2014 MAY to JUNE May Laura Jean McKay 16th to 30th May: Writer-in-Residence Laura Jean McKay Laura Jean McKay is a Victorianbased writer of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. Her short story collection Holiday in Cambodia is published by Black Inc. and explores the electric zone where local and foreign lives meet. Wednesday 21st: Writers’ Workshop with Laura Jean McKay at Narrandera from 6pm Thursday 22nd: Reading with Laura Jeam McKay at WWCC Library 5.00pm to 7.00pm Saturday 24th: Writers’ Workshop with Laura Jean McKay at Booranga 2.00pm to 4.00pm June Saturday 21st: Writers’ Workshop at Booranga 2.00pm to 4.00pm Laura lived in Cambodia over a number of years where she worked with aid and writing organisations to understand her own and other people’s stories about the country. This work resulted in her collection and a Masters degree in creative writing. Laura’s work has won and placed in international and national awards and is published in Australia and Asia in literary journals and magazines such as The Best Australian Stories, Women of Letters, Going Down Swinging and The Lifted Brow. From Holiday in Cambodia, the short story ‘Massage 8000’ won the open section of the Alan Marshal Short Story Award in 2011 and was published in The Big Issue Fiction Edition. Laura is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, working on a novel about animal-human relationships. This year Laura was the recipient of a 2014 Martin Bequest Travelling Scholarship, which allows her to undertake a series of research and career-development residencies with animal-related organisations throughout Australia, providing invaluable contact with the animals she writes about and the people who are responsible for them. Laura can be found online at: www.laurajeanmckay.com or twitter @laurajeanmckay.com. Booranga Writers’ Centre McKeown Drive (Locked Bag 588) Wagga Wagga NSW 2678 staff are in every Monday (9.00am-3.30pm), Tuesday (9.00am-11.30am), Thursday (9.00am-2.30pm) phone: (02) 6933 2688 – [email protected] – www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/humss/booranga Extract: Holiday in Cambodia by Laura Jean McKay A Thousand Cobs of Corn I’ve listened to the night change every hour. At dusk men walk with their baby sons through the streets, their songs like dust on the air. Soon after, mothers cry, ‘Don’t play so near the string!’ and order their children inside. Then the animals take over. The cows call no, no and the dogs circle each other in the dark. My kids were asleep hours ago. Number One is in ashes at the temple. I sway my legs to bring some air to the bed. The green coveralls hang on a nail from the wall. Once I found a black scorpion on my dress there – his polished tail dripping, so he’d seen me first. If I were bitten I couldn’t go in the morning. My neighbour would come with dust on her face, tell me I’d lost my job, and what a shame! That much money in a month. A thousand cobs of corn. How many hours left? My legs ache. As I shift them a girl enters the room and stands in the mosquito net by the bed. Its material folds through her. She smiles a little. Her hair is too short around her face where I cut it that way for the nits. I see she has her legs again. I want to ask where she found them but who could ask her daughter that? Better to smile and hope she can see my teeth in the dark. It’s always she who visits, never my old husband, and though I’ve been to see the monks, she always returns. Where am I? I ask her. On a hard bed until morning. My second husband snores. My second child coughs. It’s quiet. But still the sound of explosion booms through me. My first husband was alive when I got to him. He’d been working alongside my daughter, pulling corn for the owner. That land has red signs on it now. A skull and crossed bones, scarlet string. All the way down to our houses and back up over the hill. You will see explosions, they warned us. We were crouched under the tree in our new green coveralls, eight women from the village. My neighbour squeezed my hand; I remembered she was clutching my daughter’s hand the same way when I got to the field, as though she could save either of us. My son coughs again. Who’ll make him soup if he’s sick tomorrow? My girl with her too-short hair is translucent. She smiles again – it’s all she can do. The landmines are presents left behind the year before I was born. Khmer Rouge bombs, Vietnamese bombs, American. Like the countries that made them, they’re all different. This one is just for maiming, they explained, and this one scatters to kill and this one … Which bomb killed my daughter and my husband? This peg is for showing you’ve found a mine, they continued, this peg is to show it’s safe. We’ll wear our green coveralls and over this we’ll wear lead vests and helmets – our dust and our detectors. Just our legs will go free. It will be hot but that’s better, they said. In the rainy season, mines slide under the mud. Landmines are travellers. They shift like worms and you have to find them again. Old ones rise to the surface and ones marked as found sink and disappear. You could end up with one next to your house, they warned, where your children play. We have to work quickly. Quickly. The night moves like mud. But not slowly enough. My oldest boy coughs and gets up. The red string will be invisible in the dark. My ears strain to hear him: down the steps and across