A flock of Bar-Tailed Godwits are leaving Australia on its migration north and we invite poets from Leeuwarden/Fryslân and Melbourne/Victoria to document their journey

The Bar-Tailed Godwit is known as a marathon migratory bird. With breeding sites all across the arctic, the bird makes its annual migrations through Asia, Europe and Africa. It has sightings in more than 150 countries. One of its sub-species became internet famous when a fledgling of just four months old was tracked making an epic journey from Alaska to Tasmania, travelling 13,435 kilometers in a non-stop flight of eleven days.

Melbourne and Leeuwarden Cities of Literature to honor the Bar-Tailed Godwit with a poetry project.

We are inviting poets from Leeuwarden/Fryslân and Melbourne/Victoria to be part of a unique chain poem as we create a poetic, artistic map of the journey of our flight of Bar-Tailed Godwit, celebrating its extraordinary powers of flight and survival, its beautiful repetition of tracing a path between two homes over a lifetime.

Four poets from each City will meet in a Virtual Writers’ Room. Each meeting, one poet will be challenged with writing a poem about the next stage of the Bar-Tailed Godwit’s journey, reflecting on where it has come from and envisioning where it may be going.

Each poet will have two weeks to write their draft before presenting it back to the Writers’ Room.

The language of the meetings will be English. Participating poets are welcome to write in the language of their preference, but it would be helpful if you could provide a translation or summary/description of your poem in English to facilitate discussion. The meetings will last approximately 1.5 hours. A €500 fee is available per poet for the four selected poets from Leeuwarden/Fryslân.

The application deadline is Monday, January 19, 2026. You can apply via this form on the Melbourne City of Literature website. You will hear whether you can participate by Thursday, February 12, 2026.

Dates for virtual writers’ rooms :
De datums voor de virtuele writers’ rooms op een rijtje:
– 25 February, 9:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 7:30pm (Melbourne AEDT)
– 11 March, 9:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 7:30pm (Melbourne AEDT)
– 25 March, 9:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 7:30pm (Melbourne AEDT)
– 8 April, 10:30am (Leeuwarden) 6:30pm (Melbourne AEST) (Please note: from now on new start time due to summer time)
– 22 April, 10:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 6:30pm (Melbourne AEST)
– 6 May, 10:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 6:30pm (Melbourne AEST)
– 20 May, 10:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 6:30pm (Melbourne AEST)
– 3 June, 10:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 6:30pm (Melbourne AEST)
– 17 June, 10:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 6:30pm (Melbourne AEST)
– 1 July, 10:30am (Leeuwarden CET) 6:30pm (Melbourne AEST)

Any questions? Email tryntsje@leeuwardencityofliterature.nl