BOORANGA NEWS
October 2001
BOORANGA NEWS
Page 1
WAGGA WAGGA WRITERS WRITERS
Number 5
Editor: Scott Grentell
Correspondence to:
Glenda Pym
Administrator
Booranga Writers’ Centre
Locked Bag 588
Wagga Wagga 2678
Phone/Fax: 69 332688
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/
humss/booranga/index.html
ABN: 72323065359
Office Hours:
Monday: 10 am – 1pm
Tuesday: 9 am – 12 noon
Wednesday: 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday: 2 pm – 5 pm
Friday: 10 am – 1 pm
[During December and January the office
will not be staffed daily but telephone,
mail and e-mail correspondence will be
checked weekly].
What’s Coming Up?
23 October
Poets on Wheels, Wagga
25 October
Poets on Wheels, Albury
31 October
Pat Skinner Reading
4 November
Pat Skinner Workshop, Leeton
11 November
Pat Skinner Workshop, Wagga
17 November
Wagga Launch of fourW twelve
25 November
Sydney Launch of fourW twelve
Inside This Issue
From Our Regional Literary Co-ordinator
Page 2
Brook Emery says Thanks
Page 3
New Publications and Book Reviews
Page 4
Interview with John Birmingham
Page 6
From Booranga Writers, Albury
Page 7
Important Win for Writers
Page 7
Competitions, Opportunities and Events
Page 8-11
Subscription
Page 12
Cost: $2.00
October 2001
PAT SKINNER AND THE POETS ON
WHEELS ARRIVE BY RAIL
Pat Skinner, WWWW’s final writerin-residence for 2001, arrives via Country Link on 20 October. The Poets on
Wheels also rail their way to Wagga
Wagga on 22 October to give readings
in the Riverina, courtesy of the Sydney
Poets’ Union.
from 10 am – 4 pm and in Albury High
Schools. Members and friends interested in attending the Wagga events
can contact Booranga; for the Leeton
workshop contact Don Gordon on 69
55 9479, for the Albury events contact
Dorothy Simmons on 60 215857.
Pat, at present in Canada researching
her novel-in-progress, is an outstanding
prose writer whose finely detailed, layered short stories have won countless
awards. Her stories have been published
in journals and magazines including
Westerly, Southerly, Spindrift, Imago
and the Australian Writers’ Journal.
They have also regularly appeared in
the fourW anthologies. As well as prose,
Pat writes poetry, drama and film scripts
and is an editorial assistant of the journal Southerly. Pat has an MA in Creative Writing from UTS, a Graduate
Diploma in Education and a Diploma
in Book Editing and Publishing.
The three Poets on Wheels selected for
2001 are Jane Williams from rural Victoria, Lesley Walter from Sydney and
Cameron Semmens from Sydney via
Tasmania and Melbourne. All have published poetry collections; have teaching
qualifications and wide performance
experience. Enjoy the poets’ stylistic
diversity and aural dexterity at a reading
co-hosted by Booranga and the Wagga
City Library at the Library on Tuesday
23 October at 7.30. Entry fee is a gold
coin donation and supper is provided.
The poets will also hold workshops
in Wagga High Schools on the same
day. They travel to Temora schools
and read at the Temora City Library
on 24 October then at Junee High
School on 25
October. They
will hold an
evening reading at Albury in
the Electra Café
on Thursday 25
October at 7
pm, and present
workshops at
Albury schools
the following
day.
Her collection of short stories, Bonding
with Boofy, published by Ginninderra
Press in 2000, is not only a ‘good read’,
it is a valuable resource for all actual
and potential short story writers. While
in Wagga, Pat will work on her novel,
Brolga, which explores the nature and
burden of creativity and creative expression, particularly as it relates to classical ballet in early and late 20th century
Australia.
Pat will give readings and workshops
in the Riverina. She will read from her
stories and novel in Wagga Wagga on
the 6 November at the Riverine Club at
7.30 pm and in Albury on 31 October
with a workshop for young writers the
following day. She will hold workshops
at the Wagga Art Gallery on 11 November from 12.30 pm – 4:00 pm; at Leeton
on 4 November at the Soldiers’ Club
Pat Skinner at Sydney’s
Botanic Gardens
Copy Deadline for the
Next Issue:
7 January 2002
Page 2
BOORANGA NEWS
October 2001
FROM OUR REGIONAL LITERARY CO-ORDINATOR
This is our final newsletter for 2001
but all on our mailing list will shortly
receive an invitation to the launches
of fourW twelve in Wagga Wagga and
Sydney. The editorial panel believe we
have a wonderful collection for you with
writing, artwork and photography from
rural, metropolitan and international
areas. The Wagga launch of fourW
twelve will be held on Saturday 17
November at 6.30 pm at the Wagga
City Library, while the Sydney launch
will be held at Gleebooks, Glebe Point
Road, on Sunday 25 November at 3 pm.
Pat Skinner will launch fourW twelve in
Wagga; Brook Emery will perform the
honours in Sydney. As usual, members
and friends are invited to celebrate the
publication with us.
Booranga staff and some committee
members will be travelling to Sydney in
a mini van leaving Wagga on Saturday
24 November. We may have some seats
to spare so if anyone would like to join
us, please ring us soon.
Liz Hall-Downs’ Residency
Everyone who attended the Liz HallDowns reading at the Riverine Club
agreed on its success. Liz is a
consummate performer of her own work
and an audience of fortyfive enjoyed the energy,
range, precision, and wry
and satirical humour of
her poetry from Girl with
Green Hair (Papyrus
2000) and her new,
forthcoming collection My
Arthritic Heart. The
audience
was
also
impressed and moved by
her reading of a chapter
from
her
novel-inprogress, The Death of
Jimi Hendrix. The latter
is an indication of Liz’s
versatility and expertise
across genres. While at
Booranga, Liz completed
the final draft of her MA,
created more poems for
the new collection and
donated some muchappreciated administrative
assistance with fourW
twelve. Thanks Liz.
