Yarra Valley Spoken Word Friday 9th October 2026: Catherine Warner

Catherine's interest in writing poetry began in her mid-twenties, initially as a way of sorting out her emotions and also attempting to express her enjoyment of nature. Over the years her poetry has covered many topics - anything from poems resolving conflicts, poems of a spiritual or whimsical nature, to poems about the human condition.

She has also performed 3 times at Healesville’s very popular The Spoken Word – True Stories Brought to Life run by Sunderai Felich at The Memo. It is quite a challenge to shape a story that is to be told within 7 minutes.

She has published one book for children aged 4 to 8 years old containing two stories:
The Speck of Dust and Rosa and the Pomegranates. As well as the stories being engaging, the font used and irregular line endings make this book more easily readable for dyslexic children.

Catherine only learnt about her dyslexia aged 69 on attending an event on the topic at the Edinburgh International Book Fair. This is how she came to understand how she prefers writing over direct communication as it gives her more time to think and how she has come to value all the hard work she put in in her growing years which required her to persevere for many long hours sitting trying to learn. She still has trouble getting her letters in the right order whether writing or typing and may occasionally still use the wrong words.

Catherine always has a pen and paper handy, for writing is her passion. She has many travel diaries, dream and meditation diaries and her poetry collection is forever growing.

Welcome to our Yarra Valley Spoken Word Community.

We meet at The Dreaming Space Academy at Yarra Valley ECOSS, Wesburn on the second Friday of the month and welcome you to join us and share your musings.
Ours is a space to share the power of the spoken word, be inspired by our community of artists and learn to write and share life’s depths through this life changing art form.
Families are welcome until after supper, we have a feature artist each month and then Open Mic.

Spoken Word is an inclusive project.
Entry and Supper is by donation, we never turn people away!

Program
6pm - Doors open/Music
6.15 - Poetry workshop & open mic
7.00 - Dinner
7.30 - Feature poet (12yrs+)
8.00 - Open mic
9.00 - Chai & Chat

Call Andy: 0415 734 744 or Chris: 0414 306 772
or search Yarra Valley ECOSS website.

COST: Entry and Supper is now by donation, we never turn people away!
Suggested Donation: $15 Full / $10 Concession / $5 Supper, $5 Chai