Arabic) have been produced in many cities, towns and villages in Sudan including Khartoum, from 1986 to 2000. These have included “The Race’, “The Night of the curlew”, “Doors”, “The Merchant”, “Starvation” and “The Centre of the Circle”. Afeif was short-listed for the inaugural Kit Denton Fellowship for Writers of Courage in 2007, for which he submitted his plays “The Son of the Sun”, “The Maze” and “The Shrouds or the Dead”. He was selected to workshop this play with trans-creator Vivienne Glance at the PWA Canberra Workshop in June/July 2008. His poems have been published in English, Japanese and German.

ANDREW BURKE

ANDREW BURKE is an Australian poet who has been publishing in books,
magazines and newspapers since the mid-60s. Besides poetry, he has
written and published plays, short stories, literary journalism,
including book reviews, and teledocumentaries. When he is not writing,
he is talking.

ANNAMARIA WELDON

Annamaria Weldon, award-winning poet and passionate storyteller, weaves memoir, wisdom stories, familiar W.A. landscapes and cultural diversity into her poetry readings. Sunline Press has just published her collected poems, "The Roof Milkers'. A former journalist with 30 years of experience writing articles, reviews, fiction, and poetry for Australian and overseas publications, multilingual but 'most fluent in poetry', she has lived in five countries including her native Malta. Her enthusiasm for the spoken word takes her to local Primary and High schools, libraries, tertiary institutions and community groups to give readings and talks. Annamaria, who came to W.A. in 1984, is a member of WA Poets Inc., The Australian Society of Authors, PEN, Out of the Asylum Writers (OOTA), the Fellowship of Australian Writers WA and the Poets Union. Annamaria Weldon is known to poetry lovers in W.A. for her readings at Poet's Corner, Voicebox, WoW, Scots and at OOTA events.

ASHLEY HIGGS

Ashley J Higgs is a poet, artist, improviser and founding member of the Technicians of the Sacred. He lives between safe houses in Fitzroy, Melbourne; Fremantle, Perth, and Port Douglas. He has transformed around Australian festivals: Artrage, and Perth Fringe Festival, Outrage Festival Melbourne, This Is Not Art Festival, Newcastle, St. Kilda Poets’ Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, Overload Poetry Festival, and the Totally Huge New Music Festival and National Poets Festival, Perth. Poems and music have been aired on Melbourne 3RRR, 3PBS and 3CR, and Perth’s RTR FM. Ashley’s completed a new album of original poetry song cycles, which will be available in mid 2009. An EP will be available on his current tour. Literary works have appeared in The Western Review, Verandah, Vehicle, Openmouth, Navigations, rHino, Southern Review(Vol. 34, No. 2), Nova, Five Bells Poets Union newsletter, Unusual Work, Boxkite, the essential Chris Mann, Ars Poetica, Visible Ink, and Scarp.

BRONWYNE J THOMASON

Bronwyne has earned a Bachelor of Arts (Writing) with First Class Honours from ECU, and is studying for her Master of Arts in Writing with Swinburne University. She has won places in several short story and poetry competitions, and served as Emerging Writer in Residence for the FAWWA at Tom Collins House in 2007.

CAROL MILLNER

CHRIS KONRAD

I have lived in Western Australia my whole life with forty of those years in the hills around Perth. Father and mother were Austrian migrants who moved to WA in the 1950’s. I have had poems published in Wet Ink, Issue Thirst, Vol 1 & Vol 2, Staples, Page Seventeen, Word is Out and published online in Perigee, Pixel Papers & WA Poets Inc. Completed FAWWA Poetry Master Class 2007 currently completing Creative Writing PH.D.

DEANNE LEBER

FLORA SMITH

Flora Smith was a writer of short stories who turned to poetry four years ago. She has been widely published in journals and anthologies around Australia, including Westerly, indigo and Weighing of the Heart. She was a member of the Wollongong masterclass of January 2006 and the FAWWA Masterclass mentorship program of 2007. Flora writes about people  -  their longing and loves, travels, hopes and dreams  -  because she says that is the only thing she knows anything about.

FRANCES MACAULAY FORDE

Frances writes for page and screen and is very proud to be a member of the WA writing community and listed on the ArtsWA Register of Peers. Her writing for children, film and poetry have been awarded and published in newspapers, magazines, books and on the net. A passionate supporter of those who write, she has been the usual host and facilitator of Poets Corner since 2005. Frances spent 14 glorious months dining on poetry and storytelling in Ireland before publishing her first book of poetry in 2003.

