February 2009 ~ Helen Hagemann

Thursday, February 26, 2009

VARUNA NEW POETS 2008-2009

2008 VARUNA New Poets to launch their first collections during the 2009 Sydney Writers FestivalAs part of SWF 2009, Varuna Writers Centre has invited the Varuna Longlines Poets to their regional festival 17-19 May. The four poets, Helen Hagemann, Andrew Slattery, Ali Cobby Eckermann & Kimberley Mann will have their books launched in the newly renovated Gearins Hotel in Katoomba. Readings and book signing, plus sales of books & panel discussions...

Poem for the Day - Oysters

OystersOysters are the barnacles at land's edge.Tangled together, we prise them from rock,gather their gritty caves, as if leaving the reefwrecked with tiny-white burrs of empty skulls.Now the sea is touching our tongues,our minds not listening to each otheras we slide the muscle between teeth;taste the oyster, if only in one gulp.We work all morning, the tide inching its highwatermark, renewing a chipped & mottled look.We bend & stiffen...

Creative Writing at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Writing at the Centre – Fremantle Arts CentrePoetry classes are run by Shane McCauley alternative Fridays to the Prose class. The class concentrates on the form, enabling new, emerging, or published poets to enhance their poetic writing skills, knowledge and technique.Prose classes are run by Helen Hagemann who guides writers through a broad range of literary techniques and forms, including prose poetry, creative non-fiction, memoir and life writing....

Poem for the Day - Christmas Parade

Christmas ParadeOn the train my children are heldtoward the sunlit window. They sway insilence to a landscape not yet filled withFat Cat or Humphrey B-Bear; my son wishingfor Star Wars men & Yoda to appear.We pass factories of ochre roofs, car yardslike gods of steel. Shops and cafés stringpast in reminisce of tangy fish & garlic,movie days of Thai food, coffee & cake.My son interrogates me with blue eyes, his cool mouthalmost pouting,...

Helen Hagemann's Poetics - The Female Voice

Identity and the Female PoetLike the old catchphrase, 'what comes first the chicken or the egg?' - poetry also has this dilemma for the female poet. To establish her identity in her work it is a case of what comes first, language or voice? In terms of language she must work within the confines of a male-loaded language, e.g. chairman, mankind, brotherhood, freshman, etc. These distinctive features are predominately sexist. Dwight Bolinger explains...