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A thriving forest of poetry

A record number of poetic entries in this year's POEM FOREST competition will result in over 6400 seedlings planted.

2 Nov 2023

Thuy On

Poetry POEM FOREST. image is three children with adult

Students from Fairy Meadow Demonstration School on Dharawal Country who wrote nature poems and planted seedlings in the Poem Forest with Wollongong City Council on behalf of student poets across the continent. Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar.

From over 6400 entries, a shortlist of 84 poems by students and teachers from across Australia has just been announced in the POEM FOREST competition, a Red Room Poetry initiative in collaboration with Wollongong City Council, which plants a tree for every nature poem entered. Since its inception three years ago, more than 17,000 seedlings have been gingerly placed in the ground for the purview of future generations. A record number of poetic entries were in submitted in 2023, ensuring the planting of more than 6400 seedlings.

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Thuy On

Thuy On is Reviews Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the books editor of The Big issue for 8 years. Her first book, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was published by University of Western Australia Press (UWAP). Her next collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Twitter: @thuy_on