the yard, over by the corn where I’ve taught him it’s safe. Except when the rains start. He urinates in spurts and then crosses the yard again. The door creaks open and closes. He settles. It’s already tomorrow. With dawn comes noise, drowning out the long blast that only I seem to hear. The birds wake. The lizards sway back to their hiding places in the beams. The rooster scratches and eyes the horizon. My daughter fades from beside the bed. There’s just a mosquito net and, beyond that, my sleeping children lit slowly by the day: Two, Three and Four. Two stops coughing. My husband shifts closer to me in his sleep, his breath blowing garlic and booze. It’s no job for a woman, he told me yesterday. Will you do it then? I asked and we both looked at his hands, which have shaken since he was a boy soldier. His watery eyes blinked out the light. I told my son to go and ask the neighbours for beer. I’ll get up, wash my hair, make breakfast. I’ll have my boy get ready for school, then pull on my coveralls and wait for my neighbour to walk with me over the hill. We’ll pass the farm with the dying corn and the red signs dropping like blood. I shift myself to the edge of the bed and my leg buckles and cramps. I wait for something to tell me I’ve slept through the day. For the men singing through the dimming streets, the cows lowing mournfully home. Through the wall the neighbour strikes a match, then calls to her husband that it’s morning. May – June 2014 | 2 Why not say what happened? A Workshop with Ron Pretty Our Booranga Writers' Workshop FREE Saturday 24 May 2.00pm to 4.00pm with Laura Jean McKay all are welcome Booranga Writers’ Centre McKeown Drive, CSU Ron Pretty, our first writer-in-residence for 2014, conducted a very well attended workshop on 26th April 2014 at the Booranga Writers’ Centre entitled ‘Why not say what happened?’ workshop participants suggested was like rummaging through a rich man’s rubbish – even one of Pretty’s rejects is full of great riches of language and imagery. The writing of issues that are occurring today, of a political, ecological or social nature, can sometimes be presented through using propaganda techniques, such as use of rhetoric, slogans and generalisations that lecture the reader. Some of the main issues presented included the preference for personal lyricism, the privileging of complexity, authenticity and integrity of experience, problems associated with the genre of political poetry, and issues surrounding appropriation. While some might appreciate such works, Pretty presented the alternative – writing in a more lyrical way that presents a journey through imagery to present the writer’s views in a subtle manner. Vigorous discussions occurred on the day debating various techniques and opinions quoted by Pretty during his presentation, and it made for a lively and informative couple of hours. Excerpts from Destination Zero and Blue Monody by Sam Hamill were read and discussed to illustrate the different techniques. Other poems were also used for discussion and dissection, including one of Pretty’s ‘rejects’, which one of the The importance of reading widely to help shape one’s own poetry was emphasised, along with the best way to present one’s poetry – to play with rhyme, metre, lines, number of syllables, stanzas – thus finding the best form for one’s work. From Narrandera to Albury and Cootamundra, it was great to see people from all works of life there to listen and learn at this icon of Australian poetry, and I’m sure everyone who attended walked away with some nugget of knowledge that will help them write more effectively. Claire Baker Save the Date The Australian Poetry Slam Wagga Wagga Heats are on Friday 26 September 2014 Stay tuned for more details! May – June 2014 | 3 Booranga Gallery May – June 2014 | 4 Publishing competitions and opportunities 2014 Patron’s Prize for Poets Entries close 30 May 2014 Open to all Australian based writers with a maximum of 50 lines of poetry per entry. Prizes are $200, $100, and $50. www.pcwc.org.au SecondBite Poetry Competition Entries close 30 May 2014 A first prize of $5,000 and two runner-up prizes of $500 will be offered. Three highly respected and acclaimed writers have generously agreed to donate their services as judges: Judith Beveridge, Chris WallaceCrabbe and Gay Bilson. www.australianpoetry.org Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize Entries close 30 May 2014 This is Australia’s newest poetry prize and celebrates the enduring significance of poetry to cultures everywhere in the world, and its ongoing and often seminal importance to world literatures. Anyone over 18 years can enter with first prize $15,000 and second $5,000. www.canberra.edu.au The Best of Times Short Story Competition Entries close 31 May 2014 Humorous short stories (any theme) up to 2500 words. First prize: $500, second prize: $100. Entry fee is $10 per story. http://spiky_one.tripod.com Eastwood/Hills Fellowship of Australian Writers Entries close 31 May 2014 Boree Log Award for Bush Verse 2014 – First prize $100 plus trophy Literary Competition with four categories: Short Story – maximum 3,000 words 1st $200, 2nd $100. Poetry (all forms except Bush Poetry) – maximum 80 lines per poem 1st $150, 2nd $50. Memoir – maximum 1,500 words 1st $150, 2nd $50. Pauline Walsh Award for Short Story – maximum 800 words 1st $100, 2nd $50. http://hillsfaw.webs.com The Australian/Vogel