2009 Poets
Andrew Burke
Andrew Burke is an Australian poet and writer who has been publishing since the mid-Sixties. His poems have appeared in every major Australian literary magazine, and a New & Selected is waiting patiently in the wings for the printer's ink.
Annamaria Weldon
Annamaria Weldon wrote The Roof Milkers (Sunline Press 2008) and is currently a Resident at UWA’s Symbiotica, researching and writing poetry and essays inspired by the elements, ecology and environment of Lake Clifton at Yalgorup. Working with zoologist Laurie Smith, their joint project Sharing the Edge is part of the Adaptation art / science collaboration. A former journalist who has been writing for publication since the late 1970s, Annamaria's articles, poetry and fiction have appeared in journals and newspapers in Australia and overseas. Winner of the 2008 Creatrix Poetry Prize, Annamaria's recent work has been published in Stylus, Indigo, Island, Thirst and Creatrix. She writes frequently about light, contrast and colour, evoking a strong sense of place. Born in Malta and spending her childhood on the island and in Africa, England and Central America, Annamaria has lived in WA for the past 25 years and raised a family here. Now she particularly enjoys opportunities for public readings. Her poetry collection's title poem and her short story Splendid Blue Wren were both selected for broadcast on ABC Radio National in 2009.
Caroline Sambridge
Caroline Sambridge, writes bush poetry and short stories. She lives in Belmont, and has also lived in the UK, country WA, as well as Queensland, NSW and Victoria. She has also been to Ireland and kissed the blarney stone, plus she has been to Thailand and Laos.
Catherine Szathmary
Catherine Szathmary lives in Bridgetown with her partner Lee and her daughter Mollie. She is currently renovating an old home to bring in winter light and make a writing/contemplating space for creating poetry. Catherine has been a part of Creative Connections since its inception and has enjoyed collaborating with artists to bring art and the written word together.
Christina Gammon
Christina Gammon lives in Perth's northern suburbs and works as a registered nurse at Joondalup Health Campus. Christina has always loved writing and has recently begun to explore the local poetry community through the Peter Cowan Writer's Centre. She has had poems published in Lake Lines anthology.
Christopher Konrad
Chris has lived in Western Australia his whole life with forty of those years in the hills around Perth. Father and mother were Austrian migrants who moved to WA in the 1950’s. He is married with four children aged from 15 - 24 years. Chris has had a varied life - first as a tradesman Cabinet Maker completing an apprenticeship with his father. He changed career and worked for the last thirteen years in human services as a counsellor/educator/community development. Chris has had several articles published in journals to do with Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drug problems and education. He has completed a Master Social Science and is currently undertaking PH.D in creative writing and has had poems published in Thirst, WetInk, Word is Out, Page 17 and Staples and in the online publications PixelPapers , WA Poets, Creatrix and Perigee. Was accepted into a FAW(WA) poetry Master Class and mentorship program in 2007, and has just published in an anthology with 4 other WA poets. The book is titled Amber Contains the Sun and was launched at the Perth Writers’ Festival early in 2009.
Deanne Leber
Deanne Leber is a West Australian poet. Her first collection of poems, "Book of Days", was shortlisted for The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards in 2007. Deanne has been published in various journals, magazines and newspapers. Currently, Deanne is completing a PhD in Writing at Edith Cowan University.
Flora Smith
Flora Smith is a former language teacher who had her first short story published in Westerly before she turned to writing poetry six years ago. She is published in magazines and anthologies throughout Australia, such as Stylus Poetry Journal, indigo, Creatrix and Famous Reporter. She is an active member of writers’ groups in WA and takes part in regular Perth readings. After gaining entry to a FAWWA masterclass mentorship program in 2007, she has just published an anthology with four other group members. The book, titled ‘Amber Contains the Sun’, was launched at the Perth Writers’ Festival in February 2009 and has had three more small launches throughout the metro area and several well-attended readings. Flora’s poetry is mostly concerned with people - their hopes and dreams, longings and quirky behaviour - because she says that is the only thing she knows anything about.
Gary Colombo De Piazzi
Gary De Piazzi is married with four adult children, the youngest of which is autistic. He holds degrees in Design and in Education, and certificates in Permaculture, Reiki and Alpha Alignment. After teaching Design and Technology for eleven years, Gary undertook a career change and with his wife, established a successful vegetable growing business employing the best of organic and conventional farming methods. Towards the end of his farming career, he established and concurrently operated for five years a unique soil analysis laboratory specialising in identifying nutrients within the soil that are readily available to plants. Gary is now a self-funded semi retiree and spends his time pursing interests in complementary modalities, photography and writing. Gary’s introduction to poetry was for cathartic reasons and helped express and resolve emotions and feelings he was experiencing at the time. He quickly developed a love for writing and poetry in particular with its focus on expressing as much as possible with the fewest words possible. Gary’s preference is for free verse but he has also dabbled with formal forms of poetry. He is currently exploring Haiku, simple but profound poetry in seventeen syllables or less. Gary’s love for nature is reflected in his poetry and photographs. This has culminated with his self-published book featuring the Pinnacles Desert at Cervantes which explores the various levels humanity can experience nature.
