Listen to five brilliant poets at the top of their game read work from their latest collections, traversing love, migration, food, fatherhood, desire, identity, mental health, masculinity and revolution.
David Stavanger is a poet, producer, parent and lapsed psychologist, and the Artistic Director of Red Room Poetry. Hasib Hourani’s debut book, rock flight, won the NSW Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry 2025 and the Mary Gilmore Award 2025, and was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for Poetry 2025 and the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize 2025. Sean Wai Keung’s pamphlet you are mistaken won the Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition 2016 and his debut full-length poetry collection, sikfan glaschu, was shortlisted for the 2022 Kavya Prize, described as “joyful, earnest and offering unexpected poignancies from everyday life” by The Scotsman. Finally, poet, author and playwright Dominic Hoey’s blends humour, grit and empathy, reflecting the lived realities of working-class life in Aotearoa; his appearances at the Festival last year were such a hit, we had to invite him back!
David Stavanger is a poet, producer, parent and lapsed psychologist living on Wodi Wodi Dharawal land. He is the Artistic Director and producer of MAD Poetry at Red Room Poetry. David co-edited Solid Air: Australian & New Zealand Spoken Word and Admissions: Voices Within Mental Health, and is the author of The Special and Case Notes, which went on to win the 2021 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry. His newest collection is The Drop Off.
Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor, arts worker and educator living on unceded Gadigal Country. His debut book, rock flight, was released with Giramondo in 2024, and went on to win the NSW Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry 2025 and the Mary Gilmore Award 2025. Rock flights was also shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for Poetry 2025 and the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize 2025.
Chris Andrews is an adjunct associate professor at Western Sydney University. He has translated books of prose fiction by Kaouther Adimi, César Aira, Selva Almada, Roberto Bolaño, Liliana Colanzi and Ágota Kristóf, among other authors. His study of the Oulipo, How to Do Things with Forms, was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2022. The Oblong Plot is his third collection of poetry.
Sean Wai Keung is a writer and performance maker based in Glasgow. His pamphlet you are mistaken won the Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition 2016 and his debut full length poetry collection, sikfan glaschu, was published by Verve Poetry Press in April 2021. He has worked with organisations including the National Theatre of Scotland, Tramway Glasgow and the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, amongst others.
Dominic Hoey is a poet, author and playwright. His novels Iceland and Poor People with Money were both New Zealand bestsellers, with Iceland longlisted for the 2018 Ockham Book Awards. Dominic is the founder of Learn to Write Good, a creative writing program that supports people with limited access to formal education. He also co-founded Dead Bird Books, a small press publishing marginalised writers.
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