Literary Award Entries close 31 May 2014 Do you dream of being a published writer? The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award is one of Australia’s richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of 35. Offering publication by Allen & Unwin, with an advance against royalties plus prize money totalling $20,000, the Award has launched the careers of some of Australia’s most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan. www.allenandunwin.com Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship Entries close 1 June 2014 First awarded in 2011, the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships provide unrestricted grants of $160,000 over two years to individual artists, arts managers and thought leaders in the humanities. Specific outcomes for the Fellowships are not required. The two criteria used to select Fellows are: outstanding talent and exceptional courage. Specifically, this talent and courage relates to the professional practice of the Fellows and not to cases of personal hardship. www.myerfoundation.org.au The Big Issue Fiction Edition: Take Me Away ... Entries close 6 June 2014 This year’s theme is as simple as it is open-ended: Take Me Away… It could be something with a travel theme, or about food, or neither of these. As always, lateral thinking is encouraged; originality is gold. Stories must be no longer than 2500 words. www.thebigissue.org.au The Launceston Tasmania Literary Award Entries close 13 June 2014 The Society of Women Writers Tasmania is presenting a great opportunity for YOU to demonstrate your short-story writing skills by entering a short-story competition. The inaugural Launceston Tasmania Literary Award is inviting entries from all writers (both male and female) worldwide. A first prize of $2,500, a second prize of $750 and a third prize of $500 is being awarded. Entries of between 1300 and 1500 words on an open theme. www.swwtas.org Newcastle Poetry Prize Entries close 20 June 2014 Now in its 33rd year, the Newcastle Poetry Prize is the country’s most prestigious poetry award. The competition is judged anonymously and you can enter as many times as you wish. Prizes are awarded from a prize pool of over $20,000 and the shortlisted poems will be published in the annual anthology. www.hunterwriterscentre.org The Twisted Stringybark Short Story Award 2014 Entries close 29 June 2014 Over $860 in cash and books available to the best entries. But there are two catches. Firstly, the story has to have a nifty twist at the end (or the middle, or beginning) that surprises the reader, and secondly, that the story has a link, no matter how tenuous, to Australia. Writers have 1,500 words to delight and entertain the judges. www.stringybarkstories.net Overland Story Wine Competition Entries close 29 June The competition aims to discover the finest in original short fiction up to 1,000 words. The winning story will receive a $3,000 first prize and will be published on the label of a Story Wines shiraz, as well as in Overland. Two runners-up will each receive $500. http://overland.org.au John Knight Memorial Poetry Manuscript Prize Entries close 30 June 2014 Seeking poetry manuscripts of 40 pages, offering publication to the winner. www.eruditescribe.com Cowley Literary Award Entries close 30 June 2014 Sections for fiction and non-fiction with no subject theme. It is for writers to decide their subject. Your ideas. Your sources. We just want quality stories, up to a maximum of 1000 words. Best Story $5,000 with runner up receiving $1,000. www.australianartsales.com.au May – June 2014 | 5 FAWNS Vibrant Verse Poetry Competition Entries close 30 June 2014 Category A – Free verse, open style, open theme. Category B – Traditional, rhymed or structured verse, open style, open theme. Both categories have a maximum of 60 lines and prizes of 1st $200 and 2nd $100. https://sites.google.com/site/ fawnorthshoreregional Moth International Short Story Prize Entries close 30 June 2014 The Prize is open to everyone, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. There is a 6,000 word limit. The entry fee is €9 per story and you can enter as many stories as you like. First: €3,000; second: €1,000; third: week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France (including €250 towards travel). www.themothmagazine.com Page Seventeen Short Story and Poetry Competitions Entries close 30 June 2014 Page seventeen, an annual anthology of prose and poetry, is running competitions for short story and poetry. Cash prizes for winners and runners-up, and both shortlists will be published in Issue #11 of page seventeen. www.busybird.com.au Questions Writing Prize Entries close 1 July 2014 Writing can be fiction or non-fiction (1,500 to 2,000 words) and on any topic, with the prize open to all writers aged 18 to 30 years. Winner receives $2,000 and will have their work published in a book and a forthcoming issue of Questions. www.questions.com.au Blake Poetry Prize Entries close 4 July 2014 Presented by the NSW Writers’ Centre and the Blake Society, the $5,000 Prize is named for visionary artist and poet William Blake, and was established to give Australian poets new possibilities to explore religion and spirituality in the twenty-first century. Poets can submit a new work of up to 100 lines. www.nswwc.org.au Vallum Award for Poetry Entries close 15 July 2014 Poems may be on any theme or