A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(October 2024) |
Meuse Press is an Australian Press, publishing a range of "poetry outreach" projects in a number of media ranging from a literary magazine to poetry published on the surface of a river. It was founded by Bill Farrow and Les Wicks. It is mostly edited/curated by the poet Les Wicks, but others in editorial roles have included Bill Farrow, Geoff Aldridge, Grant Caldwell, Raj Nair, Christine Peiying Chen, Deidre Kelsall, Carol Chandler, Marvis Sofield, Barbara De Franceschi, and Susan Adams.
Initially, it was an occasional magazine and an insert into other publications and anthologies. The first issue was in 1977. Publication of most of Australia's leading poets of the time was accompanied by graphics, and the magazine was a market leader in merging these two art forms.
From 1992 to 1999, Meuse published Artransit, which put poetry/art collaborations on Newcastle and Sydney buses and ferries. This collection has been exhibited in London, New York, St Louis, Sydney (multiple times), Maroochydore, and Brisbane. Historian Robert Holden has said "They engage a truly democratic audience. They impose themselves into locations usually reserved for advertising and mass consumption. They are immediate in their effect, and in the final analysis contribute to the vitalism of a public space. It was described as "...a singular surprise and delight..." by Robert Holden. [1]
In 2002, in conjunction with Don Gunn produced Heritage Light with Parramatta City Council. This series of banners, soundscapes, and projected poetry sought to reconnect citizens with their city at night whilst simultaneously celebrating heritage Week. A key part was the publishing of a poem on the surface of the Parramatta River so that it appeared to float downstream. This was widely regarded as a world first.
In 1998–2003, Written in Sand was displayed in bus shelters across Waverley with council support. This was a project designed to capture a picture of the area – its people, landscapes, and history – through poetry. In 2009, the launch of the e-anthology "Guide to Sydney Beaches" aimed at an audience new to poetry. In 2010, from this Broken Hill, [2] there was a celebration of the famous outback city. In 2011, "AU/UA Contemporary Poetry of Ukraine & Australia" was produced in cooperation with Krok Press – a first attempt to explore both nations' poetries in both languages. It was edited by Les Wicks, Yury Zavadsky and Grigory Semenchuk. [3]
"Guide to Sydney Rivers" was released in 2015 as a companion volume to the earlier beaches project and is aimed at an audience beyond the usual poetry readership. [4] A third installment "Guide to Sydney Crime" *SydneyCrime.pdf was published in 2022. In 2024 the anthology "Class" was released looking at the issue in a 21st century context.
Since April 2000, Meuse has produced Australian Poetry Collaboration. This online ezine mostly publishes poetry arising from events.
Homebush Bay is a bay on the south bank of the Parramatta River, in the west of Sydney, Australia. The name is also sometimes used to refer to an area to the west and south of the bay itself, which was formerly an official suburb of Sydney, and has now become the suburbs of Sydney Olympic Park, Wentworth Point and part of the neighbouring suburb of Lidcombe, all part of the City of Parramatta. Homebush Bay is located 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) west of the Sydney central business district.
Palm Beach is a suburb in the Northern Beaches region of Greater Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Palm Beach is located 41 kilometres (25 mi) north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. Palm Beach sits on a peninsula at the end of Barrenjoey Road near Pittwater and is the northernmost beach in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan area. The population of Palm Beach was 1,593 as at the 2016 census.
Narrabeen is a beachside suburb of northern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 23 kilometres northeast of the business district, shared by the local government area of Northern Beaches Council and the Northern Beaches region. The bay was named Broken Bay by James Cook as he sailed past.
Brighton Le Sands, is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Brighton Le Sands is located 13 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, on the western shore of Botany Bay. Brighton Le Sands is in the local government area of the Bayside Council and is part of the St George area.
Parramatta Road is the major historical east-west artery of metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, connecting the Sydney CBD with Parramatta. It is the easternmost part of the Great Western Highway. Since the 1990s its role has been augmented by the City West Link and M4 Motorway.
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such, its recognised literary tradition begins with and is linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, the narrative art of Australian writers has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent into literature—exploring such themes as Aboriginality, mateship, egalitarianism, democracy, national identity, migration, Australia's unique location and geography, the complexities of urban living, and "the beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.
Abbotsford is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Abbotsford is 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Abbotsford sits on the peninsula between Abbotsford Bay and Hen and Chicken Bay, on the Parramatta River.
Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Central Coast.
Leslie Allan Murray was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings.
Anne Kellas is an Australian poet, reviewer and editor, who was born in South Africa and emigrated to Australia in 1986.
Les Wicks is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has published more than fifteen books of poetry.
The geography of Sydney is characterised by its coastal location on a basin bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the Woronora Plateau to the south. Sydney lies on a submergent coastline on the east coast of New South Wales, where the ocean level has risen to flood deep river valleys (rias) carved in the Sydney sandstone. Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbour, is one such ria.
Robert Maxwell Hood is an Australian writer and editor recognised as one of Australia's leading horror writers, although his work frequently crosses genre boundaries into science fiction, fantasy and crime.
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution, mostly open to improvisation. From that time performance poetry in Australia has found new venues, audiences and expressions.
Anna Couani is a contemporary Australian poet and visual artist.
Australian Poetry is a national not-for-profit organisation representing Australian poets, based at The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. The organisation was created in 2011 by the amalgamation of Poets Union Inc., based in New South Wales, and the Australian Poetry Centre Inc. of Victoria.
Candida Baker is an Australian author, photographer, journalist and natural horsemanship practitioner. She was born in England and moved to Australia in 1977.
Robbie Coburn is a contemporary Australian poet.
Stephen Kenneth Kelen, known as S. K. Kelen, is an Australian poet and educator. S. K. Kelen began publishing poetry in 1973, when he won a Poetry Australia contest for young poets and several of his poems were published in that journal.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Sydney: