Four Seasons in One Poem: Chimneys, Icebergs, and Desert Rains

Join First Nations Australia Writers Graham Akhurst, Yvette Henry Holt and British poet Linda France for a climate-themed poetry event.

The event will include a discussion about creatively reclaiming narratives, confronting power structures and exploring shared histories through poetry and storytelling. Yvette and Graham are visiting Newcastle as part of their visiting scholarship with Northumbria University.

Yvette Henry Holt is a multi-award-winning poet, academic, editor from the Bidjara, Yiman and Wakaman Nations of Queensland. Her first published collection of poetry titled Anonymous Premonition won the David Unaipon Queensland Premier Literary Award, RAKA Kate Challis Award and Victorian Premier’s Indigenous Literary Award. Her next collection of psychoanalytical poetry titled Fitzroy North 3068 will be published by Upswell Publishing in late 2025.

Graham Akhurst is an Aboriginal writer hailing from the Kokomini of Northern Queensland. He is a Senior Lecturer of Indigenous Australian Studies and Creative Writing and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges at the University of Technology Sydney. His debut YA novel, Borderland (2023), was named a notable book in CBCA book of the year awards and a finalist for the Aurealis Awards. Graham was the recipient of the W.G. Walker Fulbright Scholarship, the Nomad Two Worlds Foundation Indigenous Arts Scholarship, and Australia Council of the Arts grants to support the completion of an MFA at Hunter College.

Linda France is a British poet, writer and editor, and was Climate Writer in Residence for New Writing North and Newcastle University. Linda France’s eight full-length poetry collections include: The Simultaneous Dress (Bloodaxe 2002), The Toast of the Kit-Cat Club (Bloodaxe 2005), You are Her (Arc Publications 2010) and Reading the Flowers (Arc 2016). Linda also edited the acclaimed anthology Sixty Women Poets (Bloodaxe 1993), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. She completed a PhD on writing, plants and landscape in 2019 and received a Society of Authors Cholmondley Award in 2020.