ACTING ON INK

Poetry gets my blood up. Mary Karr, William Yeats, Joan Didion: their chefs d’oeuvre are going in my desert island swag.

I don’t have the same passion for the vast majority of my fellow poetry-appreciators, however. By and large, we are a dorky people. We came up with poetry slams. (Sorry.)

So it’s heartening to see the calibre of artists getting behind Australian Poetry’s Acting on Ink, the State Library’s take on performance poetry.

Actors Meredith Penman, Holly Austin and Nick Coyle promise to sound out their own interpretations of award-winning poetry from the likes of Mark Tredinnick, Robert Adamson, Jennifer Maiden and Cate Kennedy.

Local artist Flutter Lyon (by day Robyn Wilson) brings the eye candy with her intricate calligraphic ink prints, and the stupidly funny Eddie Sharp (he of Imperial Panda fame) holds it all together.

Add nibbles to the mix – the State Library has cheese plates down pat – and this evening promises to take the poetry world one step closer to atoning for William McGonagall. (ST)

Nov 19, The Dixson Room, State Library of New South Wales, Macquarie St, $20-25, sl.nsw.gov.au/events