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Archives 2009
| March | LITLINK / NRWC UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT AWARD |
| Manuscripts may be fiction or narrative non fiction, and must be completed to a final draft stage. Sections of manuscripts or incomplete works will not be accepted. Unfortunately, picture books, poetry and performance pieces are not eligible for consideration. It is essential that works submitted have not been published in part or in full in any form. Deadline for entries, to be sent to the NRWC, is 5pm Monday 30 March, 2009. Each entry must be accompanied by the authorised entry form, available online at NRWC or from the Centre, Level 1, 69 Jonson St, Byron Bay. There is an entry fee of $35 per manuscript, to assist with administration and adjudicating. A shortlist of four will be announced by Friday 29 May. The shortlisted writers will appear at the Byron Bay Writers Festival 2009, where the winner will be announced in a dedicated session. The shortlisted manuscripts will each be read and considered by Annette Barlow of Allen and Unwin, and the ultimate winner will receive a prize, details of which to be confirmed shortly. Enquiries and further information from the Director, Jeni Caffin, at (02) 6685 5115. | |
| May 2 | ONE-DAY CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP |
| Wendy James | |
| Knowing where to begin is often the hardest part of writing, but at the end of this class you’ll have characters, a plot, and plenty of inspiration. You’ll be ready to start making stories. Award-winning novelist, Wendy, is now working on her third novel. If you’re having trouble starting your first (novel, short story or any creative writing) this is the place to get going. | |
| May 16 | WRITE TO LIVE - FREELANCE JOURNALISM WORKSHOP |
| Lesley Sly | |
| Learn how to turn your interests/knowledge into profitable writing for newspapers and general and specialist magazines. Learn interview/research/writing skills, how to analyse publications/readership, write in style suitable for general and specialist publications, pitch stories, syndicate your work, and run a profitable freelance writing business. | |
| June 10-12 | LITLINK MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENTS |
| Peter Bishop | |
| Consultations with the Director of "Varuna", The Writers House.
Peter has guided countless manuscripts (by major authors) to publication. Many of our members have gone on from the consultations to further opportunities in fellowships and getting published.
This wonderful opportunity to get professional advice about your manuscript and your ambitions for it is offered only to our members.
(People who are not members can join if they wish to book for this, membership is $28.50 to June, increasing to $29.50 from July 1).
These one-hour consultations are always booked out, so we suggest you book early!
WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO DO: Send (to Peter Bishop, c/- NEWC, PO Box 1219, Armidale NSW 2350) about 20 pages (double-spaced) of material that you want to discuss, plus a brief description of yourself as a writer, what you hope for and fear! The deadline for this and your payment for the consultation is June 1. |
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| June 12 | WAYS TO PUBLICATION - A TALK AT ARMIDALE LIBRARY |
| Peter Bishop | |
| Peter Bishop, Creative Director for "Varuna" The Writer’s House, has guided more writers and books to publication in Australia than perhaps anyone else. He knows a great deal about the publishing world, as well as developing writing to the point where it is ready for publication. For the past three years, Peter has been travelling around Australia and around NSW in search of new voices in Australian writing. Publishers have become interested in this search, and "Varuna" has established partnerships with almost all Australian publishers to create programs which will bring many of these new voices to publication. "Varuna’s" focus is on developing the writer's voice to the point where it is ready to enter and sustain a conversation with the reader. During the talk at the Library, Peter will introduce some new "Varuna" programs which could be of the highest importance and interest to New England writers, and he will be available to answer questions about this or anything else to do with writing. Peter will be in Armidale for the LitLink Manuscript Consultation program at New England Writers Centre, June 10-12. | |
| June 13 | THE CREATIVE JOURNAL - WORKSHOP |
| Karla Muir | |
| This workshop is geared towards self-exploration and personal growth through journal work. Tutor, Karla Muir says: "I will introduce several techniques which are designed to find out more about yourself, and to help you resolve current or longstanding issues in your life. You will find that the techniques stimulate your creativity, and allow you to tackle things from a new angle.
