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Best of Australian Poems 2022

When

Event Status

First published in 2021, Best of Australian Poems is an annual anthology collecting previously published and unpublished poems to create a poetic snapshot of the year that was.

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About

Celebrate the release of the second volume with Australian Poetry and the Wheeler Centre at an evening of conversation and poetic performances reflecting on the Australian poetic landscape and the state of poetry today.

Join guest editors and award-winning poets Jeanine Leane and Judith Beveridge as they discuss their approach to curating the collection and examining the contemporary moment through poetic responses. Then, enjoy readings and performances from some of the poets featured in the 2022 anthology, including Panda Wong, Maya Hodge, Sista Zai Zanda, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Harry Reid, Peter Boyle, Ellen van Neerven, Samah Sabawi and Bonny Cassidy.

This event will also be live-streamed, viewable on this page from 6.30pm on Tuesday 28 February.

Judith Beveridge, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Ellen van Neerven and Peter Boyle will appear virtually at this event.
Presented in partnership with Australian Poetry via the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Accessibility

Auslan Interpreted

Accessible toilets available

Closed Captioned

Wheelchair accessible

Please notify us of all access requirements when booking online so we can assist you with your visit. If you require further information, please contact reception on 03 9094 7800 or ticketing@wheelercentre.com.

Featuring

Judith Beveridge

Judith Beveridge has published seven volumes of poetry all of which have won or been short-listed for major prizes. Her latest volume, Sun Music: New and Selected Poems (Giramondo, 2018), won the Prime Minister’s Poetry Prize in 2019. She has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies including ... Read more

Peter Boyle

Sydney-based poet Peter Boyle is the author of ten books of poetry and eight books as a translator of poetry from Spanish. His most recent collections are Ideas of Travel (Vagabond Press, 2022) and Notes Towards the Dreambook of Endings (Vagabond Press, 2021). With MTC Cronin he is the author of two... Read more

Bonny Cassidy

Bonny Cassidy is an author of Irish and German descent. She lives on Dja Dja Wurrung land, in a native forest in Central Victoria. Bonny is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Chatelaine (Giramondo Publishing, 2017) which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. ... Read more

Maya Hodge

Maya Hodge is a Lardil and Yangkaal emerging writer and curator based on the lands of the Kulin Nation. Her practice is dedicated to disrupting colonial narratives and centering First Nations storytelling and autonomy. Maya’s writing and poetry have been published by Australian Poetry, Kill Your D... Read more

Jeanine Leane

Jeanine Leane belongs to the Wiradjuri people from the Murrumbidgee River in south west NSW. She is a writer poet and teacher whose prose, essays and poetry have been published widely in Australia and abroad. She is the editor of Guwayu – for all times: A collection of First Nations Poetry and cur... Read more

Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Scott-Patrick Mitchell is a queer non-binary poet from WA. Their first collection, Clean, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and Reads Rainbows LGTBIQA+ Best Books of 2022. Mitchell is also a former Red Room Fellowship recipient.

Ellen van Neerven

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Lit... Read more

Harry Reid

Harry Reid is the author of Leave Me Alone (Cordite, 2022), the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend (Puncher & Wattmann, 2020) and a co-director of Sick Leave.

Samah Sabawi

Dr Samah Sabawi is an award-winning playwright. In 2020 she received a Green Room Award for best writing for her play THEM, also nominated for Best Independent Theatre Ensemble, Best Independent Production and Best Direction, and shortlisted for both the Victorian Premier Literary Awards and the Nic... Read more

Panda Wong

Panda Wong is a Malaysian-Chinese poet who lives on unceded Wurundjeri land. Her first chapbook angel wings dumpster fire was published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2022. Her first EP salmon cannon me into the abyss, a collaboration with multiple friends, was released in July 2022. ... Read more

Sista Zai Zanda

Sista Zai Zanda (Sista Zai/Achihera) is an Afrofuturistic Storyteller. Sista Zai was born in Harare, Zimbabwe and raised in a large extended family. Achihera is Karanga and now lives as a Black African settler on Kulin Nations. Amongst career highlights, Achihera is a 2019 recipient of the Neilma Si... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre and wheelercentre.com

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.