BYRON BAY WRITER'S FESTIVAL
The festival that every writer wants to be invited to at this time of year (winter here, of course) is the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival on the north coast of New South Wales (and the east coast of Australia). This year they have favoured poets who have ‘turned’ – that is, have become prose writers – like Larry Buttrose (best known for The Maze of the Muse) and Luke Davies (best known for his novel Candy, though a great poet able to synthesise ideas about science with poetry). The local performance poet David Hallett who has a wild sardonic energy in the Australian performance poetry style was also invited… and the much loved Queensland poetic icon Bruce Dawe. What? No female poets!

AT THE TOP END OF THE CONTINENT...
Darwin is hosting their Writers’ Week. Phil Salom, West Australian poet transplanted to Melbourne, is on the bill, as is Lizz Murphy, originally from Ireland and now from Binalong (in the middle of nowhere). The famous harbourside at Nightcliff Rocks readings with the backdrop of a tropical sunset are laid back affairs… this time more laid back than usual when the microphone failed at the last moment. Phil Salom continued nevertheless in his inimitable professional style. The addition of low-flying seaplanes added a depth to the performance that organisers could have done without. The busy festival fortnight also included poetry to scare lunchtime shoppers with local performance highlights like Steve Holliday and Get Frocked! with their uncontrollable tendency for unscrupulous wit.

A unique cross artform experience combining words, textiles, sculpture and live performance also featured local Kaye Aldenhoven. This sort of mixture is fairly typical of Darwin in particular and the Northern Territory in general.

Darwin writers are a very multicultural mob: so close to Asia, to Australian Aboriginal heritage and with an interesting mix of cultures which they celebrate and develop. Readings on themes of dislocation, displacement and human rights featured Karyn Sasella and John Muk-Muk Burke. More than most places, poetry is political in Darwin. Melbourne is more famous for its performance and for its anarchy, but increasingly the dynamic readings are happening away from the bigger cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Famous Darwin local Bilha Smith has been doing some stunning performances of Marian Devitt’s pieces (translated from the original English into Hebrew). A couple of thousand kilometres down the track (and almost the absolute centre of the continent) poet Michael Watts has also been taking poetry to the theatre … but first build your theatre. A group has got together (and got some money together) to do just that. In the meantime Alice Springs writers strut their literary stuff at Off the Page at the Bar Doppio.

THE POETRY CUP
This is not to say that things don’t happen in Sydney. The NSW Writer’s Centre has announced the 2001 Poetry Sprint (aka Poetry Cup). Sprints/slams/cups have a reasonably good pedigree in Australia… the first was the Launceston Poetry Cup (Tasmania), which was a chaotic affair at the best of times with judicious (and injudicious) breaking of rules and flouting of conventions and various other forms of disrespect. This could be sour grapes of course… I’m still sulking over my defeat some years ago when my wordless and almost silent entry was pipped at the post by a poet reciting in Mandarin (or possibly not... and possibly not a poem) – no one cared. Tim Thorne is organising his last Tasmanian Poetry Festival in October and even though it’s always still cold there then, it’s a festival no one wants to miss, if only to hear Tim’s latest off the wall effort and indulge in gossip, among other things, on Tim and Stephanie’s lounge room floor for many hours. Which is possibly why he’s giving it up. Such exuberance when translated to Sydney, though, is a less anarchic event with heats in September, October and November for their Poetry Sprint. The centre does much more than organise the Sprint, though… more information at www.nswwriterscentre.org.au.

MELBOURNE WRITERS' FESTIVAL
It is the season for festivals – the Melbourne Writers’ Festival is on at the end of August (more information at their extensive Web site). And among the media ‘celebrities’ and high profile chefs (yes, all right, and other excellent writers) there are (too few) poets: among them Paul Muldoon who will be well known to American readers, Bill Manhire from New Zealand, Judith Rodriguez, Gig Ryan, John Scott and Dorothy Porter, whose verse novel The Monkey’s Mask has recently been released as a feature film. Dorothy has been an excellent performer for a heap of years with her strong uncomplicated presentation and short sharp lines.

Chris Mansell