At her reading, Liz was
joined by Phillip Butler,
Megan Donahue and Danica Oakes,
creative writing students from
Kooringal High School. Their work
was read and performed by Gabby
McMillan, Claire Mason, Lauren
Carlson and Brent Dolohenty. We are
delighted by the talent in Wagga schools
and will never think of escalators, cats,
bus trips and blue hair in quite the same
way again. Thanks to teacher Cathy
Edwards for organising the students and
fostering their writing.
The open mike at the reading was
just as entertaining with poetry read
by Winifred Campbell. Chris RyanChapple, Muriel Lang and Zeb Eadie
(accompanied on guitar by Mark
Ludwig).
PHOTO: Liz Hall-Downs, Muriel Lang, Winifred
Campbell and Emily McIntyre at Kooringal Primary
School’s Poetry Day. Photo: Brody Little.
Liz, Winifred, Muriel and Emily
McIntyre from Wagga High joined
forces again for a successful Poetry
PHOTO: Liz Hall-Downs at Booranga.
Photo: Steve Beazley, Daily Advertiser
Day at Kooringal Primary School as
part of Education Week. The aim of the
day was to indicate the relevance of
poetry in Wagga with the poets reading
their own work and helping with the
children’s own creative pieces. It’s good
to report that poetry is alive and well in
Wagga Wagga.
Celebrations at Temora
City Library
As
part
of
the
celebrations
commemorating the opening of the new
library at Temora, David Gilbey and
Felicity Lehmann will read from their
work on 4 October. They’ll be joined
by Michael Crane, back in Wagga
for the second part of his Booranga
Fellowship.
October 2001
BOORANGA NEWS
WWWW On-line Chat Room
Thanks to poet and WWWW member
Talamasca from Taree for setting up
the links for an on-line chat room and
forum. The links will be available on
the Booranga website in due course
so that writers may communicate with
each other, share resources and critique
each others’ work. Those accessing the
site will also be able to download a
Booranga postcard courtesy of Tala.
Once Sue Wood adds the links to our
web site, and Glenda and I find enough
time, it may also be possible to offer
writing exercises for new writers and
some form of mentoring for creative
writing students. Anyone with brilliant
ideas about such offerings should
contact me.
Watch the website for information about
writing competitions and events over
December and January. By the way,
Talamasca and I can attest to the fact
that bartering still exists – see the
competition page and Tala’s review of
They Shoot Horses Don’t They? in this
newsletter.
Cancellation of Poetry Slam
Unfortunately the Poetry Slam planned
for 12 October has been cancelled
for reasons beyond our control. We’re
happy though to have Michael Crane
back in Wagga for another two weeks
in order to complete his residency.
Thank you Scott, Tony and
Len
Our newsletter editor, Scott Grentell,
is travelling overseas next year. His
compilation of the newsletter has been
excellent and we’ll miss his patience
and ability to cope with the all the
material we just keep sending him in
various forms. Thanks Scott and bon
voyage.
Thanks also to Tony Dunn and Len
Ferrari for their generous donations
of the computer monitor and colour
printer.
Christine Ferrari
Page 3
BROOK EMERY SAYS “THANKS”
(AND “PLEASE”)
breakfast and lunch, watching
mossed rocks waterfall down
the hill, listening to cockatoos,
reading, musing; thinking this
was some sort of time-out-oftime, place-out-of-place.
I didn’t get to swim but the coast
followed me. At the reading in
Wagga Library a man thrust out
his hand and said, “You don’t
remember me.” I did. We had
swum together as 10 year-old
Bondi boys. At a workshop in
Albury one of the participants
was a man I’d taught with two
decades ago at Sydney
Boys’ High School. Surprise and
joy.
PHOTO: Brook Emery, with all his bits plus an
oddly positioned star, at Wagga City Library
To get to Wagga I nosed the car through
Sydney traffic to the F5 or F3 or F
something-or-other and waited for a
sign. I didn’t have any maps, can’t read
them in any case, had only a vague idea
of where I was going. I’m a coastal boy
- cling to the rocks like a periwinkle,
swim every day like a seal, scuttle along
the sand like a crab, search for winter
sun.
I had been warned: Wagga would be
cold; my bits would fall off; I’d dry
out and die without the sea. I bought
thermals, long-johns, beanie, gloves,
scarf, hiking socks. Packed my japara
and woollen overcoat. I was prepared
for anything.
I didn’t get lost (though I did spend
half a dark hour one evening stumbling
round the grounds and corridors of
Griffith Base Hospital trying to find a
seminar room) and I didn’t wear any
of my sub-arctic clothing. In fact I
spent a lot of time barefoot and shirtless
on the verandah at Booranga eating
I did have a wonderful three
weeks. I enjoyed my reading and
workshops – I hope others did
too: I wouldn’t want all the benefits to
flow my way. I was impressed by the
liveliness and enthusiasm of the writers
I met, by their generosity of spirit, their
openness to ideas and possibilities. I
immensely enjoyed discussing poetry
with students at CSU. I loved the whole
sense of community and entertained
the idea that there were at least as
many opportunities for involvement and
participation, at all levels, as there are
in Sydney. I did manage to write a bit.
Booranga is a wonderful resource and
the Writer-in-Residence scheme is a
wonderful program. Christine Ferrari,
Glenda Pym and David Gilbey are
just ... wonderful - regional literary
treasures and such good fun - my
special thanks to them. My thanks to
everyone concerned, to everyone I met,
for making me feel so welcome.
I’m back on the coast. I’m back in the
sea where I belong. But I’m thinking
fondly of my time in Wagga and would
come back any time. Please ask.
Brook Emery
Page 4
BOORANGA NEWS
October 2001
NEW PUBLICATIONS AND BOOK REVIEWS
Boyle, Peter. 2001. What the Painter
Saw in our Faces, FIP, and Caesar,
Adrian . 2001. The June Fireworks,
Molongo.
