Theme for Bribie Island Ginko: How observing details and writing haiku improves your craft

Location: Bribie Island Library, Moreton Bay

Address: 1 Welsby Parade, Bongaree

Ginko leader: Matt Hetherington

Date: Saturday, October 17

Time: 10.30 a.m – 4.30 p.m.

Bookings are essential for this seminar (with numbers strictly limited), but participation is free: places can be booked through -

https://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/general.aspx?id=113250

Continue reading "Bribie Island Ginko: Queensland - Matt Hetherington" »

Posted by Rodney Williams at 09:44 PM | Permalink

The paperwasp haiku group now meets every two months at Brisbane Central Library at North Quay in Brisbane City. Email Duncan Richardson for dates, times and meeting room details: [email protected]

Posted by Greg Piko at 05:15 PM | Permalink

The paper wasp haiku group based in Brisbane has resumed its meetings; we are meeting on the second Saturday each month at 11.00 a.m. at Katherine’s place (see address below).
All haiku, tanka and haibun poets and beginners are welcome.

Katherine Samuelowicz
14 Fig Tree Pocket Road (the Moggill Road end)
Chapel Hill Q 4069
[email protected]
on street parking

Posted by Greg Piko at 07:40 PM | Permalink

Canberra based independent press, Blemish Books, is launching the inaugural
issue of a new, annual poetry anthology, Triptych Poets.

The Queensland launch of Triptych Poets: Issue One will be on Saturday 16
October 2010 at the Albany Creek Library from 10:30 am. The event will be
hosted by Triptych Poets contributor and Brisbane poet Mary Mageau, and will
include guest MC Councillor Mike Charlton of the Moreton Bay Regional
Council.

"The concept behind Triptych Poets is simple - three poets: one book,"
explains Blemish Books Editor-in-chief, Greg Gould. "Each volume of the
series is a showcase of three suites of poems by three Australian poets that
highlight the contrasting and often complementary nature of contemporary
Australian poetry."

Issue One of the series features the work of three of Australia's best
poets: Ray Liversidge (Victoria), Hilaire (UK based) and Mary Mageau
(Queensland).

Continue reading "BLEMISH BOOKS LAUNCH NEW POETRY ANTHOLOGY " »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:39 PM | Permalink

Janice Bostock and Jacqui Murray will premier their 100 verse renga
'Stonewashed Moon' at the Queensland Poetry Festival on Saturday, 23 August
2009. The renga, which was written some time ago, is believed to be the
first written in English. The authors deliberately gave their work a strong
Australian flavour, concentrating on noticeably Australian subjects and
themes. In keeping with this mood, Jan and Jacqui's QPF performance, at 2.45
p.m. on Saturday at the Judith Wright Centre in Brisbane, will feature a
dramatic visual backdrop. Jan and Jacqui will also present a selection of
their individual haiku at the festival on Saturday night.

For full festival details visit: www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:44 PM | Permalink

Step right up folks and recapture your favourite Ekka memories at Museum of Brisbane's (MoB’s) exciting new exhibition. Uncover the rich history and grand traditions of this iconic annual event.

While the Ekka for many Queenslanders is a great day out in August, it also represents an enormous effort by many thousands of people. This MoB exhibition goes behind the scenes to find out what it takes to deliver these 10 days in August, from the past to the present. Local poet, Graham Nunn, who was poet-in-residence at the 2007 Ekka, has ten haiku featured in large vinyl letters throughout the exhibition, providing a unique perspective on his Ekka experience.

Visitors can also discover some of the unique personalities that give the Ekka it’s special atmosphere, delve into vintage showbags, and find out the stories behind memorable moments like the Grand Parade and old favourites such as strawberry sundaes and dagwood dogs - all of those things that make the Ekka, the Ekka!

10 Days in August: Memories of the Ekka
Until Sun. 16 November 2008
10am - 5pm daily.
Entry is FREE.
Museum of Brisbane, ground floor of Brisbane City Hall,
King George Square (between Ann and Adelaide Streets), Brisbane.

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:44 AM | Permalink

On Saturday, September 13, I was privileged to run a haiku workshop for approx 20 eager haiku enthusiasts at the Bundaberg Enterprise Centre. During the first half of the session we discussed several definitions of haiku, asked the question - are the syllables important?, looked at the fragment and phrase theory, the importance of nature and the senses and some basic rules for writing haiku. With this knowledge, we looked at eight haiku and critiqued them, to get everyone thinking about what really makes a haiku sing. We then examined eight techniques used when composing haiku, looked at a series of questions to help revise your writing and spent some time composing/critiquing the group's original haiku. The results, I must say were absolutely wonderful. The best feedback was given to me at the breakfast the following morning... when several of the group told me they had been up all night writing haiku. The haiku bug had certainly bitten!

by Graham Nunn

Posted by Graham Nunn at 04:53 PM | Permalink

Words and Water Dragons 2008 - a report by Ynes Sanz

‘ ....

I used to love Keats, Blake.

Now I try haiku

for its honed brevities,

its inclusive silences.

Issa. Shiki. Buson. Bashõ.

Few words and with no rhetoric.

