This is a copy of a one off newsletter made available to the Ellipsis community in November 2025 following the first annual feedback survey.
Thank you…
...to everyone who took the time to complete our 2025 Survey. Here is what we learned:
The things that are important to us are also important to you. We didn’t spell them out, but you did – community, support, socialising in a safe space, connection… and of course, poetry.
You notice the way we do things – almost every aspect of our events was mentioned by someone. You like most of it.
You notice the effort we put in and are concerned about our mental and physical wellbeing. You showed concern that we were asking for more work to do and that our own enthusiasm might put us at risk.
Thank you for all of that. We are truly blessed to have you looking out for us. But please don’t worry. We are fine. We have big plans – huge! And we know we can’t do it all at once. We planted this little Ellipsis seed and it grew pretty fast from the start. We realised early on that we would need to keep it under control for our own sake. But we do want it to grow and change and evolve. That’s why we asked. Not to pile more work upon ourselves, but to be sure that the work we choose to do is the right work for this beautiful community.
Here’s some things we will implement immediately:
Keep Facebook and Instagram as main communication methods. (Thank you. This has saved us a tonne of work setting up anything new!)
Keep the zines as long we can get content. (Shout out to Jesse for their contribution with the production of these each month.)
Keep the overall schedule and format of the current events.
Add some Q’s to the FAQ’s posted between events.
Add image descriptions to social media posts.
Add some items to our opening remarks and housekeeping, including a blanket trigger warning. Identify and point out quiet zones in venues.
Provide guidance for event participants who need to air immediate concerns.
World Poetry Day
You will have noticed, we hope, that we have launched a Poetry Competition. We know we didn’t list that as an option in the “what would you like” part of the survey, but it did, in part, come from your feedback.
This competition ticks many boxes for both Ellipsis Poetry and Page & Turner. We are hoping that it will go on to tick some of yours too.
It was suggested that we try to include more cultural diversity. So we cast our net wider and we hope to attract some new poets into our community. (We love all of you “old poets” already here – but you said you were wanting to hear from some new people too.)
We received specific feedback about a lack of daytime events, and so we made the showcase an afternoon affair.
Some of you wanted themed showcases, and some wanted slams – so we combined the best of these and took the World Poetry Day theme and a slam-like event with a public vote for the winner.
We wanted to publish an A5 zine. It was part of the plan right from the start and may prove to be a stepping stone to bigger things much later down the track. The finalists will be the first edition.
But wait! There’s more!
We have a list of things that we would like to do. We have been able to prioritise them according to your feedback and we will work to make them happen as and when we can. Rest assured that we are in this for the long haul. As long as you are too.
May your inbox be as full of acceptance as this community. Thank you.
Pam & Jazz
For the love of poetry…