The format for each technique will be the same: An explanation of its particular purpose, some extra background information, exact instructions for the exercise, then the writing exercise itself, and afterwards a brief discussion with an opportunity to share or ask questions. Handouts will be provided for future reference.
In nearly 40 years of journaling, I have learnt, adapted and developed the techniques I'm going to share with you. Self help books, my studies of linguistics and psychology and my NLP training have provided many ideas and inspirations. Journaling is a great tool, and anyone can do it – you don't need any literary talents for it." WHAT TO BRING: Your journal or an exercise book, writing pen, some coloured pens or pencils (optional), lunch (we only have ½ hour lunchbreak, so not much time to organise lunch in town); tea, coffee and biscuits for morning/afternoon tea breaks will be provided. |
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| June 27 | VOICE SKILLS FOR WRITERS |
| Chris & Judith Ross-Smith | |
Writers are required to promote their books in-person these days, giving readings and talks at writers festivals, literary lunches, and other events. For many this is a terrifying ordeal. For audiences it can be very dull if the writer reads the work in a monotone rush to get to the end as soon as possible. What's the point of promoting your work in this way if it puts people off buying it!
Like everything, public-speaking requires training. You expect to do a lot of hard work to write a good novel or poem, and so you should expect to work on acquiring the skills to "perform" that work. Even in the privacy of your writing room, learning how to use your voice to read out loud in an interesting way, can help with your writing, with improving dialogue and other technical aspects.
In this workshop, Chris & Judith Ross-Smith will help you with:
*CHRIS ROSS-SMITH studied speech and drama in London, founded a speech and drama academy in US, a theatre company in Armidale, the Armidillos, has worked as theatre director and coach for acting and vocal interpretation in various academies and universities in UK, US, South Africa, and Australia, was deputy director of National Institute of Dramatic Art. |
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| July 4 | WRIT LARGE - PROMOTE YOUR WRITING |
| Rosemary Mort | |
| You need to promote your writing, if you want people to read it.
Even authors published by major companies have to contribute to promoting their own work (and often they do all the publicity and pay for it) unless they are in the bestseller or flavour of the month categories. Books that don't sell x amount in x amount of time in Australia are pulped. It takes too long for word-of-mouth to sell books to avoid death by pulping. If you self-publish your poetry, novel, or non-fiction, you will need to know even more about promotion.
This half-day workshop with Rosemary Mort will give you some hints about how to approach the media and publicise your work for publication and for events such as readings. *ROSEMARY MORT worked for many years as a journalist on metropolitan and country newspapers. For the last 10 years she has been media adviser and publicist in Armidale working for a number of community leaders, businesses and community groups. |
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| September 4 | TALKING POETRY |
| Julian Croft & Yve Louis | |
| n celebration of Poetry Week, New England Writers’ Centre and Armidale Dumaresq Library are putting on this free public event at the library. Poets Julian Croft & Yve Louis will discuss their work, issues in poetry, and how they worked together in a mentorship program when Julian was Yve’s mentor. They will read a poem of their own, a favourite poem by another writer, and there will be time for questions. | |
| September 26 | WRITING GYM |
| Wendy James | |
| This one-day workshop with novelist Wendy James is a great way for writers at all stages of development and in any genre to exercise their imagination. Don’t sit around waiting for inspiration to come to you, come to the writing gym and learn how to make creative ideas happen. | |
| October 3 | WRITING SPACE WORKSHOP - YEARS 7 to 10 |
| Susan McMichael | |
| Have you written a new Eragon, like Christopher Paolini? Do you like writing short stories or poetry? Do your poems sit in a drawer after you've written them? Do you want to publish your work? Workshop will discuss: What is writing? How do we write? Participants will be writing new pieces and editing them. There will be discussion about the pieces. Bring writing material and a piece of your own work and a piece of writing that you like - it can be a comic, a poem, a page from a John Marsden or a Cornelia Funke novel.
