Material poetics describes the intersection of poetic expression with the use of material media, a conscious exploration of ways of working with materiality to extend or enhance meaning. The Greek poiesis is the act of making, of creation; to explore ‘poetics’ is to pay careful attention to the nature of an object or process. Each element is a language in itself, a visual and haptic mediator that is fully capable of influencing the reception of the text. Material poetics is thinking through every element of a work as a carrier of meaning.
Caren Florance, Philip Gross, Sarah Rice and Melinda Smith
Caren Florance often works under the imprint Ampersand Duck. She is an artist/designer who focuses on the book and the printed word and uses traditional and contemporary processes to play with material poetics and poets. Caren is currently a PhD student in the Arts and Design Faculty of the University of Canberra and a member of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research.
Philip Gross is a poet whose collection The Water Table won the TS Eliot Prize in 2009 and who has published 16 other major collections. He has also published ten novels for young people, collaborated with artists, musicians and dancers, and since 2004 has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Wales, where he leads the MPhil/PhD in Writing programme. http://www.philipgross.co.uk
Sarah Rice won the inaugural 2014 Ron Pretty Prize and the 2014 Bruce Dawe Prize, and co-won the 2013 Winning Ventures International Prize and the 2011 Gwen Harwood Prize. Her limited-edition art-book of poetry, Those Who Travel (prints by Patsy Payne, Ampersand Duck, 2010), is held in the NGA and other institutions. Publications include the Global Poetry Anthology, The House is Not Quiet and the World is Not Calm: Poetry from Canberra, Island, Southerly, ABR, Contrappasso, and Aesthetica.
Melinda Smith won the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for her fourth book of poems, Drag down to unlock or place an emergency call (Pitt St Poetry). Her fifth collection will be out later this year, also from Pitt St Poetry. She is based in the ACT and is currently poetry editor of The Canberra Times.
