Spoken Word

‘to write of skin is to discredit the self’- from Home’s Duplex by Lesh Karan In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 17 April 2025, you will hear poet Lesh Karan talk about studying poetry, assemblage, movement and lineages.Lesh Karan is an emerging poet of Indo-Fijian descent based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Overland, Griffith Review, Cordite, Island, Rabbit, Strange Horizons (USA), and Best of Australian Poems (2022, 2023). She won the 2023 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize, was shortlisted for the Judith Wright and South Coast Writers Centre poetry prizes, and received an honourable mention in the 2024 Red Room Emerging Poets in Residence program. Lesh holds a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing from the University of Melbourne.Poems written and performed by Lesh Karan in this episode:Twenty-one+ answers to your questionHome’s DuplexRed Writing Hood NoteSpoken word and poetry come from the heart and touch on all the topics peculiar to the human condition. As such there may be content in this show that could cause distress. Please practice self-care when listening and seek help if you need it. CreditsRecorded, produced and edited by Indrani Perera.Thank you to Lesh Karan for sharing her poetry and to you for listening!

Marion May Campbell's novels include Lines of Flight (1985), Not Being Miriam (1989), Prowler (1999), Shadow Thief (2006), and konkretion (2013).She has also published the cross-genre collection Fragments from a Paper Witch (Salt, 2008), an experimental memoir The Man on the Mantelpiece (UWA Publishing, 2018), the poetry collections third body (Whitmore Press 2018) and languish (Upswell 2022).Her novels Lines of Flight (1985) and Not Being Miriam (1989) were shortlisted andcommended for major Australian awards and twice for the Canada-Australia Literary Prize;Not being Miriam won WA Week Literary Awards for Prose Fiction (1989), the libretto DrMemory in the Dream Home shared the Patricia Hackett Prize (1992) and Fragments from aPaper Witch was a finalist for the Innovation Category of the South Australian Festival Literary Awards (2010).She has been recipient of nine writer’s and residency grants and won the Senses of Cinema Prize for the best essay in 2021 and the joanne burns micro-fiction prize for 2022. Producer & Presenter: Tina Giannoukos

‘sink beneath the surface into myriad voices speaking in stone’- from On Danggu by Nandi Chinna In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 20 March 2025, you will hear poet Nandi Chinna talk about the eco-poetics of wild rivers, listening and reciprocal relationships. Nandi Chinna works as a research consultant, educator, and poet. She is based on unceded Aboriginal land in Boorloo (Perth) and Bunuba lands in Fitzroy Crossing, WA. Her poetry has its genesis in a strong determination to craft creative works and poetry as a response to the ecologies and layers of history attached to particular places.Nandi is the author of four poetry collections.  The Future Keepers (Fremantle Press) was shortlisted for the Prime Ministers Literary Award in 2020 and was highly commended in the Victorian Premiers Prize 2019. Nandi was awarded the 2021 Western Australian Premiers Writing Fellowship. Her most recent collection, a collaboration with Niykina Elder Professor Anne Poelina, Tossed up by the beak of a Cormorant, poems of the Martuwarra River, was published by Fremantle Press in 2024. Poems written and performed by Nandi Chinna in this episode:On DangguReciprocal GiftsAt Yirramalay Spring NoteSpoken word and poetry come from the heart and touch on all the topics peculiar to the human condition. As such there may be content in this show that could cause distress. Please practice self-care when listening and seek help if you need it. CreditsRecorded and produced by Indrani Perera.Thank you to Nandi Chinna for sharing her poetry and to you for listening!

This episode was broadcast 10th of April 2025. We feature LIVE readings of poems from the members of the Western Union Writers, on the occasion of their 40th year celebrations.  Western Union Writers (Werribee) have been meeting as a writing group for 40 years in May this year; one of the longest running groups with continuous members in Victoria, if not Australia. They support local writers and writing in the western suburbs, facilitate creative writing events and stimulate creative written and literary expression. If you are interested in joining this group of buying their anthologies, please contact coordinator [email protected]. Readers are:Margaret Campbell reading a poem “Writer Phobia”Neil reading a poem “A Violet and a Bloke”Jason reading a poem “A Saw a Man”Tony reading a poem “My Best Jacket”Jonathan Griffin reading a poem “At Home with Dad”Chris Ringrose reading a poem “Conventry”Joanna Saunders reading a poem “My Lips are Sealed”Claire Moore reading a poem “About Port Arthur”Janet Howie reading a series of Haiku, and talking about the Society of Women WritersBronwyn Hickman reading a poem “Disillusionment”Kip Chauli reading a short story “The Calling Card”Richard Dove reading a poem “Enticement”Helen Cerne reading a poem “Off His Face” (or “The Six O’Clock Swill”)

Sandy Jeffs on Out of the Madhouse is an encore broadcast. Sandy talks about the book she co-wrote with Margaret Legatt, Out of the Madhouse, From Asylum to Caring Community. The book contains both history and poetry and is written from an insider perspective. Interviewed by Di Cousens.