These two new collections are obverses
in contemporary Australian poetry and
show the opposing but often interlocked
tensions between modernism and
postmodernism.
The poems in both books concern
themselves with art’s capacity to create
or suggest other worlds and both
use painting and the visual arts in
dramatically different ways as
metaphors and motifs. Both collections
fragment and project the perceiving self
into alternative ficto-autobiographies,
but with different expectations of
(re)solution. Both conjure up real worlds
of political and institutional corruption
on an international scale and pit
moments of fragile subjectivity and
domestic harmony against grubby
injustice. Both register their author’s
age at around fifty. Caesar hankers after
an ethical response; Boyle juxtaposes
aesthetic possibilities. Caesar’s poetry
is restrained, measured, spare; Boyle’s
is crowded, insistent, histrionic.
Behind Caesar I could hear (I thought)
Auden, Slessor and a clutch of the
cooler confessionals. I decided that
Caesar is at base a modernist, stuck in
imperfection with lots of baggage (this
is often the experience of migration and
escaping English imperialism, eg. the
first poem ‘In the Old Country’: ‘...
how the traces of love/ are not easily
left/ and lead us to follow the old cold
miseries ...’). He is an iconoclast trying
to find icons and patterns in a clastic
world which is very much there to be
written about and understood but which
resists easy or complete appropriation.
Boyle’s poetry on the other hand typifies
much that is postmodern, innately
hostile to grand narratives, slipping
between surfaces and worlds as it
interrupts and disconnects signs from
the reality to which they defer. Boyle is
interested in the play of language and
texture, content to settle for not being
able to know the world but imagining it
as a site of competing possibilities, both
terrifying and whimsical. In ‘Missing
Words’, for example, he writes: ‘I was
looking for a great encyclopaedia, the
secret dictionary of all the missing
words. I wanted to consult its index and
find out what I could have become.’
Both poets hold out the prospect of
poetry increasing human understanding
though Caesar is suspicious of the
valuelessness of postmodernism (see
‘The Post-Modern Muse’: ‘I am the
apotheosis of image/ artist of jumpshot and sound bite/ the work of my
hands is manicure’). He is nevertheless
often whimsical and resistant to closure.
Boyle rejects modernism (see ‘Christ
visits Europe for the Winter Olympics’)
and yet does evoke both aspiration and
loss.
Both collections are terrific to read mature, elegant and engaging. They
are in many ways different faces of
the coin of our postmodern experience.
Since meaning and value are always
subjective we will choose our own face,
and not always the same one. Or shall
we toss for it?
David Gilbey
Tripp, Matthew Leslie & Green, Kate
B (ed). 2001. Illness: A Journal of
Personal Experience Single copy: $8,
Annual Subscription: $16
Illness: a Journal of Personal
Experience is a new publication seeking
further contributors. Its mission
statement is: ‘to give illness a voice
by providing a creative space for those
who experience illness and those who
care for sick loved ones, strangers, and
peers to come together and share their
stories’.
As reviewer and contributor I must be
objective, which is difficult, because,
frankly, I am charmed by the
publication. On good quality recycled
paper, its design is elegant, writing and
illustrations of high quality. My only
reservation is in the small font and pale
text. The illustrations are clear, of good
colour.
My contribution, ‘It’s My Breakdown,
Isn’t It?’ is a fictionalised account of
a ‘breakdown’. Rather than making
counselling accessible, during the
1960s, women’s complaints were
usually silenced with legally prescribed
drugs. When the drugs became
ineffective larger doses were prescribed,
or worse, medication, the effects of
which were virtually unknown. An
explosion of anger or ‘breakdown’
resulted. ‘Little Pills’, by Dawn Foley,
is a story of Elizabeth who, like the first
person narrator in my story, becomes
hospitalised. The more drugs she takes,
the more inert Elizabeth becomes –
unable to perform even the most routine
of household chores.
In response to his son’s psychotic
behaviour, John Anderson wrote as
a song, ‘The Larundel Shuffle’.
Larundel is a psychiatric hospital in
Melbourne – the shuffle is the one-stepforward, two-steps-back of recovery.
Fred O’Sullivan’s ‘The Bi PolarTree’ is
about a dance of a different kind – the
merry-go-round of mood-swing.
There are stories of grief at the death
of loved ones, regret for what should
have been said, and never was. Stephen
Scourfield’s poem, ‘You Can Go Now’,
gives permission to the dying: His first
verse:
You can go now
You can go now
We will grant you
Full permission
For your journey
To the places
That are far
Beyond your suffering.
A story, also by Stephen Scourfield, tells
of parental separation, the wretchedness
of access visits, and his subsequent
acceptance of his father –the deeper
understanding that came when his father
died.
October 2001
BOORANGA NEWS
NEW
PUBLICATIONS
AND BOOK
REVIEWS
CONTINUED...
The narrator in Liz Hall-Downs’ poem,
‘Abed’, attempts to keep her brain
alive by doing crossword puzzles, and
wonders:
. . . if the world gives a flying
fandango about a brain
attached to a body that won’t
obey, that will constrain
its owner in a thousand ways.
Marjorie Provan’s mother, herself in
the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease,
wrote ‘Twilight’, after visiting her
own mother, a dementia patient. Steve
Sorman worked his way out of postoperative depression by painting a series
of pieces entitled ‘oh,i’m’, numbered
i-cx. He worked on these every day for
four months, ‘each day claiming a little
piece of a much brighter planet.’
Pam Kleemann’s paintings, ‘Body
Object 1 and Body Object 2’, are from
an exhibition mounted by artists injured
in workplace accidents while Skipp
Radcliffe’s
painting,
‘Memories~Katrina’, recalls for him his
sister and the anguish of her suffering –
a suffering so terrible she self-mutilated
to mask the emotional pain. The book
concludes with Ken H Bradshaw’s
exquisite haiku, ‘The Woman with
Melanoma’:
Through her white death mask
She sees her lover, the sun,
Kiss other flowers . . .
