The River: Yarns and Readings from A Book that Opens on Bark
This event features poets, Paul Collis (Barkindji), Jen Crawford and Paul Magee. The team have been conducting research in and around Bourke, outback New South Wales (where Paul C. is from) since 2022, gathering material towards a book-length volume entitled A Book that Opens on Barkindji Country. The idea of the book is to document Aboriginal intellectual discourse on Country, all the while seeking answers to the project’s two driving questions: What is a river? and What is fiction?
The event involves the three poets moving in and out of a verbal description of that research (with images) and recital of the poems they composed in the course of conducting it.
Poets:
Paul Collis is a Barkindji man. He was born in Bourke, in far north/west New South Wales. His early life was informed by Barkindji, Kunya, Murawarri, Wongamara and Nyempa story tellers and artists, who taught him Aboriginal Culture and Law. He is author of Dancing Home (University of Queensland Press, 2017) and Nightmares Run Like Mercury (Recent Works Press, 2021) and Wita Witalana (look out over) (Recent Words Press, 2025). Paul teaches, and works as Director, Indigenous Engagement, at the University of Canberra.
Jen Crawford is author of Admissions (Five Islands Press, 2000), bad appendix (Auckland: Titus Books, 2009), Napoleon Swings (Auckland: Soapbox Press, 2009), Pop Riveter (Auckland: Pania Press, 2011), Koel (Cordite Books, 2016) and Lichen Loves Stone (Tinfish Press, 2016). With Rina Kikuchi, Jen co-edited and part-translated Poet to Poet: Contemporary Women Poets from Japan (2017), an anthology of 10 contemporary female Japanese poets. Jen is Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Canberra.
Paul Magee is Professor of Poetry at the University of Canberra, where he directs the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR). His scholarship addresses the philosophy, history, linguistics and ethnography of poetic composition; the relationship between art and knowledge; and new forms for facilitating the presentation of Indigenous knowledge. Paul has published five books, including most recently a monograph on the relationship between spontaneous speaking and the writing of poetry, Suddenness and the Composition of Poetic Thought (Rowman and Littlefield: 2022), plus a third book of poems, Later Unearthed (Puncher and Wattmann: 2025).
The event involves the three poets moving in and out of a verbal description of that research (with images) and recital of the poems they composed in the course of conducting it.
Poets:
Paul Collis is a Barkindji man. He was born in Bourke, in far north/west New South Wales. His early life was informed by Barkindji, Kunya, Murawarri, Wongamara and Nyempa story tellers and artists, who taught him Aboriginal Culture and Law. He is author of Dancing Home (University of Queensland Press, 2017) and Nightmares Run Like Mercury (Recent Works Press, 2021) and Wita Witalana (look out over) (Recent Words Press, 2025). Paul teaches, and works as Director, Indigenous Engagement, at the University of Canberra.
Jen Crawford is author of Admissions (Five Islands Press, 2000), bad appendix (Auckland: Titus Books, 2009), Napoleon Swings (Auckland: Soapbox Press, 2009), Pop Riveter (Auckland: Pania Press, 2011), Koel (Cordite Books, 2016) and Lichen Loves Stone (Tinfish Press, 2016). With Rina Kikuchi, Jen co-edited and part-translated Poet to Poet: Contemporary Women Poets from Japan (2017), an anthology of 10 contemporary female Japanese poets. Jen is Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Canberra.
Paul Magee is Professor of Poetry at the University of Canberra, where he directs the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR). His scholarship addresses the philosophy, history, linguistics and ethnography of poetic composition; the relationship between art and knowledge; and new forms for facilitating the presentation of Indigenous knowledge. Paul has published five books, including most recently a monograph on the relationship between spontaneous speaking and the writing of poetry, Suddenness and the Composition of Poetic Thought (Rowman and Littlefield: 2022), plus a third book of poems, Later Unearthed (Puncher and Wattmann: 2025).
Thursday 23 April 2026 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (UTC+11)
Location
Manning Clark House
11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest act 2603
Contact Details
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The River: Yarns and Readings from A Book that Opens on Bark
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