Poetica presents four unique poetical worlds in one event.

Melinda Bufton traverses the office landscape of our collective psyche in ‘Moxie’ (Vagabond Press, 2020). Lebanese-Palestinian poet Hasib Hourani disrupts expectations of place, archive and the relationship between the two. Queensland Literary Award winner and co-editor of the gay and lesbian anthology ‘Out of the Box’, Michael Farrell, shares new poems. And Canberra-based poet and Australian Poetry Slam finalist, Jacqui Malins, will read from her collection ‘F-words’ (Recent Work Press, 2021) which forays into fables, fauna and flora, feminism.

Poets: Michael Farrell, Hasib Hourani, Melinda Bufton, Jacqui Malins

Convener/MC: Amanda Anastasi


La Mama Poetica: Poetical Worlds will also be livestreamed on Jun 14, 8pm.


Image by Kendall Kirkwood

Melinda Bufton is the author of Girlery and Superette and her poetry has appeared in Contemporary Australian Poetry (Puncher & Wattmann, 2016) and Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry (Hunter Publishers, 2016) . In 2019, she was the winner of the Charles Rischbieth Jury Poetry Prize and the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award, the latter resulting in the publication of her third collection, Moxie (2020). She enjoys dense and molten poetry, often at the same time.

Michael Farrell has published several books of poetry, most recently ‘Family Trees’ and ‘i love poetry’ (Giramondo), for which we won the Queensland Literary Award: Judith Wright Calanthe Prize. His previous title, ‘Cocky’s Joy’, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry in 2016. He also co-edited ‘Out of the Box’ (Puncher & Wattman) with Jill Jones, an anthology of Australian gay and lesbian poetry.

Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor and arts worker living on unceded Wurundjeri Country. His practice disrupts expectations of place, archive and the relationship between the two. Hasib is a 2020 recipient of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter Scheme and is currently working on a book of poetry about suffocation and the occupation of Palestine. You can find his work in Meanjin, Overland and Going Down Swinging.

Jacqui Malins is a Canberra-based poet, artist and creator of the poetry shows ‘Words in Flight’ and ‘Cavorting With Time’, resulting in a chapbook of the same name. Her poetry collection is ‘F-Words’ (Recent Work Press, 2021) and her work has been published in Not Very Quiet, Rabbit and Poets Reading the News. She has performed at the Woodford Folk Festival and has been an Australian Poetry Slam finalist.


Access Information:

Visual rating 50%: Events are partly subtitled or include dialogue, background music and/or sounds, so d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences can have some engagement with the event.

100% Aural rating symbol

Aural Rating 100%: Entirely sound-based with no visual elements and can be fully experienced by blind or low vision audiences.