Launch of Reaching Light by Robert Adamson and guest poets

Launch of Reaching Light by Robert Adamson with Devin Johnston, Sarah Holland-Batt and Michele Seminara at the Brett Whiteley Studio AGNSW.

Reaching Light by Robert Adamson was launched by Devin Johnston, published by Flood Editions USA. Film by Steen Rees and Juno Gemes Produced by Flood Editions + Paper Bark Press.

Following the success of the release of renowned Australian poet Robert Adamson’s, Reaching Light, Flood Edition (2020), came the launch of the book.

A special poetry event at the Brett Whiteley Studio, AGNSW, with four diverse poets who came from four different geographic landscapes to read new work from their recent collections in celebration of Adamson’s latest work.

Readings from Robert Adamson, Devin Johnston (USA), poet, editor and publisher of Flood Editions, Sarah Holland-Batt, poet, editor and critic, and Michele Seminara, writer, poet and editor.

An in-conversation with Adamson and Devin Johnston was programmed. Beatrice Gralton, Senior Curator of the Brett Whiteley Studio, AGNSW provided an introduction. The afternoon was facilitated by Angela Stretch, Director, Poetry Sydney.

Reaching Light, Selected Poems by Robert Adamson, is published by Flood Editions.

The poetry event was presented by Poetry Sydney, Flood Editions in association with the Brett Whiteley Studio, AGNSW. Free admission was made possible by J.P.Morgan.

Robert Adamson (1943-2022), lived with his partner, photographer Juno Gemes, on the Hawkesbury River to the north of Sydney. Over the past five decades he produced twenty-one books of poetry and three books of prose. He was awarded the Christopher Brennan Prize for lifetime achievement, the Patrick White Award, and The Age Book of the Year Award for The Goldfinches of Baghdad (Flood Editions, 2006). Reaching Light, published by Flood Editions (2020), was his most recent collection.

Devin Johnston is the author of seven books of poetry, including Mosses and Lichens (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019). His first book, Telepathy, was published by Paper Bark Press in Australia in 2001. He has published two books of prose, Creaturely and Other Essays (Turtle Point Press, 2009) and Precipitations (Wesleyan University Press, 2002). He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where he works for Flood Editions, an independent publisher, and teaches at Saint Louis University.

Sarah Holland-Batt is a poet, editor and critic, and Professor of Creative Writing at QUT. Her most recent books are Fishing for Lightning (UQP, 2021), a collection of her poetry columns for The Australian newspaper, and The Jaguar (UQP, 2022). Among other honours, she is the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry. She is presently the Judy Harris Writer in Residence at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre.

Devin Johnston reads three poems at the launch of Reaching Light, Flood Editions (2020).

Brett Whiteley Studio AGNSW. Film by Steen Rees and Juno Gemes Produced by Flood Editions + Paper Bark Press.

Sarah Holland Batt reads three poems at the launch of Reaching Light, Flood Editions (2020).

Brett Whiteley Studio AGNSW. Film by Steen Rees and Juno Gemes Produced by Flood Editions + Paper Bark Press.

Michele Seminara reads three poems at the launch of Reaching Light, Flood Editions (2020).

Brett Whiteley Studio AGNSW. Film by Steen Rees and Juno Gemes Produced by Flood Editions + Paper Bark Press.

Poetry Sydney is an independent literary organisation committed to a presence for poetry in our culture.

Launch of Reaching Light by Robert Adamson and guest poets