The Tasmanian Poetry Festival presents a special Hobart feature reading by award-winning poets:

. Louise Oxley . Susan Austin . Young Dawkins . Ben Walter . Esther Ottaway . Erin Coull – a young Tasmanian featured reader at the Tasmanian Poetry Festival.

Enjoy this delightful afternoon reading by some of Tasmania’s most outstanding poets addressing themes of nature, family, attention, and joy.

About the poets:

Ben Walter is a Walkley award-winning essayist, and the author of a book of short stories, What Fear Was, and the new poetry collection, Lithosphere. His poems explore the Tasmanian natural world in surprising ways.

Susan Austin is an award-winning poet, mental health occupational therapist, eco-socialist activist and mother, who has two poetry collections and a verse novel. She will read poems about times when we feel lost – with parenting, relationships and work – and ways we re-establish connection with nature and each other.

Louise Oxley’s three collections include poems that have won major awards, attracted state and federal grants and earned residencies at Varuna the Writers House and the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. She will read poems on the theme of mother and child.

Young Dawkins has been published in two collections and numerous literary journals, and has performed his work internationally at major festivals, main stages, competitions and countless questionable bars. His poems draw on autobiography.

Esther Ottaway is the winner of the $25,000 Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry in the Tasmanian Literary Awards, and holds multiple national and international shortlistings. Her poems are about family bonds, Tasmanian life, experiences of joy, and winter swimming!

Erin Coull is an editor and contributor for WhyNot and is a past winner of the Andrew Hardy Poetry Prize, and has been published in FortySouth, Togatus, The Trailblazer and WritetheWorld Review. Her writing explores quiet anxieties, uncertain futures and complex connections.

This special event is a preview event leading up to the Tasmanian Poetry Festival full days of readings, held in Launceston from 10-12 October, and featuring Erin Coull, Liz Winfield, Les Wicks, Kim Nielsen-Creeley, Kit Kelen, Alex McKeown, and guest, Pam Schindler. Workshops include Constraint-Based Writing, Writing an Interior monologue, Taking Your Words for a Walk, and Plan to be Published. You can view the program and book tickets at www.taspoetryfest.org

Hosted by Fullers Bookshop, 131 Collins Street, Hobart.