Summer Reading: It's time for poetry

Why aren't you reading more poetry? Perhaps you don't know where to begin — in which case, listen here, for a guide.

Join Kate Evans, as she is joined by acclaimed author and poet Maxine Beneba Clarke, Stella Prize-winning poet and academic Sarah Holland-Batt, much-loved broadcaster and author Daniel Browning, and best-selling author and journalist Julia Baird to discuss and read some of the poems that have shone brightest for each of them this century, as well as how the art-form has evolved.

This event was presented at the State Library of NSW in partnership with Red Room Poetry.

This event was first broadcast on 3 October 2025

POETS AND POETRY MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

•    Warsan Shire, Home

•    Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World

•    Graeme Dixon, Six Feet of Land Rights

•    Gwen Harwood, In the Park

•    Anonymous Rose, Broken World

•    Zora Howard and Joshya Bennett, Still Life with Police Sirens

•    Ali Cobby Eckermann, works

•    Simon Armitage, The Shout

•    Evelyn Araluen, decolonial poetics (avant gubba)

•    Candy Royale, works

•    Max Porter, works

CREDITS

Presenter, Kate Evans

Producer, Kate Evans, Lisa Needham

Sound engineer, Ann Marie Debettencor + Harvey O'Sullivan

Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown