David Adès new collection “Afloat in Light”

Congratulations to long-standing FSP member, David Adès, who has a new book of poetry out:  Afloat in Light produced by the prestigious University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP).

David now lives in Sydney, having returned to Australia recently after several years in Pittsburgh, USA. He hopes to visit Adelaide again later this year.

David Adès’ luminous and honest collection, Afloat in Light, is chiefly a celebration of fatherhood and of paying attention, utilising Simone Weil’s notion that ‘attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity’. The collection extends to existence and loss, and a discourse on motive and meaning.Click for more

David Adès

David Adès was born in Adelaide of Egyptian Jewish parents. He is a poet and short story writer.  He has travelled widely and lived in Israel, India and Greece.  Since 2011 he has been living in Pittsburgh, U.S.A.

In 1979 a housemate took him to his first Friendly Street meeting. He attended for several years before having the nerve to read his own work. He later became a Friendly Street regular.

David’s first published poem appeared in 1988 in the No. 12 Friendly Street Poetry Reader. His poems have since appeared in many subsequent Friendly Street Readers and in numerous Australian and U.S.… Click for more

Poems of the Month: June and July

With one editor residing in Port Augusta & one in the Barossa, getting together to discuss poems has been a challenge (and after an exhausting 4 hour long phone conversation to determine March & May we decided it had to be face to face). Finally after a couple of hiccups we achieved it this past weekend.

June

June was a massive success for the online portal. Over 60 poems were submitted by 22 poets and the quality was extraordinarily high. A quarter of the poems made the longlist and choosing, first the final five, then the top three was exceedingly difficult.… Click for more

Poems of the Month: March & May

COVID-19 has definitely thrown up some challenges this year but the editors are pleased to announce the Poems of the Month for March & May. 

March

March was our second and to date last face-to-face meeting of 2020. 65 poems were read and the longlist for this month was really quiet long. It was an excellent selection to draw upon & there were many fine poems in the initial discussion. But we managed to get it down eventually. We liked so many we have noted three Highly Commended poems. The challenging thing was how completely different each of the final 4 poems are yet each so strong in their own way.… Click for more

Single Poet 2019 & New Poets 20 announced!

L-R: Single Poet 2019 Commended poets Gaetano Aiello & Suzanne Verrall; Winner, Ben Adams, with FSP Convenor, Nigel Ford.
L-R: New Poets 20 Commended poet, Inez Marrasso; Winners,  Julia Wakefield, Alys Jackson & Sharon Foulkes with Judge, Steve Evans.

FSP is delighted to announce the winners of the Single Poet 2019 and New Poets 20 competitions.

The Single Poet 2019 Competition was won by Benjamin Adams for his collection A Synonym for Sobriety with commendations going to The Laureate Poems by Suzanne Verrall and The Underside Of Bark by Gaetano Aiello.

Single Poet 2019 Judge David Adès gave great insight into his process for selecting the winning and commended manuscripts.… Click for more