For those of you who like to gawk at Flickr streams, click on the above image to be instantly transported to a series of images from the Melbourne launch of We Will Disappear, courtesy of photographer Macushla Burke.
The latest issue of papertiger media’s Tiger Talk newsletter also includes some details from the recent Soi3 book launches. First of all, here’s what Paul and Marissa have to say about the MWF launch:
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Last but certainly not least, local ‘Street Hero’ David Prater delivered a barnstorming and banter-laden selection of his trademark “full tilt swerving syntax,” after his premiere collection, We Will Disappear, was launched by Dr. Tony Birch. David didn’t hold back, bringing a fantastic afternoon to a close with crowd-pleasers like ‘The Happy Farang,’ ‘Identikit Nation,’ ‘Let’s Fight the Pop-Ups!’ and ‘There’s a Wild Jack Russell in the Moon’ – none of which will (to your certain disappointment) ever appear in Quadrant.
Books were signed and some completely sold out – drinks were sipped and, in some cases, guzzled (or spilled) – there was hubbub, there were handshakes – and a good time was had by all!
Funnily enough, I did recently submit a poem to Quadrant, which was rejected, but at least I know now that it was touched by the mighty paws of Les Murray, and so I shall go to my grave wearing that piece if paper as an origami hat.
Anyway, here’s what Brett Dionysius had to say about the QPF launch in Brisbane:
This event kick-started the 2007 Spoken in One Strange Word: Queensland Poetry Festival Sunday program, with about 50 people gathering in the performance space of the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts to hear the words of these fine poets.
B.R. Dionysius introduced the gig and contemplated on the short, but ecstatic rise of papertiger media, from 1997/98 when Paul Hardacre spent time at Dionysius’ West End flat writing his early collection, Millennium Fetish, on a (Metro Arts) borrowed 386 PC, to just three years later, when Hardacre and partner Marissa Newell produced the first papertiger: new world poetry CDROM. He commented on how, in a little over seven years, Hardacre and Newell had raised the poetry-publishing bar by producing beautiful, collectable and finely crafted books of contemporary poetry.
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Lastly, Melbournian Matt Hetherington roasted David Pray=ter lock, stock and barrel, reducing the page/stage crossover man to a giggling mess of atoms! Prater, who the night before had taken the Queensland Poetry Festival by storm, tearing up the floorboards as Davey Dreamnation, Buddha and other assorted flavours, was at a loss on how to progress after Hetherington’s astute and insightful deconstruction of his book! Pray=ter read from We Will Disappear and by 11.45 am all the books had been launched and the poets were signing many copies outside in the foyer. The bar tab and the organic nibbles quickly disappeared!
As Pray=ter stated, “That’s Buddha!”
Ah yes, there’s always one isn’t there. The repeated references to my surname were prompted by Brett mispronouncing it during his introductory remarks – an error I sought to correct by way of a short hand-written note between sets. For those of you who have hard-to-pronounce names, I’m sure you will relate to the uncomfortable feeling when someone gets it wrong. Prater’s not that hard to say really, but anyway. He’s a comedian, Brett. And with a surname like Dionysius, I’m sure he gets it a lot too.
