PORT & POETRY

Join Port Kembla's BURIED IN BOOKS celebrate poetry in the Illawarra with five of our best! Be excited, this will be a great event! Bookings essential.

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THE FIVE POETS

David Stavanger is a poet, performer, editor, cultural producer and lapsed psychologist. He is the co-editor of Solid Air: Australian & New Zealand Spoken Word and Admissions: Voices Within Mental Health. David is the author of The Special, which received the Wesley Michel Wright and Thomas Shapcott awards, Case Notes, which won the 2021 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, and his latest collection is The Drop Off. He is Artistic Director at Red Room Poetry and lives on Dharawal Land in Port Kembla. David will facilitate the event on October 15th.

Kirli Saunders (OAM) is a proud Gunai Woman who lives and works with Dharawal, Wodi Wodi, and Yuin Ngurra. She's an award winning multidisciplinary artist, an author to nine books, including Kindred Magabala 2019, Returning Magabala 2023, Eclipse U&A 2024. She is a singer-songwriter and consultant. Kirli is the creator & performer of the one-person play, Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly), which was performed at the Merrigong Theatre, Wollongong in 2025 and a return season in 2026. Kirli creates to connect, to make change. She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts (2022).

Ali Jane Smith lives on Dharawal Country. Her poems, essays and reviews have appeared in Cordite, Australian Poetry Journal, Southerly, Overland, Rabbit, Cordite, and Sydney Review of Books. She is the author of the poetry collection The Strange Matter (Gazebo Books 2025).

Dakota Feirer is a Goori storyteller based on Yuin, Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country. Dakota's debut collection of of poems, Arsenic Flower, engages with Country, culture, resurgence and manhood. Dakota believes in healing Country and our communities through art and storytelling.

Joseph ‘Butch’ Schwarzkopf Jr. is an Illawarra (Dharawal Country) based Filipinx poet. He has performed as a poet at events such as Outspoken Poetics, Unspoken Words festival, and The Digital Sala’s Tula for Typhoon Relief. His debut poetry book Pagong Cannot Climb Trees, was published by Sampaguita Press in 2022.

Access is available for those with mobility issues. Please contact the bookshop on 0452287319 to advise of required assistance.

We very gratefully acknowledge that this is a funded author event as part of the ABA (Australian Booksellers Association) Bookshop Events Program which has been assisted by the Australian Government through Writing Australia.