Caroline Reid Writes

SIARAD was released last month. My longtime friend, the artist, illustrator , writer and art historian Georgina Coburn has penned a review: " Having seen her performances as a finalist in the 2018 and 2019 Australian Poetry Slam competitions online, I was looking forward to reading Caroline Reid’s debut collection of poetry and prose, Siarad . Based in Adelaide, Australia, Reid’s work has been published in literary journals such as Verity La, Red Room Poetry, Cordite and her poem Lost was shortlisted for the 2019 Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film competition. In Siarad, Reid’s ferocious honesty, sensitivity and acuity leaps off the page as it does on stage, fuelled by personal experience and acute social observation. Siarad, a Welsh word meaning to talk or speak, reflects Reid’s family history and this collection, drawn from over a decade’s work, is testament to finding your voice as an artist. In form and content this is a gift of a book, raw, lyrical and ...

I'm so pleased to announce my first live author event! And it's FREE. Hosted by Underground Writers , it will be broadcast on Underground Writers YouTube channel this Sunday May 31st at 3.30pm - 4.30pm local Adelaide time. (That's 4pm for the east coast, and 2pm for the west coast of Australia) During the event you can ask questions about SIARAD, my new collection of poetry and prose. If you'd like to send me questions prior to the event, you can do that over at EVENTBRITE, where you can also RSVP for the event. I'll read stories and poems from the book, and talk about what inspired me to write them. I'll also take requests for reading. Have I made it sound oh-so formal? It won't be. I might even wear my pjamas. baha. Full disclosure: I'll be broadcasting from my bedroom. There will be book giveaways, and if you fancy some audience poetry writing there will definitely be an opportunity for that! I've got some fun & daggy writing prompts p...

I've heard many people say (definitely one person, maybe even two) that poetry soothes them in strange and troubled times. Maybe you are looking for some poetry right now? If you don't know where to start, this could be a good place:   In Your Hands, an e-book of contemporary Australian poetry you can download for free.   In Your Hands is published by Red Room Poetry . A brilliant, generous initiative In Your Hands was commissioned and published by Red Room Poetry & Oranges and Sardines. It contains 80 poems by Australian poets who have had a collection published recently, and whose opportunities for performance & promotion have been affected by COVID-19. There are some excellent poets represented in the collection including Jill Jones, Michael Farrell, Ellen van Neerven, Ali Whitelock, Mark Tredennick. I am very grateful and excited that 'Talking Bob Dylan Blues', one of my poems from my collection SIARAD has been included in In Your Hands. Ev...

it's a strange time, this time of corona. language, for me, has broken down. often when i speak i'm struggling to find the words, or nouns wind up in the wrong place. and increased hours in front of a screen is making my brain feel overheated. it's exhausting. last week i watched a couple of short videos of my mum that i shot on my phone in February. she is swimming in the deep waters of dementia. i listened to the way she used language, the misplacement of identifiers and objects, the mis-interpretation of words like 'wave' which has more than one meaning. i noticed how she was seeing things that, arguably, weren't there. like little girls in the pattern of a blanket. i wrote down her sentences, weaving two conversations together. here's the poem: a message home from all that place of getting i don't find it dirty but you can get that red coming you can get that red coming that nearly redding redding red when it's been properly red type of th...

Sometimes reading nice things about me and my work can be challenging. I often blush when receiving compliments, do a foot shuffle, stare at a spot on the floor. It's taken me a week to be able to revisit the SIARAD launch speech that Rachael Mead delivered in Adelaide. I cried a little while listening to Rachael, partly because I didn't quite recognise myself in her words, and partly because I did. Rachael is such a brilliant, generous writer and I'd like to share a slice of what she articu lated so well, echoing my feelings of what the team at Spineless Wonder/ES-Press publishing achieved in the making of this book, SIARAD. "Look at this book. It may not be a garlic press but it is a metaphor. (You’ll get that when you read the first poem). This book is a piece of art in the way that Caroline Reid is an artist. The art resides not just in the poetry and prose. There is art in every detail of its being. The cover, the dimensions, the visual art...