Join us for a very special Poetica Petit in the not-so-petit gallery upstairs at Woollahra Gallery at Red Leaf. To celebrate Valentines Day we are hosting a night of love poems featuring works from Barbara Kamler’s Love, regardless read by Karen Pearlman, Richard James Allen and Barbara Kamler. We will also be wonderfully entertained by opera singer Elizabeth Cooper. Plus… the grand old open mic. It’s going to be a big night!

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/love-regardless-celebrate-love-with-a-special-poetica-petit-tickets-493112090537

ABOUT THE BOOK

Love, regardless offers a unique mode of storytelling, where interviews are poetically crafted into rhythmic verse. These are stories of love and the telling needs to be sculpted to get at the heart of things.

While the characters in this volume are actual people, and the events they impart really happen, this is not a tedious set of Q and A excerpts. Kamler’s deft hand lifts and transfigures these experiences into poetry that sings with the vitality of the spoken word. The result is 14 love stories that are uplifting, accessible and deeply affecting, as couples revisit the past together—having survived and appreciated all that has happened in between.

There is no simple secret to lasting love. The stories recounted by Kamler yield a variety of perspectives on commitment, respect, laughter and endurance that will appeal to poetry lovers and prose readers alike. Love, regardless is a beautiful and provocative collection, exploring the passion and pathos of long love—and the ways couples move forward, together, regardless.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in New Jersey, Barbara Kamler came to Australia as a young teacher in the early 70s and developed
a distinguished career as an academic over the next forty years. Her debut poetry collection Leaving New Jersey (2016) is a memoir of fifty-six prose poems, recounting the story of leaving America and arriving in Australia (where Kamler did not plan to stay). Her poetry has appeared in The Age, The Australian, Australian Poetry Journal, Poetrix, Poetry New Zealand, as well as various anthologies. ‘The usual questions do not pertain’ was shortlisted for the 2017 Newcastle Poetry Prize. Love, regardless is Melbourne-based Kamler’s second collection exploring the complexities of love and visceral connection.