Jean L Menere
Disher, Garry. 2001. Writing Fiction:
An Introduction to the Craft. Allen &
Unwin, St Leonards, and Grenville,
Kate. 2001. Writing from Start to
Finish: A Six-Step Guide. Allen &
Unwin, St Leonards.
Writing Fiction and Writing from Start
to Finish are excellent ‘how to’ books
directed towards different creative
writing audiences. As established
authors of fiction and teachers of
writing, Grenville and Disher know their
field. Both contributed substantially
to professional and creative writing
courses at the tertiary level in the 90s
with The Writing Book (Grenville) and
How to Write Professionally (Disher).
Considering the growth of writing
courses at universities; the inclusion of
imaginative writing in the new NSW
HSC English Extension course and
general interest in the craft of writing,
it’s not surprising that Allen & Unwin
published these two handbooks within
a month of each other.
Grenville’s book is directed towards,
but not limited to, secondary school
audiences. Grenville offers expert
advice on generating ideas and crafting
imaginative writing. Because she draws
on novels that most teenagers have
read willingly (young adult fiction
such as Looking for Alibrandi and
Tomorrow, When the War Began) as
telling examples of writing styles and
techniques, young writers will find the
information entirely accessible. Clear
headings and directions, pull quotes,
illustrations, and a user-friendly layout
with a six part format (from ‘Getting
Ideas’ to ‘Editing’) make this book
invaluable for students, particularly if
they are writing for school assessment.
Writing Fiction is a revised version of
Disher’s 1983 book of the same name.
It presents an informed, articulate
and succinct introduction to writing
short stories and different types of
novels for beginning writers of all
ages. Like Grenville, Disher deals
with the necessities of setting, plot,
characterisation,
point-of-view,
structure, tone, dialogue, layering and
style. His book is replete with the
writing habits and extracts or quotations
from fictional writers including Jorge
Luis Borges, Peter Carey, Joan Didion,
Ernest Hemingway and Tillie Olson.
Chapter 14, ‘Troubleshooting’ is a must
for those who have had manuscripts
rejected for various reasons. I’ve
ordered copies of both books for CSU’s
library.
Christine Ferrari
Page 5
Duckworth, Jane. 2001. They Shoot
Horses, Don’t They? Axiom Creative
Enterprises, Rosanna.
In his review of this book, Professor
Peter Singer noted that ‘Australians
think horses are much loved animals . .
.[this book] explodes this myth’. Horse
welfare has always been an issue in
Australia but Jane Duckworth’s is the
first specific book to address the way
horses are treated and perceived in our
culture.
This well-researched and illustrated
book explores many issues about the use
of horses and their care in Australia and
overseas. Although its target audience
are horse enthusiasts and secondary and
tertiary students, They Shoot Horses
Don’t They? is highly readable for
anyone with an interest in horse care or
animals in general.
Issues covered include general horse
welfare; the treatment of racehorses
and other sporting horses; the lack of
real education in the equine industry;
the culling of feral horses at Ipswich
and Guy Fawkes’ National Park and
the future prospects for Australia’s
feral horses. Equine facilities, rescue
organisations and education providers
are carefully analysed thus informing
horse owners about the care of their
horses and the relevant Australian
legislation.
They Shoot Horses Don’t They? is
available from Axiom Creative
Enterprises, 72 James Road, Rosanna,
Vic, 3084 or an order form is available
online at
http://www.talatatparkstud.com.au
or order via e-mail:
[email protected]
Price is $34.95
plus $5
postage.
Talamasca
Page 6
BOORANGA NEWS
October 2001
FIRST TASTE OF FELAFEL:
AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN BIRMINGHAM
Looking a bit shop-worn after a hard
day’s film-promotion, John Birmingham
introduced the premiere screening of
He Died with a Felafel in his Hand
at the Palace Cinema in Norton St.,
Leichhardt, and attended a Q&A
session/book-signing at ‘Shearer’s on
Norton’ bookshop afterwards. He
observed that directors had been
pestering him for rights to the film since
shortly after the book’s publication,
which surprised him as the initial run
had ‘died in the arse’ and he’d been
reduced to driving around Darlinghurst
pushing copies under people’s doors in
a desperate attempt to drum up some
interest.
Also, the book seemed to him almost
impossible to adapt, with ‘no story, no
plot, and no main characters that hang
around for more than a few pages’. He
had collaborated with Richard (Dogs
in Space) Lowenstein on the first
couple of script drafts, ‘until it became
obvious that I knew jack-shit about
script writing.’
He admitted that, disillusioned with the
process, he expected to hate the finished
product, but ‘I actually really dig it’.
So how’s the film? Fans of the book will
not be disappointed. Its spirit of laconic
humour applied to inspired lunacy
(and occasional pathos), is zestfully
conjured. The chaotic narrative, with
its unravelling yarn of flashbacks, flashforwards and circular logic, is simplified
to the single thread of Danny’s (Noah
Taylor) calamitous trail from Brisbane
to Melbourne to Sydney, fleeing
impossible situations and mounting
debt. This perpetually blocked writer
is a floundering wreckage in an ocean
of existential angst, jumping ship from
each successive disaster still clutching
his typewriter containing the same
unfinished page.
A particularly fine achievement of the
film is its evocation of the cities’
characters with a minimum of exterior
shots. Most of the action takes place
within the houses, and the steamy
sunshine of Brisbane, miserable drizzle
of Melbourne and blue-skied breeziness
of Sydney, are beautifully conjured
through use of light, and the design
of the houses themselves – rickety
weatherboard in Brisbane, heavily
enclosed and shadowy in Melbourne,
and spacious, airy and painfully trendy
in Sydney.