Dr Glen Phillips
Born in Western Australia in 1936, in the remote gold-mining town of Southern Cross, Glen Phillips was brought up mainly in outback wheatbelt areas where he developed not only a strong identification with the Australian landscape but an early love of Australian literature. He has been teaching in the tertiary sector in Australia and overseas for nearly fifty years. Glen’s poetry has won prizes and appeared in more than 50 American, British, Italian, Thai, Singaporean, Chinese, Korean, Indian and Australian journals and/or anthologies. His poetry collections include Intersections, (Perth, 1972), Umbria-Australia, Green and Gold, (Perugia, Italy, 1986, with Walter Cerquetti), Poetry in Motion (Perth, 1988 with three other WA poets who had formed in 1985 the well-known "Poetry in Motion" performance group), Sacrificing the Leaves (Bangkok, 1988), Lovesongs, Lovescenes (Perth, 1991), Spring Burning (Perth, 1999) Singing Granites (Salcombe, UK, 2008, with Anne Born) and Shanghai Suite (Perth, 2009). His poetry has been featured on national radio and television. Glen’s short stories also have been published in Australia and overseas. He is working on several novels and other projects. He has joint-edited anthologies of poetry, prose and essays of Western Australian authors and judged many literary competitions for writers’ organizations and universities. Glen Phillips is a West Australian writer and is an adjunct Associate Professor of English at Edith Cowan University, Perth and Director of the University’s International Centre for Landscape and Language.
Helen Hagemann
Helen Hagemann has poetry published in major Australian literary journals, including Famous Reporter, Overland, Westerly, indigo and Island Magazine. In 2004, she won an ASA poetry mentorship studying with NSW poet, Jean Kent. In 2008, she won a Varuna Longlines Poetry workshop in Katoomba, NSW. As part of the New Poets program, the Australian Poetry Centre published her first literary collection Evangelyne & Other Poems in April this year. Helen has an MA in Writing, teaches prose at the Fremantle Arts Centre, and works as a volunteer for the OOTA Writers Group.
Jan Napier
Jan Napier has published two books of short stories, Smiles To Go and All The Fun Of The Fair. Her poetry has been printed in Tamba, Speedpoets, Yellow Moon, The Word Is Out, The Mozzie, Creatrix and in several other reputable publications (both in New Zealand and the US). Her short stories have appeared in Salvador Dali And Friends, Antipodean SF, The Countryman, Positive Words and Writer's Friend. Jan also reviews books for the online magazine Antipodean SF. She first became involved with Creative Connections in 2008, and is delighted to be one of the contributing poets again in 2009.
Jaya Penelope
A poet and storyteller, Jaya Penelope lives in Fremantle with her beloved and two cats. A bower bird, she collects small precious moments and weave them together into nests of colourful thread. She is a member of the elusive performance trio The Elegant Pedlars.
Jeremy Balius
Jeremy Balius is a Germany-raised Los Angelean, currently based in Perth, WA. He writes fiction and poetry.
Julienne Miller Juschke
An exciting organisation can't help but inspire continuing participation. This is the second year that I have been involved as a poet for Creative Connections. Every year I am amazed at, and grateful to, Maureen and her team for investing so much time, energy and thought into this important production. I have a love for contributing poetry towards the enrichment, entertainment, and encouragement of others. This particularly applies where artists who carry some unique type of ability are given an opportunity to participate in, and enjoy, the arts. Artists: welcome to WA's arts community.
Kevin Gillam
Kevin Gillam: is a West Australian poet with two books of poems published, “Other Gravities” (2003) and “permitted to fall” (2007), both by SunLine Press. He works as a secondary school music teacher.
