Ross Donlon's poems have been published widely in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. His work has been broadcast on Radio National’s Poetica and community radio. He appears on the CD of a live reading, You Have Been Chosen. The Blue Dressing Gown was published in 2011 by Profile Poetry. Tightrope Horizon (Five Islands Press) was published in 2003. Shh and other love poems and My Ship were published by Mark Time Books in 2009. Shh has been anthologized in Poems for All Occasions and elsewhere.
in 2009 he was awarded the Varuna Writers' House Dorothy Hewett Flagship Fellowship for Poetry.
In 2010 Ross was awarded the Wenlock Festival Poetry Prize within the Arvon International Poetry Competition by chief judge, Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.
In 2011 won a second international poetry prize, The Melbourne Poet's Union International Poetry Prize with Midsummer Night, a poem he wrote while in residency in western Norway. He was also shortlisted for The Bridport Prize from 8,200 entries.
News
Ross begins 2012 in Sydney, reading at the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills, and then in Brisbane at Speedpoets and the Riverbend Poetry Series under the auspices of the Queensland Poetry Festival where he will also run a workshop. He is the featured poet at the Poets' Breakfast at the SheppARTon Festival.
Overseas
Ross is returning to complete a second residency in August at Ålvik, an Art Centre (Kunstnarhuset Messen) in Hardanger, near Bergen in Norway.
He has also been invited back to the Wenlock Poetry Festival where he will both read and conduct a workshop.
In May Ross will take up a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, a creative retreat for professional artists in Newbliss, County Monaghan. He will be a guest poet at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in County Roscommon and in Cork City at Ó Bhéal (Irish for 'by word of mouth'), as well as reading at Over the Edge in Galway. He will also be reading in Limerick.
Ross concludes his trip with a residency in Heidelberg, Germany, under the auspices of the Ochsenfeld Scholarship. Elisabeth Ochsenfeld awards residencies to people involved in the international cultural process.
Poetry Readings
Since 2005 Ross has convened a popular monthly reading in Castlemaine which has hosted some of the most highly-regarded poets in Australia, including Dorothy Porter, Sarah Day, Michael Sharkey, Kevin Brophy, Jennifer Harrison, Ian McBryde, Robyn Rowland, Cate Kennedy, Louise Oxley, Myron Lysenko, Alex Skovron and many others, including a wide selection of regional Victorian poets. A vibrant open section competes for the Castlemaine Cup, as judged by the two poets who feature each month. Readings take place at the Guildford Hotel at 3 o'clock on the 4th Sunday of the month from February to December — mid week in December.
Festival Consultant
Ross has been a consultant for the biennial Castlemaine State Festival. He acted as convenor, MC and performer from 2005-2011.