The plot occasionally seems to meander
aimlessly - given the nature of the
book, it could hardly be otherwise
- but is loosely held together by
a series of themes and recurring
situations rather than actual narrative
development. The book’s bewilderingly
vast cast of characters is necessarily
conflated and streamlined, but the
resulting mixture retains a good crosssection of the recognisable personality
types that raise a chuckle, or shudder,
or more frequently both, in those of
us who know the trials of share-house
accommodation. (This is not to suggest
that they are mere stereotypes; if so, their
predicaments could not be as touching
as they frequently are. Even Sophie
Lee’s narcissistic, bulimic actress is
portrayed with affection).
I asked Birmingham if everyone he
meets now tells him their wacky flatmate
stories right off the bat: ‘No, not right
off the bat – they usually take a few
minutes.’ He said that, unlike many
authors whose first book runs away
from them, he’s still happy to hear
people’s horror stories. In fact, he used
an anecdote from a talkback radio
caller in Felafel’s sequel The Tasmanian
Babes Fiasco (it’s the one about the
elderly nude yoga enthusiast).
His theory on Felafel’s popularity
is that there are only four or five
basic housemate stories, but there are
infinite variations, and readers can relate
their own experiences to the versions
presented in the book/play/film.
He described how the play adaptation of
Felafel started as an arts-funding scam
by a bunch of unemployed actors. Every
so often, an ex-flatmate comes to town
and wants to see it (the production has
been running continuously for several
years). ‘Usually they’re slapping their
thighs laughing - until their character
comes in. Then the apologies start.’
Asked if he still shares with housemates,
he explained that he had trouble finding
people to share with after they began
to realise who he was, and imagine
themselves as potential characters in the
sequel. He now lives with his wife, one
his ex-flatmates from a total of ninetysix: ‘I lived that life for far too long’.
John Birmingham is the author of He
Died with a Felafel in his Hand, the
sequel The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco,
and Leviathan, a historical study of
Sydney. Upcoming plans include at
least one more historical work, and a
marijuana travelogue of Queensland.
Mileta Rien
October 2001
BOORANGA NEWS
FROM BOORANGA WRITERS, ALBURY
Getting their Stories on
Paper: A Workshop with the
National Seniors’
Association
Often two ideas are necessary, and we
may carry them round in our heads for
years until one day they fall into natural
juxtaposition – and suddenly the story
comes alive.
It has often been said teachers should
be prepared to learn from their students.
While agreeing, I find I learn heaps in
preparing for a class or a talk.
This has happened often for me and
I realised the stories I had chosen all
contained memories of several events
put together to make a whole.
After five weeks overseas my answering
machine seemed overfull. Most
persistent was the National Seniors
Association, Albury/Wodonga Branch.
What they wanted was for me to
speak to them about ‘getting started in
writing’, so on 11 July I faced about
sixty members.
McQueen had, as a boy, an after-school
job cleaning a picture theatre. At the
same period in his life he often visited
a farm where he learned to handle guns.
The boy in his story is molested by a
theatre employee. Later the boy has a
chance to take his revenge. McQueen
sees the story as being about choices.
The fictional boy made a choice, a splitsecond decision that affected the rest of
his life.
Thinking I could sell some of our
publications I took with me fourW
anthologies and books by local writers.
As freebies; I took fourW Membership
Application forms, three of my own
short stories and one of James
McQueen’s, The Bronze Brushwing.
James McQueen’s story is from the
anthology Personal Best: Thirty
Australian authors choose their best
short stories, edited by Garry Disher,
Angus & Robertson, 1989. In his
Author’s Note, McQueen says ‘a writer
who has retained some touch with
reality is always aware, when a story is
finished, whether or not it has worked.
Sometimes we like a story that no one
else does simply because we can see
something special about it that may
be less visible to others – maybe the
pacing is just right, maybe there were
special technical problems that had to
be worked out.
‘But that is not enough, of
course. Technique is only the
prerequisite for good writing. A
good story must ring bells, and
mere technique never did that.’
On his choice of story, The Bronze
Brushwing, McQueen says, ‘. . . on
re-reading it I can see that it exemplifies
one of those truths well known to short
story writers – that often a single idea
is not enough to constitute a story.
With the thought of putting two
experiences together I had the audience
write the bare bones of an event they had
carried in their heads for a long time.
Then I had them repeat the exercise, this
time with a different memory. I could
see from those who obligingly read what
they’d written, they had understood the
concept and that their rough notes would
make a story.
McQueen concludes by saying, ‘One of
the most pleasant things that can happen
to a writer is to find in something he
has written a little more than he has
consciously put into it. Fiction at its
best is invented truth; but the invention
is seldom a conscious process. Perhaps
when we look back and see what we
have made, and find unexpected things,
then that is when we find our favourites
...‘
My audience left with the intention of
expanding their stories to be read at their
following meeting. Several left with
Membership Application forms, and I
left with the knowledge that the urgency
implied in their telephone messages was
reflected in the urgency they have to get
their narratives on to paper.
Jean L. Menere
Page 7
IMPORTANT WIN
FOR DEVELOPING
WRITERS
Developing writers around Australia
scored an important win this
September, when the Literature Board
of the Australia Council decided to
allow certain self-published authors
eligibility for grants from 2002.
Currently, only published authors are
eligible for ‘Developing Writers’
Grants, which range from $10,000 to
$25,000.
After two years of lobbying by authors,
both published and self-published,
the Australia Council recognized the
need to respond to the rationalization
of the publishing industry over the
past decade. Commercial imperatives
among publishers have reduced
opportunities for experienced as well as
emerging writers—with many turning
to self-publishing in recent years as
the best way of reaching their readers.
Self-published authors have never
before had access to Australia Council
grants, regardless of the literary and/or
commercial merits of their work. From
2002, self-published works will be
eligible if an author can provide
evidence of:
“National distribution and a
substantial review of the
relevant work in an established
literary journal or general
national magazine or major
newspaper.”
