Australian
poets Jen Webb, Jeri Kroll, and Paul Hetherington will present their work on
April 6th at the Salt Lake City Public Library at 7:00 P.M. as part of the City
Art Reading Series.
Jen Webb is a Canberra-based writer who has been publishing, performing,
presenting and exhibiting her work since 1992. Currently the director of the
Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra where
she is also Distinguished Professor of Creative Practice, she has taught
creative writing for about 10 years, supervises research students in creative
writing and other creative practices, and has worked as a book editor and arts
manager. Prior to becoming an academic, Jen was an accountant and tax inspector.
She is South African by origin, and has also lived in New Zealand, Canada and
the UK, before settling in Australia. Recent publications include: Stolen
Stories, Borrowed Lines (poetry chapbook, 2015); Watching the World:
Impressions of Canberra (with Paul Hetherington; poems and photographs; 2015);
Researching Creative Writing (scholarly book, 2015). Jen is completing an
Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded investigation on poetry and creative
excellence, and is working on two other ARC projects, both concerned with
creative labour and career outcomes for creative arts graduates.
Professor Jeri Kroll established the creative writing program – including the
doctorate – at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. A former President
of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, she is also an
award-winning poet who has published twenty-five titles for adults and young
people. Criticism includes Creative Writing Studies: Practice, Research and
Pedagogy (Multilingual Matters, 2008) and Research Methods in Creative Writing
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Workshopping the Heart: New and Selected Poems
(Wakefield Press, 2013) and a verse novel, Vanishing Point (Puncher and
Wattman, 2015), are recent books. A MainStage production of Vanishing Point was
held at George Washington University in October 2014. The play was a winner in
the 47th Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and produced in
January 2015 in Ohio. Vanishing Point was short-listed in the 2015 Queensland Literary
Awards.
Paul Hetherington is professor of writing at the University of Canberra and
head of the International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI) there. His poetry
collection, Six Different Windows won the 2014 Western Australian Premier’s
Book Awards and he was a finalist in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 international
Aesthetica Creative Writing Competitions. He was shortlisted for the 2013
Montreal International Poetry Prize and the 2013 Newcastle Poetry Prize. He has
has an abiding interest in the visual arts and edited the final three volumes
of the National Library of Australia’s four-volume edition of the diaries of
the artist Donald Friend. He is one of the founding editors of the
international online journal Axon: Creative Explorations and a founding editorial
committee member of the Meniscus journal. In 2002 he was the recipient of a
Chief Minister’s ACT Creative Arts Fellowship and he was awarded one of two
places on the 2012 Australian Poetry Tour of Ireland. He was recently awarded
an Australia Council for the Arts Residency in the BR Whiting Studio in Rome.
Most featured readings are followed by an open reading. City Art is sponsored
by the Utah Arts Council, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, Catalyst, the Salt
Lake City Public Library, Xmission, and the Zoo, Arts, and Park Fund.
The event is free and open to the public. City Art is sponsored by the Utah
Arts Council, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, Zoo, Arts, and Parks, X-mission,
and audience donations.
Joel Long