Spotlight is here...

Our first contributor to this new section that showcases the individual talents of Monash begins with:

Ashley Capes

Ashley Capes's first collection of poetry pollen and the storm (2008) has just been published with the assistance of Small Change Press, a new publisher located in Queensland. “Graham Nunn, who also edited the collection for me, was an enormous help. He approached me and asked if I would be willing to get a manuscript together and I jumped at the chance.”

A Monash student currently finishing a double degree in Arts and Education, Ashley's work has appeared in a range of Australian print and electronic journals. He was co-editor of Egg(Poetry) in East Gippsland from 2002-2006 and spent several years running the ‘Cabaret Zebu’ performance nights at Cafe Snap, before moving to the LaTrobe Valley with his wife to pursue studies at Monash. Ashley majored in Writing and received runner-up in the 2007 Monash Poetry Prize, a competition he’s going to try and win this year.

His collection, pollen and the storm draws on and is influenced by writing styles of free verse, beat poetry and a classical form of Japanese poetry, haiku. “Haiku is breathtaking because it is so concise. It conveys a world of emotion, ideas and images with such a small amount of words. That’s what I aim for in my own work, a sense of brevity and honesty.”

Ashley's book is available at Angus and Robertson Morwell, Collins the Booksellers in Traralgon and Bairnsdale, Readings in Carlton and Collected Works on Swanston Street, Melbourne.

Most recently Ashley has been hard at work on a new publication with his fellow Egg (Poetry) editors called holland1945, an online journal of image and text: holland1945.

More of Ashley’s work (and the work of other Australian writers) can be found on these web journals: Stylus Poetry Journal and Bluepepper .

Poetry

Spotlight welcomes contributors of any kind...we are not scared to show how good you are!!

Poetry, Sculpture, Short Stories, Painting, Photography, anything visual, written or newsworthy, we want to know about it so we can show the world. If you have made the headlines recently, found a new use for toiletpaper, created the best personal artwork ever or expressed yourself like never before we want to know about it.

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