This does not mean genres such
as family histories; how-to books,
university theses or vanity publications
will be considered. The two eligible
genres will continue to be fiction
and literary non-fiction. The Australia
Council’s 2002 Handbook will define
what it regards as literary non-fiction.
National distribution will not mean an
author has sold or given away copies
to friends or relatives interstate. The
best way to establish whether a self-
Page 8
BOORANGA NEWS
published work is genuinely available
in bookstores around Australia will be
through a recognized independent book
distributor.
A substantial review will not mean a
‘background’ article or ‘human interest’
story in the local paper. However, if
your work has genuine merit, the fact
that it is self-published will not prevent
it from being reviewed in at least one
literary journal, national magazine or
major newspaper.
Numerous authors have self-published,
including: Patrick White, Mark Twain,
Jane Austen, Frank Hardy, Tolstoy and
Beatrix Potter. The Australia Council’s
new guidelines for developing writers
will enable successful self-publishers
to have their efforts rewarded with
financial assistance to write further
works.
It will be interesting to see whether
state and territory arts funding bodies
will now follow the Australia Council’s
lead and put an end to discrimination
against self-published writers.
Euan Mitchell
Euan Mitchell is a former senior editor
for a multinational publisher, author
of Self-Publishing Made Simple: The
Ultimate Australian Guide (HardieGrant Books), and the top-selling selfpublished novel Feral Tracks.
October 2001
COMPETITIONS,
OPPORTUNITIES AND EVENTS
Competitions
Melbourne Poets Union
2001 National Poetry
Competition.
$1000 in prize money. Open theme with
a maximum of 30 lines. The entry or
entries must be accompanied by $5 fee
per poem or $12 for three poems. There
is no limit to the amount of entries per
person. Entries should be addressed to
MPU National Poetry Competition, PO
Box 266, Flinders Lane, Melbourne,
8009. Entry forms are available from
Booranga. Closing Date: 26 October
2001.
Australasian Short Story
Awards 2001.
Open theme, up to 3500 words. 1st prize:
$300, 2nd: $150 and 3rd: $50. Australian
theme up to 2000 words. Prizes: 1st
$150, 2nd $50. Award winners will be
given Certificates of Commendation.
$5 per entry or 4 for $15. For forms
send SSAE to Pat Kelsall, PO Box
1563, Mail Centre, Ballarat Vic 3354.
Closing Date: 31 October 2001.
Inner City Life Competition
2001.
A literary competition for adults on the
theme of “Inner City Life” organised by
the NSW Writers’ Centre, and sponsored
by Gleebooks, the Village Voice and
the Glebe Chamber of Commerce.
Categories are Short Story (maximum
500 words) and Poetry (maximum 20
lines). Entry fee $5. You can submit as
many entries as you like. Send entries
to Inner City Life Competition, NSW
Writers’ Centre, PO Box 1056 Rozelle
NSW 2039. Inquiries: (02) 9555 9757.
Prizes: 1st $60, 2nd $40 3rd $20 in both
categories. 1st prize winner in both
categories will win the inaugural Inner
City Life Cup and all winners will
receive a Gleebooks voucher and a
complimentary annual membership of
the NSW Writers’ Centre (value $45) or
a year’s free membership (value $45)
if they are already members. Winners
will be asked to read their entries at the
“Party with the Literati” at the Toxteth
Hotel, 345 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
at 3pm on Sunday 18 November and
will be published in the Village Voice.
Closing Date: 2 November 2001.
Red Dragon Awards.
This is an annual competition that is
open to all writers, with winning entries
published on the web. There are two
categories, fiction (up to 2000 words
length) and poetry (up to 50 lines
length). Prizes for both categories are
1st $150, 2nd $25, with certificates
awarded for highly commended works.
Entry fee: $5. To receive an entry
form, send a business class SSAE to:
PO Box 6116, Lanyon, ACT 2906 or
download a form from the website: http:/
/www.geocites.com/reddreagonwriters/
RedDragonAwards.html. Closing Date:
15 November 2001.
WriteSpot Publishers
Spring 2001 Short Story
Competition.
This competition is for open theme to
5000 words. Prizes: 1st $750, 2nd $250,
3rd $100, plus Editor’s Choice $50,
and Encouragement Award: Selected
Prize. Over $1200 in cash prizes! Up
to 12 Prizes of publication are also
anticipated for selected entrants. Details
and a downloadable entry form (PDF)
are available at www.writersspot.com
OR email: [email protected].
Snail mail PO Box 221, The Gap, QLD
4061. Closing Date: 16 November
2001.
October 2001
Paddy’s Post Journalism
Competition.
Entrants may write articles about
current, past or future events (any topic;
public or personal) and may be either
fiction or non-fiction (maximum length
- 2000
words). Prizes will be awarded to
the most interesting stories. Winning
entries will be published on Paddy’s
Post online newspaper. Category A
(ages 18+): $100 plus a certificate.
Category B (ages 12 - 17): $100
plus a certificate. Category C (ages
0 - 11): $100 plus a certificate.
Honourable mention certificates and
online publication for other worthy
entries. Entry fee is $4.00 per
story entered. For further details
about this competition, please
contact Andrew Davis on (03)
5248 4339 or 0401 588 179 or
e-mail: [email protected].
All entries should be posted to
Paddy’s
Post
Journalism
Competition, 5 Planet Court
Whittington, Victoria 3219. Closing
Date: 23 November 2001.
BOORANGA NEWS
genre that reflects writing today. Up
to twenty prizes will be presented
and last year’s winners have just
been published in The New Writer
July/August The Collection. Secureserver entry forms are available at
h t t p : / / w w w. t h e n e w w r i t e r. c o m /
prizes.htm.
Prizes now include
additional categories. Closing Date: 30
November 2001
Somerset National
Poetry Prize.
One prize of $5000 will be awarded
to the winner. Further details from
B. Price, Somerset College, Somerset
Drive Mudgeeraba Qld 4213, Ph: (07)
55303777, Fax: (07) 55252676 or email:
[email protected]. Closing
Date: 28 November 2001.
