northerly jan-feb 2016

northerly The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre Magazine

January-February 2016

KAREN LAMB & THEA ASTLEY · WRITING FOR MENTAL HEALTH · EDWIN WILSON PETER GARRETT · NEWS & REVIEWS · WORKSHOPS & COMPETITIONS

NORTHERN RIVERS WRITERS’ CENTRE

CHRISTMAS PARTY

December 16, 2015

CONTENTS

>> THIS ISSUE

JANFEB2016 002 Director & editor’s notes 003 News

Residential Mentorship 2016, members flying high, new poetry editors for leading journals and more

3

006 Two worlds collide

Peter Garrett comes to Byron Theatre

007 Poem

‘Scara Brae’ by Edwin Wilson

008 The ties that bind

6

Kerry Tolson on questions of family and privacy in non-fiction

010 Writing as therapy The benefits of wasting time with Stephanie Dale

012 Thea’s world

Interview with Thea Astley biographer Karen Lamb

014 SCU showcase

8

Short fiction from Cath Piltz

015 Rising

Q&A with emerging local author Jarrah Dundler

016 Learning Curve

Writing a guidebook with Scott Rawstorne

017 Picture perfect

10

Twentieth century photography at the next ADFAS lecture

018 A life in focus

The raw, painful and rewarding process of writing memoir with Jan Mulcahy

020 Book review

16

Kathleen Steele reviews Harry Mac by Russell Eldridge

021 Workshops 022 Competitions 024 Writers’ groups

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>>HELLO

DIRECTOR’S NOTE As you read this I will be wrapped up in my overcoat, collar up with comforting scarf, exploring some of my favourite Paris haunts.

Three weeks of winter to embrace one of my favourite cities and show solidarity, hug friends and not be cowed by past tragedies. Then I head home to the pervasive summer charms of the North Coast, and the six-month campaign to deliver a memorable 20th Anniversary Byron Bay Writers Festival (August 5-7).

Already, 2016 is shaping up to be a very significant year. For the first time, NRWC has Photo: Angela Kay secured multi-year funding from Arts NSW (2016-18) and this will be complemented by continuing generous Australia Council support.

We are excited too about the forthcoming launch of the Story Lab project headed up by local children’s author, Tristan Bancks. This groundbreaking initiative is destined to enthral the region’s young readers and writers. It is a pathway to literacy, the gateway to all learning. Stay tuned for more details and call-outs for volunteers.

Our broadening and valued partnerships with allied literary arts organisations have enabled the Centre to expand its Out of Season events program. Partnership undertakings don’t allow me to name names, but you can safely expect more leading authors, provocative topics and terrific entertainment in the months leading up to and following the twentieth Festival.

Everything points to a memorable anniversary year for the NRWC and the eager Festival team, to which I warmly welcome Partnership Manager Emma Keenan and Special Projects Co-ordinator, Coralie Tapper. Both are Northern Rivers residents and their professional capabilities will be invaluable in helping deliver our ambitious and exciting 2016 program.

FROM THE EDITOR

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LOCATION/CONTACT Level 1 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay P: 02 6685 5115 F: 02 6685 5166 E: info@nrwc.org.au W: www.nrwc.org.au POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 1846 Byron Bay NSW 2481 EDITOR: Barnaby Smith, northerly@nrwc.org.au CONTRIBUTORS: Barbara Barrett, Nelly le Comte, Stephanie Dale, Sarah Ma, Jan Mulcahy, Cath Piltz, Scott Rawstorne, Kathleen Steele, Kerry Tolson, Scott Trevelyan, Edwin Wilson NRWC COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON Chris Hanley VICE CHAIRPERSON Lynda Dean SECRETARY Russell Eldridge TREASURER Cheryl Bourne MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Kate Cameron, Marele Day, Lynda Hawryluk, Anneli Knight, Emerald Moon, Jennifer St George, Adam van Kempen, Teresa Walters LIFE MEMBERS Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin, Gayle Cue, Robert Drewe, Jill Eddington, Chris Hanley, John Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Irene O’Brien, Jennifer Regan, Cherrie Sheldrick, Brenda Shero, Heather Wearne MAIL OUT DATES Magazines are sent in JANUARY, MARCH, MAY, JULY, SEPTEMBER and NOVEMBER MAGAZINE DESIGN Kaboo Media PRINTER Quality Plus Printers Ballina

Edwina Johnson Director, NRWC

Arriving back at Sydney Airport after the twenty-seven hour transit from London in early January, I turned on my phone to read that David Bowie had died. No doubt partly due to being in a hyper-emotional state following this trans-hemispheric ordeal, I was so upset I didn’t know what to do with myself for quite some time. Did these people idly sitting around waiting to check in at the domestic terminal not know what had happened? It was almost as if they were getting on with their lives. How had the world not stopped?

Flippancy aside, it need not be pointed out that Bowie’s influence transcended pop music. Arguably, no other artist in the pop realm has ever come close to having such an impact on wider aesthetic, moral and philosophical domains. At Byron Bay Writers Festival 2014, a spoken-word tribute to Ziggy

northerly northerly is the bi-monthly magazine of the Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre.

The Writers’ Centre is a resource and information base for writers and readers in the Northern Rivers region. We offer a year-round program of readings, workshops and writer visits as well as the annual production of the Byron Bay Writers Festival. The Centre is a nonprofit, incorporated organisation receiving its core funding from Arts NSW.

Stardust was a small symptom of his seismic importance.

His dabblings with the literary world are worthy of mention. Immediately coming to mind must be his use of the ‘cut-up’ technique, taking his cue from William Burroughs and Brian Gysin.

“When I’m relaxed what I do is read,” he once said, and professed love for authors from Thomas Hardy to Peter Ackroyd.

That love of books and literature translated to a tremendous colour and whimsy in his lyrics. I’ll leave you one of them, from ‘Five Years’: “A soldier with a broken arm, fixed his stare to the wheel of a Cadillac / A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest and a queer threw up at the sight of that.”

Barnaby Smith Editor, northerly magazine

ADVERTISING We welcome advertising by members and relevant organisations. A range of ad sizes are available. The ad booking deadline for each issue is the first week of the month prior.

Email northerly@nrwc.org.au.

DISCLAIMER The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre presents northerly in good faith and accepts no responsibility for any misinformation or problems arising from any misinformation.

The views expressed by contributors and advertisers are not necessarily the views of the management committee or staff. We reserve the right to edit articles with regard to length. Copyright of the contributed articles is maintained by the named author and northerly.

CONNECT WITH US Visit www.nrwc.org.au. Sign up for a membership. Stay updated and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. www.facebook.com/pages/ Northern-Rivers-Writers-Centre twitter.com/bbwritersfest

Cover art: Beastarium by Scott Trevelyan (www.scott-trevelyan.com)

The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre, Byron Bay Writers Festival and northerly magazine acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land.

>> NEWS

Member success Hearty congratulations from northerly and NWRC to member Sue Reynolds, who placed third in the Luke Bitmead Bursary 2015, regarded as among the leading prizes in the UK for unpublished authors. Sue’s manuscript Temporary Spaces received its accolade at a ceremony in London in November.

