Published 12 September 200913 September 2009 · Main Posts we make no apologies. we’re poets Overland Overloaded Okay, so it was bound to happen. For the first five days of the Overload festival, the Overland Overloaded team has been right on the money. But now the festival’s two days away from being over, we’re all tired, we’ve spent a little too much time wining and poetry-ing rather than typing, reviewing and posting. So this vox pop is one of a series we’re left holding, thinking ‘Mmm, yeah…probably should have gone up about Tuesday.’ We make no apologies. We’re poets. And those of us that aren’t probably soon will be. But this here is an incredibly important vox pop with Teresa Bell, the amazing and very forgiving director of the Australian Poetry Centre. During the Overload Poetry Festival, the APC launched three new books by Australian poets Ali Cobby Eckermann (SA), Helen Hagemann (WA) and Kimberley Mann (NT). Really, a centre for poetry? They gave you money for that? About time I say! So, poets write poetry…what do you do for them? Listen. And what else? Tour them o/s, publish their first book in our new poets series, give them reading opportunities, workshops, masterclasses, publish them in Blue Dog (or not), make films of their work, put them in cafes, in tragic poet houses, on postcards…. And what else? Get their works and make a lovely australian poetry collection that will be available for browsing and reading and writing in in the new CBWI from November. Are poets really as organised, sane, even tempered and punctual as they seem? No COMMENT. What’s the best thing about working with poets? They don’t flinch at mad, creative, left brained flexible things, like employing a pregnant woman who lives miles away. And of course their words. The worst thing? Sometimes they bite. That all? Hard! Come one, whisper it. We won’t tell…<br /> Words can hurt, but I am getting tougher. Actually, that’s not quite right, that ‘working with poets question’. You kind of work for them, don’t you? We work together is how I see it, because we love poetry and believe in the artform. So how does it feel to be employed by a bunch of, well, poets? We are funded by wonderful, generous Arts Victoria and Copyright Agency Limited so I have to pay tribute to them and believe that the poets and the staff/Board at the APC work as hard as they can to promote poetry and the poetic spirit. Where will the Australian Poetry Centre be in five years time? …. In ten years time? …. In a hundred years time? “How now, spirit! whither wander you?” During Overload Poetry Festival? Launching 4 great new poets. You can check out the refreshingly new and long-awaited poetry voices of in the APC New Poets series here. Overland Overloaded More by Overland Overloaded › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 10 November 202311 November 2023 · Subscriberthon 2023 On the final day of Subscriberthon, Overland’s most important members get to have their say Editorial Team BORIS A quick guide to another year of Overland, from your trusty feline, Boris. I liked the ginger cat story, though it made my human cry. I liked the talking cat, too, but I’m definitely in the “not wasting my time learning to talk” camp. But reading is good. And writing is fun, though it’s been challenging […] 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 9 November 20239 November 2023 · Subscriberthon 2023 On the second-last day of Subscriberthon, Overland’s co-chief editor Evelyn Araluen speaks truth to power Editorial Team To my friends and comrades, I’m not sure if there’s language to communicate how this last month has utterly changed me. This time a few weeks ago the busyness and chaos of bricolage arts and academic labour had so efficiently distracted me from my anxiety about the upcoming referendum that I forgot to prepare myself for its inevitable conclusion.