We start with an open mic (3 mins per reader), and then two excellent poets:

Genevieve Osborne lives on Cammeraygal Land and loves to be on the Far South Coast, on Yuin Country, where she can hear whales call and slap their fins. Her poems have appeared in various publications including Southerly, Meanjin, Island, Blue Bottle Journal, Oystercatcher One and Oystercatcher Two. She was joint winner of the Henry Lawson Prize for Poetry, won the Inner City Life Poetry Prize, and has twice been runner-up in the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize (2007 and 2026).

Chrisanne Lombard /krɪˈzɑːn ˈlɒmbɑːrd/ is an Afrikaner writing on unceded Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country. She’s a writer, mother, reader and perennial student, and has performed at That Poetry Thing open mics since 2023. She grew up on amaZulu Country, but left South Africa for Australia when she was 21. She spent her early parenting years in Finland and highly recommends giving birth there. She’s currently enrolled in a Bachelor of Creative Writing at the University of Canberra and her work has appeared in Meniscus, UC FIRST anthology and Curieux magazine. Through poetry, short stories and creative nonfiction she explores her connection to place, language and family.