Liana Joy Christensen
Liana is a Fremantle-based writer, who has contributed to Creative Connections since its inception, because she believes deeply in the philosophy and vision of this inclusive project. Her work also appears in anthologies and literary journals in Australia (Southerly, Indigo, Arena, PAN, The Word is Out, Creatrix, Thirst), North America (Ascent, Organisation and the Environment: Arts and the Environment), India (Prosopisia) and Taiwan (The Tamkang Review). She was the original editor of Western Australia’s wildlife and nature magazine Landscope, and explores these themes in some of her poetry. She was an invited poet at Perdu, the national poetry venue in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in June 2006. She was also guest poet at the second International Animals and Society Conference held in Hobart in June 2007. Her first chapbook Wild Familiars was launched at the Spring Poetry Festival in Perth in September 2006. It was awarded one of five Honourable Mentions in the Writers Digest International Self Published book awards (from a field of 138). Wild Familiars was reviewed in PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature 4, 2007. She has recently won a 2010 Emerging Writers residency for the Fellowship of Writers Western Australia and the Peter Cowan Writers’ Centre, and a Different Voices residency at Varuna in October 2009.
Mardi May
2009 will be the third year of Mardi May’s fruitful association with the dynamic Creative Connections group. Mardi’s poetry has often been inspired by the visual connection with art and photography. Her poetry has appeared in many exhibitions and in five of her books of prose and poetry, she has worked with a photographer. The poetic response often explores a deeper level of meaning to the art work and searches for the significant and symbolic elements portrayed. Knowing the artist’s background adds another layer to the poet’s interpretation. Creative Connections challenges and rewards the poet willing to explore this world. Mardi is a member of the Management Committee and Literary Advisory Board at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre where she facilitates the poetry group.
Maureen Sexton
Maureen is a freelance writer, poet, haiku poet, editor, photographer, digital media artist, webmistress and event organiser. She has vast writer-in-the-community experience and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Writing, which she completed at Edith Cowan University, with some of her studies undertaken at Murdoch University and Flinders University. She completed an intense mentorship (writing, researching, critiquing and workshopping of haiku for publication) with mentor, John Bird in 2007. She was a co-founder of WA Poets Inc, the annual WA Spring Poetry Festival, Creative Connections Art and Poetry exhibitions, The Word is Out Poetry Journals, creatrix poetry journal and Walking on Water readings. Her poetry and haiku have been widely published internationally and nationally. She has also had success in national poetry competitions, and many of her short stories, articles and reviews have also been published. She is currently: HaikuOz WA regional representative, Poetry Coordinator of Creative Connections Art and Poetry Exhibitions, and on the editing team/selection panel of creatrix poetry journal.
Michael Williams
Born in England in 1920, a baby boomer from WWI. Served in British Army during WWII. Honours degree in Architecture at Sheffield University 1949.
Migrated to Western Australia 1957. Served in CMF and retired as Colonel Commandant Royal Australian Engineers in Western Australia. Formerly a member of FAW, now life member and President of PCWC. In 2000 published 'Andiamo in Italia' a travellers introduction to the Italian language and culture. In 2005 published 'Memorie dell' Italia' a collection of poems written and illustrated in English and Italian. Anthologised in collections published in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Japan. Poems read on ABC and on local radio stations. Is reminded often, when writing, of the words of John Ray naturalist 1627 1705: “He that uses words for explaining any subject doth, like the cuttle fish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink.”
Natasha Adams
Natasha resides in the Hills of Perth. She describes the writing process as meditative and welcomes Poetry as a chance to get in touch with people and nature. She especially enjoys writing Haiku and lyrical poetry and is currently experimenting with her writing style. A relative new comer to the Perth Poetry Scene, Natasha joined the Creative Connections Poetry Team in 2008. Natasha is strong supporter of the rights of People with Disabilities and believes it is important for everyone to see the person not the disability.
Nathan Hondros
Nathan is a writer of poetry, fiction and journalism who has recently returned to Perth, Australia after a living for a while in Europe. As well as working on countless new poems and releasing a collection of short fiction Man and Beast with actor, playwright and dramaturg Damon Lockwood, he is working on The King’s Road, a novella he began in France and Italy. He has published in The Weekend Australian, Westerly, Masthead, and has had his work produced and performed on ABC Radio.
Paula Jones
Paula is firstly a teacher who has lived and taught in Japan, Vietnam and Singapore for over 10 years, where she developed a love of spice and simplicity. Currently she is a community radio presenter at Ellenbrook fm; work for a TESOL training company in Perth and is Chairperson of the Katharine Susannah Prichard (KSP) Writers' Centre in Greenmount. She writes short fiction although her passion is poetry, many of which have been published locally and interstate in indigo, Blue Dog, Poetrix as well as online. Her family has been connected with Disabilities Services for over 25 years and she has also worked at some hostels, including Bristol Hostel, during her study years. “How the world turns circles.”