HELEN CHILD

Helen Child is a performance poet, comedienne and visual artist,  who's work is witty, satirical and black. Helen has featured at top WA festivals for the past 12 years, on "Noise TV" 2007&8 Melbourne (CTV) and will be featuring at the Adelaide Feast Festival 2008. Her burlesque comedy characters include; Dolly the Sex-doll Right's Activist, old Ma Bones and the Queen goes hunting. Helen's CD "Poetry from Hel" is available at alternative record stores and her website;  www.helcomedy.com

JAN NAPIER

Jan is a Scorpio who feels that a jar of Vegemite should be featured on the Australian Coat of Arms. As the author of "All the Fun of the Fair" she is internationally famous in Scarborough. However, she can't think of any good reason why she should not be topping the New York Times bestseller list by early next week. Jan was once a gypsy, travelling in sideshow alley all over the state of WA, her experiences being recorded in the above mentioned book. Currently she has turned her attention to poetry.

JANET JACKSON

Janet Jackson, poet of page, screen and microphone, featured at the 2006 and 2007 WA Spring Poetry Festivals and at the 2007 Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival. Her poems have been published in many print and online magazines and anthologies and she has self-published three chapbooks and her own website, www.proximity.webhop.net.

JEREMY BALIUS

Originally from Los Angeles, Jeremy Balius has been performing spoken word in Perth for the past year.  Balius records and performs spoken word with Perth electro-jazz band 'The Cloud Kollektiv' and DJs as part of the duo 'The Diamond and the Thief' on a weekly basis.  Currently Balius is writing his first collection of poetry and is producing a spoken word EP.

KEVIN GILLAM

Kevin Gillam: is a West Australian born writer, with two books of poems published, "Other Gravities" (2003) and "permitted to fall" (2007), both by SunLine Press. His poems have appeared in both "Best Australian Poems 2006" and "The Best Australian Poetry 2006" and he has been an invited poet at the Queensland Poetry Festival in 2006 and 2008 and the Overload Poetry Festival (Melbourne) in 2007. He works as Director of Music at Christ Church Grammar School.

LIANA CHRISTENSEN

Liana is a Fremantle-based writer.  Her work has appeared in anthologies and literary journals in Australia (Southerly, Indigo, Arena, PAN, The Word is Out), North America (Ascent, Organisation and the Environment: Arts and the Environment), India (Prosopisia) and Taiwan (The Tamkang Review). She was the original editor of Western Australia’s wildlife and nature magazine Landscope, and explores these themes in some of her poetry.   She was an invited poet at Perdu, the national poetry venue in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in June 2006.  She was also guest poet at the second International Animals and Society Conference held in Hobart in June 2007.  Her first chapbook Wild Familiars was launched at the Spring Poetry Festival in Perth in September 2006.  It was awarded one of five Honourable Mentions in the Writers Digest International Self Published book awards (from a field of 138).  Wild Familiars was reviewed in PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature 4, 2007.

MARCELLA POLAIN

Marcella Polain was born in Singapore and immigrated to Perth when she was two years old, with her Armenian mother and Irish father. She has a background in theatre and screen writing, and now lectures in the Writing program at Edith Cowan University. In 1993, she was a founding member of the Web poetry and performance events in Perth. She was also founding WA editor for the national poetry journal Blue Dog, has been poetry editor for Westerly and was inaugural editor for the new WA journal Indigo. Her play, Stroking Cindy, was professionally produced in 1986. Her first poetry collection, Dumbstruck, (1996, Five Islands Press), won the Anne Elder Prize; her second, Each Clear Night, (2000, Five Islands Press), was short-listed for the West Australian Premier’s Poetry Prize. She has published essays on writing and completed her PhD at the University of Western Australia in 2006. Her first novel, The Edge of the World, based on her family’s survival of the Armenian Genocide and developed from her thesis, was released by Fremantle Press in August 2007. It won the University’s Higher Degree by Research prize for publication in the category of Creative Works and was short-listed for a 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. A section from the novel also won Westerly’s 2006 Patricia Hackett Prize. A third poetry collection, Therapy like Fish: new and selected poems, has just been published (Aug 2008) by John Leonard Press. She was an invited writer at the 2007 Melbourne Writers’ Festival, and the 2008 Perth and Sydney Writers’ Festivals. A section of The Edge of the World was read on ABC Radio in September 2007. She is working on another collection of poetry and a second novel.

PAULA JONES

Paula is a sometimes teacher and sometimes community radio broadcaster. She spent 10 years living and teaching in Japan, Vietnam and Singapore. Her poems have been published locally in indigo and The Word is Out, and nationally in Poetrix , Blue Dog and Blue Giraffe. Her work also appears in various online journals. Currently she lives with her family in the Perth hills.

PETER EVANS

My name is Peter. I am 47 years old, originally form Northam (country West Australia) - that’s where I grew up for 21 years. I have been living in Perth now for 22 years. I enjoy reading, art and all the unknown things: this is what make my heart sing.

