Welcome to our first ever podcast. This episode was recorded at the launch of Edition No. 32 at the Melbourne Writers Festival in 2011 and features Brooklyn slam poet Jive Poetic and Sydney short story writer Zoe Norton Lodge. A special selection from the Going Down Swinging archives also features in our first episode – Nathan Curnow’s Big Fat Clouds from No. 25, published in 2007.

Jive Poetic

From his hometown in Buffalo, NY to London, England Jive Poetic has ignited microphones with humorous wordplay and thought provoking verbal display.

After Jive Poetic won his first slam in January of 2001, it was understood that his audience heard every word he said. Soon, Jive Poetic began to season his art form through feature performances at local New York and New Jersey venues earning his stripes as a verbal connoisseur after rave performances from the Brooklyn Moon to Serengeti Plains. Jive then won New York’s Grand Slam title in 2002. A former member of the internationally recognized Tri-City slam team that won “The Cross The Boarder Slam” held in Toronto, Canada, in 2003, Jive Poetic became a member of the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe’s National Slam Team.

While his voice is lightened in humor, his topics are heavy. As a mindful poet, serious performer and inquisitive speaker, Jive Poetic attempts to take his listeners into a mind state beyond the obvious and dares you to listen, further.

Photo via Jive Poetic / bio via Overland

Zoe Norton Lodge

Zoe Norton Lodge is a writer and theatre maker. She is the current associate artist at Sydney’s Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre Company, a regular performer in Sydney’s storytelling scene and part time cook book editor for Murdoch Books.

Nathan Curnow

Nathan Curnow is a poet, playwright and performer who has featured widely on ABC, JJJ and Radio New Zealand. His work has been published in journals such as Heat, Island, Overland, Going Down Swinging and in Best Australian Poems 2008. He has written three books of poetry including The Ghost Poetry Project (Puncher and Wattmann), a collection based upon his stays at ten haunted sites around the country, and is the recipient of an ASA mentorship program and two Australia Council grants. His prizes include the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, Woorilla Poetry Prize, the Bauhinia Literary Awards and the UMPA Prize for Poetry (University of Melbourne). He appears regularly at events such as the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, This Is Not Art and the Melbourne Writers Festival. His short plays have been performed in numerous seasons and his Dizney on dry Ice featured in the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He is currently writing a new play based upon convict stories and escape attempts. As well as his on-page achievements, Nathan is a standout performer and performance writer, with some poems being miniature plays in themselves.

Photo / bio via WordPlay