subject, but must be original and not previously published. Submit up to 1-3 poems of maximum 60 lines each. 1st prize is CAD$750, 2nd CAD$250. Both 1st and 2nd prize-winning poems will be published in Vallum. http://vallummag.com AlburyCity Short Story Award 2014 Entries close 16 July 2014 Every picture has a story to tell. This year we present eight artworks from the Albury Regional Art Gallery collection to act as a stimulus for your short story. Choose one (or more) of the selected artworks that sparks your imagination or reminds you of a story you’ve already written. Word limit is 3,000 and entry $10. First prize is $1,000. www.writearoundthemurray.org.au The Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize Entries close 31 July 2014 Bruce Dawe AO believed that universities should support the study of Literature and promote the Arts in Australian society. This annual $2,500 award has been endowed by Emeritus Professor Bruce Dawe, one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary poets. The competition is open to all Australian Citizens or permanent residents of Australia. http://usq.edu.au/bruce-dawe-prize Inaugral Literary Prize Entries close 31 July 2014 The Toowoomba Wordsmiths in conjunction with The Fellowship Of Australian Writers QLD are holding 2 writing competitions in the lead up to the Toowoomba Writers Festival. The competitions are for a Short Story and for a poem. The word limit for the Short Story section is 2,000 words the limit for the poetry section is 40 lines. The entry fee is $5.00 per entry with first prize being $250.00 for each section the winners and runners up will also be included in the Anthology. http://toowoombawritersfestival.com Mudgee Valley Writers 14th Biennial Competition Entries close 31 July 2014 Open Categories: Short Story – 2000 words maximum Poetry (Rhyming) – 60 lines maximum Novice Categories: Short Story by an author who has not previously won a monetary prize in any competition at time of entry - 2000 words max. Poetry (Rhyming) by an author who has not previously won a monetary prize in any competition at time of entry – 60 lines max. Prizes Open Sections – First $200 plus Trophy. Second $100. Third $50. Novice Sections – First $100 plus Trophy. Second $50. Third $30. www.writingwa.org The InkTears Flash Fiction Competition Entries close 31 July 2014 There are six prizes available: Winner: £250 Runner Up: £50 4 x Highly Commended: £25.00 All prize-winners will have their story published to the InkTears Readership and their Bio published on the InkTears website. Submissions must be 500 words or less in length, any theme. Full results posted on the InkTears website by 10 November 2014. www.inktears.com AESTHETICA CREATIVE WRITING AWARD SUBMIT YOUR WRITING The Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Award is dedicated to celebrating and championing creative talent, and is an opportunity for existing and aspiring writers and poets to showcase their work to a wider audience. n n n n Two categories: Poetry and Fiction £500 prize money in each category Publication in the Anthology Selection of books for both winners DEADLINE 31 AUGUST WWW.AESTHETICAMAGAZINE.COM/CREATIVEWRITING As a writer you should not judge. You should understand. When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. – Ernest Hemingway Remember to keep in mind those literary journals that are open for submissions all year – A good place to start researching the major Australian ones is at: www.litmags.com.au (Booranga receives copies of the NSW based journal Southerly, and issues are available to borrow for Booranga Members) May – June 2014 | 6 Get your copy now! $25 each or 5 copies for $100 We also have copies of some back issues available for sale. Contact us for more details. Phone: 02 6933 2688 Email: [email protected] https://www.facebook.com/Booranga https://twitter.com/Booranga www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/humss/booranga/home Submission Guidelines Booranga News welcomes contributions. They should be emailed to the editor, Debbie Angel, at director@ booranga.com or to the president, David Gilbey at [email protected]. We have no preference as to the typeface as contributions will be altered to house style when they are received. Items may also be posted. It is helpful if there is only one space after a full stop or other punctuation, and the en dash ( – ) rather than the hyphen is used where appropriate. The hyphen should only be used in ‘hyphenated’ words. Original items are most welcome. We are particularly glad to receive poetry, prose, and lyrics. Original reviews (yours!) of published works by Australian authors, poets, song writers etc. are also encouraged. Digital photographs are acceptable. The higher the resolution the better. Items which have been ‘lifted’ or copied from other sources must be acknowledged and permission for their reproduction obtained were required. Unless otherwise requested your submitted items may (also) be reproduced on our website or social media. Submitting items is no guarantee of their reproduction. The Editor reserves the right to exercise her discretion. Submissions for our next newsletter close 20 June 2014 If you have a piece of writing you would like to be considered for reproduction in our newsletter or know of an event, competition, or information that may be of interest to Booranga’s members and friends please email