The Writer in the Public Arena: Implications of a Poet Laureate for Australia

Journalism and Writing at UTS invite you to join us for this special event with Stella Prize-winning poet and academic  Professor Sarah Holland-Batt. 

Through the federal government’s Revive national cultural policy, Australia is set to establish the role of a Poet Laureate from 2025. In this keynote, Professor Holland-Batt will consider the relationship between poetry and the public realm—from bards to court poets to laureates—and examine how a laureateship may help shape the reception of Australian poetry at home and abroad.  

This event will commence with a talk by Professor Holland-Batt followed by a Q&A session led by UTS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing Dr Delia Falconer. It will also be streamed via Zoom and you can register for an online ticket.

Professor Sarah Holland-Batt is an award-winning poet, editor and critic. Her books have received a number of Australia’s leading literary awards, including the Stella Prize for her most recent book, The Jaguar, and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry for her second volume, The Hazards. She is also the author of a book of essays on contemporary Australian poetry, Fishing for Lightning, collecting her poetry columns written for The Australian. She is currently a cohost of Julia Gillard’s Book Club on A Podcast of One’s Own, and Professor of Creative Writing at QUT.