UPCOMING
31 October – 2 November. I’m absolutely delighted to be returning to the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival this year to take part in two very exciting events.
Friday 31 October, 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm, MTNS MADE: Readings from Michael Duffy, Roanna Gonsalves, Alejandra Martinez, Olivia O’Flynn and myself. The Ballroom at The Carrington Hotel. Tickets here.
Sunday 2 November, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, HOW TO READ A POEM: Panel discussion with David Stavanger and James Jiang. The Ballroom at The Carrington Hotel. Tickets here.
The 2025 theme – a path to wonder – invites audiences to engage with literature with an open mind and sense of possibility. Full program here.
RECENT NEWS
September: I was honoured to launch Lisa Collyer’s second poetry collection Gold Digger at Better Read than Dead bookstore in Sydney, on Saturday 27th September.
Gold Digger challenges the enduring myths of domesticity by portraying women as breadwinners, unearthing the realities of labour, aspiration, and social mobility. Collyer deftly reveals how women’s work – often overlooked or undervalued – has always been present, from the kitchen to the corridors of power. The collection includes Lisa’s Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize shortlisted poem ‘The Grape Picker(s)’.
The event was emceed by poet Magdalena Ball who read from her own work alongside brief readings by myself, Elizabeth Walton and Lisa. You can read what I said about this much anticipated new collection here.
September: I was honoured to be invited to be a live-in mentor this year for the 2025 Varuna WestWords Emerging Writer’s Fellowship. It was a joy to see the work of four emerging writers develop over an intensive week in residence, and to spend some time working on my own second collection at Varuna, The National Writer’s House—just as the cherry trees began to bloom.
August: I was delighted to have the opportunity to share a couple of poems as the Blue Mountains representative at Red Room Poetry Fellows Showcase as part of Red Room’s Poetry Month 2025.
It was a treat to read alongside this year’s fellows Dženana Vucic, Nam Le, Kaitlen Wellington, Madison Godfrey and Xiaole Zhan at Varuna, the National Writers’ House on Saturday 30th August.
JULY
I was delighted to read at two gallery based events recently. As the feature poet for the July 2025 Poetica Petit, with musician Lily B at Woollahra Gallery in Sydney and, more locally, alongside poets Les Wicks, Mark Roberts, Linda Adair and Jane Skelton for the winter ekphrasis reading at the Kedumba Gallery in Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains.
It was a joy to be a judge for the 2025 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize alongside respected poets Ali Whitelock and Rose Lucas. Find the longlist for 2025 here, with the shortlist set to be announced in August.
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PAST NEWS and EVENTS
2024
August is Poetry Month in Australia, and I’m delighted that my work will be showcased at a range of events in multiple states across the month as part of the festivities.
NSW: Contains Strong Language. I’m over the moon to be appearing in a very special iteration of Poetry Sydney’s NEWS. Poets from the North. East. West. South, as part of the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Festival. In collaboration with Red Room Poetry, the UK’s biggest poetry and performance festival for new writing is leaving British shores for the first time in its eight years, to put a spotlight on Australia from 28th to 31st August 2024. NEWS will be live and live-streamed from Knox Street Bar, Chippendale, from 6:00 PM on Saturday 31st August. Tickets here.
WA: Perth Poetry Festival. I’m absolutely thrilled to have been programmed as a feature poet for the 2024 Perth Poetry Festival. Full program here. I’ll be involved in/appearing at 4 events:
All month: Poetry on the Big Screen. A selection of poems from Moon Wrasse will be projected on screens across the city of Perth as part of Red Room’s Poetry Month.
Friday 23rd August. READING: Festival GALA. 6:30-10:00 PM, Perth Town Hall. $25-30 +BF. Tickets available here.
Saturday 24th August. WORKSHOP: Using Lyric Encounter to Draft New Work. 11:30-1:00 PM. NW Room State Library of Western Australia. $15-25 +BF. Tickets available here.
This masterclass will explore ways of ‘reading-and-writing’ in the intersubjective space of lyric encounter. Participants will engage in activities that combine reading and writing as a unified practice using responsive techniques to generate drafts for new poems. The workshop aims to provide a space where participants can develop their poetic craft by exploring themes such as transformation eco-poetics and queer writing.
Saturday 24th August. READING: Saturday Night Poets. 7:30-9:30 State Library of WA Theatre. $20-25 +BF. Tickets available here.
August. Thrilled to learn that my poem ‘Autumn Days’ has been long-listed for the 2024 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize. The poem will be anthologised in Poetry of Change, available for preorder now.
July. I was deeply moved to receive this profoundly insightful review of Moon Wrasse by Misbah Wolf in Mascara Literary Review.
May. I was overjoyed to learn that Moon Wrasse had been shortlisted for the prestigious Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry in the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. You can read the utterly beautiful comments from the judges here.