Prose and Poetry Prizes
2001 Sponsored by The
New Writer Magazine.
International prizes for contemporary
fiction and poetry, essays and articles,
an opportunity to bring your work to a
wider audience. What we are looking
for is bold, incisive material in any
Jenni Morgan reads the work of Erin Hazel
at the Brook Emery reading
The Fourth Moora Moora
Short Story Competition.
This year’s theme is ‘Technology for a
Sustainable Future’ with a length of up
to 2000 words. Prizes are 1st $300, 2nd
100, 3rd $50. Entry fee: $5.50 for one
story; $4.40 per story for two or more.
Correspondence should be addressed to
Dr R Rich, LPO Box 214, Healesville
3777. Closing Date: 5 January 2002.
Page 9
Newcastle Poetry Prize
2001 Poetry For The 21st
Century
In this competition a traditional Open
Section will be run with prize money
of $8000. In addition there will be
the inclusion of a new section that
invites poets to work with multi-media
artists to produce poetry electronically
as the Newcastle Poetry Prize will
be published on CDROM. Prize
money of $2000 has been
allocated. A special prize will be
awarded to a Newcastle poet. The
poem, or group of poems, must
be of 200 lines or less. Every
200 lines of poetry will attract
an entry fee of $15. Individual
poems in a group need not be
thematically related. All entries
will be considered for inclusion
in an anthology that will be
published in 2002 on CD ROM.
Direct all queries to the
Community Arts and ADULT
Education Centre Limited, 246
Parry Street, Newcastle West NSW
2302; phone: 02 49611696 or
49612289; fax: 02 49623959 or
email: [email protected].
Closing Date: 31 January 2002.
Josephine Ulrick
National Poetry Prize
2002.
First prize: $10,000 plus $1,000 each
for up to five highly commended entries.
For more information and entry forms
please see website at:
http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/ulrick/
Page 10
BOORANGA NEWS
October 2001
‘Bush Telegraph’ Bush
Poetry.
Opportunities
Varuna Awards for
Manuscript Development.
On ABC Radio National with Helen
Brown (first broadcast at 11 am
Thursday 4 October). ‘Bush Telegraph’
introduces a new segment that aims
to uncover the talents of Australia’s
Bush Poets. All can enter. Details are
available by following the links from
the Radio National website: http://
www.abc.net.au/m/telegraph/
Expressions of Interest:
Booranga Writing
Fellowships
This is one of Australia’s most exciting
literary prizes, offering the opportunity
that every writer dreams of: to come to
the attention of a major publisher and to
be given the kind of personal recognition
that could result in publication. Five
writers will be selected to work for
ten days at Varuna. The Writers; House
in Katoomba under the supervision
of senior editors from HarperCollins
Publishers. The Awards are open to
writers of fiction and narrative
non-fiction with either no publication
record or no more than one book
length
commercial
publication.
Application forms for all Varuna
programs are available at the website
www.varuna.com.au or telephone on
(02) 47855674. Closing Date: 30
November 2001.
Talatat Park Stud and
Equine Rescue Centre’s
Annual Writing
Competition.
All money raised goes to equine rescue
and the development of a management
plan for feral horses in Australia.
Writing can be fictional or non-fictional,
of any length but with preference given
to between the 2500-4000 word mark.
Entries must be horse-related in some
way. Non-fictional entries must be
well researched with quotations
and references footnoted. The
competition
runs
between
September 2001 and September
2002 with monthly prizes as well
as one grand finalist in September
2002. Entry fees are $4 for the
first entry and $2.50 for each
subsequent entry in the same
envelope by the same author. Entry
forms and further details available
at http://talatatparkstud.com.au or
by sending a SASE to TPSAER
Horse Writing Competition, PO
Box 10, Tara, Queensland 4421.
Closing Date: September 2002
In anticipation of funding for 2002,
Wagga Wagga Writers Writers is calling
for expressions of interest in Writers’
Fellowships to be taken up between late
March and November next year. We
offer four fellowships for 3 to 6 weeks
duration to allow time for writers to
work on a manuscript or project as
well as providing them with the
opportunity to present readings and
workshops in the Riverina. Please
contact Booranga for an application
form and information sheet on (02)
69 332688 or [email protected]
or Booranga Riverina Writers’ Centre,
Locked Bag 588, Charles Sturt
University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678.
Closing date for applications: 2
February 2002.
Looking For Funding?
The free SPIN database covers research
grants, fellowships and scholarships
available worldwide and is searchable
by category. For further information go
to http://australian.infoed.org/new_spin/
spinmain.asp.
Events
Subverse: 2001
Queensland Poetry
Festival.
Pat Alexander ‘tickles trout’ at the Brook
Emery reading
The Subverse: 2001 Queensland Poetry
Festival is being launched by the
Hon. Matt Foley MLA, Minister for
Employment, Youth, Training and The
Arts on Thursday 18th October at
8pm. Subverse features 80 Queensland,
interstate and international guest poets
over four days of readings, performance
poetry, music/poetry collaboration,
poetry & DJs, the Subverse Poetry Slam,
the eXTpOETS youth poetry event,
panel discussions, open mike sessions,
October 2001
book launches and the announcement of
Australia’s most prestigious award for
emerging poets - The Arts Queensland
Award for Unpublished Poetry 2001.
The Subverse line up includes a host
of exciting contemporary poets
including; Bruce Dawe, Alan Wearne,
Judith Beveridge, Lionel G. Fogarty,
Pam Brown, S.K. Kelen, Dipti
Saravanamuttu, Laurie Duggan, Mark
O’Flynn, Riemke Ensing (NZ), Andy
Kissane, Anna Jackson (NZ), Les
Wicks, Michelle A. Taylor, Mark
Svendsen, Bronwyn Lea, Sam Wagan
Watson, Gina Mercer, Billy Jones, Shen,
Cate Kennedy, John Graham, Juliana
Burgesen-Bednareck, Jayne Fenton
Keane, Michael Sariban, Rebecca
Edwards, Fakie Wilde and many more.
