August 12th, 2025Tim Loveday at Words in Winter

Tim Loveday grew up on the south coast of NSW on acreage, where the closest he had to a poetry collection in his house was the TV guide. “Mum, though, was an avid reader of romance and mystery novels. From as early as I can remember, I was taping pages together, trying to scribble out the next best seller. I was desperately obsessed with the YA fantasy writer Emily Rodda. I earnestly believed that Rodda was a multi-millionaire. I thought Australian writers were living it up on Manhattan skylines drinking cosmopolitans. I read quite a lot of Capote in my teens, and watched too much late-night Sex in the City, which solidified this false perception. That’s where the initial spark of writing came from: otherworldly wealth. Jokes on me, really.” He chatted with Donna Kelly.

Donna: How/what do you write? What’s your method?
Tim: I’m mostly known for poetry, but I’m secretly a fiction writer. I was trying to write a novel and poetry happened. Nowadays, I spend time between forms. Fiction wise: there’s an eco-literary novel about a man who loses his dog during a bushfire, which is going to my agent soon; and as part of my PhD at Unimelb I’m writing a satirical novel about the manosphere. Likewise, I’m currently floating a poetry collection about regional masculinities and just got funding for another collection about Marxist discourses on leisure. Generally, I’m a pragmatic writer; I don’t have the time to wait for lightning to strike. I sit at my desk and tap.

Donna: What are you reading?
Tim: When it’s not poetry, it’s mostly satire at the moment (the PhD, alas). I just finished reading Nock Loose by Patrick Marlborough, which I thought was an exceptionally weird and wonderful novel.

Donna: What are you doing with the amazing Words in Winter Festival?
Tim: I’m moderating a debate called ‘To be or not to be: the poet laureate debate’ on Sunday, August 24 at 11.30am featuring poets Eartha Davis, Barry James Gilson, and Izzy Roberts-Orr. I think you can expect things to get a bit heated. The laureate role is a contentious one, with a lot of poets vehemently against it (and for good reason). So, expect a big conversation about what it means to ‘poet’ within so-called Australia.

Donna: Who are you going to be checking out in the program?
Tim: So many things! But if I’m forced to get picky, I can’t wait for ‘Shifting Perspectives – the role fiction and storytelling can play in climate action’, which features Alice Robinson, one of my favourite fiction writers working today. I’m also keen for ‘Queering the Body Through Poetry’, which includes two exceptionally good poets: Alex Creece and Jasper Peach.

Join Tim Loveday on Sunday, August 24 from 11.30am to 12.30pm at Hotel Bellinzona, Hepburn for ‘To be or not to be? The poet laureate debate’.
Get your tickets and check out the program at www.wordsinwinter.com