Hachette winner announced The inaugural NRWC & Hachette Mentoring Program winner is Ali Chigwidden for her YA manuscript The Blackbirds. Ali will now work to develop her manuscript with a publisher from Hachette Australia.

Congratulations from northerly and NRWC.

Robert Drewe (left) was interviewed by Russell Eldridge to mark the launch of his new book The Beach: An Australian Passion at Mary Ryan’s Books in Byron Bay on December 4, 2015.

Photo: Sarah Ma.

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Popular socialism The most looked-up word for dictionary website Merriam-Webster for 2015 was ‘socialism’, something the United States-based dictionary puts down to the popularity of American presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has described himself as a ‘democratic socialist’.

“Socialism has been near the top of our online dictionary look-up list for several years,” said MerriamWebster editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski. “However, this year look-ups for socialism moved up even further, beginning with the July campaign events for Bernie Sanders, remaining high throughout the following months and spiking again after the first Democratic debate in October.”

‘Socialism’ takes over as the mostsearched-for word from the 2014 leader, ‘culture’.

Change to membership renewal details

NRWC membership will be returning to the annual renewal date of February 28 for 2016. Existing memberships that expire prior to February 28 will automatically have their membership extended to February 28. Any renewals or new membership applications received prior to February 28, 2016 will automatically be extended to February 28, 2017. Renewals and new memberships throughout 2016 will be allocated on a pro-rata basis.

Any queries can be directed at info@nrwc.org.au. northerly | 003

>> NEWS

Call for member news

The weekly Writing Hour at NRWC could be the perfect thing for local writers looking to start the new year off with some quiet, focussed time in the company of like-minded wordsmiths.

Meeting on Tuesdays at 10am, the Writing Hour could help you through that awkward plot point or troublesome preposition. Here, budding local writer Barbara Barrett describes how the initiative has helped her work.

Silence reigns. Utopia. No phone calls, internet interruptions, demands for immediate attention or other distractions. A better place to ‘hide’ than in the toilet when seeking out peace and quiet.

Add to that the company of creative like-minds focussed on productive writing. Energy flows around the table.

My encouragement to write came from the Byron Bay Writers Festival. Originally inspired to write about my partner, I have deviated from that goal to thinking about ancestral stories, in addition to the new topic presented monthly by ABC Open.

Writing challenges stir the grey matter, and through writing I have developed a greater interest in the world around me. I see landscapes in metaphors and people’s characters more defined.

Artistic licence justifies some embellishments I have made to my stories – although I try to stick as close to the truth as possible, some of which is almost unbelievable anyway.

The joys of research are combined with the resurgence of memories as photograph albums are pored over for stimuli.

Catchphrases are jotted down if possible. My reading horizons have expanded, and the Writing Hour has motivated me to borrow books from the NRWC collection – a resource I had previously not tapped. I attempt 500 words in the hour, later to be retrieved, re-read and edited. In the past twelve months my ABC Open site has had up to three additions per month.

Occasionally, some of the group meet for coffee afterwards. We have discovered a wide variety of topics and reasons for writing.

One author at the Byron Bay Writers Festival wrote her biography from notes her mother had made, but never got around to publishing. Who knows, the notes one makes could provide another potential author with material for a future project.

I’m not concerned about publishing at the moment, and just enjoying the experience.

Besides, one author I admire only started writing at the age of 65. I’ve got years to go!

For more information about Writing Hour email Penny at penny@nrwc.org.au or phone 02 6685 5115.

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If any NRWC members have had success, northerly wants to hear about it in order to sing it to the highest mountain. If you’ve won or placed in a competition, secured a publishing deal or mentorship or achieved anything else of note, do get in touch so we can tell the world.

Email the editor at northerly@nrwc. org.au.

New fiction writing group for Byron NRWC member Diana Burstall has established a new writing group for Byron Bay, with the Byron Bay Fiction Writing Group meeting once a month at Sunrise Beach. Diana also runs the Byron Bay Memoir Writing Group, which meets two weeks apart from the new group.

For more information about either group email diana.burstall@gmail. com or phone 0420282938.

New poetry faces Two of Australia’s most illustrious literary journals are embarking on 2016 with brand new poetry editors.

At Melbourne-based Overland, Sydney’s Toby Fitch (interviewed in the previous issue of northerly) takes over from Peter Minter. Fitch’s new collection, his third, is Bloomin’ Notions. Fitch has vacated the position of poetry reviews editor at Southerly to take the helm at Overland.

Meanwhile, Bronwyn Lea is the new poetry editor at Meanjin, taking over from Judith Beveridge. Lea’s latest book is The Deep North: A Selection of Poems.

Christmas Story Slam winners Congratulations to Kate Veitch, who was the winner of 2015 Christmas Story Slam, announced at the NRWC Christmas Party on December 16. Congratulations also to the runners-up Chris Black and Sharon Shelley. “The three selected were fantastic entries and the stories were enjoyed by members,” said Penny Leonard, NRWC program co-ordinator.

>> NEWS

OBITUARIES JAMILUDDIN AALI Pakistani writer and poet; January 20, 1925 – November 23, 2015 TOM ARDEN British-Australian sci-fi author; 1961 – December 15, 2015 GÜLTEN AKIN Turkish poet; January 23, 1933 – November 4, 2015 MADELINE DEFREES American poet; November 18, 1919 – November 11, 2015 PETER DICKINSON British author; December 16, 1927 – December 16, 2015 ANDRÉ GLUCKSMANN French writer and philosopher; June 19, 1937 – November 10, 2015 ADELE HORIN Australian journalist; January 1, 1951 – November 21, 2015 GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON American sci-fi author; July 10, 1929 – December 22, 2015 JEAN JOUBERT French writer and poet; February 27, 1928 – November 28, 2015 FERENC JUHÁSZ Hungarian poet; August 16, 1928 – December 2, 2015 RAHIM MOEINI KERMANSHAHI Iranian poet; February 6, 1926 – November 17, 2015 WILLIAM MCILVANNEY Scottish writer and poet; November 25, 1936 – December 5, 2015 LAURETTA NGCOBO South African novelist and essayist; 1931 – November 3, 2015

Residential Mentorship Opportunity It’s that time of year again and we’re looking for submissions for our 2016 Residential Mentorship Program. If you are living in the NRWC catchment area (north to Tweed Heads, south to Taree and west to Kyogle) and have a well-developed manuscript we’d love to hear from you.

The mentorship is suitable for writers of fiction and creative non-fiction. The 2016 residential mentorship will be held May 9-13. This is an outstanding opportunity to participate in a writing experience that has already proved to be a launch pad for regional writers. The program is sixteen years old this year and the roll call of past participants who are now published authors includes Jesse Blackadder, Susanna Freymark, Daniel Ducrou, Sarah Armstrong, Jessie Cole, Russell Eldridge, Emma Ashmere, Claire Dunn, Leigh Redhead, Emma Hardman, Oren Siedler, Matt Webber and Lisa Walker.

