Arts & Culture
Poetry on the Move
After only four years, UC’s international poetry festival is raising the profile of Canberra’s poetry scene to global heights. Established by the International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI) in UC’s Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR), ‘Poetry on the Move’ is a four-year project aiming to bring together poets from across the world.
This year’s theme, Inhabiting Language, celebrated the wonderful intersections of languages around the world in creating poetry. The event featured panels and discussions on how poetry works, as well as poetry readings from all over the world.
"We wanted to gather poets from around the world," says Distinguished Professor Jen Webb, the director of CCCR.
"We wanted to see what poetry does when it’s all over the place."
Creating a centre for poetry
By gathering a variety of voices, from international poets-in-residence to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander poets, the festival has gained global attention.
In 2017, the Japanese Embassy paid for a group of Japanese poets to visit Australia and share their poetry. Their poems and translations feature in the book, Poet to Poet: Contemporary Women Poets from Japan, edited by Dr Jen Crawford and Dr Rina Kikuchi.
"Since the inception of IPSI and the festival, the university has become a centre of poetry," says Shane Strange, a Teaching Fellow at UC and this year’s Festival Director.
Even before the festival, the Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize reflected UC’s dedication to poetry, with a special interest in poets from diverse backgrounds. The newer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Poetry Prize further reinforces that vision. Both prizes are announced at the festival.
So far, Poetry on the Move has made connections in Singapore, Japan, the UK, USA, and Canada, and has drawn visitors from interstate.
"We had a strong idea and that has drawn in the wider community," Shane says. "A lot of people have said to me that they wouldn’t have come to the University of Canberra if it wasn’t for the poetry festival."
In the future, he hopes to form connections with poets in India.
Uniting Canberra’s poetry scene
Community engagement was at the centre of this year’s Poetry on the Move. Existing poetry gatherings, such as the multilingual Mother Tongue and the women poets of Not Very Quiet, were incorporated into the festival program under the banner of That Poetry Thing, the weekly poetry night at Smith’s Alternative in Civic.
"A lot of the collaboration between poets in Canberra has stemmed out of the poetry festival," says Shane.
We’re developing our community through the poetry festival and we’re expanding our reach across Australia and the world.
Linking industry to academia for maximum exposure
On top of organising this year’s program, Shane was the publisher of many of the chapbooks and anthologies on sale during the festival.
Following the first Poetry on the Move, Shane founded the Canberra-based imprint Recent Work Press. As the only poetry publisher in Canberra, Recent Work Press has published local and international poets, as well as research from UC.
Dr Webb’s research on what factors make a successful poet also featured at the festival bookstall.
"We’re trying to settle things," Jen says. "We see Poetry on the Move as a marketing tool, raising the profile of the University, the faculty, and poetry."
That’s why we call it Poetry on the Move: it’s in people’s voices.
If you missed the symposium discussions from this year’s Poetry on the Move, you can find them in IPSI’s free online journal, Axon, early next year. You can also check out books featured at this year’s festival at Recent Work Press and listen to festival podcasts on iTunes.
Words by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga and images courtesy of Kendall Kirkwood