Small Change Press - who are we?

Born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Graham Nunn spent his childhood growing up in suburban Brisbane. He earned his Bachelor of Teaching from Queensland University of Technology and his Bachelor of Education from The University of Queensland in the early 90‘s. He worked as a Teacher and Teaching Principal for ten years in Brisbane and rural Queensland and now works as a Behavioural Support Worker.

A prominent figure in the Brisbane poetry scene, he organised the New and Selected Readings in 2001 and co-founded legendary Brisbane spoken word event SpeedPoets in 2002. In 2003, his first collection of haiku, A Zen Firecracker was published. This publication was well received by the critics and as a result Nunn was invited to run a series of workshops on the art of haiku at the inaugural Bali Readers and Writers Festival in Ubud (2004) and The Byron Bay Writers Festival (2005).

In 2004, he was invited to take on the role of Artistic Director for The Queensland Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word. In the same year he released his first full-length collection of poetry Share the Tragedy. 2005 saw the release of two new collections, an experimental chapbook co-written with Brisbane poet, Mandy Beaumont, To the one who comes at dawn … and Measuring the Depth a collection of haibun and haiku.

Nunn’s poetry is taut and concise. His work has been described as assured, achieved and ambitious.

A Zen Firecracker – selected haiku (Impressed Publishing, Brisbane, 2003); Share the Tragedy (Impressed Publishing, Brisbane, 2004); To the one who comes at dawn (Self Published, Brisbane, 2005); Measuring the Depth (Pardalote Press, Hobart, 2005)

A poet & performer in one!

David Stavanger was a psychologist & art therapist for 10 years before rediscovering poetry in 2002 when two of his pieces were published as part of The Red Room Project showcasing Australia’s best emerging poets. Since then his work has appeared in various anthologies, street press and magazines. Primary poetic influences include the likes of Yevgeny Yvetushenko and Michael Dransfield. David has also been the editor of outsider magazine and a member of the QLD Poetry Festival Committee for the past two years. Finally he is a parent and the husband of QLD poet Suzanne Jones.

Ghostboy - www.ghostboy.com.au - first emerged in 2004 from a small wooden box following a diagnosis by the W.H.O of acute performance poetry to infect a live audience at the QLD Poetry Festival. Describing himself as a mixture of surrealist vaudeville and spoken word theatre, his main sources of infection have been the likes of David Bowie, Emily XYZ & Myers Bartlett, The Beats, Sam Hunt, Oni the Haitian Sensation, Oscar Wilde, Jack Micheline, DA Levy, Marc Kelly Smith and the depths of outtaspace. Ghostboy won the prestigious Performance Poetry World Cup in 2005 and operates as QLD’s unofficial slammaster including running the inaugural 2006 QLD State slam. He is also the ringmaster of QLD’s premier performance poetry event - www.outsiders.ws.

Both seek poetry which is visual, visceral and visionary both on the page and stage as well as being highly accessible to a non-poet audience.

Collectively this odd couple within the one skin have performed and featured at a wide range of festivals and venues in Australia including the Brisbane Writers Festival, Broken Hill Poetry Festival, Montselvat Poetry Festival, Noosa Long Weekend Arts Festival, Poetry After Dark, QLD Poetry Festival, Wordpool, the Sydney Writers Festival as well as being invited to perform a 6 night residency as part of the Woodford Folk Festival 2006/7.