Caroline Reid

POET | PERFORMER | WRITER

CAROLINE REID is an award-winning poet and performer

Storytelling, dark humour and a whiff of rage are at the heart of all her art

CAROLINE found her feet as a writer in theatre and has gone on to develop a diverse writing and performance practice. She plays in multiple art forms: writing, performance, audio, video and visual art. Her debut collection of poetry & prose SIARAD is published by Spineless Wonders Imprint ES-Press (2020). Curious to explore a model of diverse and sustainable practice, Caroline recorded SIARAD as an audiobook, adapted it for stage, and performed it as a one-woman spoken word theatre show in Adelaide, Mt Gambier and Alice Springs.

"SIARAD is extraordinary work, superbly delivered." Ali Whitelock

Her poetry is featured in national and international journals and has won & been shortlisted in high profile literary awards including the Mslexia Prize, Woollahra Award, Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and the Tom Collins Prize. SIARAD won second prize in the UK Poetry Book Awards. Her video poems have screened in Poetry Film Festivals across the globe including Canada's ground-breaking Poets with a Video Camera: A Videopoetry Retrospective 1980-2020. A multiple national finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam, Caroline has performed at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Writers Week and is an active member in Adelaide's spoken word poetry scene.

With a flair for the dramatic, Caroline pens poems that surprise. Frequently freewheeling between contrasting images and subjects in a single poem, she approaches language like a collage artist, juxtaposing tragedy and comedy, fact and fiction, narrative and non-sequitur, the real and surreal. She writes of loss and grief, disease and aging, voice and language, and dogs. Her writing is not soundproof. It works best when read out loud. Anticipate strong language, good bad jokes, tears.

She is writing a second book of poetry, ROOM 1824, supported by a grant from ARTS South Australia. ROOM 1824 is informed by her experience of trying to reach her dying mother in Western Australia during the global pandemic and getting stuck in hotel quarantine. So, you know, funny stuff.

She lives in Adelaide, Australia on unceded Kaurna land and is available for Readings and Performances, Writing Workshops and as a Speaker for Panels and Keynotes.

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