Ella is 23 and lives in Melbourne. Her work has appeared in publications including The New England Review, Egg (Poetry) and Poetrix, as well as several University Creative Writing collections. Her poem ‘Olivia’ was read on Radio National’s Poetica, as part of The Young Regional Poets Competition. In 2005 Ella's poem 'The Storm' was awarded first place in The John Marsden Competition, presented by Voiceworks, and in 2006 she presented her work at the Melbourne Emerging Writers' Festival. Her poems detail the strangely intertwined lives of humans, houses, skeletons, and broken umbrellas.

Ella Holcombe reads 'WAIHEKE'

WAIHEKE

for days

we walk the island

broken tennis rackets, tent poles

strange murmurs in the bushes

today is night without the darkness

rain falls like a whisper

we watch a grey mass of cloud

shift across the sky

and smoke damp cigarettes,

hold hands beneath trees

the fish and chip lady sings ‘love me tender’

over the splutter of fat

my shoes fill with sand,

we fall asleep on the beach

in the morning we swim

the bluest, coldest sea