The Flight of the Bar-Tailed Godwit is a poetry project by Melbourne and Leeuwarden, both UNESCO Cities of Literature. Eight poets are collaborating on a unique chain poem about the flight of the Bar-Tailed Godwit. They are creating a poetic, artistic map: celebrating its extraordinary powers of flight and survival, and its beautiful repetition of tracing a path between two homes over a lifetime. They meet biweekly in a virtual writers’ room, where one poet will be challenged with writing a poem about the next stage of the Bar-Tailed Godwit’s journey.
Meet the participants of the Virtual Writers’ Room “The Flight of the Bar-Tailed Godwit”:
Leeuwarden City of Literature writers
Tamara Feddema (she/her, 1976) was born and raised on the countryside of the Frisian woodlands and swamps. She has been a creative writer since the tender age of eight, when she wrote her first play. Her primary written language is Frisian but she also dabbles in English and Dutch. Her body of creative work consists of plays, songtexts, spoken word texts and short stories but the emphasis mainly lies on writing Frisian poetry. Main sources of inspiration include art, nature, travel, life and abstract, surreal, pop-art poetry.
A student with the Frisian branch of the Dutch Writers College (Skriuwersfakskoalle) since 2024, Feddema’s poetry was picked up and published by the magazine De Moanne.(autobiographical poems ‘It Lykpaad’ and ‘Jan van de Capelle’) And main Frisian newspaper Leeuwarder Courant, in a collaboration with said magazine, published her short story ‘It Blommefjild’ (Field of Flowers). Her poem ‘Winter in Fryslân’ won her the competition GJALP 2025 and was launched on The Northern Film Festival and online here, read by Feddema herself and subtitled in English.
Myrte Marije Veenbaas (1986) is a poet and writer. She grew up in Amstelveen and currently lives alternately in Amsterdam and Frisia. Myrte made her literary debut in 2024 in the literary magazine Ensafh with six poems. That same year, she became editor-in-chief of the magazine, in which she continues to publish poetry regularly. In 2025, she won the Gjalp poetry prize with the poem ‘Held op sokken’ (‘Hero in Socks’), based on her grandfather, a traumatised resistance fighter.
After the sudden death of her mother in 2025, she began a series of reflective essays on grief, to be published in 2026 in the literary magazine De Moanne. In these texts, she seeks to rediscover meaning in times of loss. She is also working on her first book, Tussen oorijzer (traditional Dutch gold head ornament) en Strijd (Between oorijzer and struggle). Myrte explores the concept of identity and being by embedding it within broader frameworks: family history and landscape play a central role in her work.
Sylke Kingma (1998) is a Frisian writer, born in Steenwijk and raised in the village of Ried. She studied Social Work in Leeuwarden and continues to deepen and refine her expertise within the field. Her work in personal guidance provides a wellspring for much of her poetry.
She seeks to capture, articulate, and further explore the struggles that accompany the human experience. These existential tensions often form the heart of her writing, and through a holistic perspective she aims to inspire and motivate others toward connection. Her greatest source of inspiration lies close to home: the landscape, the Wadden Sea. Since 2024, Sylke has served as co-project organiser of Diele fan it Waad, an annual poetry initiative that gives voice to the relationship between people and the land they inhabit.
Among many things, Elmar Kuiper (1969) is a trained psychiatrical nurse, visual artist, playwright, film maker and a poet. Kuiper seems able to combine humour and sincerity, absurdism and sensitivity, in a completely unique and personal way. With his intense and sometimes slightly weird poems, and his deadpan performance, he was a revelation on many national and international stages. The poems provide ample evidence of originality, nerve and a strong associative flair. They deal with large themes: longing, love and death, power and impotence. In his writing everything is susceptible to doubt, nothing is rooted to the one spot.
Melbourne City of Literature writers
Ruby Mary Gill is a South Africa-born, Australia-based poet and musician whose “lyrical wizardry” has earned her the reputation of unmissable. Her writing on sex, queerness, grief, roadkill and birds has been published widely in the Saturday Paper, Harvard Advocate, Griffith Review, Verandah Journal, Unyoked Anthology and more. Ruby’s debut poetry book ‘I’m not exaggerating when I say’ was released in Dec 2025, selling out its first print run before launch day was over. Ruby is also a two-time nominee for the Australian Music Prize, and was recently shortlisted as a top 3 artist for her ARIA-charting, globally renowned sophomore record ‘Some Kind Of Control.’ Consistent reviews echo double j’s Zan Rowe: “excuse me while I scrape myself off the floor.” In her spare time, Ruby is a Birdlife Ambassador, wandering around the bush, updating her bird-watching excel spreadsheet. It is extensive.
Dr Mohammad Taha is a poet and researcher whose work moves through loss, remembrance, and the quiet resilience of survival. They write to slow down and look closer, reminding us that nothing is truly ordinary. Their practice bridges science and art, blending observation with reflection, and seeks stillness, connection, and the rediscovery of extraordinary beauty in resistance, grace, and flight.
Sam Morley has been published in various journals and has been shortlisted in the Montreal International Poetry Prize. He is the 2022 recipient of the Tina Kane Emergent Writer Award at the Mildura Writer’s Festival. His collections include Earshot (Puncher and Wattmann) and You Do You out now through Upswell.
Jacqueline Hodder is a writer and passionate birder living in Naarm/Melbourne. She has won or placed in numerous writing competitions including the Odyssey House, Nillumbik, and Peter Carey Short Story Awards as well as published several books. Jacqueline loves writing stories that speak to the heart. She can be found at www.jacquelinehodder.com and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/jacquelinehodder_writer