it to the editor, Debbie Angel, at [email protected] WWWW and Booranga Writers’ Centre gratefully acknowledge the financial and other support received from: May – June 2014 | 7 2014 fourW twenty-five An annual anthology produced by Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Inc. under the imprint of fourW Press. Now into its twenty fifth year, fourW is one of Australia’s longest running annual anthologies. Guidelines for submission: We welcome contributions of original poetry, fiction and graphics/artwork, not previously published. Short story word limit is 2500 words. We ask that contributors restrict their submissions to 6 poems or 4 short stories. Manuscripts should be typed/word-processed in Times New Roman, 12 point double-spaced on A4 paper. Please submit an electronic copy only of your work. We prefer electronic submissions to be forwarded in Word format on disk or by email. If your work has specific formatting requirements we suggest it is submitted in PDF format. Please include author biography details (2-3 lines) on your cover letter or separate sheet. CLOSING DATE for fourW twenty-five is 30th June 2014. Submissions received after this date will be held over to the following year. A prize of $250.00 will be awarded to works selected as the best poem and best short story in the anthology. The prize is generously sponsored by School of Humanities & Social Sciences in Charles Sturt University’s Faculty of Arts. All submissions will be read by our editorial committee during July and all successful contributors contacted in August/September for proofreading of their own work which will appear in the anthology. All other contributors will be advised of the outcome of the committee’s decision in September. Launch of the anthology will be in November 2014. No payment is made for publication – a free copy of the published anthology will be forwarded to all successful contributors. All rights remain with the author. Submissions should be emailed to: [email protected] Postal details are: Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Booranga Writers’ Centre Charles Sturt University Locked Bag 588 Wagga Wagga New South Wales 2678 Australia Please phone Booranga Writers’ Centre on (02) 6933 2688 or email us at [email protected] if you require any further information. Thank you for your interest in our publication. Submissions close 30 June 2014 Debbie Angel Director Booranga Writers’ Centre Sandra Treble Office Manager Booranga Writers’ Centre May – June 2014 | 8 Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Application for 2013 Membership Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Application for 2014 Membership 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 and publishes an annual anthology, under the to imprint fourW press, andauthors is active in Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Inc. wasfourW, formed in 1987 assist of and promote local and promoting writing and writers throughout the Riverina. 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 st December Membership 1st January to 31 2013: and publishesperiod an annual anthology, fourW, under the imprint of fourW press, and is active in promoting writing and writers throughout the Riverina. Group membership (including one copy of anthology) $55.00 st st Single membership (including one copy of anthology) $36.00 Membership period 1 January to 31 December 2014: Single membership (not including anthology) $25.00 Concessional membership (including one of anthology) $26.00 Group membership (including one copy ofcopy anthology) $55.00 Concessional membership (notone including $15.00 Single membership (including copy ofanthology) anthology) $36.00 Student membership (under 21 years) not including anthology $11.00 Single membership (not including anthology) $25.00 Concessional membership (including one copy of anthology) $26.00 Membership also entitles you to: including anthology) Concessional membership (not $15.00 - Regular newsletters and mailouts Student membership (under 21e-list years) not including anthology $11.00 - 10% discount at Collins Book Store, Wagga - 10% discount at Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Wagga Membership also entitles you to: Membersnewsletters discounts to readings, performances and workshops - Regular and e-list mailouts Invitations to writing events and get-togethers - 10% discount at Collins Book Store, Wagga Access to a network of writers, book enthusiasts other writers’ centres - 10% discount at Angus & Robertson Bookworld, and Wagga - Members discounts to readings, performances & workshops - Invitations to writing events and get-togethers - Access to a network of writers, book enthusiasts and other writers’ centres ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please fill out, detach and send application to: Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Inc., Booranga Writers’ Centre, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Charles Sturt University, Bag 588, Please fill out, detach and sendLocked application to: Wagga Wagga NSW 2678 Phone/Fax (02) 6933 2688 Wagga Wagga Writers Writers Inc., Booranga Writers’ Centre, Charles Sturt University, Locked Bag 588, Wagga Wagga NSW 2678 Name: Phone/Fax ............................................................................................................... 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