New Australian Children’s Poetry website launches

19 March 2014 Books+Publishing

A new website dedicated to Australian children’s poetry has launched.

Australian Children’s Poetry was launched by author Dianne Bates on 15 March. The website, which is dedicated to showcasing contemporary Australian children’s poets and their work, includes poems, poet profiles, reviews, articles, news, interviews and competitions. According to the website, there have been 4680 visits to the website since its launch.

Bates told Books+Publishing that she launched the site after she attempted to gather poets’ contact details for an Australian children’s poetry anthology, Our Home is Dirt by Sea (Walker Books, 2015), in 2007. Bates found that ‘most poets do not have an online presence, nor was there a national database of Australian children’s writers and poets’. ‘Currently in Australia, the only market for children’s poetry is the NSW Department of Education School Magazine. And only one publisher, Walker Books, publishes children’s poetry on a regular basis,’ said Bates.

Bates will coordinate the website’s content with assistance from author Helen Ross, who designed the website. Bates told Books+Publishing that the site will rely on unpaid contributions from freelance contributors. ‘When poetry books are reviewed in magazines, I will solicit copies of those reviews for publication on the site. Or review them myself,’ said Bates.

Bates said there are no plans to sell poetry from the website, but that most poets on the website have listed their contact details, so ‘anthologists seeking contributions will be able to contact poets directly, as will writers festival and conference organisers, and schools wanting to book poets for readings and/or workshops’.

For more information, visit the Australian Children’s Poetry website here.

Category: Local news