The Sydney Poetry Picnic is a celebration of poetry.

The annual event was cancelled on December 10th, 2023, due to wet ground conditions and the threat of rain. The rescheduled date was arrived at by Date Poll and we thank everyone who participated in nominating their date preference.

The Sydney Poetry Picnic is an acknowledgement of the efforts undertaken throughout the year by the conveners of poetry in forging poetry communities and developing support of the art form in Sydney and New South Wales. Representatives are invited to attend, speak of their event and read. There is also an opportunity for poets to register to read, or perform in the open reading section.

Now in its eighth year, the reading will feature three-time winner of the Nimbin World Cup of Poetry, Tug Dumbly, (Geoff Forrester), as Emcee.

From the more established poetry events through to the emerging, performative and the competitive Sydney and NSW poetry that feature, local, regional, national and international poets and collaborators across a range of different venues, from libraries, galleries, museums to pubs and clubs will have an opportunity to share with us their public programs in 2024.

The family event is free, dog friendly and has been relocated to be more accessible for everyone at Harmony Park, Surry Hills. The venue also within the NSW postcode 2010, which is set to be our precinct for the inaugural poetry festival, P - - TCODE:2010, in November 2024, in association with the Heart of Surry Hills Festival.

Representative poets will be reading from some of the poetry events that feature in Sydney and NSW: Australian Poetry; Avant Gaga; Bankstown Poetry; Live Poets Society; Loose Leaf Literature; North Shore Poetry Project; Poetry at the Petersham Bowlo; Poetry at the Rudolph Steiner House; Poetry Salon; Poetry Sydney; Poetry at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts; Red Room Poetry; Sydney Poetry Lounge; West Side Poetry Slam and Word Travels.

The event is subject to weather conditions. Notification of cancellation will be provided at 11.30am through the Facebook event page and members will receive notification by email.

Tug Dumbly bio:

Tug Dumbly is a Nowra-born poet and performer who has lived in Sydney since the last Ice Age. He has worked extensively in radio, venues and schools, and founded a couple of seminal live poetry nights in Sydney. He has performed his work as resident-poet on ABC radio (Triple J, ABC 702), and released two spoken-word CDs through the ABC. His awards include the Banjo Paterson Prize for Comic Verse (twice), and Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup (thrice). His poems have appeared in many journals and newspapers and he has been shortlisted several times for major awards, including the Newcastle Poetry Prize (3 times), the Vice Chancellor’s Poetry Prize (twice) and the ACU Poetry Prize (2021). In 2020 he won the Booranga Poetry Prize. His first poetry collection, Son Songs, came out in 2018 through Flying Islands Books. He likes photography and nature, especially cicadas.

Poets interested in reading, please register by email: mail@poetrysydney.org

Poetry Sydney acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land where we live, create, meet and work.

This event is presented by Poetry Sydney, supported by the Surry Hills Business Partnership, and sponsored by Local Precincts and Eastside Radio.

Image: Generated by DALL·E 2023 - “Drawing of poets in harmony performing to a large audience near a jacaranda tree”

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