Hi everyone. Thanks for letting me share my press release with you. Of course the poem doesn't really break new ground. Multimedia has been around for quite a while, however what does seem to be changing is that its now being used as a tool by poets themselves for greater self-expression rather than by programmers for special effects, and that mainstream literary prizes/venues are now recognising it. I'd love to hear from anyone doing similar types of work (especially 40+ boomers rather than youngsters!). If there are a few of us, I'd love to start a conversation thread here. All the best. Maggie
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A new multimedia poem, Betelgeuse, was shortlisted for the Newcastle Prize's New Media Award. The poem, dubbed "an astronomical Coleridge" combines an exploration of a human nervous breakdown with the impending explosion of the giant star Betelgeuse in a piece which breaks new ground its multimedia combination of music, poetry, performance, and imagery. The piece was a collaborative project with artist and musician Craig Browne of Relatively Creative and will be published in an anthology due out in mid-June.

The Newcastle prize is sponsored by the Newcastle City Council, the University of Newcastle and the Hunter Writer’s Centre, and is one of Australia’s most prestigious poetry prizes. Previous winners and commended entries have included work from nationally and internationally recognised names such as Peter Porter, Brook Emery, Anthony Lawrence and Robert Adamson.

The piece can be viewed at http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/betelguese.swf

Magdalena Ball runs The Compulsive Reader web site http://www.compulsivereader.com/html. Her publication credits include university journals like Imago and Drexel Online, popular fiction venues like Skive Magazine and Perigree, and review publications like Midwest Book Reviews and Relix Magazine. Her nonfiction book, The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything is available from http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/assessmentorderform.html, and her first novel, Sleep Before Evening, is currently under consideration.