Waterfront Poetry Salon

Join us for an afternoon of poetry readings by the water featuring a salon of nationally recognised poets, hosted by Rosemarie Milsom.

Featuring Australian Poetry Slam 2023 champion and Gomeroi man Rob Waters, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2019 nominee Keri Glastonbury, widely anthologised Chinese-Wiradjuri poet living with disability Kerri Shying, social justice and human rights activist and co-founder of Grandmothers Against Removal NSW Aunty Debbie Swan, artist, writer and PhD candidate Therese Keogh, and writer, editor and digital media artist Rory Green.

Rosemarie Milsom is the founding director of Newcastle Writers Festival, and a former journalist. Founded in 2012, the annual Newcastle Writers Festival is one of Australia's largest regional literary festivals, celebrating words and ideas as well as the depth of local writing talent.

Be inspired by the magic of words and sumptuous poetry exploring ecopoetics, ecological resistance, and relationships with the environment and Country.

Find out more about the range of events on offer at Ngumpi Kinyingarra Oyster House during New Annual, including Friday Night Sounds, The Shuck Off, and Talks & Ideas.

Rob Waters is the current Australian Poetry Slam Champion. He’s a Gomeroi poet, storyteller, cultural educator and spoken word artist performing and sharing Story for over 20 years. Rob has deep cultural connections to the North West of New South Wales. He is a proud father and grandfather living on Darkinjung Country.
Photographer: Zoe Ortiz

Keri Glastonbury is an Associate Professor in English and Writing at the University of Newcastle and author of Newcastle Sonnets (Giramondo, 2018) which was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.




Kerri Shying

Born in Sydney in 1962, Kerry Shying is of Wiradjuri, Chinese and Scotch family. They live with disability in New South Wales, publishing four collections of poetry since 2017: Sing out when you want me, Flying Island/ASM, 2017, Elevensies, Puncher and Wattman, 2018, Knitting Mangrove Roots, Flying Island/ASM, 2019 and Know Your Country, Puncher and Wattman, 2021. Their work is widely anthologised and they pioneered the poetic form 'elevensies' as a decolonising endeavour.
Photographer: Justine Cogan




Therese Keogh

Therese Keogh is an artist and writer living on Awabakal Country. Their practice operates at intersections between sculpture, geography, and landscape architecture to produce multilayered projects exploring the socio-political and material conditions of narrative and knowledge production. Therese works collaboratively through writing and research projects and is invested in collective imaginaries as a process of creating more just relations to land and matter. Their collaborative work includes facilitating Magnetic Topographies with Clare Britton and Kenzee Patterson—looking to collective pedagogies of place—and Written Together—a shared workshop for non-normative writing in arts research. Therese holds a BFA from Monash University, an MFA from Sydney College of the Arts, and an MA Geography from Queen Mary University of London. Therese is currently undertaking a PhD at Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.




Rory Green

Rory Green is a writer, editor and digital media artist currently living on unceded Awabakal land. Their poetry has been published in Best of Australian Poems, Meanjin, and Plumwood Mountain among others. Their art has been exhibited at festivals including Cementa and BLEED, and in 2022 was shortlisted for the Goolugatup Heathcote Digital Art Prize. Rory is a co-founder of Crawlspace, a journal of interactive digital writing and art, and currently a commissioning editor at Cordite Poetry Review. 

Debra Swan

Debra was born and raised on a mission in Moree NSW. She has three children, 12 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. Debra has worked in various positions over her career, relating to working and advocating for families and children, including 13 years with Family and Community Services (now DCJ - Department of Communities and Justice). She is currently employed by Allambicare as Cultural Therapeutic Advisor.

She is a co-founder of Grandmother’s Against Removal NSW and was instrumental (with co-founders Jennifer Swan and Suellyn Tighe) in developing The Guiding Principles for Strengthening Local Aboriginal participation in Child Protection Decision Making’and drawing attention to issues in Child Protection nationally.

GMAR NSW are the first organisation to work in partnership with DCJ to address the over representation of Aboriginal children in the Care and Protection System. Debra has been an advocate for human rights and social justice all her life.

Presented by Newcastle Art Gallery, New Annual and Newcastle Writers Festival. 

Project supporters include University of Newcastle, the NSW Government through Create NSW, and Thermidor. 

The pavilion for Ngumpi Kinyingarra Oyster House has been designed by students at the University of Newcastle School of Architecture and Built Environment facilitated by Associate Professor Sam Spurr and Senior Lecturer Anna Tweeddale: Alistair Eglington, Chalyse Fowler, Ivie Wong Hueyyi, Joshua Medbury, Keiran Buckley, Peter Ellis, Rachel Florey, Tahlia Phillips, Tom Licata. 

Megan Cope is represented by Milani Gallery, Meeanjin/Brisbane.