Today, February 28 is the last day of February, the last day of Summer, and the day of my favourite event of the month. Today is the day my favourite Big Event happens. This Big Event isn’t necessarily big in terms of people attending, but it is huge in terms of the wonderful things that can happen.
The event is the Gawler Poets at the Pub event, incorporating both a writing-related workshop, and after that a Poetry Reading. The event takes place at the Prince Albert Hotel (known as the P/A to regulars, and it has lunch happening too. I am one of the two coordinators of this event, and it is a small part of what the writing group I’m the President of, does.
So Alex Robinson, my co-coordinator, is also the Treasurer of our group, which is the Adelaide Plains Poets. He collects the money, and also brings along books we have as a prize for one of the little mini competitions we hold during the afternoon’s happenings. These new books are donated by a wonderfully eclectic bookshop close to the P/A hotel. It is the Gawler Bookshop, and I love popping in there every now and then to say hi, and thank you to the lovely Ally who owns the store, and can find or get in for you any book you might ever want, I suspect!
So this morning, right now, I’m getting ready to head off to Gawler to the P/A for the workshop our guest for the day will present. The guest is Valerie Volk, and the subject for her workshop is ‘Poetry from Pain’. This is a subject dear to my heart, and to my savings too, because I’ve written and sold my own books touching on this subject. One is my memoir about having Multiple Sclerosis ‘Mick Jane and Me – Living Well With MS’, and the other is a poetry collection about my own story about being sexually abused as a child, teen, and young adult ‘damaged children, Precious Gems’.
So painful things for sure, both of them, but the writing of those books has been therapeutic, and I’m in a much better space in my life now, having written the pain out of my head and onto the pages of my books.
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 
Hi Carolyn what time is the monthly Poets at the Pub event and is it always on the final Sunday?
We met at the Mannum writers event at Randell House a few months ago.
Cheers Mandy
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Hi Mandy,
Yes, we always meet on the final Sunday of the month, with a guest giving a writing related workshop at 12.30pm, and then they usually do the Guest poet piece for the poetry reading after.
It would be lovely to see you again!
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And when I was at this event today, I remembered that of course m most recent book is also about Pain, of course. That book, ‘Angles of Ankles’ is a chapbook I wrote and had published (by Gininderra Press), after I broke my right ankle on Grand Final day in 2019. It is a fine little book, I feel, and certainly others who have bought the book feel the same.
I have all of these books, and others I have written available for purchase, see the relevant page on this site, or leave a comment here, and we can discuss it.
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