Bittersweet, conceived by Melanie Scaife and Jessica Raschke, is a playful intervention into everyday life, bringing poetry and audiences together over a cup of coffee. It presents in the form of a sugar sachet, served free of charge to audiences when they order coffee or tea at a participating outlet. Inside the sachet is a scroll: the unfurled scroll reveals a poem.
In 2016, Bittersweet was a special project as part of the Southern Highlands Writers Festival, and featured four of Jessica Raschke’s poems.
Bittersweet was featured as part of the 2012 Melbourne Writers Festival, thanks to Arts Victoria. Participating poets were: Dorothy Porter, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Angela Costi, Ali Alizadeh, Lisa Gorton, Cameron Lowe, jeltje, David McCooey, Emilie Zoey Baker and Kevin Brophy. It was launched by the wonderful berni m. janssen.
Bittersweet was also featured at the 2010 Melbourne Writers Festival and included poetry by Ouyang Yu, Justin Clemens, Judith Rodriguez, Andy Jackson, Jen Mills, Michael Farrell, Jennifer Harrison, Hugh Tolhurst, PiO and Jessica Raschke.