For more information please contact
Brett Dionysius, Director Fringe Arts
Collective Inc. or Melissa Ashley,
Assistant Director on (07) 3891 5118
or email [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
Readers at the ACT
Writers’ Centre.
Do you want to understand, appreciate
and talk about the books you read?
Would you like to make some new
friends outside your career and family?
Want to get out of the house and
discover new books and writers? The
ACT Writers’ Centre is offering the
opportunity to enrol in a structured
course of study with experienced book
club leader, Dorothy Johnston. The first
meetings will take place in October
and November and, depending on the
enrolments, will continue in 2002.
Contact the Centre to enrol and for
notification of dates and times. At this
BOORANGA NEWS
stage an evening course will be held
from 7.30-9.30pm. The first two books
to be discussed will be the awardwinning novels, Kate Grenville’s The
Idea of Perfection (MacMillan), and
Alistair McLeod’s No Great Mischief
(Vintage), which has just won the
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award worth
AUS$212,000. These books can be
purchased at a discounted ACT Writers’
Centre members’ rate at Paperchain
Bookstore in Garema Place, (6257
1666, or [email protected])
Venue: ACT Writers Centre. Limit 15
participants. Cost: $22 covers both twohour sessions. Bookings: 6262 9191.
Activart2001.
Activart is a workshop program
designed for children and teens between
the ages of 6 - 15 years old. The aim of
the ten workshops is for participants to
not just make art but also to look at art
by other people, just as an artist does!
Activarters will have the opportunity
to have their work in an exhibition in
the Art Gallery at the end of the year.
For Semester 2 We have two qualified
art teachers to tutor the workshops,
ensuring that participants have as much
FUN as possible. Workshop groups are
Sub-Junior for children aged 6-8 yrs,
the cost is $115.00 and that includes
materials. These Groups run from
11.30am to 1 pm on Saturday 20 & 27
October and 3,10,17 & 24 November
2001. The Junior Group is for ages
9-11 and runs from 2pm-4pm those
same Saturdays at a cost of $150. The
Senior Group is for ages 12-15 and runs
from 4pm-6pm on Thursday 18 & 25
October and 1,8,15,22 & 29 November,
2001 at a cost of $150. Phone the
Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery for
any other details.
Page 11
Australian Festival of the
Book April 2002.
The inaugural Australia Festival of the
Book will be held in Bowral in the
Southern Highlands from April 26 to
28 next year. The festival will celebrate
all aspects of the art and craft of book
production and publishing. There will
also be a major book fair. A series of
literary events are planned in the region
for April 23 which is World Book Day
in the lead up to the Festival, building
on the Booktrail created earlier this year
in the region. The Southern Highlands
is the first Australian representative of
the international Booktown movement,
inspired by the UK town of Hayon-Wye. The Booktrail project has
produced a map and directory of
bookshops and literary landmarks in the
area. Contact number: 48617666.
Playwriting Tape: Getting
Started.
This tape explains how you can build
up the skills you need to write for
theatre. Also covered are theatre
dialogue and how to create rich subtext
in your writing. The tape deals with
the essential components of dramatic
narrative, and how to use them in
your work. Scripted and narrated by
Timothy Daly and based on ANPC’s
highly regarded Stage One playwriting
course, the 60 minute cassette will
be particularly useful to the new
playwrights and those unable to attend
playwriting courses. To order send a
cheque for $35 (GST incl.) plus $4 p&p
to the Australian National Playwrights’
Centre, PO Box 1566 Rozelle NSW
2039.
Page 12
BOORANGA NEWS
COME
JOIN
US
October 2001
Membership types and entitlements are shown below. Membership is by calendar year, costs
$30.00 and $20.00 concession and includes the benefits listed below. Our annual anthology of
writing and art work is a particular benefit of membership. The works of authors, artists and
photographers, regional and beyond, are collected in one diverse and original fourW publication
which is sent free to each WWWW member. Members are always welcome at the centre.
Browse the library, work on your writing, bring along any ideas for projects, writerly activities,
contributions for our newsletter or just come visit us.
Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Inc. was formed in 1987 to assist and promote local authors and
their work. The group holds regular readings at local venues, conducts writing workshops,
offers writing fellowships at Booranga, the Riverina Writers’ Centre at Charles Sturt University,
publishes an annual anthology, fourW under the imprint of fourW Press, and is active in
promoting and developing writing and writers throughout the Riverina.
WWWW MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION 2001
SINGLE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP $30. 00 OR $20.00
CONCESSION
(GST INCLUSIVE) ENTITLES YOU TO:
•
Free copy of fourW twelve
•
Invitations to writing events and gatherings
•
Regular newsletters & mail outs
•
10% discount at Book City, Wagga Wagga
•
Use of Booranga Writers’ Centre resources
•
10% discount at Repeated Reading, Wagga Wagga
•
Access to a network of writers, book
enthusiasts and other writers’ centres for
information and friendship
•
Member discounts at readings, performances and
workshops
Please fill in and post application to:
Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Inc., Booranga Riverina Writers’ Centre,
Locked Bag 588, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2678
Telephone/Fax: (02) 69332688
Name: ........................................................................................................................
Address: ....................................................................................................................
Telephone: .................................................. Email: ...................................................
If undeliverable please return to:
Booranga Riverina Writers’ Centre
Locked Bag 588
Charles Sturt University
Wagga Wagga 2678
Telephone/Fax: (02) 69 332688
SURFACE MAIL
Print Post Approved
PP201785/00025
Wagga Wagga Writers Writers gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the
NSW Ministry for the Arts and Charles Sturt University
ABN: 72323065359
POSTAGE
PAID
AUSTRALIA