I am honoured to announce that I will be a National Guest Poet at this year's Perth Poetry Festival alongside Juan Garrido-Slagado from South Australia and Jean Kent from New South Wales. We'll be joining International Guest Poet Srijato Bandyopadhyay from India as well as Local Guest Poets Lisa Collyer, Caitlin Maling, Talya Ruben and Luoyang Chen. The festival will take place from 9-17 September 2023 on Whadjuk Noongar land in and around the glorious Western Australian city of Boorlo / Perth.

I've been enviously observing the vibrant Perth Poetry scene from afar for quite some time and I am looking forward to discovering new poets, hearing amazing poetry and being part of it all, even if it's only for a short time. There are so many great poets coming out of Western Australia including Shastra Deo, Madison Godfrey, Scott Patrick Mitchell (who I got to interview in season one of Pocketry Presents), Rashida Murphy, Nadia Rhook and Elfie Shiosaki. And so many workshops I wish I could do, especially those being held at the Wetlands Centre (where Lakshmi R Kanchi is the poet in residence) and at the Centre for Stories.

It's going to be my second visit to the city. The first was with my parents when I was in primary school and I can barely remember anything from that trip. I'm looking forward to rediscovering this west coast city.

WA Poets Inc put on a great festival and there will be performances, open mics, workshops and more!

If this sounds like your cup of tea, you can find the workshops here. There's an early bird discount if you book before 1 July 2023.