Carmen travelled to Tasmania to read at the Tasmanian Poetry Festival in Launceston, deliver a poetry workshop at the Tasmanian Writers' Centre in Hobart and to spend time at the Kelly Street Writers' Cottage, Hobart to begin some new work.
Reading alongside established poets, and poets with vastly different styles at the Festival encouraged Carmen to continue to focus on the uniqueness in her own work. With every reading and festival she is finding that she is refining her own poetry aesthetic and technical judgment.
The connections Carmen made at the Tasmanian Poetry Festival and the Tasmanian Writers' Centre will be beneficial to future opportunities. She also made contact with a number of established interstate poets, and was able to provide them with some of her longer poems which assisted with networking at the festival.
Disappointingly, the Writers’ Centre workshop was cancelled. However, on the strength of her experiences at the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, Carmen was sought out upon her return to Brisbane to discuss future readings and workshops in her home city.
October to October 2014
Launceston and Hobart, Tasmania
$2370– Individuals Fund
Carmen’s time in Tasmania enabled her to reflect on how to present herself and her work, particularly in a festival context:
Poetry festival audiences are sincerely interested in what you do as a poet, so it is worth having some clear thoughts prepared on how you describe your style and interests. Don't assume that your work will always speak for you; your comments can be what encourages someone to stay and listen, or to look out for you in the future.
Being able to communicate about your poetry and yourself is the doorway to getting readers. On this trip I experienced this requirement in different contexts: in one-on-one discussions; in how people introduced me; in how I introduced my own work before a reading; and how I talked about writing in general when I was interviewed on ABC Radio in Hobart.
Email: carmen.keates@gmail.com
Website: https://keates.wordpress.com/
A pdf version of the case study (PDF) (390.96 KB) is available case study.