Gad Ben-Meir was born in Baghdad in 1931. He has published two collections of poetry in classical Arabic, Nightingales of Intimacy (2004) and Dialogue of the Hearts (2008), and one collection in the Egyptian dialect, Ya Manal Ya Manali (2004). After more than fifty years of living in England and Australia, his first collection of poetry in English, Siren of the Heart (2020), celebrates his appreciation and insight into love and friendship and their repercussions.Siren of the Heart (Westphalia Press, 2020) is available here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Siren-Heart-Gad-Ben-Meir-ebook/dp/B0856WWRML/r...(link is external) Producer & Presenter: Tina Giannoukos

‘If my childhood were a thread it would connect all the vibrant colours into a phulkari and remind me to be proud of my parivaar, my family.’- from Pardes by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 20 March 2025, you will hear multiform artist Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa talk about racism, representation in the arts and her debut novel. Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa OAM is a writer, performer, producer and cultural leader based in Boorloo. Her work as a multi-form artist for the last decade has been recognised at the Performing Arts WA Awards, Mona Brand Writing Awards, WA Multicultural Awards and Australian Sikh Awards. Her passion for storytelling began as a finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam in 2014, semi-finalist on Australia’s Got Talent in 2016 and winner of The Moth GrandSLAM in 2019.Sukhjit has supported Missy Higgins and L-FRESH the Lion on their national tours in 2016 and 201717 and and her debut hip-hop single ‘Collectables’ is now streaming on global music platforms. Sukhjit was selected to participate in a Broadway producing program with Theatre Producers of Colour in New York (2023). She is currently producing ‘A Hairy Tale’, a documentary exploring female body hair.Her debut novel Fully Sikh: hot chips and turmeric stains (Upswell Publishing) is available now. Poems written and performed by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa in this episode:To Advance Australia FairPardesCollectibles (song) NoteSpoken word and poetry come from the heart and touch on all the topics peculiar to the human condition. As such there may be content in this show that could cause distress. Please practice self-care when listening and seek help if you need it. CreditsRecorded and produced by Indrani Perera.Thank you to Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa for sharing her poetry and to you for listening!

Eileen Chong has just released a new book of poetry, 'We Speak of Flowers', published by the University of Queensland Press. Interviewed by Di Cousens. Photo by Travis De Vries.

Gad Ben-Meir was born in Baghdad in 1931. He has published two collections of poetry in classical Arabic, Nightingales of Intimacy (2004) and Dialogue of the Hearts (2008), and one collection in the Egyptian dialect, Ya Manal Ya Manali (2004). After more than fifty years of living in England and Australia, his first collection of poetry in English, Siren of the Heart (2020), celebrates his appreciation and insight into love and friendship and their repercussions.Siren of the Heart (Westphalia Press, 2020) is available here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Siren-Heart-Gad-Ben-Meir-ebook/dp/B0856WWRML/ref=sr_1_1?crid=G82NLKOKFED4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.XTit7GyiBonakd9IP-0qzg.hncETW4Zp-Auhk_gmcOWLIYrRmgtNRoSMDQpf_dJEt8&dib_tag=se&keywords=gad+ben-meir&qid=1740543655&s=books&sprefix=%2Cstripbooks%2C2212&sr=1-1 Produced & Presented by Tina Giannoukos

‘Peace is the true flavour.’- from Shaah for Healing by Mohamed Sudi In this episode of 3CR's Spoken Word show which aired on Thursday 20 February 2025, you will hear poet Mohamed Sudi talk about shaah (tea), healing and hope as well as some of the secret projects he has been working on. Mohamed Sudi is a Somali refugee, poet, and calligrapher. He is a member of the Calligraphy Society Victoria, and a 2024 Australian Poetry Slam State Finalist. His multilingual storytelling brings words to life both vocally and visually, blending spoken word poetry with Arabic calligraphy. Through vivid and immersive storytelling, Mohamed takes audiences on a deeply personal journey—from the joyful games of his Mogadishu childhood and his love for Arabic calligraphy to the harsh realities of war under Siad Barre’s military regime, which uprooted his family from Somalia. Set against a backdrop of displacement and renewal, Mohamed’s deeply moving storytelling bridges memories and dreams, offering audiences a profound exploration of survival, identity, and the unbreakable human spirit. Poems written and performed by Mohamed Sudi in this episode:Somalia AustraliaShaah for Healing (mono stitch)Hooyo (Mother) NoteSpoken word and poetry come from the heart and touch on all the topics peculiar to the human condition. As such there may be content in this show that could cause distress. Please practice self-care when listening and seek help if you need it. CreditsRecorded and produced by Indrani Perera.Thank you to Mohamed Sudi for sharing his poetry and to you for listening!