Thursday, March 19, 2015

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Dear friends,

more than five hundred people visited the Brett Whiteley Studio to celebrate its 25th anniversary on Saturday 22nd February.  The next day we welcomed in 16 years of poetry at the Studio with Hani Aden and Saba Vasefi.  Saba’s daughter Minerva, who is a cellist for the Sydney Youth Orchestra also performed.

This month we launch two collections from interstate poets M.T.C. Cronin and Maria Zajkowski.  

Sunday 22 March 2015 |         M.T.C. Cronin and Maria Zajkowski
MTC Cronin has published twenty books (poetry, prose poems and essays), several of which have appeared in translation including her 2001 book, Talking to Neruda’s Questions, which has been translated into Spanish, Italian and Swedish. Her work has won and been shortlisted for many major literary awards, internationally and in Australia. Cronin has studied arts, law, literature and creative writing and after working for the decade of the nineties in law, began teaching writing in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. She currently lives, with her partner and three daughters, on a biodynamic farm in Conondale in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland of Queensland. Recent poetry collections include The World Last Night (UQP, 2012) and in possession of loss (Shearsman Books, UK, 2014). Her 2001 book, Bestseller (Vagabond, 2001), is forthcoming in French translation (Editions de l'Amandier, Paris) in 2017. Her latest collection has been a twenty-year work in progress, The Law of Poetry published by Puncher and Wattmann, will be launched.

Maria Zajkowski is based in Melbourne, but originally from New Zealand. In 2001 she was funded by Arts Victoria and in 2003 by the Australian Council of the Arts to write a manuscript, 'From an island', based on her experiences as the child of a refugee, which in 2007 was shortlisted for the Alec Bolton Award. She has participated in the National Young Writers Festival, the Emerging Writers Festival and the Alphabet City Festival (Toronto).  Shortlisted for the 2008 Newcastle Poetry Prize and the 2009 Bridport Prize (UK), Maria won both the 2011 and 2012 Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize with suites of poems from 'The Ascendant'.  More recently she has collaborated with local and international composers. Poems from 'The Ascendant', recomposed for voice by Wally Gunn (Princeton), have been performed widely in the USA by the Grammy Award winning group Roomful of Teeth and will feature prominently on their upcoming album.  She is currently working with Australian composer Biddy Connor on a selection of pieces for voice, musical saw and string quartet, based on the history of the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne. The Ascendant published by Puncher and Wattmann will be launched. www.mariazajkowski.com


WHO: MTC Cronin and Maria Zajkowski
WHAT:  Sydney Poetry @ 2
WHEN: 2-3:30PM | Sunday 22 March 2015

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