April 16

What a line-up and feast of words we had! Glenys Osborne talked about winning the Barbara Jefferis Award (worth $35,000!) and read from her winning novel, Come Inside. Our feature readers, Alex Skovron and Claire Gaskin had everyone leaning forward in their seats  - and not because of the noisy coffee machine behind! Our open readers - including two first-timers! - added a richness and diversity to a thoroughly entertaining afternoon. And to top it all off my 86-year-old Dad turned up under his own steam to give me a surprise. Which he did! Lovely.

G.L. Osborne

STOP PRESS

G.L. Osborne, winner of the 2011 Barbara Jefferis Award, will be making a guest appearance alongside Claire Gaskin and Alex Skovron at Stopping all Stations this Saturday, April 16. She will be reading from her prize-winning novel Come Inside.

A literary feast not to be missed.

Claire Gaskin and Alex Skovron

Saturday April 16 is the next scheduled Stopping all Stations with limited open section and Alex Skovron AND Claire Gaskin featured readers.

 

Alex Skovron was born in Poland, lived briefly in Israel, and came to Australia aged nine. He is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Autographs (2008), and a short novel, The Poet (2005). Awards for his poetry include the Wesley Michel Wright Prize, the John Shaw Neilson Award, the Australian Book Review Poetry Prize, and for his first book, The Rearrangement (1988), the Anne Elder and Mary Gilmore awards. His novella was joint winner of the FAW Christina Stead Award for fiction. Alex’s New & Selected Poems is in preparation. He lives in Melbourne and works as a freelance editor.

Claire Gaskin has been publishing for over twenty years. Her collection entitled, a bud, was published by John Leonard Press in 2006, and was shortlisted in the John Bray SA Festival Awards for Literature in 2008. She was the 2009 recipient of the Alan Marshall scholarship. She has been a long term teacher of writing and literature in adult education. She was the Victorian editor of the literary journal Blue Dog from 2007 till 2010.

March 19

Stopping all Stations has choofed off down the tracks and into another year of readings. And what a way to begin. Aside from our open readers, Sandy Jeffs had the audience a hundred percent engaged – either transfixed or falling off their chairs laughing. Her poetry was inspiring and a testament to her creative strategies for living with schizophrenia. (Check out how it moved Amber Beilharz, a regular at Stations and one of our open readers.)
Next month, Saturday April 16, we have Alex Skovron and Claire Gaskin. Tell your friends and put the date in your diary now.

Sandy Jeffs

Happy New Year lovers of the spoken word and welcome to another Stopping all Stations line-up. So far it's looking good! I'm away for some of February so we're starting back on Saturday March 19. Can't wait.

We're kicking the year off with the amazing Sandy Jeffs. Check out her bio below.

In the meantime, get writing. See you in March!

Sandy Jeffs has published five books of poetry and in late 2009 the Vulgar Press published her memoir called Flying with Paper Wings which was awarded SANE Australia's book of the year 2010 and short listed for the Age book of the year and a Human Rights award. Much of her writing has been concerned with madness, based on her experience of schizophrenia. She also writes about living in a family traumatised by her violent father and alcoholic mother. On a lighter note, Sandy has written about the trials and tribulations of playing midweek ladies' tennis. She has performed at various venues and has been published in many journals. Sandy appeared at the Melbourne Writers Festival in 2010.

November

Having Lisa Dempster read from her book Neon Pilgrim was a great way to finish up the year for Stopping all Stations. Loads of fun and, as always, a great vibe. Thanks to all the open readers and especially to Shari Kocher-Campbell, who read out her winning poem from the 2010 Page Seventeen Poetry Competition, 'Dreaming in Auslan: a Study in Yellow and Grey'.

And thanks to our sponsors, and Tiggy donating a copy of the latest Page Seventeen and Lorraine McGuigan some back issues of Poetry Monash, everyone went home with a door prize!

We're taking a well-earned break until next year when we kick off again in March with Sandy Jeffs, author of Flying with Paper Wings.

All the best to everyone for the festive season. See you in 2011.

Lisa Dempster

Lisa Dempster, our feature reader for  Stopping all Stations this month, is the author of Neon Pilgrim and editor of The Australian Veg Food Guide. She is also the Director of the Emerging Writers' Festival. 

Lisa assures me she is NOT a poet, but if you check out her website you'll see she's had quite a year and will have plenty to talk about.

Looking forward to seeing you at the LAST Stopping all Stations event for the year. (We'll be starting up again in March 2011.)