What’s Poetry Got To Do With It?

Benjamin Laird writes software and poetry. He is a PhD candidate at RMIT University researching biographical poetry in print and programmable media. His electronic poetry includes The Durham Poems (2016, SOd Press), a chapbook of biographical poems about William Denton, a nineteenth century spiritualist, scientific lecturer, and radical; ‘Core Values’ (2017, Australian Poetry), a response to Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Queensland Literary Awards QUT Digital Literature Award.

Andy Jackson’s most recent book Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold was shortlisted for the 2020 John Bray Poetry Award. He has co-edited disability-themed issues of the literary journals Southerly and Australian Poetry Journal, and he works as a creative writing teacher for community organisations and universities.

Jennifer Mackenzie is a poet and reviewer, focusing on writing from and about Asia. She has had a lifelong engagement with Indonesia, and her most recent book is Navigable Ink (Transit Lounge 2020), a homage to the Indonesian writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. She is currently working on a collection of essays, Writing the Continent.