Local Poet Finds ‘A Place To Land’ In Freo

As Tineke Van der Eecken told Bruce Menzies in this wonderful Fremantle Shipping News podcast interview , she has been many things – award-winning poet, author, sculptor and jeweller. And now her first full length book of poetry, A Place To Land, is about to be launched in Fremantle.

Tineke also has a most interesting backstory – student of Criminology in her native Belgium, and multiple career changes from UN Gender analyst and planner, cultural restaurant owner, investigative journalist, not-for-profit marketing freelancer, CEO of a medical research institute, mediator in courts and prisons, not to mention, a short term accommodation host.

As it transpires, Australia is Tineke’s fifth country of residence over 20 years; she travelled extensively in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, lived in Burundi and Zambia for nine years, and travelled in Madagascar.

Credit Nancye Miles-Tweedie

Reflecting all this, Tineke writes about experiences in places damaged by colonial history. She has won the Karen W Treanor Poetry Award, and her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Grieve 9 (Hunter Writers Centre), The Lake, the other side of hope and Tamba. Her memoir Traverse (sequel to Café d’Afrique) was shortlisted for the TAG Hungerford Award.

Known for her work as co-ordinator of multilingual poetry events, a co-founder of the popular Valentine’s Day event and publication Poetry d’Amour, and as co-coordinator of Woman Scream, Tineke has established a reputation for combining language and culture, crossing borders, and opening pathways to the heart with her daring honesty.

Now, Tineke’s A Place to Land – her first full length book of poetry – is about to be published by Mulla Mulla Press and launched in Freo.

A Place to Land is a collection of poems that delve deeply into childhood, family, and womanhood.

You might like to be at the launch this Sunday. It should be a wonderful event.

BOOK LAUNCH DETAILS:
Sunday 13 November, 3-6pm at Bar Orient, 39 High Street, Fremantle
Launch address by Dr Nandi Chinna, winner of 2022 WA Book Awards
with a reading by Mags Webster and by the poet herself.
Q & A with Gillian O’Shaunessey
MC Adam Bennett
RSVP here

HOW AND WHERE TO BUY
You can buy your own copy at the launch or online for $25
Or from New Edition bookshop in High Street Freo from 14 November 2022.

WHILE YOU’RE HERE –