Enclosed by silence

as is the thrush’s call.’

With the words of Judith Wright, writing about haiku in 1985 in her poem Brevity, the third annual Words and Water Dragons readings began on a perfect Brisbane winter’s morning in the Japanese garden at Brisbane Botanic gardens, Mt Coot-tha.

On Sunday 3rd August some 30 or more people came to celebrate Australian writers’ creative mastery of the ancient Japanese forms. This year, drawing a couple of inspirational poems by Judith Wright, the poetry and music was all original contemporary work inspired by our own environment, including the gardens themselves.

Continue reading "Words and Water Dragons 2008 " »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 02:46 PM | Permalink

The Japanese Garden in the Mt Cootha botanical gardens is a bow in the direction of haiku's homeland. From there it's a short walk to the rest of the world, or at least the parts of it that thrive at the foot of Mt Cootha. The gardens are landmined with haiku waiting to explode with the brute force of a butterfly's wingbeat, with all the fire of a Bird of Paradise.
This August 3 sees the third annual haiku reading in the Japanese Gardens, run as an outreach event of the Queensland Poetry Festival. This event is better than toffee apples at a fair. This is a venue where you don't just hear haiku but genuinely experience them.
A leisurely Sunday morning in the Japanese Garden, the pleasure of simple Japanese-style poetry in the Australian setting, and a little music …

warm rock
water dragon
winks a roguish eye
Haiku: Ynes Sanz

Informal readings by poets Ross Clark, Quendryth Young and Jacqui Murray
Music by Ann Bermingham and Helen Rowe
Programme includes an open session - bring your own haiku, tanka etc to read
Join us for a relaxed and enjoyable morning

Words and water dragons
Ross Clark, Quendryth Young and Jacqui Murray
Japanese Garden 11 am till 1 pm
Sunday 3 August 2008
FREE

Queensland Poetry Festival 2008 Outreach • Info: www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com
Inquiries: [email protected] 07) 3715 6317

Posted by Beverley George at 07:01 AM | Permalink

Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha & Queensland Poetry Festival 2008 are proud to present the 3rd annual Words & Water Dragons event.

Join us for a leisurely Sunday morning in the serenity of the Japanese Gardens for readings by three of Australia's finest haijin, Ross Clark, Quendryth Young and Jacqui Murray. There will also be music by Ann Bermingham and Helen Rowe and an open mic session for you to read your haiku, tanka, haibun...

Date: Sunday August 3
Venue: Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt. Coot-tha - Japanese Gardens
Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm
Entry: Free

Posted by Beverley George at 09:08 AM | Permalink

Queensland Poetry Festival are proud to present a series of two (2) free haiku workshops with renowned QLD poet and haijin, Ross Clark. Details for the workshops are:

Haiku Briefing with Ross Clark

Workshop 1
Sunday 6 July, 9:30am - 12:30pm
Mt. Ommaney Library Meeting Room
123 Dandenong Rd. Mt. Ommaney

Workshop 2
Sunday 20 July, 9:30am - 12:30pm
Mt. Ommaney Library Meeting Room
123 Dandenong Rd. Mt. Ommaney

Places are limited for these workshops. To book please email Ynes Sanz at [email protected]

Posted by Graham Nunn at 10:03 AM | Permalink

Becoming Sky - Report by Jeffrey Harpeng

Ynes Sanz cannily mc'd this megavitamin dose of haiku by reading the label of contents on this spoken literary supplement before retreating into the shadows to put her feet up and indulge. First up was the B complex and the St John's Wort from Dangerously Poetic Press. Laura Jan Shore and James Khidir read the Sand Between the Toes anthology to the musical accompaniment of Kevin James maintaining a sustained drone on harmonium and accompanying himself alternatively on ocarina and bamboo flutes according to the changes in emotional tone as the pieces shifted through the landscape and the various styles of the contributors. This firmly established a close your eyes and drift ambience. Almost an out of body experience.

Sue Stanford was an antioxidant in the mix, her acutely observed and crafted pieces a superb antidote to myopic vision and flaccid statement. She prefaced her work with listening advice for the audience. She warned of how a single haiku can set up a resonance and stay with you for minutes and even hours on occasion and at other times elude you before you can grasp them. She advised then, that as she would be reading quite a number of them that it would be best just let go of them. Taking that advice my experience was of an ebb and flow of word and emotion elegant and elegiac, passionate and precise.

Continue reading "Becoming Sky – A Haiku Reading at the Queensland Poetry Festival - Sunday Sept 9" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 08:54 AM | Permalink

Queensland Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word, has recently secured funding from Brisbane City Council to develop a virtual poetry anthology that will screen on Brisbane's City Cat fleet. The project is a partnership between Brisbane City Council, 4UTV and Queensland Poetry Festival.

24 poets will be invited to submit a poem for this 6-month project, beginning Monday July 9. Each selected poem will form part of the Poem of the Week virtual anthology and will be developed into a 30 second program by 4UTV that will screen once every thirty minutes on the digital screen in each of the 10 City Cats. This will total 2000 viewings for each poem, to an estimated audience of 120 000 City Cat passengers each week.

