2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize Winner - can any of us do as well?

Did you read the shortlisted poems for the 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize? Did you have a favourite?

If you didn't read it and you'd like to do so before I tell you who won (the prizewinner was announced on 16th January) click on this link to the shortlist 

Have you made your decision?
OK so here's the link to  the prizewinner - a wonderful, moving poem that I'm sure you will appreciate. A worthy winner!

If that has whet your appetite for good poetry you might also like to know that the Australian Book Review website also publishes links to past prizewinners. Here's a link to that past winners page. Maybe all those great poems will inspires you to write some poetry of your own that you can share with us on Writers Night.

Creative Doctors Writers Night 2020 is coming up on Thursday March 5th at Moore Park Golf Club with the generous help of Judith Babich from Active Locums. We are all very interested to hear the products of everyone's writing year. We welcome short fiction, non-fiction, excerpts from your last novel, excerpts from plays, lyrics, poetry - anything that, as a wordsmith, you are proud of and would like to share. 

If you are a creative doctor/writer who is interested in presenting your work to like-minded medicos please get in touch.

You can contact us for more information via the link on this blog or at janorman@mccauleysoftware.com

2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize

The shortlist is out for the 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize.

The late Peter Porter AO

The prize has been awarded since 2005 and was renamed in 2011 to honour the great Brisbane-born poet after his death in 2010.
The 2020 prize winner will be announced on 16th January. In the meantime you might like to select your favorite poem from the shortlist published on the Australian Book Review website

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding which poem I think should win.

Unfortunately I don't understand Lachlan Brown's "Precision Signs" at first reading - I will go back to it later to see what I can make of it.
I love Claire Coleman's "That Wadjela Tongue" about her lost language and the colonisers who
"dragged my language off the land, scraped
 my tongue they could not bring themselves to cut out".
Her mastery of the colonisers' tongue has become her greatest weapon.
A.Frances Johnson has written a dark and evocative poem about dementia in "My Father's Thesaurus" that is hugely relevant to many of my peers, and probably to yours as well.
Julie Manning's "Constellation of Bees" is beautifully written with a subtle message about what we are doing to the environment. Julie has written my favourite line. It's about the vermilion Tulip Tree which  "blooms with fragrant open cups - nightclub porn
                               for bees"
And Ross Gillett's "South Coast Sonnets", a clever extended metaphor about a marriage in the form of five sonnet-shaped stanzas, is both clever and evocative.

I'm no expert when it comes to poetry and it seems in this case I don't even know what I like! (Well, not what I like best anyway.)
Take a look for yourself and see what you think. (Here's the link to the shortlist again)

I'm keen to see a Creative Doctor on that shortlist one day soon, and I can think of one or two already who deserve to be there. Could it be you?

Visual Arts Night 2019

Of course I didn't get away with failing to report on Visual Arts Night!
Robyn Coleman, who exhibits regularly at Creative Doctors Visual Arts Night has provided me with some reportage so that those of you who didn't make it will have an idea of what went on.

Here's what Robyn had to say:

"We had a wonderful night on 3rd October at our annual Creative Doctors Visual Arts Night, with exhibitions of some fascinating works.

Howard Gwynne provided an interactive display of "inner life " photos. Participants identified the photos they most connected with their own inner life and that of their parents. There were some fascinating photos and putting self-adhesive dots on the photos allowed people to see which were the most popular. Interestingly a very disapproving photo of Queen Elizabeth II scored the most dots to represent our parents inner lives. Therapy anyone?
Howard also displayed a favourite piece of glass art  made by another member, Marc Grunseit, that represented beautifully the inner and outer aspects of life. 

Marc was there too. He has finally retired from making glass art, for which he is internationally acclaimed, and has moved on to other sculptural media. He brought a new sculptural piece for us to admire which illustrated that his talent extends way beyond his old medium. If you have an orthopaedic interest you may be able to identify some of the materials he used in the photo

Work by Kai Lin Lie

Work by Sadhana Desai

Kai Lin Lie showed us the life studies she has completed in only one term of study at the Royal Art Society in North Sydney. Fabulous work!



Another former doctor, Sadhana Desai, is now devoting most of her time to art and exhibiting with the Kuringai Art Society. She showed us the beautiful wildlife inspired work she has been doing. She has been experimenting with depicting Australian wildlife incorporating patterns and shapes reminiscent of her Indian heritage.  The results are startling.

Tom Klug and his recent sculptural work

Tom Klug brought his fantastic surrealist-inspired photographs from a few years ago, and a wonderful sculpture that is part of his current artistic interest.

Robyn Coleman and part of her
Sydney to Hobart series

I presented four works that are to be exhibited in the 75th Anniversary Sydney to Hobart Race Exhibition at the Maritime Museum in Hobart. I also provided some earth pastel cards from my Antarctica and Flinders Ranges series which were popular. (These are also available from my instagram site @robyn_coleman)

Julie Gottlieb and her work

Finally Julie Gottlieb presented some of the haunting portraiture for which she is so well known.







Cliff Hing's creative streak is taking a slightly less visual path. We all enjoyed sampling the products from hte Hunter Valley vineyard and winemaking venture (Baringbah) that is his current  creative obsession (read more about it here) and the delicious catering so generously provided by Judith Babich of Active Locums

Thanks to the committee for organising the event. It is always a pleasure!"

And many thanks to Robyn for contributing that post.

Visual Arts Night was fantastic but let's move on to the next big thing!

I'm going to get into trouble for not paying enough attention to the wonderful people who came to see the art on display at our Visual Arts Night on 3rd October, but I'm too excited about the next event to dwell on the past!

Sorry, but Writers Night is my favorite and this year we are going back to the old tried and true formula of inviting Creative Doctors to read tidbits to us from their best and latest work.
We are also going back to the Heritage Room at Moore Park Golf Club which has proven to be such a

successful venue in the past. The food is always  great and the windows provide an excellent view of  sun sinking over the golf course with the evening cityscape decorating the other horizon.

If you're not too busy working on the essay you are writing for the 2020 Calibre Essay Prize (click on the link NOW - entries close 15th January!), your short story for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize or the poem you are writing for the Peter Porter Poetry Prize (whoops, entries for 2020 closed on 1st October - you've got to be quick!) then how about putting something together for Creative Doctors Writers Night?

SAVE THE DATE 
Thursday 5th March 2020 and keep writing!

Visual Arts Night 2019

The third and final event on the  Creative Doctors calendar for 2019 is fast approaching!

Visual Arts Night will be held at North Sydney Community Centre on Thursday 3rd October 2019 with a starting time of 7.00pm.

Creative Doctors is pleased to invite medicos of all stripes (including medical students) to show us what they have been doing in the visual arts space during the year. Every year we uncover some amazing talent!

If you are a doctor (past,  present or future) who is also a photographer, a painter, a sculptor, a jeweller, a crafter or a visual artist of any kind,  and you would like to exhibit your work, please contact us to reserve a space.

Our sponsor Judith Babich
 of Active Locums

If you are just  curious to see what your talented medical colleagues, relatives and  friends can do, you are welcome to be in the audience  - just RSVP so that we can get the catering right.

 Judith Babich from Active Locums is sponsoring venue hire and providing light refreshments. Judith has been an unstinting and generous supporter of these events for nearly two decades  It is worth mentioning that she also supports the NSW Doctors Orchestra and the UNSW Medical Students Musical Society

If you are keen to exhibit or just to peek at the show
please RSVP NOW:
by email to creativedoctorsaustralia@gmail.com
or message Jan on 0425215876

Meanwhile, take a peek below at some examples of work we have exhibited in past years: