Bron Bateman presents: Andrew Sutherland on queer art making and the discourse around HIV
In this episode of the poetry podcast Andrew Sutherland talks to Bron Bateman about how he found his queer identity as a teenager through cult TV, horror movies and science fiction. Andrew says, ‘I really enjoy as an art-maker bringing academia or bringing the canon or the classics down to play in the dirt with queer things.’
He believes that the collapse of what we consider high art and low art is an integral part of queer art-making. He says, ‘Queer art-making across all forms is very much about trying to, in some ways, shift the world sideways and to kind of reach across these great gaps between people.’
Topics covered
- Queer art-making
- The discourse around HIV
- How poetry transforms sense of self
- Poetry as an act of rebellion
- Speaking to your own experience
Books and other things mentioned
About the host:
Bron Bateman (she/her) is a poet, academic and mother of nine. She is a researcher in Crip and Disability Studies at the University of Newcastle and her research interests include Crip and Disability Studies, Queer and Gender Theory, cultural studies, creative writing, Feminisms, and the body. Her first poetry collection, People from bones (with Kelly Pilgrim), was published by Ragged Raven Press (UK) in 2002. Her PhD, a collection of poetry and an exegesis, exploring female embodiment and experiences of motherhood, sexuality, mental health and volitional marking through tattooing, piercing and BDSM practices, was completed in 2012. Her second collection, Of Memory and Furniture, which was Highly Commended in the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry in 2021, was published by Fremantle Press in 2020. She has had her work published in collections and journals such as Westerly Magazine and Southerly Magazine, across Australia, the UK and the US and has performed her work at conferences, festivals and readings, locally, nationally and internationally. In 2004 she was awarded the Bobbie Cullen Memorial Prize for Creative Writing. In 2017 she received Columbia University’s Winter Poetry Prize, and in 2022 she was shortlisted for the Tom Collins Poetry Prize. She lives with her wife and youngest daughter in Perth, Western Australia.
Bron’s latest book, Blue Wren, is out now. Connect with Bron on Instagram @Bron.Bateman and on Twitter @BronBateman.
About the guest:
Andrew Sutherland (he/they) is a Queer poz (PLHIV) writer and performance-maker creating work between Boorloo, Western Australia and Singapore. His work draws upon intercultural and Queer critical theories, and the viral instabilities of identity, pop culture and the autobiographical self. As a performance-maker, he has twice been awarded WA’s Blaz Award for New Writing and makes up one-half of independent theatre outfit Squid Vicious (@squidvicioustheatre). His recent performance works include 30 Day Free Trial, Poorly Drawn Shark, Jiangshi, Unveiling: Gay Sex for Endtimes and a line could be crossed and you would slowly cease to be, which was commissioned by Singapore’s Intercultural Theatre Institute in 2019. As a poet, he was awarded Overland’s Fair Australia Prize 2017 and placed third in FAWWA’s Tom Collins Prize 2021. His poetry, fiction and non-fiction can be found in a raft of national and international literary journals and anthologies, including Cordite, Westerly Magazine, Portside Review, 聲韻詩刊 Voice & Verse, EXHALE: an anthology of Queer voices from Singapore, and Margaret River Press’s We’ll Stand in That Place and Other Stories, having been shortlisted for their 2019 Short Story Prize. He is grateful to reside on Whadjuk Noongar boodja.
Find this author on Instagram @spandyandrei.
His book Paradise (point of transmission) is available in all good bookstores and online.
Original music
‘Letter to a Daughter of St George’, from the Meat Lunch E.P.: Songs from Floaters. Written by Alan Fyfe. Performed by Trevor Bentley (guitar and vocals – @trevormb) and Chris Parkinson (harmonica). Produced by Blake Carnaby of Nuglife studios with impresario work by Benjamin P. Newton.
Sound engineering
Aidan D’Adhemar, Fremantle PA Hire
Produced by
Claire Miller, Fremantle Press Marketing and Communications Manager and the Fremantle Press Marketing and Communications team
This podcast was produced in Walyalup in Wadjak Boodja, on the lands of the Noongar people.
