Received some really nice news this afternoon, the CD I recorded with Sheish Money, The Stillest Hour has been shortlisted for the Aural Text Award.
While I don’t know the complete shortlist, I do know that the QLD Poetry Festival CD – A Million Bright Things is shortlisted, so I know the competition is strong.
The winner is announced on closing night of Overload Poetry Festival this Sunday, September 19. Will keep you posted!
You can listen to a couple of tracks from the album here:
Filed under events & opportunities, poetry
The night I honeymooned with Brisbane
she took me around like a sweetheart to meet the family.
We came upon places where McLennan had had her
before me. We passed Jacaranda trees gathering dusk
and she was friendly with old drunks and buskers.
When we passed City Hall, she reminisced about
Roy Orbison and The Rolling Stones, the night
they made love by the roar of trams, sparks flying
at the folds of her cotton dress. The night I saw her
for the first time, I saw she was a good girl – something
to fall in love with – fond of the young boys who’d stuck
by her; wild sons of a sort who’d go on to elegise her
claim their corruption by her. And quietly, all over
the world, her men return to that first night. Like schoolboys
stealing mangoes under perfect skies, they remember
with affection, the tough romance of their first bite.
Filed under poetry
I came across this site over at Electric Alphabet today and it is well worth exploring. The site is called Poetry Speaks and as Kate says in her title, it may just be better than an iTunes for poetry. There is alot of poetry to explore already, including classic works from Rimbaud & Baudelaire, more contemporary works by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Derrick Brown and the founder of Slam, Marc Kelly Smith, who performed at QLD Poetry Festival in 2006. And just as importantly, you can also get involved in the Poetry Speaks community by registering a free account and uploading your work. You can also sell your work via the Poetry Speaks site. Lots of potential here… I have already been over and had a play, uploading The Stillest Hour and Brisbane Love Poems. That said, I am off to spend some more time in the Poetry Speaks playground…
Filed under poetry & publishing
Well, I have been slow off the mark on this project, but I am starting to get really excited about getting ’The Stillest Hour’ out there and into the ears of listeners. In 2008, Sheish Money and I recorded twenty spoken word tracks, eleven of which will appear on our debut CD. Several of the album tracks can be heard on various sites, so for a taster head to:
http://www.myspace.com/goingdownswingingmagazine (Morning After)
http://www.myspace.com/auraltext (The Stillest Hour)
http://www.pool.org.au/audio/graham_nunn/brisbane_love_poems (Brisbane Love Poems)
And here’s a sneak look at the cover art by the very talented Phoebe Sheehy. Keep your eyes and ears posted for launch news in July.
Filed under poetry
Got a seedy city tale to tell? A story from the underbelly of midnight?Want to make something of it?
Cities are places of intrigue and ABC Radio National and Radio National Online are looking for stories for their City Nights Project. Whatever your medium, be it poetry, fiction, documentary, film, photography (or whatever), register as a member of Pool and upload your work for the chance to be featured on Radio National’s 360 program later in the year.
I just uploaded the track Brisbane Love Poems for the project so head along and check that out and then upload some of your own work. The website is:
Filed under events & opportunities
I am passionate about Brisbane. In all my travels, it is the city that feels most like home, so it was great to read Augusten Burrough’s account of his recent stay in Brisbane in the Weekend Australian. He likens Brisbane to:
‘Cindy Crawford sitting on the porch reading a book while plump older sister Sydney tap-dances on the sidewalk in a leotard that’s too tight, hoping a talent agent drives by.’
Read the full article ‘Cindy City’ here: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25125686-5012694,00.html
And here’s a poem from my latest collection Ruined Man. For me, it says it all…
Brisbane Love Poems
1. Brisbane, how I love
your pastel-painted sunsets
2. I have seen G.W. McLennan
walking the streets of your town
3. Prostitutes sweating on street corners
like strange, erotic parking meters
4. A young musician wearing beautiful
dark glasses, inhaling the scent
of quarter past four in the morning
5. The skull of a cat nestled in the gutter
after a big rain
6. Windows shining in lonely streets
like artificial flowers
7. Pigeons picking over the remains
of a broken love affair
8. And still-born poems waiting
at the doorstep wrapped
in filthy newsprint
Filed under poetry, poetry & publishing
