Omar Sakr, Yassmin Abdel-Magied and Evelyn Araluen – on poetry in the pandemic

At Guardian Australia’s monthly Zoom book club, the poets and thinkers discussed contemporary Australian poetry – and read some of their own

• Guardian Australia’s book club is a free, interactive event hosted on Zoom. September’s event will be announced in coming weeks

“I don’t turn to poetry to be soothed,” the poet Omar Sakr – winner of the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary award – confessed at Guardian Australia’s Zoom book club on Friday.

Reading his poem Masks Off – an ironic work yearning for the “simpler anger” of everyday human atrocities that dominated the news cycle before Covid-19 hit – Sakr joined the writer and social advocate Yassmin Abdel-Magied, and the poet, critic and editor of the Overland literary journal, Evelyn Araluen, in an interactive event co-hosted by Red Room Poetry to mark Australian Poetry Month.

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