Reflections: A Poetic Finale
Description
A brilliant line-up of local and interstate poets take to the stage to share works that resonate with the festival theme of reflections. From lyrical meditations to rousing rhymes, interspersed with musical interludes, this will be an unforgettable evening of words and song. Featuring Evelyn Araluen, Maxine Beneba Clarke and David Stavanger, alongside local favourites Thuy On, Helen Jarvis, Stephanie Powell and Susan Bradley-Smith. MC’ed by Amanda Anastasi.
Music: The Ricolas
Drinks can be purchased at the festival bar.
Lineup
Evelyn Araluen
Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, editor and researcher. Born and raised on Dharug Country and in the broader Western Sydney Black community, she now lives on Wurundjeri Country where she is a lecturer at the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, a co-editor of Overland Literary Journal and Chairperson for the Board of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies. Her debut poetry collection, Dropbear, won the 2022 Stella Prize and the Australian Book Industry Award’s 2022 Small Publisher’s Adult Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the premier’s awards of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Her work has also received the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and a Melbourne Prize Career Development Award. The Rot won the 2026 Victorian Prize for Literature and Award for Indigenous Writing at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Maxine Beneba Clarke is one of Australia’s most celebrated poets. She is the author of over fourteen books, including the bestselling memoir The Hate Race, the ABIA and Indie award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the Victorian Premier’s Award-winning poetry collection Carrying the World, the ABIA award-winning poetry collection It’s the Sound of the Thing, the Kate Greenaway Medal longlisted illustrated poem When We Say Black Lives Matter and the CBCA honour book The Patchwork Bike, which also won the Boston Globe Horn Prize for Best Picture Book. She was the inaugural Peter Steele Poet in Residence at The University of Melbourne.
David Stavanger
David Stavanger is a poet, producer, and lapsed psychologist living on Wodi Wodi Dharawal land. He is the co-editor of Solid Air: Australian & New Zealand Spoken Word (UQP, 2019), Admissions: Voices Within Mental Health (Upswell, 2022), and is the author of Case Notes, which won the 2021 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry—his latest collection is The Drop Off (Upswell, 2025). David works as an Artistic Director at Red Room Poetry.
Thuy On
Thuy On is an arts journalist, critic, editor and poet. She has three collections of poetry published by UWAP: Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). Her fourth collection, Insolence, will be published in early 2027.
Helen Jarvis
Helen Jarvis lives in Williamstown, on Bunurong land, and teaches in Melbourne’s west. A committee member since 2022, she loves the diversity of writing the festival promotes, and the passionate reading community it fosters. Helen studied writing at RMIT, and has helped to organise and judge the writing prizes. Her first poetry collection, The Kindness of Water, was published in 2025 with 5 Islands Press.
Stephanie Powell
Stephanie Powell is a poet based in Naarm / Melbourne. She is the winner of the AAALS Prize 2025, the Woorilla Prize 2024, the Ada Cambridge Prize for Poetry 2024 and has been previously shortlisted for the Woollahra Digital Literary Award (2024). She has three collections of poetry, Bone (Halas Press, 2021), Gentle Creatures (Vagabond Press, 2023) and Invisible Wasp (Liquid Amber Press, 2024). She lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung land.
Susan Bradley SMith
Susan Bradley Smith is an Australian poet, librettist, and historian. She grew up in Bundjalung country in rural New South Wales, has a PhD in Literature, and is a graduate of the Playwrights Studio at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. After beginning her writing life as a rock journalist, Susan has since worked as an academic in Australia, London, and Rome. An award-winning writer, her books include the memoir Friday Forever, and a history of suffragette theatre, A Splendid Adventure. Her 10th collection of poetry The Thing I came For is forthcoming in August 2026 from Liquid Amber Press. Susan is a fan of flea markets, road trips, and ocean life. You can read her poetic diary on instagram @bluepoetess.
Amanda Anastasi
Amanda Anastasi is a Melbourne poet and event convener. Her work has been published locally and internationally, including in Best of Australian Poems 2025, Best Australian Science Writing, Griffith Review and The Massachusetts Review. Amanda is the author of Taking Apart the Bird Trap (Recent Work Press, 2024) and The Inheritors (Black Pepper, 2021). Amanda was Poet in Residence for three years at the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub. She is a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow and a two-time recipient of the Willy Lit Fest’s Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize. Amanda is the convener of La Mama Poetica at La Mama Theatre and Co-Founder and Committee Member of the Sonic Poetry Festival.
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