Marele Day has been the mentor for the program for the past fourteen years and will be taking this role again in 2016. Marele is the author of four crime novels: The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender, The Case of the Chinese Boxes, The Last Tango of Dolores Delgado and The Disappearances of Madalena Grimaldi as well as a collection of crime-comedy stories, the Mavis Levack, PI series. Other novels include the best-selling Lambs of God, which was published to international acclaim with film rights optioned by Twentieth Century Fox; Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain’s Wife and most recently The Sea Bed. She is a highly experienced speaker,

CARLOS OROZA Spanish poet; May 13, 1923 – November 20, 2015 MANGESH PADGAONKAR Indian poet; March 10, 1929 – December 30, 2015 PETER RYAN Australian columnist; September 4, 1923 – December 13, 2015 THOM THOMAS American playwright; August 31, 1935 – December 2, 2015

teacher and mentor, and has won several awards, including the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

The mentorship provides five days in a glorious Byron Shire location with accommodation and meals provided, one-on-one mentoring with Marele Day and the company of three other committed writers. It’s an experience that many have described as life-changing, a time to forge lasting friendships and discover what lies at the heart of your work. Find details on at nrwc.org.au.

Applications open on March 1 and close on March 15.

QUOTAT ION CORNER

“Why shouldn’t we, so generally addicted to the gigantic, at last have some small works of art, some short poems, short pieces of music [...], some intimate, low-voiced, and delicate things in our mostly huge and roaring, glaring world?”

-- Elizabeth Bishop northerly | 005

>> REVIEW

A TALE OF TWO LIVES Peter Garrett was on hand at Byron Theatre in late October to answer questions from journalist David Leser about his life as an international rock singer with Midnight Oil, as well as his subsequent time at the heart of federal politics. Among many things, the interview covered friends, foes and questions of national identity, in promotion of Garrett’s memoir, Big Blue Sky. Surely, there is a film to be made about the life of Peter Garrett. Except it won’t be made for several decades yet, as the story of this unique, polarising, formidable Australian is far from finished. As an impressively diverse audience at Byron Bay Theatre discovered, though Garrett’s political career may well be a chapter consigned to his past, the fires of activism still burn strongly within him, while, tantalising for many of a certain vintage, the prospect of a Midnight Oil reunion is on the table (if not exactly imminent).

Garrett was interviewed by David Leser, who was a committed and entertaining presence himself. As a journalist, Leser goes back decades with Garrett, and though they alluded to this friendship several times, never did the conversation become overly pally or indulgent – even if things lapsed into nostalgia fairly regularly. Indeed, Leser should be congratulated for some stubborn pressing of Garrett towards the end of the evening about an alleged bribe from ClubsNSW, which reared its head in the media earlier in 2015.

A “stuff-up” was how Garrett described the episode, amid Leser’s insistence he was not questioning his integrity.

Unsurprisingly, given that Garrett’s biography Big Blue Sky was being promoted, the evening took a chronological path through his life, beginning with his childhood and initial interest in music (particularly blues) and politics whilst growing up in northern Sydney, a time when his head was turned by the difference in quality of life between the various neighbourhoods that surrounded him. His early adulthood was of course shattered by the death of his mother in a house fire in Lindfield (his father died of illness when Garrett was still at school).

However, this seismic incident was not dwelled upon for particularly long by Leser and Garrett. As Garrett described his time with Midnight Oil, it was immediately apparent – as if the audience did not know already – that here was one ageing rock star without a store of outrageous tales of sex, drugs and other clichés. Arguably the most studious pop musician Australia has ever produced, Garrett’s priorities in the 1980s lay with integrating his social message with Midnight Oil’s abrasive, modern sound.

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Among the most interesting points of discussion surrounding Garrett’s entry into politics in 2004 (twenty years after a failed campaign with the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the height of his music fame), was his decision to join Labor rather than the Greens, something that earned him the ire of Bob Brown at the time.

Following Kevin Rudd’s federal election win in 2007, Garrett became Minister for the Environment. It was whilst in this position that he faced a decision that he still describes in agonising terms: approving the Four Mile uranium mine in outback South Australia.

While veering away from suggesting he regrets anything about his time in office, and exhibiting a certain gratitude for all of his life experiences, it was this episode that seems to have caused him the most discomfort, and that lingers with him still.

A highlight of the conversation came as it was winding down, when Leser asked Garrett to offer his opinion, in one sentence, of recent Australian prime ministers. Whitlam, Gillard, Keating and to a lesser extent Hawke are spoken of in respectful terms, while Fraser, Howard and inevitably Abbott are lambasted.

Garrett reserves, however, a special vitriol for Rudd.

Accusing the former prime minister of egregious self-interest in undermining and eventually ousting Julia Gillard from office in 2013, his single sentence for Rudd became something of a tirade.

Garrett’s clear anger at Rudd and others did not detract from a general mood of amiability and goodwill, reflecting a book that Garrett described early in the evening as a “positive memoir”. BS Big Blue Sky is published by Allen & Unwin.

>>POEM

Scara Brae Edwin Wilson

Down from the Ring of Brodgar and the Odin Stone, snug from the arctic howl in elevated ground close to the eating sea; a Neolithic hamlet honeycombed in shells, turf-roofed, with central hearth and beds, rock-cupboards set in dry-stone walls – and not some Movie Set of Hobbit-dom but the Real Thing – gave me goose bumps to think my Danish kin had reached this edge of continent, why did they go?

Back in the bus we look at new-born calves and lambs, so recently released in fields tucked up against more dry-stone walls – same-same construction used in Skara Brae.

Lismore-born Edwin Wilson’s latest book is Stardust Photo: Julia Pannell Painter-Poet, which will be launched as part of a retrospective exhibition of his paintings by The Royal Art Society of New South Wales at their Lavender Bay Gallery, Sydney, April 8 – May 1.

northerly | 007

>>FEATURE

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Local writer and NRWC member Kerry Tolson recently launched her first book, Buddhas, Bombs and the Babu, a comic travelogue that tells of a family trip through Nepal. But like many memoirists, she was faced with the conundrum of how much of her family life she wanted to expose to the world. Here she describes how she came to terms with committing her husband and son’s lives to the page.

Buddhas, Bombs and the Babu, a humorous travel narrative of a family’s one-month holiday, took twelve years to write.

After twenty-two drafts, three complete rewrites, numerous writing workshops, two writers’ groups and begging friends to read it, it has finally become a fully-fledged book sitting on bookshop shelves, with an alluring pickme-up cover and a barcode on the back.

The book began when I embraced my passion for weaving stories, and I started telling anyone who would listen that I was going to write a book. I happily reminisced over memories of the “whoops, did we really do that?” family trip in 2000 to Nepal, when the country was going through a major cultural shift, transitioning from a monarchy to a republic. At first the words flowed forth, and in no time a draft had tumbled out – the bare bones ready for development.

However, as I began the manuscript development phase, a bundled knot of euphoria entwined with procrastination and angst emerged, and I found myself frozen at the thought of even putting words down, let alone sending it out there for publication.

I put my fear down to the question I’m sure every writer asks themselves: who would want to read this? Start telling someone about your holiday and pretty soon their eyes glaze over, an awkward smile creeps across their face and they suddenly remember an urgent chore they need to do, like washing the cat or clipping toe hairs.