PETER JEFFERY OAM

Peter is currently the Co-Chairperson of WA POETS INC. and is the Chairperson of Community Television Perth [CTV PERTH] Inc.and the Deputy Chair of WINGS which deals in multicultural poetry and literature. A previous winner of several national poetry awards he was caught up in educational administration of media and arts for many years, and for his efforts he was awarded the OAM for his contributions to media education, the arts, multiculturalism and literature. His hope is to reassemble his sporadic poetry collection of over 50 years in a book of collected verse and to advance the fortunes of West Australian poetry through WA POETS INC. and the SPRING POETRY FESTIVAL.

SALLY CLARKE

Sally Clarke’s poetry is written in response to events observed in the world around her. She has been published in WA and Eastern States magazines and anthologies. A Past President of FAW (ACT), Chairperson of KSP Foundation, freelance writer and editor, her biography of Donald Stuart was short-listed in the 2006 WA Premier’s Book Award.

SCOTT-PATRICK MITCHELL

Scott-Patrick is a poet and writer living in Perth, Western Australia. While studying criminal psychology and poetry at Edith Cowan University he collaborated in a quirky new music poetic experiment called SpokenNewWordMusic with composer Sarah Collins. In 2003 he organised a group exhibition called The Plumerian in which nine visual artists and four composers created responses to Mitchell’s poetical collection, plume. In 2004 he was the recipient of the Peter Cowan Centre’s Young Writer-In-Residence position and then, in 2006, was Vibewire’s Online Poet-in-Residence, as judged by John Kinsella. He now works as a staff journalist for local community newspaper OUTinPerth (www.outinperth.com) while also writing for Drum Media and various other publications, such as Mayk, Fork and international travel magazine The Out Traveller. He also edits literary street art zine, MoTHER [has words...]. (www.myspace.com/motherhaswords) which won an award at the 2007 National Young Writers’ Festival as one of the Best New Titles of that year. At current he is a committee member for new monthly narrative art performance night Cottonmouth, for whom he also edits the monthly zine “COTTONMOUTH” (http://cottonmouth.org.au/the-zine.html), which features works from local, national and international writers. This October, Mitchell will be showcasing The Trickster’s Bible (www.myspace.com/thetrickstersbible) at both Newcastle’s National Young Writers Festival and Northbridge’s Artrage, which is a poetic street art narrative which you read by following a map.

SUE CLENNELL

Sue Clennell has a Bachelor of Letters in Journalism and has been runner-up and commended in the 2006 & 2007 Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize. She is also the winner of the 2007 & 2008 Mosman Park/Cottesloe/Peppermint Grove Literature Prize in Poetry.
Sue writes short stories in addition to poetry, and is the Creative Writing Facilitator for The Society of Women Writers, WA.

TRISHA KOTAI-EWERS

Trisha loves words. Playing with them all her life, in recent years she has had poetry and prose published in journals and books. Her first book, Listen to the Talk of Us, based on her years of work as writer in residence with people with dementia, was published by Alzheimer's Australia (WA) in 2007. She is currently Acting President of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) and is completing a PhD on its first 40 years. Trisha was Managing Editor for the recent anthology Lines in the Sand: new writing from Western Australia, which celebrated 70 years of the FAWWA.

VAL NEUBECKER

Val grew up in Melbourne and lived in three states of Australia, as well as spending time in South Africa, before settling in Perth in 1981. In 1980, while living in Townsville, Val began writing comedy for a theatre restaurant, The Stagedoor Theatre (owners and performers, Mal Hodges and Lyle Hillway). This covered skits and songs on local issues and current affairs. Her work continued after Val moved to Perth, and later when The Stagedoor Theatre moved to the Gold Coast, until 1998 when both the principals retired. During that time, she progressed into children’s work and two books, a poem and a play were published. Since retiring, Val has renewed her interest in writing for children and in 2001 she submitted three entries to a children’s literature competition.  All entries received awards and one has subsequently been published. Other items have since been accepted by the NSW School Magazine and NZ School Journal, and a picture book with CD was released by Koala Books through TaleSpinners last year. Additionally, she won a competition for the narration for the annual Australia Day Skyworks in Perth in 2007. Val is a member of The Peter Cowan Writers Centre in Perth. Other interests include being an honorary Board Member of the Paraplegic & Quadriplegic Association of WA.

VIVIENNE GLANCE

Vivienne’s poetry and short stories have appeared in journals (incl. Colloquy, TEXT, Indigo, Blue Dog), anthologies (incl. The Weighing of the Heart, Open Boat Barbed Wire Sky) and other publications; she’s won places and commendations in competitions (C J Dennis Literary Award, Split Ink, Southern Cross Literary Award); she regularly performs her poetry at readings and slams, and runs workshops for writers who want to read or perform their writing. Vivienne won the 2007 WA Heat of the National Poetry Slam, and came third in the National Final. She recently performed at the Night Words Festival (2008) in the Sydney Opera House Studio. Her writing for theatre has been performed in Perth, Sydney, Seattle USA, and London and Edinburgh UK.