‘Australian Poetry Journal’, Volume 8.2 – ‘spoken’, features new works by more than 60 Australian poets, with poetry guest-edited by prominent spoken-word poets and curators, Andrew Galan and David Stavanger. They have curated 42 poems, selected with a focus on producing the first in-print journal of Australian spoken word; it also includes one suite by American poet, Adam Day. This section includes a poem by the late, highly esteemed Candy Royalle. Following the ‘spoken’ selection is a separate section of 19 poems, which are all new works commissioned by Australian Poetry and presented across three of its 2018 festival events – at Sydney Writers’ Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, and Queensland Poetry Festival. Edited by Toby Fitch, this Big Bent series is an exploration of gender and language queering. In a new publication development for AP, both sections of poems are accompanied by sound-recordings. In the case of the ‘spoken’ section, 15 poets have been recorded, along with a pre-existing recording of Candy performing her poem. In the case of the Big Bent section, the seven poets who read at MWF have been recorded.' (Introduction)
