Emilie Zoey Baker
Emilie Zoey Baker is an award-winning Australian poet and spoken-word performer who has toured nationally and internationally performing, teaching and writing. She was the winner of the 2010 Berlin International Literature Festival’s poetry slam 'Slam!Review', as its first Australian guest. She performs regularly at arts and literature festivals, and has appeared at the Sydney Opera House, TEDx Melbourne and ‘Do’ Lectures Australia.
Emilie was a 2014 Fellow at the State Library of Victoria, and has previously been poet-in-residence for Museums Victoria and coordinator for the National Australian Poetry Slam. She teaches poetry and slam in primary and secondary schools and has undertaken residencies in over 90 Australian schools. She has taught poetry everywhere from the central Australian desert to a Chicago university to the Green School in Bali.
In 2014 Emilie gave the keynote address at the annual conference of the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English, and in 2013 was core faculty for the spoken word program at Canada's Banff Centre as well as the recipient for a self directed residency. She has toured Canada now three times and the US twice.
She is also the author of fourteen children’s books and has been published widely both in Australia and overseas, including in Best Australian Love Poems (Inkerman & Blunt) Sincerely, and Yours Truly. (Penguin)
Her letter 'Why It’s Utterly Essential to Teach Poetry To Teenagers’, was recently published in Women of Letters internationally distributed anthology Airmail (Penguin, April 2015).She’s had three poetry collections published, (Selfie Press, Hit and Miss and Liner Notes) and many live performances and video poems published, shared and in one case, cartooned.
In 2016 she was a guest at Poland’s Milosz festival in Krakow and toured the UK performing in London, Birmingham and to work with poets that teach and renowned organisation Apples and Snakes. She is currently creative Director of OutLoud Australia’s first teen team poetry slam as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival.
She is also part of secret theatre company The Boon Companions, party organisers The You Orchestra and theatre group The Guerrilla Museum. Most notably with the production of ‘Funeral’ which has toured the Melbourne, Brisbane and Tasmanian international arts festivals to sold out seasons.
She also writes theatre for young people and in 2017 her collaborative play ‘Trapper’ will be performed at the Arts Centre in Melbourne with Arena Youth Theatre.