Masterclass: Poetry as Activism

This masterclass brings together a group of award-winning critically acclaimed poets from the southern hemisphere to explore the extent to which their writing practice and work might be labelled activism. This two-hour masterclass will focus on the craft of writing, and is appropriate for writers of all career stages, and those interested in the craft behind the polished and produced publications we see on bookshelves. Spaces are limited. Book now to avoid disappointment.

Authors: Ali Cobby Eckermann, Evelyn Araluen, Michelle Cahill, and Dan Taulapapa McMulllin.

Moderator: Jill Jones

Ali Cobby Eckermann is a Yankunytjatjara grandmother, poet and visual artist residing on Ngadjuri country where she lived her early years. Traditional desert country and culture provided solace to write following her emotive and epic journey to connect with her birth and kinship family. Ali's latest verse is She Is The Earth (Magabala 2023).  In 2024 Giramondo will release her New & Selected.

Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, researcher and co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Her Stella-prize winning poetry collection DROPBEAR was published by UQP in 2021. She lectures in Literature and Creative Writing at Deakin University

Dan Taulapapa McMullin is an artist and poet from Sāmoa i Sasa'e (American Samoa). Their artist book The Healer's Wound: A Queer Theirstory of Polynesia (2022) was published by Pu'uhonua Society and Tropic Editions of Honolulu for HT22 the Hawai'i Triennial. Their book of poems Coconut Milk (2013) was on the American Library Association Rainbow List Top Ten Books of the Year. The Bat and other early works received a 1997 Poets&Writers Award from The Writers Loft. They co-edited Samoan Queer Lives (2018) published by Little Island Press of Aotearoa. Their work was shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Metropolitan Museum, De Young Museum, Musée du quai Branly, Auckland Art Gallery and Bishop Museum. Their film Sinalela (2001) won the 2002 Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival Best Short Film Award. Their film 100 Tikis was the opening night film selection of the 2016 Présence Autochtone in Montréal and was an Official Selection in the Fifo Tahiti Film Festival in Pape'ete. Taulapapa's art studio and writing practice is on Muhheaconneock lands in Hudson, New York, where they live with their husband.

Michelle D’Souza (she/they) is a poet and novelist of Indian heritage. She was the Hedberg Writer-in- Residence at the University of Tasmania, where she is an adjunct. Her debut fiction Letter to Pessoa (Giramondo) received the NSW Premier's Literary Award for New Writing. Daisy & Woolf longlisted in the ALS Gold Medal and Voss Literary Prize. She received the KWS Hilary Mantel International Short Story Prize. Cahill is the artistic director of Mascara, a literary journal that has advocated and published First Nations and CaLD writers. Her poetry collection Blaze is forthcoming with Cordite.