This August, Queensland Poetry Festival will present their 20th event, with three days and four nights of poetry, spoken word, panels, film, performance, art installations, slam, comedy, and hip-hop. This year’s festival, Lost Language, Found, will have a particularly strong indigenous and first nation focus.
Some ninety artists will be present for the festival, both Australian and international. Highlights include national treasure Archie Roach, Black Comedy’s Steven Oliver, a screening of an exclusive interview & reading by Clive James, and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith and storyteller Ivan Coyote in their only Queensland appearances.
This year’s Arts Queensland Poet In Residence will be Booker Prize listed Indian author and poet Jeet Thayil, with the position of first ever Indigenous Poet In Residence going to Brisbane’s own Samuel Wagan Watson.
Other major events include the Australian Poetry Slam QLD Final, a panel on the preservation of lost languages, a screening of Australian hip-hop film Survival Tactics, and The Prince and The Duke, a mixed media tribute to two of the great musical poets, David Bowie and Prince. Opening night of the festival will play host to the 2016 Poetry Awards, which this year includes the presentation of the inaugural Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize, named for the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.
The 2016 Queensland Poetry Festival, Lost Language, Found will run from August 25th until August 28th, at venues around Brisbane. The majority of the events will be free, though bookings may be required. You can find the full programme, including ticket details, at the QPF website.
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