Friendly Street New Poets 18
Every year, Friendly Street Poets holds a competition for new poets (without a previously published collection). Submissions are reviewed by an independent judge, who picks three poets to be published in a single volume. The winners were announced at the final meeting of 2012 by judge Steve Brock. They are, in alphabetical order, Kate Alder, Jelena Dinic and Indigo Eli. We are very much looking forward to the publication of New Poets 18 later in 2013.
Kate Alder
Kate Alder lives on the Southern Fleurieu Peninsula surrounded by hills, vineyards and farms. She works as a Child Care Worker which allows her to tell stories, engage in conversations and play with language for a living. In previous lives she has worked for a Trade Union, a Washing Machine Manufacturer and a solicitor and as a housemaid in a hotel on the Isle of Skye. Kate has dabbled in dance and dragon boat racing, pottery and painting. She has sung in choirs and has always had a healthy interest in written and spoken words. 9 years ago, she picked up a Friendly Street flyer in a Paradise Pizza Bar and has been reading and performing her poetry at Friendly Street and elsewhere ever since.
Jelena came from Serbia in 1993 during the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of SA and is now married with two children. She works with her husband in their travel business and lives in the Piccadilly Valley of the Adelaide Hills where the nights are very peaceful after a long day in the city. She currently teaches Serbian in the Serbian Ethnic School, edits a poetry corner for the Serbian Voice in Melbourne and occasionally reports to Serbian SBS Radio about local art events that take her breath away. She writes in Serbian and English and her articles and poems have appeared in various journals, readers, websites and on street signs. In 2011 she was a Friendly Street mentored poet with Dr. Valerie Volk.
Indigo Eli
Indigo; n. (1) poet; one who moves and contorts within and without language to speak the unspoken, document intangibilities. (2) a contemporary gatherer, often seen threading poetry, circus, costume, voice and movement into new textures of performance. (3) a dabbler in the romance languages, e.g budgie-squeak. (4) three time Australian Poetry Slam national finalist. (5) co-founding co-director of ‘the nameless project’. (6) one who is afflicted with the unstoppable desire to flirt with moonbeams. (7) the dye in your jeans.
Indigo Eli has an Advanced Diploma of Arts in Professional Writing. Her poems are published in a growing pulse of pages, including Friendly St. Anthologies 30 through 37.