* SUSAN MCMICHAEL is an Armidale writer who has been published in magazines and various anthologies. Her work has been performed in a local Poetzinc collaboration with Armidale Playhouse. In 2009, her poem Clytemnestra was awarded second prize in the Jean Ringland Memorial Prize 2009. In 2007, she was commended in the Society of Women Writers NSW Short Story Competition. In 2006, she was awarded a Varuna LitLink fellowship to finish a novel. Since 2007, Susan has been a tutor with the Youth on Line project with the New England Writers' Centre, presenting poetry workshops to students in district schools, via email. |
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| October 24 | POLISHING FOR PUBLICATION |
| Wendy James | |
| This one-day workshop with Wendy James will help you to get your work polished and edited, ready for publication. If your work is still at an early stage, you can learn now what you will need to do to polish the final draft. | |
| November 7 | WRITING NOVELS FOR CHILDREN & TEENS |
| Sophie Masson | |
| Writing for young people can be one of the most rewarding, viable and interesting literary careers of all. There's a constantly replenishing supply of readers, publishers are looking out constantly for new books and new authors, and the field is very wide and diverse—all genres, all ages. Perhaps you've got a burning ambition to write a novel for young people, but you're not sure how to start. Or you're not sure if you know what young people like to read today. Or you have something that sounds like it might be a good idea, but you're not sure where to go with it. Or you simply would like to toss around a few ideas, pick up a few tips and ask a few questions.
* SOPHIE MASSON has written more than 30 novels, many for children and young adults. She was born in Indonesia of French parents, and came to Australia with her family at the age of five. All her childhood, the family went back and forth between Australia and France, so Sophie grew up between worlds, and between languages, something which has always influenced her work. Sophie has had many novels published in Australia and internationally—for children, young adults and adults. Her books have been shortlisted for many awards. In 2002 her alternative history/mystery novel, “The Hand of Glory”, won the YA section of the Aurealis Awards. Her most recent novel is “The Madman of Venice” (Hodder Children's Books 2009), which was published in Australia and the UK and is to appear in the USA and Germany. Forthcoming novels include “The Hunt for Ned Kelly” (Scholastic 2010) and “The Understudy” (Scholastic). She has also written many short stories, articles and reviews, which have appeared in many publications. |
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| November 14 | THE AGENT - ONE-DAY WORKSHOP |
| Pippa Masson | |
| What do agents do? How do you approach them? What are they looking for? These days it’s nearly as hard to get the attention of an agent as of a publisher. Literary agent Pippa Masson will answer questions, give examples of what they reject and accept, how she works with clients, and will show participants how to write the synopsis necessary to approach agents and publishers – whether for a real manuscript or a hypothetical case, participants will write a synopsis and get feedback from Pippa.
*PIPPA MASSON is an agent at Curtis Brown and has worked there for some eight years. She represents a wide variety of authors in many genres: from commercial to literary, adult fiction and non-fiction, children’s picture books and novels and illustrated gift books. Her clients include Nick Earls, Scot Gardner, James Phelan, Matt Nable, Freya Blackwood and Libby Gleeson as well as countless others! Curtis Brown is Australia’s biggest and oldest literary agency. |
Biographical Notes
- KARLA MUIR
- Karla was born in Germany, migrated to Australia in 1980 at age 28. Spent two years travelling with camels and wagon in north -west NSW; had two children, studied philosophy, linguistics and psychology, achieved BA in 2002, and learnt a number of specific psychological techniques through additional courses. Currently she is employed as an aged carer for people with dementia, and as a computer trainer for CRS.
- LESLEY SLY
- Lesley has worked as an editor (newspapers/magazines), reporter for print and radio, senior sub editor for the Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Review, columnist for Rolling Stone, travel writer for BBC Radio and various UK newspapers. As a freelance her work has appeared in The Bulletin, Good Weekend, HQ, Limelight, and many other national and overseas magazines. She also wrote a 400-page book, The Power & The Passion, a guide to the Australian music industry, based on 150 interviews.
The New England Writers' Centre is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
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