Image by Tim Grey
Presented by Cordite Publishing Inc. and Australian Poetry, and hosted by poet Toby Fitch, this workshop at the 2016 Emerging Writers’ Festival will open your eyes to the potential of the poem on the page. By tracing historical examples of visual and concrete poetry — from ancient Greek to early modernist to recent local works — and then by assembling a visual poem of your own, you will learn to explode your poetry across the page, and not just from top to bottom or left to right — in any direction. Bring text (your own poem, another’s or whatever you like) to reshape during the workshop.
Toby Fitch (he/they) is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Sydney and former poetry editor of
Overland. Author of eight books of poetry, including
Where Only the Sky had Hung Before (2019),
Sydney Spleen (2021) and
Object Permanence: Calligrammes (2022), he has a forthcoming book,
Or: An Autobiography, with Upswell Publishing and is currently writing a book called
Endlings. He lives on unceded Gadigal land with his partner, their three children and a staffy.
Jacinta Le Plastrier is a writer, poet, editor and essayist. She lives and writes on unceded Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Countries. She is the former CEO and Publisher of the national poetry body, Australian Poetry, where she co-founded the prestigious
BEST OF AUSTRALIAN POEMS series with Toby Fitch and Ellen van Neerven. Her current book is
these memories require (2025).
http://www.jacintaleplastrierofficial.blogspot.com.au/
Kent MacCarter is director of Cordite publishing Inc., publisher of Cordite Books and managing editor of
Cordite Poetry Review. He is the author of four poetry collections –
In the Hungry Middle of Here (Transit Lounge, 2009),
Sputnik's Cousin (Transit Lounge, 2014), California Sweet (Five Islands Press, 2018) and Fat Chance (Upswell Publishing, 2024).
