History and introduction to the Red Room Company

The Red Room Company is a not-for-profit company based in Sydney, Australia, to create, promote and publish a spectrum of poetry by Australian writers, in unusual ways. Through a range of forms such as radio and live performance we broaden the public's definition of and experience with high quality Australian poetry. Our projects focus on commissioning new Australian poetry and developing imaginative contexts in which this poetry can be creatively and critically explored. We focus on supporting the work of young and emerging writers through individual projects, and ‘Papercuts’, our poetry education program, was launched in 2007.

The Red Room Company grew out of the Red Room Radio Show on 89.7fm Eastside Radio. Produced and presented by Johanna Featherstone, Red Room Radio began in 2001. The show broadcast original poetry, writing, reviews and interviews with Australian writers to a local Sydney audience. The show’s focus was to bring new poetry and writing to a wide audience that included poets, poetry lovers and those listeners not normally familiar with poetry.

In 2002 The Red Room Epic project was created, it commissioned 30 writers (under 35 years of age) to write poetry for national community radio broadcast and online. Poets were interviewed and an audio epic poem was crafted. This project won the prestigious ‘Best New innovative radio program’ at the 2002 National Community Radio awards run by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia.

By the end of 2002, The Red Room Radio show and the Red Room project had developed a network of poets and poetry supporters Australia-wide. In order to continue creating original poetry inspired projects for the public in a free and creative environment, Johanna Featherstone established The Red Room Company. Johanna is the current Artistic Director of the Company.

The Red Room Company gratefully acknowledges the support of The Vincent Fairfax Foundation , The Australia Council for the Arts, The JB Seeds foundation , The City of Sydney, The Ian Potter Foundation, The Keir Foundation, The Ian Potter Foundation and Tin Chook.

We also thank our in-kind and private supporters for their ongoing interest in and passion for The Red Room Company and Australian poetry.

From Feb 7th – May 9th 2008, The Australia Council Offices, 372 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, Sydney featured a window display of our major projects since 2003. You can review our 2008 program here {insert link}. This year, we are launching a 2009 program of four brand new projects, a documentary production and the development of Papercuts's national profile.

You can review our 2008 program here.

This year, we are launching a 2009 program of four brand new projects, a documentary production and the development of Papercuts's national profile

Patron

In August 2008 we were delighted to announce that Mr John B Fairfax AO will hold the esteemed position as Patron of The Red Room Company.

Advisory Team

The Red Room Company's advisory board is a growing team of Australian poets Australian poets, selected each year to assist with the development of our projects. The team is a source of advice, feedback and judgment in relation to poems submitted to our projects, and encourages suitable poets to submit their work to the Company. All team members have been or are participants in a Red Room Company Project.

From mid-2008, instead of making public call-outs, The Red Room Company will be directly soliciting and selecting poets for its projects. The advisory board supports this approach by adding to the ever-increasing pool of talent that has not yet worked with Red Room: emerging and unknown poets encountered at readings and events; poets who submit work directly to us through the year; and more established voices whose poetry or poetics suits a particular project. As individuals, the board members act as correspondents from the frontline of Australian poetry, as well as a critical mass on project shortlists.

Our team in 2008 was comprised of Jaya Savage, Jill Jones, Lisa Gorton and Mike Ladd, alongside Johanna Featherstone, Bonny Cassidy and Fiona Wright. In 2009, the team continues and is joined by new voices as the year progresses.

All website portraits & illustrations created by Tonee Messiah

The 2009 Red Room Company

Artistic Director

Johanna Featherstone

Johanna established the Red Room Company in 2003. . Her poetry has featured in journals such as Quadrant, and the Best Australian Poems. In 2006 she created a series of literary TV shows The Wordshed, in partnership with The University of Western Sydney where she is a research associate. Johanna is an honorary associate with The University of Sydney's School of Letters Arts and Media. Johanna received a fellowship in from the St James Ethics Center in 2008.. 

Chief Researcher and Education Officer

Dr Bonny Cassidy

Bonny is a poet, lecturer, and assists the Artistic Director with our projects as well as administering our schools program, Papercuts. Her own poetry has appeared in various journals including HEAT, Southerly and The Australian Literary Review. In 2008 she undertook an Asialink/Malcolm Robertson Foundation literature fellowship in Japan, and her first collection of poems, "Certain Fathoms", will appear through Puncher & Wattmann in late 2009.

Administrator, Project Assistant and Assistant to Artistic Director

Tamryn Bennett

Tamryn Bennett studied poetry at The University of Wollongong, writes poetry and is a talented designer of objects , hand bound books and artists' books. Tamryn designs a range of small and special objects to accompany our projects.

Education Consultant

Tony Britten

Tony Britten is an English teacher at SCEGGS Darlinghurst and co-writer of our education program 'Papercuts'. Tony also presented a workshop at the 2007 'English Teachers' Conference' in Sydney which launched our Papercuts program, for 2008.

In-House Designer & Illustrator

Michelle Moore

The Red Room Company Board

Directors

Libby Davidson is Deputy General Counsel Corporate for Lion Nathan Limited. Lion Nathan is an international beer, wine and spirits company. She specializes in intellectual property and general commercial/corporate law and has also worked for Clayton Utz and PepsiCo.

Julia Burns is a Senior Manager in Financial Service division of KPMG Sydney’s audit and risk advisory services. She specialises in property, banking and finance industries. Her current clients include Macquarie Goodman Management Limited, ING Australia and HSBC. Julia is currently taking maternity leave from her position with KPMG.

Elliott Wheeler is a Sydney based composer for film, television and advertising and is the creative director of Turning Studios. Elliott's awards include the 2004 Tropfest for best original score, St Kilda Film Festival for best original score and multiple winner of best score for Award, ATV, APRA awards, and Kodak Gongs. He was musical director of Nylon studios from 2002-2007.

Henry Ergas is one of Australia's most respected economists, and has helped shape the Australian telecommunications, energy and transport industries. Henry formed economics consulting company, Network Economics Consulting Group (NECG) in 1987 (at that time called Ergas & Associates), selling it to one of the world’s largest US-based business and economics consulting practices, CRA, in 2004. Henry remains CRA’s Regional Head of Asia Pacific.

Jane Thorn (alternate director for Henry Ergas) Jane has worked as a librarian in the public and private sector, as a researcher for Telstra, IT manager for Network Economics Consulting Group (NECG) and is currently Chief Officer of Operations for Concept Economics.

Johanna Featherstone