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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
His father’s boots left prints
in icy sludge. He jumped from print
to print and landed short each time
but kept on trying. The hooter sounded
at the mill. The father turned
and saw the boy at his game.
‘Go on home for Christ’s sake!’
Some mute thing stood between them.
— from The Mill Road
Out of nowhere, poetry came to me living in a country town on the south-western slopes of NSW, experiencing the joys of small-town living, and the confounding reality of adolescence
Midway through high school, and longing for something I couldn’t name, I first heard the words of Shakespeare. ‘Yonder marble skyline’ broke my heart and made it new, and opened up a world of possibility.
The gift of language Shakespeare—and others: Hopkins, Keats, Donne and Dylan—gave could tell love and jealousy, kindness and cruelty, in ways I hadn’t known, that made me strive to write a life beyond—an into—the everyday.
I learned this anew with the tragic loss of my father when I was in my early twenties—eleven days after the birth of my first child. His death, my son’s birth, put me in a kind of emotional coma I took some time getting out of. Without poetry, I may not have made it.
“ Kevin Smith’s … is a rare voice in Australian poetry—fatherly and brotherly, humble and human, neither glibly ironic nor earnest, neither academical nor naïve, both grave and light at once. These are lovely poems—in sentiment and thought, in image and cadence, in form and phrase, in voicing. In my mind they remind us what poetry is for.”
—Mark Tredinnick
My partner and I live on thirty-five acres of the Blackall range outside Maleny, Queensland, on country that always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
Over a century ago, the rainforest was logged for its hardwoods. By the early 1920s it was almost completely denuded. We work to revegetate the bush, to provide habitat the birds and animals can come back into, while trying to rebuild our connection with the wildness of the world.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the country we live on the Sovereignty of which was never ceded: the Gubbi Gubbi, the [ ]
Publishing
She, The Boy Monk and Rising Tide will be published in the 2021 Australian Catholic University Poetry Prize Anthology, AUSTRALIA.
At the Cancer Retreat was published in the 2020 Grieve Anthology, in Newcastle, AUSTRALIA.
Thirteen Ways of Knowing My Father was published in the 2018 Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology, Buying On Line, AUSTRALIA.
The Mill Road was published in the 2018 Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology, Buying On Line, AUSTRALIA.
Bull was published in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual in York, ENGLAND, in 2013
No Southern Boobook was published in the Tallahassee Writers Association’s Seven Hills Review, in Florida, USA in 2013.
Death in the Afternoon was published in the 2013 Poetic Republic ebook Publication, Manchester, ENGLAND.
Crows was published in the 2013 Poetic Republic ebook Publication, Manchester, ENGLAND.
Honours
RUNNERS-UP
The Diamantina was Runner-Up in the 2020 Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize, AUSTRALIA.
Into the Mist was Runner-Up at the 2020 Robert Graves Poetry Prize, Wimbeldon Bookfest, London, ENGLAND.
No Southern Boobook was Placed 2nd in the 2012 Penumbra Poetry Contest, Tallahassee Writers Association, Florida, USA.
The Mill Road was Runner-Up in the 2012 Chapter One Promotions Poetry Competition, London, ENGLAND.
SPECIAL MENTION
Stallion gained a Special Mention in the 2020 Welsh International Poetry Prize, the largest of its kind in WALES.
Watercourses (Short form) received an Honourable Mention in the 2012 Adrien Abbott Poetry Prize, Central Coast, NSW, AUSTRALIA.
FINALIST
Bull was a Finalist in the 2012 Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition, York, ENGLAND.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
The Woman on the Bus was Highly Commended in the 2012 Ethel Webb Bundell Literary Awards, Society of Women Writers, AUSTRALIA.
Bull was Highly Commended in 2012 FAWNS Vibrant Verse Poetry Competition, South Strathfield, AUSTRALIA.
COMMENDED
Thirteen Ways of Knowing My Father was Commended in the 2018 Newcastle Poetry Prize, AUSTRALIA.
A Bedroom in Arles was Commended in the 2012 All Poetry Competition, Nowra, AUSTRALIA.
Short Listed
Night Heron Under a Crescent Moon was short-listed in the 2021 Fish Poetry Prize, County Cork, IRELAND. Judge (former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins) selected the poem among the best twelve from 2, 987 entries.
She, The Boy Monk has been short-listed for the 2021 Australian Catholic University Poetry Prize, AUSTRALIA. The winners are yet to be announced.
Rising Tide has been shortlisted for the 2021 Australian Catholic University Poetry Prize, AUSTRALIA. The winners are yet to be announced.
At the Cancer Retreat was Shortlisted for the 2020 Grieve Poetry Prize in Newcastle, AUSTRALIA.
Bone Collector was Shortlisted in the 2020 Fish Poetry Prize, County Cork, IRELAND.
Deep-Sea Diver was Shortlisted in the 2020 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, Oxford, ENGLAND.
The Black Dog was Longlisted in the 2020 Fish Poetry Prize, County Cork, IRELAND.
The Mill Road was Shortlisted in the 2018 Newcastle Poetry Prize, AUSTRALIA
The Last Moment was Shortlisted in the 2012 Fish Poetry Prize, County Cork, IRELAND.
Long Listed
The Black Dog was Longlisted in the 2020 Fish Poetry Prize, County Cork, IRELAND
Death in the Afternoon was Longlisted in the 2014 Fish Poetry Prize, County Cork, IRELAND.
Hilltop Station via Wee Jasper was Longlisted in the 2012 Fish Poetry Prize, County Cork, IRELAND.