I kept asking myself, what makes this story different from other travel memoirs? There are numerous books out there about Nepal – it isn’t exactly an off-the-beaten-track destination anymore. We hadn’t scaled mountains, survived life-changing catastrophes and we certainly weren’t saving the world.

We’d been flat-out saving ourselves… from ourselves. No, this was just your typical garden-variety family holiday, with a mum and dad dragging an unimpressed eleven-year-old around a developing country, albeit with nothing planned, nothing booked and with no idea where to go. I hadn’t even looked at the guidebook.

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>> FEATURE

Yet I was determined to keep writing, telling myself that if Ann Rickard or Ben Hatch could turn motoring holidays around France and Italy into bestsellers, why couldn’t I just write a little book about a family bouncing through Nepal during its civil war?

It dawned on me one day, whilst hesitating at writing a section about my marriage (I took to ironing the undies from my clean laundry basket – that’s how far my procrastination had gone), just what the true implications were of me writing a memoir. In my case it would involve intimate observations of the lives of my husband, Mal, and our son.

This story wasn’t just about a wander around Nepal, it was an exploration of my marriage, a father-son relationship and how our family unit was on the verge of disintegration. This revelation didn’t free me from the writing freeze; it flung me to Siberia (which incidentally is on my list of must-travel destinations).

I found myself grappling with the dilemma of whether I have the right to tell their story. They knew I was writing about their trip and didn’t really care, to the extent that neither even wanted to read it. “I was there, I don’t need to read about it,” was Mal’s comment. But this story was becoming more personal, I was writing about failings and emotions, good and bad. It’s a known fact that everyone sees a different version of the same car accident – what if the three of us remembered it all differently? And now I wanted to expose it to the world, or more scarily, to people that personally knew us. We lived in a small close-knit village and owned a wellknown business in that community. It was one thing to mention your partner’s little foibles to a girlfriend over a glass of wine, it was quite another to put it in print and have your clients, neighbours and the butcher read all about it.

The question of my child’s right to privacy also kept raising its head. How did a hormone-charged teenage boy feel about his mother displaying his relationship with his father for all his mates to see? In a world that revolves around social media, where every meal is photographed and posted and porn-faces and rap-boy stances make up the profile pics, all I could think of was whether this book would hurt his dating chances. And what if he is destined for greater things? Like becoming a leading businessman, politician or the male version of Princess Mary – would this hinder his opportunities in life?

I considered writing under a pen name but decided against it. Plus, I liked my name. And though Mal gave his full blessing to write about him (and us), every time we had an argument – no matter how big, small or mundane – all I could see was 80,000 words evaporating.

In the end I kept the quote from George Hodgman (author of Bettyville) in mind: “Memoir is a total minefield, as you know. It’s best if you write the book and leave the country.” I thought that leaving the country wouldn’t be that bad, I love travel. As they say, there’s a story in every journey. The fingers are itching to start the writing process again.

Buddhas, Bombs and the Babu is published by Brolga Publishing and distributed by Pan Macmillan.

Kerry Tolson is an avid traveller, writer, blogger, writers’ group coordinator and small business owner from the Far North Coast, New South Wales. She shares her travel stumbles and adventures on her online travel blog: Tuk-tuks, Chicken Bouquets and Bicycle bells (www.kerrytolsontravels.blogspot.com), and is currently working on a new intergenerational travel memoir (this time throwing a daughterin-law into the mix). Kerry has just returned from a recent trip to Nepal and Bhutan.

Photo: Nelly le Comte

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>>FEATURE

MORE THAN WORDS : WRITING FOR WELLBEING The power of creative writing as a therapy tool, with the potential to help with anxiety and depression as well as physical ailments, is now well known. Yet many of us might still see writing as an indulgent waste of time. Stephanie Dale, founder of creative writing initiative The Write Road, outlines the importance of allowing yourself to enjoy the ‘idle’ practice of writing, thinking and reflecting, in order to enhance overall health.

Writing is a revolutionary act.

That’s not news. Not even an original thought.

Yet in our modern world, it may just have reinvigorated our power and purpose.

Here’s what’s extraordinary about our world – the one in which we are so vital to our own lives, so busy with our time-saving techniques and devices, so consumed by inconveniences small and large, so overwhelmed by the talents of people we admire: we no longer take time to do the things we love.

Time to rest. Time to dream. Time to fill the well.

And the one thing so very many of us long to do more than anything else is write.

I am qualified to make this statement. Over the past eighteen months I have driven 40,000 kilometres to deliver 137 writing workshops to 557 people in thirty-six towns. Flying my small banner called The Write Road, I have spent months at a time crisscrossing mountains, plains and rivers, then barrelling on through the red dust of Far West New South Wales, meeting people in wooden halls, on remote stations, beside waterholes, inside community centres.

Founder of The Write Road, Stephanie Dale.

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In stalking the writing potential of the people in New South Wales, a handful of heartbreaking common themes emerged: * Almost every single person around us longs to tell a story * Almost every single one of us believes that to take time out to do so would be ‘wasting time’ * Just about everyone believes they are ‘unworthy’ of making a start on their stories (even small family stories) * Just about everyone believes they are ‘not talented enough’ to try By far the most common reason for why people are not writing is a debilitating story about ‘wasting time’.

It’s a crazy story. A silly story. A shameful story. We all play our part in it — and we’re paying a high price for it.

The nation is facing a mental health meltdown, rates of suicide and depression are so alarmingly high that mental health is a growth industry, and we tell ourselves – and each other – that we do not have time to do the one thing we’d love to do more than anything else: write.

I have a theory.

And this theory goes that while all the creatures of the earth need three things for their survival – air, water, land for food – human beings have a fourth requirement, and that is the need for creative expression.

To be well, for families and communities to thrive, we must create.

We all know this; the connection between creativity and wellbeing is well documented.

Research shows that writing – even the simple act of sharing our story with only ourselves – can enhance our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.

Writing can redefine a person’s attitudes in situations of crisis and difficulty.

Myriad studies show that writing can positively influence immune function, pain, depression and stress. It can reduce the number of days spent in hospital, boost employment prospects after losing a job and increase social interactions.

Writing doesn’t just make us feel better – hard evidence shows us that in every possible way it can make us better.

>>FEATURE

Women of the Far West gather for a writing weekend at Goodwood Station, near White Cliffs.

And yet we have ‘no time’ to laze beneath a tree in the midday heat and write.

No time to sit on the steps while the sun goes down and write.

No time to wander out on the headland, lie back in the morning sunshine and write.

Is she working or is she resting?

There is a story I once heard about the French impressionist Claude Monet — he was sitting in his garden, gazing languidly into an unknown distance when his neighbour put his head over the fence, and asked, “M’sieur, you are resting?”

“No,” replied the great artist, “I am working.”

Three days later Monet was in his garden painting.

The neighbour put his head over the fence and asked, “M’sieur, you are working?”

“No,” said Monet, “I am resting.”

