Tall stories, poems part of the script

By Sarah Schwager
CRANBOURNE North resident and up-and-coming writer, poet, stand-up comedian and scriptwriter Ben Pobjie is making his way in the world of the spoken and written word.
He featured at the Emerging Writers Festival on the weekend among other looming writers of all genres.
Last week he made the semi-finals of the Raw Comedy talent search.
And next week he will fly to Brisbane where his recently written, but unpublished, novel was selected for the National Science Fiction Convention to be pitched to a Harper Collins editor.
Mr Pobjie, 27, moved to Melbourne from Sydney in 1999 to be with now wife Rebecca.
He graduated from Chisholm Institute with a Diploma of Professional Writing and has since worked making corporate training videos while writing novels, scripts for television (not broadcast), a self-published book of stories and poems called Handy Latin Phrases, and has been involved in spoken word events around Melbourne.
“I’m involved in all areas of writing. I don’t restrict myself to any avenue,” Mr Pobjie said.
“I want to take my style and my outlook all over the place.”
In the past two weeks Mr Pobjie has been on ABC Radio reading poetry about the Commonwealth Games and the beginning of the football season.
“I’ve had so much work recently. It’s been strange, it’s a bit of a shock to the system,” he said.
Mr Pobjie’s other claim to fame is as Cranbourne’s tallest poet.
At nearly two metres, he offered anyone to challenge the claim.
Mr Pobjie’s immediate goals are to get his novel published, a comic fantasy about a conflict between modern and ancient gods, and work in television, the one avenue in which he has not yet broken into.
“I want to make an impact and succeed at everything I try,” he said.