Continue reading "Poetry on Brisbane's City Cat Ferries" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 02:20 PM | Permalink

The prospect of a crisp Sunday morning in the Japanese Garden at Brisbane Botanic Garden Mt Coot-tha enticed lovers of Japanese poetry forms to the Queensland Poetry Festival's Second Annual Words and Water Dragons readings on Saturday July 8.

After participating in a ginko led by QPF Artistic Director Graham Nunn, our MC for the morning, and informally sharing inspirations and first-draft haiku, more than 30 people gathered in the square pavilion to hear readings of haibun, haiku and tanka complemented by the achingly beautiful sounds of the shakuhachi in Carl Rathus' skilful hands.

Jan Bostok and Jeff Harpeng were feature readers. Other Brisbane haijin including Ross Clark, Graham Nunn and John Knight read from their work, once again reminding us of the breadth of talent in this sector of Brisbane's thriving poetry scene.

Continue reading "Words and Water Dragons - a report" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 04:56 PM | Permalink

A two-part workshop presented by Janice Bostok
as part of the Queensland Poetry Festival 2007 Outreach programme
supported by the Brisbane City Council
and the Mt Ommaney Library

'When the pupils are ready the teacher will come.'

Full workshops and a healthy waiting list for the two free sessions at the Mt Ommaney Library in Brisbane's Centenary Suburbs this June 10th and 24th made it clear that plenty of people were more than ready to explore the pleasures and challenges of haiku and related forms under Janice Bostok's gentle guidance.

Attendances by people from as far afield as Bribie Island quieted any lingering doubts the organisers might have had about the feasibility of holding of an event at this outer suburban venue.

The workshops received excellent support from the local press as well as publicity from Brisbane Japanese cultural groups and the library itself.

Continue reading "Report on Haiku : Sensations of a Lifetime" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Haiku Oz would also like to announce the success of another Australian haiku poet, Ynes Sanz. Ynes is also one of the eight poets selected to have their haiku published on a haiku umbrella as part of the rain Haiku competition.

Her haiku:

under the thunderhead
throwing a last stick
to the dogs

Congratulations Ynes!

Posted by Graham Nunn at 03:54 PM | Permalink

Small Change Press (www.smallchangepress.com.au) is proud to announce the launch of their first title for 2007, Home is where the Heartache is, a collection of haibun, by Julie Beveridge.

"Compressed energy and an unswerving courage to tell the truth about bad things gives these haibun a sharp edge – a kind of grim elegance. Journeying with Beveridge is not always comfortable but it is always compelling."
Beverley George
President, Australian Haiku Society

Date: Friday 30 March
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: Queensland Writers Centre
Level 2, 109 Edward St, Brisbane
Tickets: $15.00 (including a signed copy of the book and glass of wine)
Bookings Essential: To book call QWC on (07) 3839 1243 or buy online at www.qwc.asn.au.

For more information email Graham Nunn at [email protected]

Posted by Beverley George at 10:07 AM | Permalink

This year for the first time Queensland Poetry Festival and Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha invited poets and poetry lovers to an informal reading of haiku and other Japanese verse forms in the the Japanese Garden.

On Saturday 19 August, a lovely spring-like morning, 20 or so people gathered for the readings.

The morning opened with a dedication and reading of the work of Barry Dangerfield, a former curator and significant force behind the gardens as they are today, who passed away late last year.

A strong selection of Brisbane writers including Duncan Richardson, Katherine Samuelowicz, Jeff Harpeng, Ross Clark, Rowan Donovan, Graham Nunn and Ynes Sanz read from their own and others' work.

The highlight of the event for organisers was hearing from a number of people who responded to the invitation to compose a haiku during the morning, especially since some of them had never before written a haiku or read in public!

Those who were there enjoyed the opportunity to listen and read in such a peaceful and fitting setting and supported the idea of building from this somewhat tentative beginning in future years.

Ynes Sanz

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:04 PM | Permalink

The paper wasp poets continued to meet during 2006 to greet old friends and new faces at Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane's, West End, to workshop and generally encourage each other.

2006 has been a productive year so far for paper wasp and for individual members:

The paper wasp Second Australian Haiku Anthology edited by Janice M. Bostok, Katherine Samuelowicz and Vanessa Proctor with General Editor Jacquie Murray, July 2006, is now available for $22.00 in Australia and US$22 (cash only) elsewhere, all prices including postage. It contains 172 haiku poems from 48 poets which, are, as Janice Bostok says in her foreword, "the best being written by Australians at this time."

Also out is rusted hinge - the paper wasp jack stamm haiku anthology 2005 edited by Janice Bostok, Ross Clark, John Knight and Jacquie Murray, $10.00 in Australia or US$10(cash only) elsewhere, all prices including postage. This work represents the best of international writing and reflects the richness of paper wasp's subscription list of some 120 or so poets.

As always our pleasure in the winning poem should inspire us to enter again when the next jack stamm contest 2006 opens later in the year. This time the winner was Lorin Ford:

rusted hinge
the butterfly's wings
close, open ...

Continue reading "paper wasp - A report from Ynes Sanz" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:01 PM | Permalink