Published 5 October 2012 · Writing / Reading Overland Emerging Poets Series: Stephen Nichols Peter Minter 2011 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets commended poet: Stephen Nichols Stephen Nichols is a Melbourne-based playwright and poet. In 2006 he had a seminal moment and decided he wanted be professional writer. Since then he has had a dozen or so plays produced and has written lots of poetry and short stories. He has a diploma of Professional Writing & Editing, and has recently started his Masters in Writing and Literature. Emergent While I wait for my beard to grow I tie hare’s-ear nymphs with brass bead-heads that imitate the emergent mayfly and caddis. Every morning my wife stands next to me, she doesn’t speak, she doesn’t understand. I am an irritation like the midges that bite her legs. My beard has turned to ivy; it hides a nest of yellow tail finch eggs that if discovered she will eat for breakfast. Water laps at my chin, smelt nibble at my bark, I have become a hollow tree who will soon disappear under the men in fishing boats. Through the meniscus I see the shadow of a mayfly drying its new wings in the evening sun. Gasping for air, I swim towards the sky. Who are you reading now and why do they turn you on? At the moment I am reading the Collected Works of Roger McGough (Penguin, 2004). Roger is my main man, my go-to-guy, when it comes to poetry. When I started out writing poetry I thought my task was to make both the reader and I as depressed as possible. I quickly learnt that this was not a bandwagon I wanted to ride. Instead I sought out poets that made me feel good about myself and the world around me. Roger is one of those poets. I could read Mafia Cats and Goodbat Nightman a million times and they would still leave a grin on my face. How often do you write? Do you have a writing practice? Not often enough. When I write I need to get away from life’s distraction and excuses. More often than not I will go to the Latrobe Reading Room at the Victorian State Library. This writing-space makes me feel smarter and I love the resonance. All the chairs squeak and there is always someone coughing. I actually like noise when I write – I can’t stand the sound of silence. I’m an excellent procrastinator – although I call it thinking. There is no point sitting down to write if you have nothing to say. This is not a lie if you believe it. When you think of Australian poetry, do you see an elephant in the room? If so, what is it? I never think of Australian poetry. I read who I like regardless of where they come from. I am no more inclined to buy a book just because it was written by an Australian author. Having said that, I do love Australian poets like Cate Kennedy and Kristin Henry. Peter Minter Peter Minter is a leading Australian poet and writer on poetry and poetics, and Overland’s outgoing poetry editor. More by Peter Minter › 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 17 July 202417 July 2024 · Writing “What is it that remains of us now”: witnessing the war on Palestine with Suheir Hammad Dashiell Moore The flame of her poetry scorches the states of exceptions that allow individual and state-sponsored violence to continue, unjustified, and unhistoricised. As we engage with her work, we are reminded that "chronic survival" is not merely an act of enduring but a profound declaration of existence. 5 February 202417 February 2024 · Writing Here and now: our call for justice and liberation Tzedek Collective Our community is one of action and activism, informed by histories and imaginings of Jewish and other resistance. In our anticolonial work, we are explicitly anti-Zionist and work for a free Palestine. We take on this work not to centre or salvage Judaism and Jewishness, but to oppose settler colonialism in all its forms, and to acknowledge the specific and necessary role of Jewish anti-Zionists in opposing violence done in our names.