The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards was announced at the stunning State Library of NSW on Monday 20th May, 5:30pm as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival. I wore blue velvet in honour of Moon Wrasse, and all moon wrasses.
April. I was thrilled to learn that my poem ‘Fallowing’ had been shortlisted for the 2024 South Coast Writers Centre Poetry Prize. This year’s prize was judged by esteemed poet Judith Beveridge. You can listen to a recording of the poem here.
18th April. ‘Queering Ecopoet(h)ics’ is live! It was a joy and a privilege to gather, with co-editor Stuart Barnes, 27 sparkling queer and allied voices for Plumwood Mountain Journal 11.1, ‘Queering Ecopoet(h)ics’. Featuring new work from 27 extraordinary poets from Australia and around the world, the poems in this issue showcase a vibrant multiplicity of queer subjectivities and remind us that queer and trans voices have always been speaking from and about nature, as queer and trans voices are, and have always been, in and of nature. Read the issue here and read our editorial here.
23 March, 5pm US East Coast time/ 24 March, 8am Sydney Time. I was delighted to read some work from Moon Wrasse as part of the fabulous international livestream reading series LitBalm, in a special ‘Sydney and surrounds’ focused session with poets K.A. Rees, Magdalena Ball and Beth Spencer. You can view the recording here.
20 March, 1pm. It was an absolute joy to speak about Moon Wrasse with the Queer View Mirror team on Melbourne’s Triple R 102.7FM. You can catch up with the podcast version of the episode (fabulously & fittingly titled ‘The Gay Gay Gay Poetry Episode’) here.
10 March, 10-11am. It was wonderful to speak as part of an International Women’s Day panel with ali whitelock, Paris Rosemont and Zohra Aly at the WestWords Centre for Writing on the significance of gender to my work, and the relationship of gender to form. The panel was part of a day long series of writing events for IWD. Further details here.
7 February – 3 March. I’m deeply honoured that Moon Wrasse has been curated as part of the 2024 Aesop Queer Library. This beautiful project aims to redress gender and sexuality based inequality via the amplification and sharing of contemporary queer literature. The shelves of Aesop QV, Aesop Bondi Junction and Aesop Ponsonby have been stocked with titles by LGBTQIA+ authors to discover and discuss: each visitor is invited to take home a complimentary book of their choice. The Aesop Queer Library is open at Aesop QV in Melbourne from 7-11 February, Aesop Ponsonby in Auckland from 16-18 February and Aesop Bondi Junction in Sydney from 28 February – 3 March, coinciding with Mardi Gras weekend. Details and downloadable reading lists here.
2023
December. I am delighted to be co-editing, alongside the fabulous Stuart Barnes, the upcoming issue of Plumwood Mountain: An Australian and International Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics. Our issue is called ‘Queering Ecopoet(h)ics’. Submissions are open to 18th January 2024.
26th November, 6:30 pm. Awards ceremony for the Five Islands Poetry Prize for a First Book of Poetry. I was honoured to read a poem from Moon Wrasse at this live streamed awards event for which Moon Wrasse was awarded a commendation. Read the judges’ report here.
26th November, 3:00 pm. ‘Forming, transforming—a reading from Moon Wrasse‘ at the 28th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, University of Canberra.
26th November, 3:00 pm. I was a feature poet with Lou Steer and Black Crow Walking at the 2024 Women of Words fundraiser and vigil at Hudson Street Hum, Hamilton.
24th November, 2:00 pm. Masterclass: ”Stuckness’ as Creative Process’ with Oz Hardwick, Marcelle Freiman and Elizabeth Walton. View the session here.
22 October, 2023, 4:30 pm. I was thrilled to be the feature poet at the Varuna Poetry Circle, hosted by Mark O’Flynn for the 2023 Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival. I read a sequence of poems from Moon Wrasse in the Baroque Room at the beautiful Carrington Hotel.
28th September, 2023. A reading from Moon Wrasse at the Queer Voices and Absence Conference to be held at Macquarie University.
20th August, 2023. A recorded reading of ‘Ways of Seeing’, from Moon Wrasse, for the UK based NOMO bookclub. View the reading here.
WestTalks Author in Conversation, Thursday 29 June, 6:30pm. I was in conversation about all things Moon Wrasse with colleague and friend Dr Michelle Hamadache at the WestWords Centre for Writing, 41 Hunter St, Parramatta.
Moon Wrasse and the Seahorse, A reading from Moon Wrasse in the immersive aquatic environment of Mikala Dwyer’s exhibition, Penelope and the Seahorse in the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Sydney University, on Thursday 15 June at 6pm.
Sydney Poetry Lounge, Wed 19th April, 7pm, Glebe Hotel, Bay St Glebe. I’ll was thrilled to be a feature poet alongside international poet Raine Geoghegan at the April Sydney Poetry Lounge event at the Glebe Hotel in Glebe.
