Last night I went to the launch of Tusiata Avia's second collection, "Bloodclot". It was a good launch – a bit of a who's-who of the female portion of the Christchurch literary scene. Held upstairs in the Debating Chamber at Our City O-Tautahi, (which used to be the Christchurch Tourist Information Centre when I first visited Christchurch). The …
Sonnets for SIWA – part II: the deliberation
Well I'm making my final choices in the SIWA sonnet competition. It's been quite interesting. Encouraging in some ways, discouraging in others. My worry when I first sat down with the packet of entries was that I would be confronted with entry after entry in stilted, forced rhyme. Or bad pastiches of Keats, or Donne. …
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Happy Holidays!
A Dark Feathered Art will be on holidays until mid January 2009, when we will return with thoughts on sonnets, judging and writing groups, as well as the usual waffle on books and writing in general ... Thanks for reading, and have a great holiday! Joanna
Sonnets for SIWA
I've been asked to judge a sonnet competition for the South Island Writer's Association, which should be fun. But being asked got me thinking about what exactly makes a sonnet. Where are the borders, the limits? I covered this briefly with my Polytech class (with varying amounts of success). We had a look at sonnets …
Dorothy Porter dies
Just heard this morning – Australian poet Dorothy Porter died yesterday. Complications from breast cancer. She was only 54. I heard her read once, at the Christchurch Literary Festival. It was electrifying. She had strong, dark wit, and her poems bristled with energy. I can still remember the wicked smile she had on her …
A Dark Feathered Art 