Hello poets and poetry lovers. Join us next Thursday night November 16 for a night of words and live music at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf upstairs in the gallery. This month our poetry features have once again traveled from afar to meet us. We are delighted to host two thirds of Wanderlust Women – Lesley Benzie and Linda Jackson. Plus we have Declan Kelly returning to Poetica after far too long to sing us some songs and melt our hearts. See their bios below. The open mic is as per usual. Show up and throw your name in the hat. Wine, kombucha and cheese. Gonna be another night of all that feels right in the world.

Tickets: https://www.woollahragallery.com.au/Whats-On/Events/Poetica-Petit-2023

Wanderlust Women are 3 Scottish women who still ‘travel’ but now in the worlds of love, lust & loss, the personal and universal. They consider those aspects of life, amongst others, that can feel like ‘extra baggage’. The three poets have a lot in common. They’re gritty, tough, their observation is born of personal experience, not all of it pleasant. That is recommendation enough but there are many moments too of pure revelation. 

Wanderlust Women at Poetica Petit features the 2 wanderlusters:

Lesley Benzie writes in Scots Doric and English, she has 2 poetry collections, Sewn Up and Fessen/Reared (Seahorse in 2020). That year she also received Highly Commended in the Federation of Writers Scotland and Runner-up in McCash Scots Poetry Competitions. In 2021 she was shortlisted in the Main and Scots categories of the Wigtown Poetry Prize. She is a contributor to the 2 collaborative collections, Wanderlust Women; 3 poets and Norlan Lichts (Rymour Books 2022) which was nominated for Book of the year in the Scots Language Awards, in which she is also nominated as the Writer of the Year.

Linda Jackson is the founding editor of Seahorse Publications, a polymath and the originator of a myriad of regular literary, arts and musical events in Glasgow and further afield. Her own work includes The Siren Awakes (2020), The Cabinet, Red Squirrel Press, 2021, and she has appeared in various anthologies. In early 2023, her poem about COPS 26 Film Noir at Kelvingrove won an award in Brighton’s Flight of the Dragonfly. Her second poetry collection, also Red Squirrel is due out in 2023. The second memoir, Siren:Wild in Me will also be published in 2023. An academic in the past, her doctorate was a comparative study of Woolf and Nietzsche. She is a lecturer/writing tutor of many years, and is a lifelong singer/musician. http://www.lindajaxson.com

Declan Kelly released his last album Views With A Room in September 2019. It was an album of self-reflection and the first original album released in ten years. And now we’re excited to celebrate another album release conceived over the last three years when Covid locked us all down, gigs were cancelled and for Declan and his partner, a baby (Billie) was born.

The album title Headlock says all that needs to be said about the last three years. “It’s the right call with this madness, it’s a major haul for us to carry, we’re caught in a headlock with these roadblocks, it’s time to say goodbye to hard knocks” sings Declan.

His most recent single release, All Over Again was immediately added to rotation on Double J, whilst other songs on the album encourage us to Breathe In Now and suggest Scenes Will Change. There’s a song to welcome his new addition Billie’s On Her Way and another to be thankful for the Old Man.

For Declan, he says ”Over the course of one’s life, you accumulate many influences that have a deep profound effect on you. So much so that it reflects in your work and Art without even consciously knowing. This album Headlock was conceived during the lockdown and recorded in The Nest, my sanctuary, during all the madness. The silence allowed me to harness the pool of great and various inspirations and made me realise I shouldn’t pigeonhole myself into a ‘genre’ but let it breathe into its own creations with this body of work. In a time where we can access so much music and other art forms, it is a great time to be as creative as you wish and to never box yourself into what you think the mainstream wants or follow trends. I hope I have expressed and achieved this with my new album Headlock.“

LISTEN HERE

Declan Kelly acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Country on which he is based – the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and all the Traditional Owners throughout Australia.