The Successful Launch of My New Poetry Collection

Hi Everyone

Last Sunday (9 Dec 2018), the wonderful poet and mentor of Melbourne poets, Alex Skovron, launched my second poetry collection, Libation. Elly Varrenti, friend and colleague from my teaching time at Box Hill Institute, kept things on schedule for the almost 70 people gathered for the celebration.

Elly Varrenti welcoming everyone

Alex Skovron launching the book

My Thank You speech/Reading my poems (photo by Pheroza Rustomjee)

The order of events included a Welcome to Country, a welcome to all those gathered in the room, Alex’s speech, my Thank You speech, and my reading of poems from the collection. Below are some comments from messages sent to me after the launch:

•  ‘a lovely festive atmosphere…’
• ‘all your friends and supporters seemed to enjoy the afternoon immensely…’
•  ‘so much goodwill in the room…’
• ‘Everything just went absolutely perfectly. It was flawless…’

And here are more photos from the launch (in no particular order):

People listening to the speeches

A tercet of Melbourne poets: Susan Fealy, Alex Skovron, Tony Page (left to right)

The nibbles

A triplanetary of Spec Fic writers: Sean McMullen, Joel Martin, Luke Manly (left to right)

Jan Dumbrell and Belinda Wells at the sales table (L to R)

Celebrating with my oldest friend, Michael (from primary school, 1961)

Chatting with fellow poet/writer Kevin Bonnett, with KEEN member Nadine in the background

There are a number of people I want to thank again for their help in the preparation and publication of Libation and for organising and running the event:

• Elly for her excellent MC work
• Alex for his insightful, humorous and comprehensive launch speech
• Catherine Bateson and John Jenkins for their back cover blurbs and also their feedback during the preparation of the manuscript, along with Nick Engelmann, Ray Liversidge, Robin Rowland, and the late Max Richards
• Veronica Calarco (introduced to me by my ex-student and fellow Welsh practitioner Elizabeth Corbett) and her artist residency at Stiwdio Maelor in Wales, a quiet and inspirational place for working on my various writing projects
• Stephen Matthews of Ginninderra Press for publishing the book
• City of Boroondara Libraries for allowing me to use the community room at Balwyn Library
• Joel Martin for acting as the usher
• Phil Maas for being the official photographer (unless stated, all photos in this post are by him)
• Belinda Wells and Jan Dumbrell for running the sales table
• Astrid, Bill and Jason Bahr, Joe Roberts, the Diegmanns, the Farrars and many others for setting up, running the drinks table, and cleaning up afterwards
• Anne’s Pantry and Nina Farrar for supplying the delicious and bountiful food
• All my friends, colleagues, ex-students, members of my various writing groups (especially KEEN: Catherine, Elly, and Nadine Cresswell-Myatt), and family members for helping make the book the best it can be and the launch a great success
• And my wife, Jo, for her unstinting support, encouragement, and love.

And still more photos:

Ray Liversidge, fellow poet and friend, and I debating something or other (photo by Terri Redpath)

Philip Oakes and Bill Bahr (my brothers-in-law) ready to serve drinks (L to R)

The queue for getting copies signed 

The festivities in full swing

Jo and me (photo by Terri Redpath)

People enjoying themselves after the speeches

For those who were unable to come to the launch and wish to buy a copy of Libation, various procedures are set out below:

• For a printed copy from the publisher, see here.
• For those who prefer their books in digital form, a Kindle version is available from Amazon (Australia) here.
• For international buyers, the Kindle edition is available here.
• For those who would like a signed copy, contact me at elivings@optusnet.com.au and I’ll send it to you. The price is $20, with postage around $3 for Australian addresses. 

Photo by Elizabeth Corbett

My thanks also to all of you who have been sharing my creative journey in various guises.

Cofion Cynnes (Warm Wishes)

Earl

OFFICIAL LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT

Hi Everyone

Final book cover 

At long last, after several weeks of working out venue arrangements, I can now let you know the details of the launch party for my new poetry collection, Libation.

When:             Sunday, 9 December 2018

Time:              3.00pm for a 3.30pm start

Where:           Community Room 1, Balwyn Library, 336 Whitehorse Rd, Balwyn, Victoria

Although there is a small car park next to the library, this will likely be filled with patrons, as the library is open 1pm to 5pm on a Sunday. Parking is available on the streets around the library and in the various car parks behind the shopping strip on both sides of Whitehorse Road. For example, there is parking behind Woolworths, Coles Express, and Dominos Pizza, and near Heart Care Victoria (see diagram below).

The book will be launched by Alex Skovron. For those who don’t know him, Alex is the author of six collections of poetry, a prose novella, and a volume of short stories. He has been published widely, and the numerous readings he has given include appearances in China, Serbia, India, Ireland, Macedonia, and Portugal. Among awards for his poetry are the Wesley Michel Wright Prize, the John Shaw Neilson Award, the Australian Book Review Poetry Prize, and for his first book, The Rearrangement (1988), the Anne Elder and Mary Gilmore awards. His novella, The Poet, was joint winner of the FAW Christina Stead Award for fiction. His work has been translated into a number of languages, including French, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Polish, Spanish and German.

(Source here)

(Source here)

You might like to check out this book teaser/trailer (https://youtu.be/64GJfnNewyk) I developed for the launch. I haven’t created one before, so it’s a little experiment. Let me know what you think.

Anyway, I hope you are able to come and help me celebrate the publication of Libation, which is the distillation of my poetic endeavours over a number of years.

Best Wishes

Earl

Exciting News!

Hi Everyone

First of all, apologies for the long silence since my time overseas. After arriving back from the UK and USA, I became caught up in various projects, teaching work, family obligations and other commitments. Time, as it does when one is really busy, flew quickly and six months passed before I realised I hadn't updated you all on my novel and other work. So, here it is.

Now for my exciting news! My poetry collection manuscript, entitled Libation, has been accepted for publication by Ginninderra Press in South Australia. I found out a couple of weeks ago and I am now reviewing the manuscript before sending an electronic version to Ginninderra. Once it is received, it goes into their production queue and eight to ten months later I'll receive the proofs. I'll keep you in the loop about the likely publication date, which I expect will be in about a year's time.

As for my dark ages novel, I only finished about 75% of the third draft while overseas, with the rest of the draft taking a couple of months. I then sent it out to a few beta readers and a month or two later received their feedback. As is always the case when people who are not as close to a text as the writer is, my beta readers gave me valuable information about what was working in the manuscript and what didn't work or needed more clarification. I had hoped to have the manuscript ready for the ASA Literary Speed Reading event in June but, after receiving the feedback, I knew I had much more work to do. I did attend the 'Pitching for Publishing' session at the Emerging Writers' Festival, at which I garnered ideas for submission strategies and a list of likely publishers to approach for my verse novel.

In other news, I also have had some smaller pieces accepted/published:

• An article, 'The Tension Between Authenticity and Validity', published in Into Another World, which can be read here.
• Two haiku published on the Asahi Haikuist Network, which can be read here and here.
• One of these two haiku, 'the birds and I', was selected and commented on by Simon Hanson for the Australian Haiku Society, which is available here.
• A haiku has been accepted for publication in Windfall #6, which should be available in a couple of months.

That's about it on the news front. I'm slowly working my way through the issues on the novel brought up by my beta readers and willl let you know how things go when I start the fourth draft.

I hope you enjoyed this post. As always, I welcome your comments.

Best Wishes

Earl