Stuart Barnes's Blog, page 2

I’m delighted my poem ‘God, the Sestina’ (with a nod to A.E. Stallings) has been shortlisted for the 2024 Blake Poetry Prize. 

Warm thanks to judges Simone King, Ellen van Neerven and Peter Ramm, to everyone at WestWords, especially Michael Campbell, and congratulations to fellow shortlistees Evelyn Araulen, Adrienne Eberhard, Coco X. Huang, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Kaya Ortiz, Alicia Sometimes and Mark Tredinnick. 

You can read the judges’ comments and the shortlisted poems and watch all the shortlisted poets read their work here. 

The winner and runner-up will be announced on May 18.

I’m tickled pink to be co-editing the ‘Queering Ecopoet(h)ics’ issue of Plumwood Mountain Journal with the brilliant Willo Drummond. We aim to gather a collection of poetries that ‘render strange’ essentialist, fixed notions of the natural world and in so doing get under the skin of ‘queer as a verb’ and as an ethical, ecological practice. Think kinship, dis-ease. Speak whole truths. Un-closet (and send us) your fabulousgorgeous queerings of the more-than-human world. Submissions close January 18, 2024. You can read the full call here.

I’ve a palindrome poem, ‘Starting and Finishing with a Line from Lisel Mueller’s “Cicadas”’ (with a nod to Randall Mann), in Westerly 68.2, which is marked by the notion of reverberation: as relationships, as echoes, as impacts.

You can pre-order the issue, which includes writing by Eileen Chong, Lisa Collyer, Declan Fry, Kate Larsen, Miriam Wei Wei Lo, Maria van Neerven, Anders Villani and many more, here. 

You can register for the December 5 in-person and Zoom launch here. 

I’m delighted and honoured that Like to the Lark has won the 2023 Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry.

Thanks to the Prize Selection Committee, the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne and Wesley Michel Wright, who left a gift in his will supporting the Prize; to Terri-ann White at Upswell Publishing and Felicity Plunkett, my incredible publisher and editor, who believe/d in, nurture/d and wing/ed the book and me, and who do so much for poets and poetry in this country; and to my amazing family and friends. 

I’m truly moved by this recognition of my work and the Selection Committee’s feedback — ‘These extraordinary poems, which draw their forms from across the planet, mix deep history and pop music, personal extremity and sophisticated humour, in such striking and memorable ways that each rereading proves even more rewarding than the last.’ — and tickled pink to see ‘pop music’ and ‘personal extremity’ nudging each other. Some of the personal poems about illness, death and rape very nearly didn’t make it into the book — for cheering them (and me) on, extra special thanks to Terri-ann and Felicity, my mum and my closest friends. As for pop music, I think a new sonnet — ‘On Becoming a Swiftie at Fifty’ — has legs (thanks to Kate Middleton for planting the seed)!

I had a ball talking about poetic form and function, Like to the Lark, music and more with the brilliant and generous David Adès for WestWords’ Poets’ Corner podcast. 

It was great to debut some Lark poems, including ‘Hills Hoist’, ‘Sestina: Rape’ and my emperor penguin duplex.

Thanks to David and WestWords. You can watch our conversation here. 

I‘m stoked to be a part of Red Room Poetry Month 2023 as a 30in30 poet. Poetry Month (August 1–31) is a national celebration of Australian poetry. It aims to increase access, awareness and visibility of poetry in all its forms and for all audiences.

Thanks to all at Red Room, especially David Stavanger, who commissioned my 30in30 poem ‘Sea Grape (A Decaying-Flourishing Sestina)’. This one‘s with a nod to Lawrence Schimel, who invented the Decaying Sestina — here’s his amazing .

To read the fab full Poetry Month Program click here.

I’ve a new poem, ‘The record player’, in Island 168 along with poems by Willo Drummond, Jennifer Compton, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Amy Crutchfield, Isi Unikowski, Michael Farrell, Graeme Miles, Svetlana Sterlin and Suzi Mezei. My poem’s with a nod to Marianne Moore’s ‘The Fish’, Cocteau Twins’ ‘Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires’ and The Cure’s ‘Six Different Ways’. Thanks to all at Island, especially poetry editor Kate Middleton. You can read about/order the issue here. 

Brilliant poet and close friend Matt Hetherington and I co-wrote ‘extract absism’ for Rabbit COLLABORATIONS. Thanks to Jess Wilkinson and Jacqui Malins for including it in this issue which features poetic cooperations by Anna Jacobson and Pascalle Burton, Caren Florence and Melinda Smith, Miriam Wei Wei Lo and Jenny Potts Barr, Pooja Mittal Biswah and Joseph Jude, Quinn Eades and Francesca Rendle-Short and many more. You can order a copy here.

And thanks to Nat O’Reilly for including my poem ‘Duplex’ in Antipodes 35 which features beauties by David Adès, Joel Deane, Rosanne E. Licari, Felicity Plunkett, Brendan Ryan, Feana Tu’akoi and Ouyang Yu, among others. You can read the issue here.

Thanks to Nadia Rhook and Caitlin Maling for including my poem ‘Cranes’ — a terse-set, a form I invented; ‘terse-set’ is my pun on ‘tercet’ — in Cordite NO THEME 12. You can read the full issue, with poems by Manisha Anjali, Bron Bateman, Michelle Cahill, Luoyang Chen, Eileen Chong, Lisa Collyer, Liam Ferney, Jill Jones, Jo Langdon, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, KA Rees, Alicia Sometimes, Andrew Sutherland, Anders Villani, Becca Wang and many more, here.

And thanks to Angela Gardner and Carmen Keates for including three poems first published in Like to the Lark in foam:e Issue 20 which features beauties by Steph Amir, Steve Brock, Luoyang Chen, Emilie Collyer, Jane Downing, Jill Jones, Ella Kurz, Jo Langdon, Alyson Miller, Sam Morley, Isabella G. Mead, Terry Nguyen, Keith Nunes, Damen O’Brien, Kristian Radford, Caroline Reid, Nathan Shepherdson, Emma Simington, Beth Spencer, Jen Webb, Sean West and Janet Jiahui Wu.

QPF2023 is just around the corner — huzzah!

Can’t wait to catch up with friends and family at Opening Night:
Thursday April 20
7:00pm
Auditorium 2
State Library of Queensland
A free event, but bookings are required.

And I’m really looking forward to listening/talking/reading from my latest collection, Like to the Lark (Upswell Publishing, 2023), at these events:

Playing With Poetry with Dan Hogan and Huda the Goddess, hosted by Scott-Patrick Mitchell.
Friday April 21
12:30–1:30pm
Auditorium 2
State Library of Queensland.
Book your tickets here.

The Reading Room — Evenings with Pooja Mittal Biswas and Dan Hogan.
Friday April 21
5:30–6:30pm
Auditorium 2
State Library of Queensland.
Book your tickets here.

The QPF2023 line-up includes Cassandra Atherton, Jarad Bruinstroop, Pascalle Burton, Shastra Deo, Jane Frank, Angela Gardner, Rebecca Jessen, Kent MacCarter, Janaka Malwatta, Nathan Shepherdson, Anders Villani, Samuel Watson and Jessica Wilkinson. Read about all the poets and performers here.