Dear, dear friends,
We are so excited to unveil our newest new thing. This one is designed to help you fine tune your poetry for submission to competitions and publications, or for performance including the upcoming SA Slam Competition. It is The Poets’ Forum.
This is a free group for writing feedback. You specify the feedback you are seeking and the group presents their thoughts to you. It will be moderated by Adelaide Poetry Legend, Geoffrey Aitken.
We kick it off on Saturday 4 July, and intend it to be a monthly event on the first Saturday. Registrations from 12:45 PM, we will start promptly at 1:00 PM. The event will conclude when all poets have had an opportunity to present or at 3:00 PM, whichever is soonest.
Everything you need to know is in the link. If you still have questions after reading all that, please email us at [email protected]
Geoffrey Aitken
Geoffrey Aitken has been a regular reader at Ellipsis Open Mic since we began in 2024. In August 2025, he was one of our featured poets at Poets Take Over! But long before we thought of Ellipsis Poetry, Geoffrey had been part of the Adelaide poetry and spoken word scene.
And even before that, Geoffrey lived literature and poetry. He was an English Lit Crit Major and went on to spend 15 years as a senior English teacher. A ragtag bunch of enthusiastic poets will pose no great challenge to this seasoned cat-herder.
Geoffrey has an impressive list of publication credits and keeps abreast of submission cycles and call outs. He’s a handy person to have around and we are delighted to have him as Moderator of The Poets’ Forum to guide feedback while offering his own.
If you would like to read more about Geoffrey, his poetry, and his wife Jenny’s recipes (the vegan sausage rolls sound tasty!) check out their shared website Poetry Feasting.
What’s Been…
The season has finally changed. Just when it looked like Autumn would never come, it did and our city filled with scarves. But on that very last evening before the change, we had our open mic event.
Ellipsis Open Mic
We are consistently filling all 20 open mic slots every month now. If you are determined to read, we suggest you plan to arrive early. But if you miss out on a spot, you can still stay and listen. There is no cover charge for audience, so you might as well stay since you showed up anyway, right?
We are also consistently welcoming new readers. not just new to our open mic, but new to any public performance of their work. We take this as a great compliment that folks feel safe at our event and are comfortable to step up. It is not something that anyone does lightly.
So thank you to our poets and our audience. You are equally important and equally valued. Shout out to Atom, too, who sits in the dark up the back and does our tech.
The next Ellipsis Open Mic is scheduled for Thursday, 11 June. Bring your entry for Say It In Six to win a Scrivener software licence (valued at $95) courtesy of London Writers’ Salon and Scrivener. This month’s prompt is LONDON.
Got questions? The answers might be here: FAQ’s
What’s Coming…
Poets Take Over!
Poets Take Over! is scheduled for this Friday, 22 May! Our lineup is:
6:00 Nigel Ford
6:30 Stella Damajarti
7:00 Courtney Mason
7:30 Conor Brown, and
8:00 Carissa Fischer
All the details are in the link, but the important points are it’s fun, it’s free, it’s for everyone.
Shut Up & Write
We also have this quiet little writing window at Page & Turner twice a month. Anyone is welcome to come along. Again, it’s free. Details in the link.
Irons in the Fire…
Our fire is still crowded with irons. We are finalising details on a couple of encore performances of All Roads Lead to Bowie which we will tell you more about next time.
And we are talking to some other stakeholders about new and interesting things to do with poetry. Can’t tell you anything more about that yet, because there is nothing tangible to tell.
Adelaide is alive with open mics and curated readings, along with so many other wonderful wordy things to do. We hope to see you out and about, wearing your favourite scarf, some time soon.
Until next time, stay warm, stay dry, and take inspiration from the patterns in the clouds.
For the love of poetry…
