Enjoy the complete festival experience with this year’s FESTIVAL PASS*. Passholders save up to 20% on the total ticket cost and have the opportunity to meet and greet our guest poets at…
Category: 2023
Friday Night with Rebecca Rushbrook, Myron Lysenko and Tug Dumbly
From 7:15 pm Kicking off the Tasmanian Poetry Festival 2023 are three entertaining and powerful guests: Rebecca Rushbrook, Myron Lysenko, and Tug Dumbly, hosted by MC Thomas Bailey. Prepare for a refulgent…
Saturday Sessions: Deceptions and Perceptions
9:00 am | Open MicRegistrations open from 8:40 am 10:00 am | ‘Deceptions’A staged reading of Stella Kent’s play about Tasmanian poet Gwen Harwood, directed by Peter Hammond. 11:30 am | Guest…
Launceston Poetry Cup (Saturday Evening)
From 6:30 pm The highlight of the weekend is the iconic Launceston Poetry Cup. Open to all, our poets have just one minute to impress the audience with a piece of original…
Sunday Sessions
Jazz and Poetry 10:00 am | Ross Donlon and Steve BrianJazz backed poetry 10:40 am | Guest PoetsBrendan Ryan, Pamela Leach, David Hallet 12:00 pm | LunchA light lunch will served 1:00…
Andrew Hardy Youth Poetry Prize 2023
The Andrew Hardy Youth Poetry Prize is awarded in memory of Andrew Hardy, who died at the age of 22, in 1997. Andrew Hardy was not only a poet of great potential,…
Join a Masterclass
In 2023 Festival Masterclasses were carried out by Esther Ottaway, Kimberley K Williams and Myron Lysenko.
Tasmanian Poetry Festival 2023 Programme
6-8th October 2023 Earl Arts Centre, Launceston 10 Earl St, Launceston, right behind the Princess Theatre Click here for a map | Click here for useful Theatre North Venue Information GET TICKETS:…
Esther Ottaway
Esther is the winner of the 2022 Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry and People’s Choice Award in the Tasmanian Literary Awards. She also holds multiple national and international prizes and shortlistings, including…
Helga Jermy
Helga is an English-Estonian poet, now living on lutruwita-Tasmania’s northwest coast. Although living in a small village close to farmland and beaches, she also regularly spends time in Melbourne, thus enjoying both…
David Hallett
David has been writing and performing poetry since the 1970s. Winner of the 2019 Reciter of the Year award, twice winner of the Poetry Olympics at the Sydney Writers Festival, plus Woodford…
Tug Dumbly
Tug Dumbly is the pen and stage name of Geoff Forrester, a Nowra-born poet and performer who has lived in Sydney for decades. He has worked extensively in radio, venues and schools,…
Kimberley K Williams
Kimberley is the author of three books: Still Lives (Life Before Man/Gazebo Books, 2022), Sometimes a Woman (Recent Work Press, 2021) and Finally, the Moon, (Stephen F Austin University Press, 2017). Still…
Rebecca Rushbrook
Rebecca is an award-winning poet, living and working in Lismore, NSW. She was a NSW finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam, winner of the Nimbin Performance Poetry Cup and three times winner…
Pamela Leach
Pamela Leach, PhD is a Tasmanian poet who engages culture, social justice, migration, gender, environment, ability and spirituality in her writing. She has been published in journals including Quadrant, Island, The Mozzie,…
Brendan Ryan
Brendan lives in Australia. His poetry, reviews and essays have been published in literary journals and newspapers, including The Best Australian Poems series (Black Inc), Contemporary Australian Poetry (Puncher and Wattman) and…