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Calendar of Events

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WELCOME TO THE 2025 CALENDAR OF EVENTS!

With over 110 events confirmed across the motu — from city slams to rural rhyme nights — this year’s line-up is a powerful testament to the vitality of poetry in Aotearoa. It’s everywhere, and it’s more accessible than ever.

From verse on soda cans to typewriters on the street, hip hop gigs to inter-arts showcases, regional organisers have pulled out all the stops. There’s an inaugural Writers & Poets Festival in Kerikeri, a full week of celebrations in Invercargill — and so much more in between!

To help you find your nearest poetic fix, use the handy region tabs (below and left) to explore what’s happening near you — or venture further afield. Whether you’re a seasoned poet or a curious newcomer, this is your invitation to be part of something big.

On Friday 22 August, let’s come together to celebrate the power of poetry — and watch it shine across the country!

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RED ROOM POETRY – A WORKSHOP WITH ROBERT SULLIVAN

Presented in partnership with Australia’s Poetry Month, Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day is excited to announce a special workshop with Robert Sullivan, a finalist for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Red Room Poetry with Robert Sullivan.pngWaka from Aotearoa are kinship vehicles where large tribal groupings relate to one another through ancestral waka or ocean-going vessels. In my own poetics, I use the waka as a poem or vehicle to convey ideas through the materials and culture of the waka—its timber and carvings, the various methods of traditional navigation as wayfinding signs of nature through creatures of the ocean and sky, as well as the nature of the ocean (currents, wave directions, swell) and sky (stars, wind direction and intensity, sun and moon). How do we navigate such a tenuous poetics with our voices? ~ Robert Sullivan

Focused on ecopoetic voicing, this workshop will explore the nature of the lyric voice, and its collectivity with other beings. Join us as we place ourselves in our own voyaging waka and connect our whole selves from within a sea of islands to discover how voice, environment, and mythic memory intersect in the vast ocean of lyric possibility.

Entry: $40

Date/Times: Wednesday 20 August, 8 – 9.30pm NZ time

Location: Online via Zoom

Book here: https://events.humanitix.com/ecopoetic-voicing-with-robert-sullivan

Further Info: https://redroompoetry.org/events/workshop-ecopoetic-voicing/

BERLIN'S AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND PHANTOM BILLSTICKERS NATIONAL POETRY DAY 2025

Berlin Aotearoa event blurb.jpgAn evening of read, spoken and sung words with Angela Dwyer, Sandra Sarala and you with open mic for your favourite Aotearoa NZ poems.

Entry Details: Koha (donation)

Dates/Times: Saturday 23 August, Door 20:00, start 20:30

Location: @ Z-Bar Berlin, Bergstraße 2, 10115 Berlin-Mitte

Further Information: Berlin's Aotearoa New Zealand Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day 2025


POETRY ARRIVED IN SEARCH OF ME: WRITE ON YOUNG WRITERS ONLINE

The Write On team works with hundreds of young poets each year. Some of them are discovering a love of poetry for the first time.

Our tutor, Philomena Johnson, has selected some poems that have stood out from the 2025 workshops so far, and we have curated them online in time for National Poetry Day.

Featuring young poets from ages 6 to 18.

“And it was at that age ... Poetry arrived

in search of me.” Pablo Neruda

Entry Details: Free access

Date/Times: Live Online on August 22nd 2025

Location: https://www.schoolforyoungwriters.org/blog

Contact: Heather McQuillan

Further Info: Event: https://www.facebook.com/schoolforyoungwriters/