Notes From A Reading: Dunedin

Harvey Molloy and I were both in Dunedin for a Coal Action Network Aotearoa hui this past weekend, and we took the opportunity (with the very much appreciated help of Mākaro Press, Dunedin Public Libraries and University Book Shop Otago) to have a joint poetry reading, with Bruce from the University Bookshop selling our two latest collections:

• Harvey Molloy, Udon by the Remarkables
• Tim Jones, New Sea Land

Here are some photos from the launch, used here with the kind permission of photographer James Dignan.

Harvey Molloy at the lectern

“I was sure there was a poem in here somewhere!”

Using my inside voice

So how did the reading go? Very well. 12 noon on a Sunday is a weird time for a poetry reading, but it was the only time both of us were available that didn’t clash with Dunedin Arts Festival events. So we were very pleased that around 20 people turned up, and that, after Harvey and I finished reading, we had an open mike session of amazing quality – Carolyn McCurdie, Sue Wootton, James Dignan and Linzy Forbes were the open mike readers.

The whole reading had a really nice feel to it: warm, open and inclusive. Plenty of books were bought and signed, and all in all, it was a great time. I hope to get down to Dunedin again – to read, and to visit all my lovely friends there – next year.

NEXT WEEK: I’ve been reading and enjoying P. S. Cottier’s new chapbook Quick Bright Things: Poems of fantasy and myth, and I’ll be posting a poem from that – I enjoyed the whole collection, but this one stood out to me.