Sitting idle, apparently wasting time, is as essential to the creative process and the human spirit as paint and brush, wood and adze, pen and paper.

Surely, everyone is entitled to sit on their verandah while the sun goes down with a book on their lap and a pen between their fingers, clarifying thoughts, exploring ideas, telling stories.

Six months ago, a woman walked into a wooden hall in a small settlement 200 kilometres from anywhere. She was not young, neither was she old. She was bent, huddled over a walking stick, leaning on her husband.

Two brief writing workshops later, the woman left with her eyes shining, walking tall, no longer leaning on her husband. She was swinging her walking stick. True story.

What happened in those few hours to change her sense of wellbeing so enormously, at least for a while?

The Write Road might be offering writing workshops, but in fact our currency is optimism and courage, building resilience and empowering individuals and communities And herein lies the revolution.

It takes courage to override the voices in our head shaming us with all the reasons why we cannot, should not, must not write the stories hammering at our heart.

It takes a radical act of self-belief to claim our voice and our visibility and, god forbid, be witnessed in the claiming.

It takes a personal revolution to place a value on the longing to write, one so high that we are no longer willing to sacrifice our right to write on the altar of ‘wasting time’.

And it takes a funny sort of confidence to write, not because you’re going to be brilliant, not because it may or may not be worth publishing, not because other people might love or hate our story – but because the longing itself is enough.

In a radical act of civil disobedience, our task today (and tomorrow) is to waste time.

To sit ‘idle’ during a busy day. To give the gift of wasting time to ourselves and set a fine example to others.

Take time to connect with your deepest well: sit, dream, rest.

From there, who knows, you may just pick up that pen.

And write.

The story.

You. Are longing.

To write.

“To be well, we must create. To be strong, we must know our own story.”

Stephanie Dale is a Byron Bay-based journalist and author who founded The Write Road, an award-winning creative mental health initiative devoted to encouraging people and communities to identify their story and speak for themselves. Stephanie’s work was acclaimed at the 2014 Women Out West Awards. www.thewriteroad.com.au

The Write Road is launching its first online writing course for new and unpublished writers in February.

Write of Passage is a twelve-week creativity kickstarter designed to coax out stories and introduce techniques to help you express your ideas clearly. We’ll be playing purposefully with words, hearing their rhythms and feeling their weight. Course participants will meet ‘face to face’ online in a group led by a skilled facilitator.

Numbers are limited. For more information contact Stephanie Dale at steph@thewriteroad.com.au northerly | 011

>> INTERVIEW

WEATHER MAKER: THEA ASTLEY AND THE GENEALOGY OF CHARACTER correspondence in its intimate and compassionate portrayal of this unique Australian, who died in 2004 having spent her final years in Byron Bay. Here, Lamb offers northerly insight into the book’s development and Astley’s legacy. Interview by Barnaby Smith.

Thea Astley stands as one of the most enigmatic and uncategorisable Australian authors of the twentieth century, with her novels sure to mesmerise and confound readers for generations to come. Though affected by significant self-doubt throughout her life, her four Miles Franklin Awards attest to the esteem in which her work is held. Her idiosyncratic style remains challenging for some, yet she was without question seminal in creating a literary identity for her home state of Queensland.

It is perhaps surprising then that Karen Lamb’s impeccable tome Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather, published in 2015, is the very first Astley biography. Lamb, based at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney, took ten years to complete the book, which features extensive interviews and 012 | northerly

I remember reading your essay on Astley’s relationship with Patrick White in Southerly in 2012. Can you comment on how much of a general impact White had on Astley’s life and work?

Astley approached Patrick White in person just a couple of years after her first novel was published (Girl with a Monkey, 1958), which sounds bold – was in fact – but she did love White’s poetic prose and wanted to emulate it.

White was to her – to many writers of the time – a hero figure in Australian writing. Astley and other writers, like Tom Keneally, were very influenced by White’s work, in awe to some extent of his international reputation as a novelist and playwright.

White’s prose, Keneally has recalled, seemed to them like this “gorgeous jungle you had to penetrate – a sort of veil – in front of the characters, but a delightful veil, undergrowth – you knew you’d been on a hunt but a fulfilling kind.” Of course Astley wanted more than to be an admirer of White, she sought friendship and affirmation from him too. They were good friends for a few years, in fact, but the friendship soured in the early 1960s, when Astley looked for an endorsement of her writing that was not forthcoming from White.

Interestingly, Astley treasured, and kept, the present of a book – Selected Writings of Gérard de Nerval – that White sent to her in September 1960, in which he inscribed playfully: “For Thea Astley Gregson the Dropper-in from the Dropped-in on.”

You have written that Astley was “prepared to risk herself personally in the pursuit of critical validation”.

Where do you think her sensitivities to how her work was critically received stemmed from?

That is hard to sum up quickly, because there were legitimate reasons for Astley to have felt critically neglected, or misunderstood, at least in the early years of her writing life. In her novels, Astley was boldly exploring the lives of women; often the same issues affecting her own life, but writing about them in ways that were savagely satirical. Although she was uncomfortable with the word ‘feminism’, Astley was in some ways an early protester who raged against the widely accepted assumption that women’s writing was

>> INTERVIEW

somehow less serious than men’s. Despite the success of her early books, Astley felt that the critical acclaim she so dearly craved eluded her and she blamed, in part, her gender. She felt this seeped into the publishing of books as well, and this made her an outspoken critic of the widely accepted idea that literary fiction writers could not make a living from their craft, much to the discomfort of her publishers.

When and how were you first captivated by Astley’s work?

I was living in Brisbane in the late 1980s and so was immersed in the peculiarities of that place, trying to understand it as a refugee from ‘civilised’ Melbourne.

I was asked to review It’s Raining in Mango for The Courier-Mail and realised then that I was reading a writer with something special to say about the genealogy of character amid the tropics, a writer who captured the idiosyncratic nature of Queensland in a hugely energised and highly individual prose.

Your book is only the first Astley biography, while as the Sydney Morning Herald has noted, in the 1990s she was not deemed important enough to warrant funding for a critical project. Why has she, at times, been rather overlooked by both the academy and the reading public?

The funding of book projects is a worrying issue more broadly within the various systems of book funding, and still is, but it does seem peculiar that very little funding was ever on offer for a biography of such a prominent Australian writer. I still find that inexplicable.

The second part of what you say is a bit of what I call a ‘Thea-ism’; that is, ideas about her work that Astley liked to repeat which were not really true at all. She ‘carried’ a sense of being overlooked forward, long after that ceased to be the case. She was a much-decorated novelist even by the late 1960s, and stayed one until the end of her life.

A body of critical work, also, was growing from the late 1960s onwards. The reading public were great fans too, flocking to writers’ festivals once they knew Thea Astley was appearing: she was a consummate performer of her work in public readings.

In Australian Book Review, Kerryn Goldsworthy wrote that you “shied away from the feminism of Astley’s novels” in your biography. Do you agree, and can you identify what legacy Astley left to feminism in Australia?

