Joanne Kyger and Robert Adamson
Robert Adamson
Robert Adamson, a Sydney native, has successfully combined the careers of writer, editor and publisher. From 1970 to 1985 he edited New Poetry magazine and, in 1988 with Juno Gemes, he established Paper Bark Press. He has published 15 collections of poetry and three collections of autobiographical fiction. The recipient of many awards and prizes — including the National Book Council’s Banjo Award, New South Wales Literary Awards’ Kenneth Slessor Prize and Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for poetry — Adamson was awarded the F.A.W. Christopher Brennan prize in 1994 for lifetime achievement in literature. In 2004, Adamson made his first trip outside of Australia, reading to packed audiences at the Royal Festival Hall in London. His recent collection Mulberry Leaves is available internationally through Bloodaxe Books.
Joanne Kyger
Associated with the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, poet Joanne Kyger moved to San Francisco in 1957. There, she attended the Sunday meetings of poets Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, and moved into the East West House, a communal house for students of Zen Buddhism and Asian studies. Kyger has published more than 20 collections of poetry. Influenced by her study of Zen Buddhism as well as the Black Mountain School and San Francisco poets, Kyger’s work is mindful of daily events and the Northern California landscape.