Peter Jeffery OAM
Former Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at Murdoch University and an MA from University of Birmingham [UK] as well as Film Studies founder at Curtin University. Currently Chair of WINGS, the cross cultural group, and Chair of WA POETS INC., and Chair of COMMUNITY TELEVISION PERTH, and WEST TELEVISION and SUNYATA MEDITATION and COMMUNITY CENTRE. Has won several key poetry prizes in the Sixties, judged literary contests, taught Creative Writing and has many friends in the Poetry Community. Thinks CREATIVE CONNECTIONS is a superb expression of the human creativity in us all.
Dr Sally Clarke
Dr Sally Clarke’s interest in Community writing and other peoples’ stories, as well as her particular interest in Australian war literature, came together when she wrote the Donald Robert Stuart biography, ‘In the Space Behind His Eyes’. The biography was short-listed for the 2006 WA Premier’s Book Award. She participated in the 2007 FAWWA Poetry Master Class Series and is one of five poets from this initiative to receive Department of Culture and the Arts funding to publish their anthology, ‘Amber Contains the Sun’, launched during the 2009 Perth International Arts Festival. Sally is a Past President of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (ACT), Past Chairperson and life member of the Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation, community writer, teacher of creative writing, freelance writer and editor. Her poems, articles and award winning short stories have been published in Western Australian and eastern states magazines, newspapers and anthologies.
Sarah Campbell-Wood (Saz Campbell)
Sarah lives in Perth, WA. Her pen name is Saz Campbell. She is a Murdoch University Graduate, having completed a degree at age fifty, in English, Australian Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing. She is currently doing an honors degree at Murdoch incorporating the writing of her autobiography, which might one day raise an eyebrow or two. She has self-published two books of poetry/ prose. Her poetry has been published in poetry journals and related e-journals. She is tutoring and editing for Grandparents writing memoirs for their Grandchildren. This is important for denied Grandparents, because, ‘……writing leaves traces of us’ - Helene Cixous. Her most satisfying achievement has been the founding of GranPower, a support group with accompanying website www.granpower.org.au for Grandparents denied contact with their Grandchildren. She is also the newsletter editor for PFLAG Perth, a support group for parents, families and friends of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and intersex young people and adults. Her articles on topics related to gay issues and/or denied Grandparents have been published in the Connect Groups (WISH) website, Seniors WA news, COTAWA newsletter, Grandparents Australia news and the Have-a-Go Newspaper. She has been a volunteer assistant at El Kanah, a Christian Guest House in Marysville Victoria, over many years. Sadly now this beautiful town and surrounding areas are all gone, with tragic losses of life, destroyed in the Victorian bushfires of 2009. She is a peace loving woman who walks gently on this Earth, and a Grandma who cherishes making memories with her Grandchildren while sharing their little worlds.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
Scott-Patrick is a poet & writer living in Perth. He works as a journalist for OUTinPerth, a lesbian and gay news and lifestyle community street press. His work has been published in such anthologies as neoteric, Interactive Geographies, naked eye, Poetry Creations, Lines of Wisdom , Red Leaves and Through the Clock’s Working. He also edits a zine, the underground literary street art adventure that is MoTHER [has words...]. He recently won the 2009 PressPress Chapbook Award for his poetry collection songs for the ordinary mass, a collection which fuses urban sampling with Gregorian musical notations. The chapbook is due out August.
Sue Clennell
Sue has had short stories published by The West Australian, Imago, Idiom 23 and in various anthologies. Her poetry has been published by The Weekend Australian, The West Australian, Quadrant, Studio, Southern Review, Creatrix, Speedpoets and the school text books Appreciating Poetry and Secondary English. Sue's prose poems The Moon is an Ice Cream was runner-up in the 2006 Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, and Loquats must be ripe commended in the 2007 Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize. Her book The Ink Drinkers is available at New Edition bookshop, Fremantle.
Trisha Kotai-Ewers
Trisha loves words, regardless of language. In recent years she has had poetry and prose published in journals and books. Her first book, Listen to the Talk of Us, focuses on the words of people with dementia.
Val Neubecker
Val grew up in Melbourne and, after marrying, lived in three states of Australia as well as South Africa, before settling in Perth in 1981. Her first published work was a travel article. She wrote for a theatre restaurant for 18 years, then progressed into children’s work with two books in 1987. Since retiring from work, Val has renewed her interest in writing for children and in 2001 she submitted three entries to a children’s literature competition. All entries received awards and one has subsequently been published. Other work has been accepted by the NSW School Magazine and NZ School Journal, several poems in ‘Bards of the Bush’ for the Farmers Weekly and a children’s picture book with CD was released by Koala Books through TaleSpinners in 2007. Val is a member of The Peter Cowan Writers Centre in Perth and an honorary Board Member of the Paraplegic & Quadriplegic Association of WA.