Yes, that was a terrific review, as I recall. “Shied away”, as I understand the phrase in its context, is true in the sense that I did not engage in a critique of Astley’s fiction from

a feminist perspective. Literary biography has latitude in terms of balancing the author’s life with their creative works, thankfully. So, what I did do in Inventing Her Own Weather was to try to tease out the perversity of Astley’s viewpoints, feminism being one. I was able to track her ambiguous – often entertainingly odd – responses to ‘the cause’, as she would deride it, back to her personality and life experiences in childhood. I think the reviewer really understood and appreciated that, in fact, and confirmed it with the astute observation that Astley’s apparent distrust of the ‘F’ word and what it stood for didn’t stop her being in every possible way simpatico with the values of feminism.

What is your favourite Astley novel and why?

Reaching Tin River (1990) is my particular favourite. It is a haunting novel about loss and longing. The novel also survived Astley’s own attempts at deflection when it was published – she’d try to often paint it as pure satire. It is funny, of course, but it is much more. It also has some of Astley’s best mathematical metaphors from Euclid – parallel lines that never meet – to describe relationships.

Astley once dismissively described Byron Bay as “like Gladesville or something”. What did she dislike and did she soften on the place?

I can’t say whether she was ‘dismissive’ of the place, but others around at that time may recall her being so – perhaps initially. Astley would have been drawing a connection between the lifestyles of Byron folk and her own send-ups of hippie-style values and behaviours from her earlier novels and particularly the story collection, Hunting the Wild Pineapple (1979). The truth is that Astley more than warmed to Byron, despite being there only a few years. She understood that she had landed in a community that valued the arts, valued writing, and valued her own life’s work. She also found an easy camaraderie with other writers in the area, and kindness, a quality so important to Astley — all of this at a difficult stage of her life. I think she was fortunate to live long enough to acknowledge that to herself.

Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather is published by University of Queensland Press.

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>> SCU

A showcase of SCU student work, compiled

by Dr Lynda Hawryluk

At Your Service Cath Pilaz

Twilight in Nightcap National Forest had passed when I first saw him on the fence stump in my front garden. He wasn’t trying to get my attention, though plonking my teacup onto the kitchen sink with a clang didn’t stop the strong feeling of presence. Something in his eyes made me look, and then look again. He sat perched upon the old stump demurely, scruffy thick fur and whiskers gently shimmering in the underexposed picture I was staring at. How did he do that? There were no stars, moon or magical tripwires set out tonight. Cats cannot glow in the dark. I blinked. He was grooming himself, the shimmering gone. I was reaching for another teabag when a deep, well-spoken voice asked me if he could come in, if I would be so kind. I peeked around the breakfast bar. The TV was on mute. I stole a glance out front. A swift glimpse into the swirls of my seeing-bowl. Nothing. I backtracked to the laundry to scan the yard. All was quiet. The Tom sat proud upon the stump, his brilliant black fur draped about his shoulders complementing his white undercoat. He was very handsome. We eyeballed each other. Then he leapt from the stump and stood up on his hind legs.

My mouth fell open as he swaggered on over to my door. Dumbstruck, I unlocked it. This night was most peculiar.

‘Felix, at your service,’ he announced with a bow, continuing right into my lounge room. * I took a breath. I should take precautions. You see, witches are not ordinary folk. We may look like everyone else, but I can assure you that we are very, very different. And there was something very, very different about this cat. Along my hall live my thousands of books. I poked through some pamphlets and popped out a book of protection spells. My silver banishing flask came too.

The cat sprawled in my recliner. His presence had not affected the chessboard. An enchanted game, it was

gifted to me by my circle. Practice, they insisted, will keep me on my toes. The dratted thing had beaten me twice already yet Felix was having much more luck. Like the Cheshire Cat, with a good dollop of Huckleberry Finn mixed in.

‘Ha Ha!’ he swished his tail and sent the black knight galloping in to devour the white king. Oh the nerve!

Felix looked up at my astonishment. With one hand clawing into the book of dispelling and the other in a vice grip around my flask I readied myself.

‘You won’t need those,’ he said, sitting up.

‘Who are you?’ I barked. ‘What, are you?’ * We drank our tea as Felix conversed about labs, chemicals, tests and trials. Flashbacks of news reports about explosions, car crashes and ASIS crowded the warm air. My head swam with information overload.

How extraordinary I thought. I must be mad.

‘You are not going mad,’ he purred, placing his teacup in its saucer.

His calm green eyes rested on mine. Then I began to see. Such a very long time ago, I had…

He nodded. ‘Sam sent me here.’ ‘...a granddaughter.’

I did not need any protection from him. Felix was not a mage’s scouting minion or a trapped witch or cursed entity. He was my granddaughter’s secret science experiment. Sam was wise to send him here. The forest has lots of hidden nooks and crannies.

‘Hmm,’ I said, ‘We will need to change your name.’

‘Indeed.’

‘The name, Felix, it means…’

‘Lucky?’

‘Lucky.’

Cath Piltz grew up on the North Coast, writing, drawing and taking pictures. Cath has been published by Monstralian. With degrees in Animation and Secondary Teaching – studying cartooning with Alan Moir (Sydney Morning Herald) and Film Directing/ Acting with George Whaley (NIDA) – Cath loves stories in all their forms.

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JARRAH DUNDLER

>> RISING

In this section, northerly hears from a series of emerging writers who have had some publishing success but whose voices and styles are still coming into being. Some will come from the Northern Rivers, some will come from further afield – either way, each will be an exciting nascent talent.

Kyogle-based writer Jarrah Dundler’s short stories have appeared in Booranga Writers Centre’s fourW anthology. He participated in the 2015 Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre Residential Mentorship program and has just been awarded a 2016 Varuna Residency Fellowship to work on his young adult novel, Tryst.

Can you describe your own work in terms of style, practice and form?

Diverse. I try not to restrict my writing to any particular form but rather let the story choose the form that’s right for it. As such I have a number of projects on the go including kids’ picture books, novels, short stories, a short film script and a graphic novel. These are as diverse in practice and style as they are in form. One of my novels is a coming-of-age story, while another is a modern Australian mythic-fantasy. Some of my short stories are more literary in style while others are macabre black comedies, and others speculative fiction. I don’t know if this diversity is a sign that I’m still honing my own style and finding my ‘voice’ or that I’ll always work on a range of projects. I hope it’s the latter – the volume of projects can be daunting, but I enjoy the diversity.

When and how were you first drawn to literature and a desire to be an author?

When I was quite young. One of my childhood memories (I was around five I think) is being huddled next to my older brother in a tent on a dark and stormy night while our aunty read to us by torchlight – selected passages from a paperback that was thicker than the bible. The only passage I remember involved a kid opening a fridge and the fridge being full of leeches the size of tennis balls that flew out and started devouring him. The book was It

by Stephen King.

I don’t know if it was It or the more age-appropriate reading mum got me into a year or so later (The MuddleHeaded Wombat by Ruth Park) but I knew at around this time that I wanted to be a writer. When asked the question that adults love to ask kids ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ I once responded I wanted to ‘go to the pub and drink beer’. Another time I said I wanted ‘to own a real fast red car’. And another time I said I wanted ‘to be a writer’. Now that I’m thirty-four, I’ve visited one or two pubs over the years and I’ve owned

a red car – a 1997 Laser that my child-self would have thought went fast enough. Having ticked those two off I am now free to focus on writing.

