Gallery page from my research trip to Australia

In February 2018 I was awarded a grant by Arts Council England and the British Council to do a research project in Sydney and Melbourne based around my climate change poetry.

These photographs were taken at a conference I attended in Parramatta, Sydney, about literature and disappearing islands and polar regions. Organised by the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature (SPACLALS), it took place during the Lunar New Year and in temperatures of up to 39 degrees.

The gallery shows conference delegates including the current New Zealand poet laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh, and Tahitian novelist, Célestine Hitiura Vaite, and other poets and novelists. There are also a few images from a reading I gave in Melbourne.

The project’s aims were:

• To present a paper at an academic conference about literature and disappearing islands and threatened polar regions.
• To read and perform my work with Australian and South Pacific writers.
• To network with Australian writers, academics and others.

Funding was also granted for a media assistant to come with me to take photos, videos and audio recordings, so I’m indebted to Carl Burness for putting these together.