National Slam Finalists

ACT 

 Hadley
Howling at the moon, impeccably attired, vaguely confused and excited to see you, Hadley is a theatrical, Canberra based writer, performer and slam poet. He is one of the conspirators behind the massively popular Canberra Poetry Slam BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, and has performed poetry and spoken word at The National Folk Festival, Babble Slam (Melb), Corinbank Festival, National Young Writers Festival and Crack Theatre Festival (Newcastle) and Woodford Folk Festival (QLD), where he won the WordFood slam in 2008. This is his third time yelling at startled audience members as an ACT representitive at the National Poetry Slam.

Miranda Lello
Miranda Lello currently lives in Canberra. She has been poetry writing for a long time, and performs on an irregular basis in Canberra.

NSW

 
 Greg North
Greg North lives in the Blue Mountains of NSW and has been performing poetry since 2003. He loves rhyme, rhythm and humour and this will be his fourth time in the national final of the Poetry Slam.

Zohab Khan
Zohab Khan currently lives in Wagga Wagga and is a student at Charles Sturt University. He experiments with a lot of different styles of writing, but is ultimately dedicated to portraying a story to his audience. Zohab is inspired by stories of life, especially the things people tend to forget or not hear about. His goal is to capture and preserve these moments. Of performing on stage, he says: "It’s always a bit of a rush... Nothing really beats the feeling when you put your own words out there and people really feel what you have to say."

NT

Tim Parish
Timothy Parish a writer, artist and filmmaker from Darwin, Northern Territory. Tim published his first zine 'Verb' in 2000, and fell in love with self publishing from then on. His work has been reprinted in 'Herding Kites: Best of the National Young Writers Festival' as well as through independent publisher Undergrowth Inc. which he co-founded in 2004 and it's online magazine Undergrowth.org. In 2010, he published  'Portals' his first solo collection of writing at Wordstorm NT. In 2011 he has performed spoken word regularly with The Ten Thousand Things - an experimental musical collective for which he also VJs. Through his video production company Verb Studios he also creates short film, music videos and documentaries. 

Celestine Rowe
My name is Celestine Rowe Byerley, I am a 28 year old mother of 2. I have been working in media for 3 years and just started up working with the indigenous remote media association. I love performing my own writing simply for then reason that it is my own, and my story to share. My inspiration is my world and the way I see it, it's so beautiful and we live in a lovely space. I am currently living in Alice Springs where there is a lot of pain and negativity in this town and that is also why I write because it shows people about our living and our hurts rather than seeing a drunk on the street.

QLD

Mark Lowndes
Described as Jack Johnson meets Stevie Wonder, Brisbane born and bred vocalist Mark Lowndes is simply one of the best talents to come out of Australia. Described by those lucky enough to have seen him perform as an evocative songwriter with captivating vocals, the self-proclaimed optimist sees his talent as a tool to put multiculturalism and community on the map. His underlying messages thread through his strong and free spirited compositions with music being the root of his expression. With his honest and life filled performances, the acoustic singer continues to leave an indelible impression on those who cannot fathom the unbelievable sound and substance that comes from one man and his guitar.

Anaua M.
My name is Anaua Malifa, born in NZ of Samoan heritage and proud to call Oz home. Just here for fun. 

Kami
Kami is a semi-professional redneck lounger, freelance writer, published author and house dad.  For over a decade he went to the pub on Ralph magazine’s dime. He’s performed (on and off stage) in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle and won the odd slam here and there.  He has a couple of novellas out through Paroxysm Press, has been published in various journals both here and overseas and in 2010 he won the “Single Poet Collection Award” at the Poetry Unleashed Festival and his collection Subterranean Redneck Blues was launched in December. But he’s still broke. Luckily he’s a kept man. 

Indigo Eli
Indigo; n.  (1) poet; one who believes that art is the act of bringing the poetically intangib le  i nto existence (2) a contemporary gatherer threading poetry, circus, costume, voice and movement into new textures of performance (3) co-founding co-director of 'the nameless project'  (4) three time Australian Poetry Slam national finalist  (5) 2011 JUMP mentee (6) the dye in your jeans (7) general maker of well-meaning mischief. 
For more in-depth definitions see facebook.com/illusive.blue or myspace.com/identitypackage

TAS

Lyndon Riggall
Lyndon Riggall is a 21 year-old writer and university student currently living in Hobart, Tasmania.  He is aware that he is too young, too nerdy and too uneducated to be taken seriously.  But that's a nice freedom really, isn't it?
Instead of worrying about such things, he hopes you just spend your time enjoying yourselves.  He knows he will.
You can find out more about Lyndon at http://lyndonriggall.com or by following him on Twitter @lyndonriggall.

Joan Webb
Joan Webb as an activist and Councillor, created the Exhibition of Excellence, now the Beaconsfield Gold Festival. She instigated the Save the Supply Mill Ruins movement, now a public park for the people of Tasmania. Joan has had publications in the Examiner, various journals including Blue Giraffe, Poets Republic and has won several prizes at Poetry Pedlars, the organisers of The Tasmanian Poetry Festival. Humor or unexpected twists in her work often illustrate social justice and environmental issues.

WA

Jakub Dammer
Discovering spoken word poetry at the beginning of University, it organically grew on him, like a mould, until early 2011 when he entered his first poetry slam in Perth. He is also passionate about film-making, photography and hip hop. He has recently finished working on a trio of short films for Top Door Studios that will soon be seeing the light of day. If Jakub ever craves 69c wafers, the supermarket is only a 5 minute walk from his house. He thinks that's pretty cool.

Nadine Browne
I live in the outer suburbs of Perth a place called Midland. A lot of Perthites dont like Midland as its a bit "rough" but I find it an interesting, diverse place, there are a lot of new migrants and a large indigenous population and people are very friendly and chatty.
When I write I'm getting over something, I'm trying to move forward to stop thinking about the thing that bothers me, consumes me. I'm wanting to change. Writing can cut through barriers, distress, conflicts and stereotypes. I'm interested in voices of the marginalised and downtrodden, and voices that you dont get to hear too often. I like the idea of making the mundane exotic, I like looking for contradictions and juxtapositions in people and places.

Simon Taylor
Simon Taylor is a full-time entertainer and writer. He has been a Raw Comedy Finalist, Winner of ImproNow Theatre Sports Competition and Winner of The Adelaide Magic Convention.
He has also been a TEDx speaker, having presented a talk on the psychology of magic that featured on ABC’s Big Ideas. He writes a weekly column called Moral Melbourne for Beat.com.au and has created a comic strip called Flim-Flam.

Luka Lesson
Luka Haralampou aka 'Luka Lesson' is the Co-Director of community arts organisation The Centre for Poetics and Justice based in Melbourne. As a performing artist Luka has won the Melbourne Slam Poetry Final, ranked 19th out of 73 performers in the Individual World Slam Final in the USA and was invited to perform a full feature at the world famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe in NYC in 2011. At 28 years old Luka has also toured the east coast of Australia with international performance poets Ken Arkind, Jive Poetic, and Shane Koyczan for the Global Poetics Tour in September this year and is currently planning the release of his first book in April, 2012. Luka is humbled by the amazing talent in this years competition, and it is his third year of entering the Australian Poetry Slam. Check out his website, LukaLesson.com.