Which writers have influenced you most?

My style is still developing and I’m still being influenced as I’m discovering new writers whose work I connect with all the time. Thus far, writers across a range of forms and genres that I’ve been particularly drawn to include John Steinbeck, Richard Brautigan, Neil Gaiman, Patrick McCabe, Tony Birch, Libby Gleeson and Pamela Allen.

What is the most important piece of writing advice you have been given?

Do it daily! This (along with reading a lot) seems to be the most common piece of writing advice given by writers. My lecturer at the University of Queensland, author Charlotte Nash, must have made this point very emphatically, because when I wrote the words down in my notebook I used capital letters and exclamation marks. I used to write only when I felt ‘in the mood’ but I’ve learnt that to make any significant progress (e.g. getting close to finishing a novel rather than a rough draft of the first three chapters) I need to write every chance I have. I may not get words down every day, but I do more days of the week than not.

Are there enough opportunities for writers like yourself in Australia?

Yes, and there seems to be new opportunities popping up all the time. This year the Newcastle Writers Festival launched the Lock-Up Artist in Residence program, and then there is Varuna, the new Affirm Press Mentorship Award and The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Having participated in the NRWC Residential Mentorship program I cannot speak highly enough of the value of such programs in supporting developing writers.

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>> LEARNING CURVE

WRITING A GUIDEBOOK

From Boswell to Baedeker, the guidebook is one form of literature that has remained consistently popular down the centuries, even in the face of the digital revolution. Ballina-based author and NRWC member Scott Rawstorne is the creator of a series of kayaking, canoeing and stand-up paddleboarding guidebooks for the eastern half of Australia.

His latest publication is The Paddler’s Guide to New South Wales 2nd Edition, which incorporates contributions from other writers. Here, he offers advice on successfully creating an outdoor activity guidebook.

My guidebook-writing career came about more by invitation than by design. I have long been a lover of the great outdoors with an insatiable appetite for exploration, but it wasn’t until people started quizzing me about where I had been and how I got there that I realised I had subconsciously compiled a library of valuable information. I then found that guidebooks were the best way to give others the benefit of my experience. These are the steps that I follow to create them.

Research content Seek out documentation about the region and speak to local historians. Tales from the past and explanations of cultural idiosyncrasies will bring vibrancy to your guide and help spark the reader’s imagination. Descriptions of native flora and fauna similarly add interest. Try to track down facts that hardly anyone would know. This will make your book more memorable.

Define your vision What will the book look like when it is finished? Decide on the type of activity and the region that you would like to cover. If walking is your passion, then you could choose to document a collection of walks scattered around your local area or perhaps a long-distance walk that has to be completed in daily increments.

Develop a concept that is feasible, original and has a clearly definable audience. Don’t try and be all things to all people. You might be passionate about walking, cycling, four-wheel driving, surfing and paddling all over the world but that is too much to cover in a single book. One type of activity in a specific region is more than enough.

Experience it for yourself It is essential that you experience your chosen combination of activity and region for yourself before you document it for others. This should be done with a pen, notebook and camera in hand so you can document all of your observations. If maps are to be included in the guidebook, then it is a good idea to carry a handheld GPS unit so you can track your progress and record the geographical locations of any points of interest.

Make sure to notice everything. That includes flowers, animals, birds, rock formations and even weather conditions. Keep an eye out for particularly unusual features. Sometimes a rusted wreck at the water’s edge or an old bridge can point to a goldmine of historical information.

Create a user-friendly structure A guidebook should be intuitive and not require any accompanying instructions. The reader should be able to pick it up and immediately be able to find content that is relevant to their needs. A well-structured table of contents and an index are a good start. Outdoor activities are highly dependent on the geography of a region, so maps are another excellent idea. A picture is unquestionably worth a thousand words.

Standardise the way in which information will be presented so that readers know what to expect. If you are documenting a collection of walks, then for each one you might like to include details like starting point, finishing point, degree of difficulty, toilet locations and places to eat, drink and sleep. A description of any required navigation is also essential.

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Compile the book This is where it all comes together. Record the findings of your research and your experience within the structure that you have created. Try not to be too dry. Humour, whimsy and philosophical musings build rapport with the reader and are invariably appreciated.

As Rhys Alexander said, “Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colours.” www.globalpaddler.com.au

A CENTURY IN PHOTOS

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s first Leica camera. Photo: Rama, Wikimedia Commons.

The Best Photographs of the 20th Century An Illustrated Lecture by Paul Harris, Monday March 7.

The first ADFAS Byron Bay and Districts lecture for 2016 welcomes Mr Paul Harris, writer and lecturer on a wide range of subjects reflecting his interest in art history, counter insurgency and terrorism, politics and world affairs, journalism and photography. Paul graduated from Aberdeen University in 1970 with a Masters in Politics and International Relations. For ten years, he worked as a conflict analyst and his work took him to eighteen war zones throughout the world. In the early 1970s he worked in pirate radio as project coordinator for Capital Radio. He has travelled widely and has experience as a writer, publisher, political analyst, art dealer and journalist, living in the UK, Sri Lanka, China, former Yugoslavia and Malta. Paul is author of some forty-five books and in 1965 compiled a modest volume entitled A Concise Dictionary of Scottish Painters. This led to a commission to produce, together with co-author Julian Halsby, The Dictionary of Scottish Painters in 1989, which has recently reappeared in its sixth edition. Paul has lectured on-board cruise ships on a professional basis for the past eight years. He operates the Coldingham Gallery in the Scottish borders, specialising in Chinese art: paintings, porcelain and objects.

Harris will present fifty of his favourite photographs of the twentieth century and explain why they are significant images, and tell the stories that lie behind them. He will show pictures by photographers such as Henri Cartier Bresson, Karsh, Robert Capa and Don McCullin. Many will be familiar to his audience, but others may come as a surprise.

The lecture will be held on March 7 at the A&I Hall, Bangalow.

Members and guests are invited to drinks at 6.00pm prior to the lecture at 6.30pm, followed by a light supper afterwards. Guests are welcome at $25 per person. Early-bird ADFAS membership is available until January 31st. Please direct any membership enquiries to Anni Abbink at anne.abbink@yahoo.com.au or 02 6684 3249; or Denise Willis at denisewillis50@gmail.com or 02 6687 1724.

Arts round-up...

>> ADFAS

Gatya Kelly at Tweed Regional Gallery Luscious is a collection of new work by Mullumbimby-based artist Gatya Kelly. The exhibition features dramatic chiaroscuro stilllife paintings that explore our primitive sensual responses to succulent visual imagery. Through an almost alchemical distillation of strong light and contained composition, the paintings illuminate the delicate and sometimes erotic nature of the ordinary to create their own calm, mysterious narrative. Exotic fruit and flowers such as pomegranates, figs, cherries, gardenias and magnolias are married with dry native foliage and decorative vessels. The scale of objects is exaggerated to reflect Kelly’s personal, minutely observed viewpoint so that small things such as petals and seeds are magnified to reveal their jewellike qualities of transparent and reflective beauty.

