Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 29 March
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
From Dorothy Porter to William Blake; Rumi to Ovid, Ono No Komachi to Ali Cobby Eckermann – poets of many stripes, and many eras, have shaped the life and work of iconic Australian musician and storyteller Paul Kelly.
In 2019, Kelly released Love is Strong as Death, a curated anthology of his favourite poems. This wide-ranging and moving collection combines the ancient and the modern, the hallowed and the profane, the famous and the little known, to speak to two of literature’s great themes that have proven so powerful in his music: love and death – plus everything in between.
Join us to celebrate the collection and Kelly’s recent video series of poetic readings and performances. Live on the Malthouse Outdoor Stage, Kelly will recite and perform some of his favourite poems, and discuss the indelible influence of poetry on his life and music with poet and critic Alison Croggon.
Presented in partnership with Malthouse Outdoor Stage
The bookseller for this event is Readings. You will be able to purchase pre-signed books at the event.
Featuring
Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly was born in Adelaide, one of nine children, in 1955. He wrote his first song in 1976 and has been making records since 1978, over thirty to date. He has collaborated with many other songwriters and written music for film and theatre. His prose has appeared in Meanjin, The Monthly, Rolling Stone and the Age, and in 2010 he published a ‘mongrel memoir’, How to Make Gravy. Love is Strong as Death: Poems chosen by Paul Kelly was published in 2019. His most recent albums are 2019’s Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds and 2020's Please Leave Your Light On, with Paul Grabowsky.
Alison Croggon
Alison Croggon is an award-winning novelist, poet, theatre writer, critic and editor who lives in Melbourne, Australia. She works in many genres and her books and poems have been published to acclaim nationally and internationally.
She is arts editor for The Saturday Paper and co-founder of the performance criticism website Witness. Her most recent book is the creative non-fiction Monsters, out in March 2021, from Scribe Publications.