Red Dirt Poetry Festival is a 4-day International poetry and spoken word celebration in Mparntwe/Alice Springs
This hybrid festival promises to be an in person and digital delight with curated events and commissioned work, bringing together poets from around the country and overseas to share their stories and creative works.
With live events at venues throughout Alice Springs and online via social media and our website; presentations, workshops, showcases and exclusive commissioned works will be presented.


A message from Festival Ambassador, Catherine Satour
As the 2022 Red Dirt Poetry Festival Ambassador I invite you to ignite your imagination. As a songwriter I love creative writing and poetry – it’s raw and real.
The program this year absolutely spoils us with creative writing, performances and arts events over four days here in Mparntwe, there’s something for everyone.
Ongoing Events
Consciousness for the Subconscious: A Mindful Poetry Podcast
Consciousness for the Subconscious: A Mindful Poetry Podcast
Red Dirt Poetry Festival invites you to relax with us, meditate or even fall asleep. We all need and deserve some time out to rest, every night of the festival we will release a new episode on 8CCC and online. In this short podcast our poets will speak to your subconscious and help guide you to creatively relax and support your mind to process the world around us and the spaces we occupy.
2022 Artists
Melanie Mununggurr is a Djapu woman, mother, poet, story teller and performer. Her writing speaks on her identity as, queer, First Nations and being a...
Jessica Knight is a writer and conflicted heathen based in Naarm. She is currently working on a memoir novel about her childhood growing up Mormon...
Formerly a Queensland cattle ringer and then a bush poet, Jimmy Hooker lived from 1983 under ‘Gum Tree 69’ on Kurinelli Station, south east of...
Flora is a Melbourne-based South Sudanese writer and poet. She is the self published author of Tomorrow’s Dream, her debut poetic anthology. Flora’s writing is...
Frankie Garnett is a Mpartntwe based visual artist who primarily works in acrylic and texta on canvas. They draw from fantasy and botanic imagery to...
Leni Shilton is a poet and educator. She grew up in Papua New Guinea and Melbourne, and lives in Mparntwe |Alice Springs. She has written...
Eleanor Jackson is a Filipino Australian poet, performer, arts producer and community radio broadcaster. She is the author of Gravidity and Parity and A Leaving,...
Rowan Rose is interested in change and the many ways that living things interact with change. They give thanks to the queers, artists and activists...