April 12th, 2026Clunes Poetry Slam

In October, 2021, a much-loved stalwart of Clunes, Bob McKinnon died. Bob was a talented poet, sculptor and writer. In 2022, as part of the annual Clunes Booktown Festival, a Poetry Slam in his honour was commenced.
The rules for the slam are simple: the poem must be the entrant’s own work; it must take no longer than two minutes to read; and it must embrace the theme set down for that year by the organisers.
This year, the slam took place before a capacity audience in the Tin Shed, and the theme was Hope and Defiance. The judges were Thuy On, an Australian arts, journalist, editor, critic, and poet and Megan Reidl a professional wordsmith, prolific creative and a nationally recognised spoken word artist.
There were 10 entrants from all over Victoria and for a number of them, this was their first time reading a poem in front of an audience.
The winner was Kim Collins from Castlemaine, a social worker who has left that field to now focus on children’s story writing and illustrating.
Kim is a lover of the arts in all its forms, especially she says, “the way art can ignite a little fire in us and stir us to action”. She believes in the importance of community, “to have good conversations, collaborate together, play together, and care for and about each other”.
Kim is also passionate about moving away from the ‘cult of the expert’ – and saying no to AI. Her hope is that people rediscover that their communities have so much wisdom within them, and we would do well to tap into that wisdom. “And that wisdom resides in human beings, not computers.”

Words: Jeremy Harper | Image: Clunes Neighbourhood House