Newcastle Writers Festival : A poetry workshop and two events at the 2023 Newcastle Writers Festival (31 March – 2 April). This was my first festival appearance, and I was pinching myself to be on the program alongside so many brilliant writers.
Friday 31 March, 11am – 2pm: Poetry Workshop—Using lyric encounter to write grief. University of Newcastle NuSpace, Cnr Hunter & Auckland Streets, Newcastle. Details and tickets here.
Saturday 1 April, 3 – 4pm: Book launch—Moon Wrasse and Bobish by Magdalena Ball. University of Newcastle NuSpace X321, Level 3, Cnr Hunter and Auckland Streets, Newcastle. This is a free event. Details here.
Saturday 1 April, 5:30 – 7pm: Poetry Salon with Cassandra Atherton, Mohammad Awad, Robbie Coburn, Rico Craig, Yvette Henry Holt, Sarah Holland-Batt, Mark Mordue and myself. Details and tickets here.
Book Launch — Moon Wrasse and Like to the Lark by Stuart Barnes
Moon Wrasse was launched alongside the stunning new collection Like to the Lark by award winning poet Stuart Barnes, on Thursday 16th March at the beautiful Marrickville Pavilion. Both books were launched by award winning poet and critic Felicity Plunkett (Vanishing Point, A Kinder Sea).
22 February. Innie/Outie — Pride Amplified for Sydney World Pride and Poetry Sydney, Knox Street Bar, Chippendale. Live and live-streamed via Knox.live.
It was a treat to be invited back to read for Poetry Sydney in February 2023, just before the launch of Moon Wrasse, and as part of Pride Amplified for Sydney World Pride. Live recording below (or view here from 48:08)
2022
Poetry Sydney, Knox Street Bar, Chippendale, 30 November.
Poetry Reading. Poetry Sydney and Macquarie University are thrilled to present N E W S : Poets from the North . East . West . South; a collaborative venture that celebrates the work of poets from the literary departments of four universities in Sydney and greater Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. I was thrilled to read four poems from my upcoming collection Moon Wrasse at this in person and live-streamed event. Live recording below (or view here from 25:40).
2021
Poetry readings: “Body Mapping at the Arachnoid Disco”, and “Turning” for the Creative Writing/Neuroscience Project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between neuroscience and the arts, The Science Art Network, Swinburne University, in partnership with The Australasian Association of Writing Programs.
2018, Harmony Park, Surry Hills, 20 November.
Poetry reading for International Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018, Ceremony and Vigil, Harmony Park, Sydney.
2017
Great Writing, Imperial College, London, UK, 1-2 July.
Conference Paper: “‘Bees of the Invisible’: Levertov’s Rilke Index, poetic transformation and the distributed mind”.
2016
12th December
Inaugural Macquarie University Faculty of Arts Cognitive Humanities workshop, with visiting international scholar, Prof. Mark Turner.
Short presentation: “‘Pressed Between the mind’s pages’: Denise Levertov’s Rilke Index and practices of artistic cognition”.
7th December
Constellations, NewMac 2016, University of Newcastle.
Conference paper: “The Green Notebook: Cognitive Integration and Denise Levertov’s early constellation of meaning”.
28th November
Authorised Theft, the 21st Annual AAWP Conference 28-30th November, University Of Canberra.
Conference paper: “‘Pressed Between the Mind’s Pages’: Denise Levertov’s ‘Rilke Index’ and practices of artistic cognition”. (Full program and abstracts here)
24 November
Sydney University Historical Identities conference, 24th – 25th November.
Conference paper: “Writerly personhood and the extended mind: poetics and identity formation in the early notebooks of Denise Levertov” Session 225, Textual Identities, 4:00 -5:30 pm.
23 March
Between the Covers, presented by the Emerging Writers’ Festival and Macquarie University.
A poetry reading as part of “Writing Home”, Wednesday 23 March, 7pm. Macquarie University Staff Café, Building W5A, Level 2, Balaclava Road, North Ryde. With Fiona Wright, Peter Polities, Susie Anderson, Michelle Hamadache, Jamie Derkenne and Emma Smith.
4 March
Moving Minds: converting cognition and emotion in history, Macquarie University, 2-4 March.
Conference paper: “Twentieth Century ‘Organic Form’ and the ‘Rilke Index’: artistic cognition in the early notebook practices of Denise Levertov”. (Program and abstracts for this conference can be found here.)
2015
1 December
Writing the Ghost Train, the 20th Annual AAWP Conference, 29 November – 1 December 2015.
A performance of two poems as part of the daily “Hauntings” readings at the 2015 AAWP Conference, both from my 2014 suite of poetry: “Propagules for drift and dispersal”. Both poems were subsequently published in a special issue of Bukker Tillibul.
13 October
Cognitive integration and the ‘Rilke index’: artistic cognition in the early notebook practices of Denise Levertov
A paper delivered as part of the Macquarie University English Department seminar series, outlining some early ideas from my PhD research.
Willo Drummond 