Luscious runs from Friday January 15 to February 28 at Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah. www.artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au

Cat Power comes to Lismore Cat Power’s latest Australian tour sees her performing an intimate series of shows in theatres, with Lismore’s Star Court Theatre, somewhat surprisingly, being her final stop. The muchadmired singer-songwriter has not released an album since 2012’s Sun, with the forty-three-yearold American expected to return to the studio following her Australian tour. The Lismore show will see her completely solo, backed only by guitar and piano.

Cat Power performs at Lismore Star Court Theatre on February 13. For more information including ticket prices visit www.starcourttheatre.com.au

Byron welcomes Miller-Heidke Also visiting the region in February is the acclaimed Brisbane-born singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke, who appears at Byron Theatre on February 11. Her latest record was 2014’s O Vertigo!, while last year she penned an opera based on John Marsden’s children’s book The Rabbits, which was performed at Perth Festival in February 2015 (material from the opera may be performed at the Byron show). She was also seen on the ABC in December, making her acting debut in the series The Divorce.

Kate Miller-Heidke performs at Byron Theatre on February 11.

For more information including ticket prices visit www.byroncentre.com.au.

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>> FEATURE

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST: LOVE AND LOSS IN MEMOIR For local writer Jan Mulcahy, the process of composing a memoir was an act of cathartic self-examination and the painful confrontation of family dynamics, yet making sure to balance this with wit and a light touch to ensure that Running in Stilettos with a Double Bass: Memoir of a Young Musician is as entertaining a read as possible. Here she offers a preview of her life story, and details its long road to book form.

Writing a memoir takes a long time and like a good wine it has to mature. It needs to sit for months or even years before it is ready to be tasted. The first tastings are usually shared with family or close friends and the criticism often concerns conflicting beliefs about the characters or times when events took place. The next exposure is to a writers’ group or trusted friends. You rewrite, sharpen the focus on the main threads and weave a tighter fabric.

Content is important. You have to write something meaningful that grips the attention of the reader and keeps it. If the memoir gets bogged down with too many complications that your average reader cannot fathom, you will find writing a lonely pursuit. An even worse fate for a writer is getting blocked. This is when you look for a mentor or better still a good editor – one that is busy and puts you on a waiting list is your best bet. A professional editor may cost quite a lot, but they will notice what has to be chopped out or rewritten until the book slowly becomes worthy of publication. The truth about writing, and others have said it, is that love is blind. You cannot see your own mistakes or weak expressions because you are in love with what you write. You are too close to it.

On the subject of distancing yourself from your writing, leaving it for a period of time will help to get a different perspective on it. Some writers only need to let it sit overnight, others need several days or weeks, but nearly every serious writer allows the brewing process to do its work.

If your memoir is worthy it will contain serious, interesting, even painful passages. So to negotiate them I have used the device of including something quirky or humorous to save it from getting too heavy. I also use the device of giving little tasters or hints of dramas ahead.

My memoir is written in a simple, immediate style in first person with a lot of dialogue, but mainly showing rather than telling. I favour long flowing sentences but have also

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>> FEATURE

crafted the drama using short sentences to create tension and suspense where that is needed. I have a personal dislike of writers who use short, choppy sentences as their usual mode of expression. Flexibility is the key here.

I have avoided long descriptions and unfamiliar words.

Who needs a book that requires a dictionary, especially if you are on a train or plane? Nor have I included endnotes, an index or references for research. I have relied heavily on my memory and past concert programs, old letters and journals and have used my family history research extensively.

My memoir started off as a story for my family after I wrote a long eulogy for my mother. She was almost ninety when she passed away in 2001. After the funeral the family asked for more and I set about researching the family history and self-published Other Than English in 2006. It was meticulously edited by Noeline Kyle. Hooked on writing, after this publication I continued writing about my unusual childhood and classical music career.

I was thirty-two when I first met a psychiatrist. He sat behind his huge desk and asked me “Was your childhood happy?” I answered without hesitation. “Oh yes, but… ” “Ah,” he said, “let us have a look at those reservations eh?”

I was suffering from depression and migraine headaches and unable to get out of bed most mornings. I was blocked. I had written poetry and long letters home from London in my twenties; now at thirty-two, writing was limited to shopping lists.

During the next few years I visited the doctor on a regular basis as the happy childhood with its terrible secrets unravelled and the truthful content spilled forth to reveal why I felt so trapped and unhappy.

There was a creative part of me that screamed to be heard, screamed to be seen and be taken seriously.

I wanted to be respected and given a chance to work professionally in music. My mother had achieved her goal of musical expression through me and that was like a double-headed monster driving my ambition. My mother had made so many sacrifices to steer me in the direction of a music career and now I felt guilty because the ambition had stalled. I was also trying to succeed in a male-dominated profession.

After I had recovered my health and forged ahead with my music career, I read a lot and took up the pen again, journaling and writing poetry. The memoir is the result of many years of study, which included gaining a degree in social science in my fifties. All those assignments

were steps along the path to personal fulfilment. After the move to the Northern Rivers I met other poets who edited each other’s work. They ran workshops and performing poetry gave me an even deeper form of expression.

Often poetry is the condensed form for other broader genres. Like whiskey in the bottom of a glass, poetry came first with my writing and the memoir is the water needed to make the spirit palatable. Memoir draws out and shows the meaning of actions taken in haste. It highlights unknown ambitions and desires. But mainly it shares with the reader the truth of a particular situation, which may have been beyond the grasp of a little girl of nine or a teenager being led on to bigger ambitions. The memoir also completes unfinished business with parents and siblings who were affected by the traumas of wartime poverty and the mental illness of a beloved mother who returned to the family after the birth of her last child like a stranger. A sick parent who we still loved desperately and hoped would become normal.

Her recovery took a long time and we all learned to adapt when it became clear she would never become normal. She was eccentric to the end. The device of the author including absurd experiences that make the reader laugh out loud is worth mentioning here.

My memoir is dedicated to my first husband, a twentyone-year old violinist, and to my parents because their story is as important as my story. The themes of love and music run through the narrative from the beginning, but the strongest theme is overcoming loss. Love, marriage and death are usually experienced over many years.

When they are experienced within the time frame of less than a month the shock causes repercussions that reverberate for a lifetime. So there are strong themes in my memoir: wartime rural poverty, mental illness, child sexual abuse, domestic violence and untimely death.

However, I believe that families who share stories and play music together, or play sport or perform for each other in some sense, have a richer experience of life and are mentally and emotionally healthier and happier than those who don’t.

Running in Stilettos with a Double Bass: Memoir of a Young Musician is published by Boolarong Press.

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>>BOOK REVIEW

STATE OF FEAR

HARRY MAC

By RUSSELL ELDRIDGE Review by Kathleen Steele

Harry Mac takes the reader to a time of political upheaval in South Africa when the young Nelson Mandela was wanted by the law, and freedom of speech was a dangerous activity. The story is told by Tom, the youngest son of English newspaper editor, Harry Mac. It becomes evident that the idyllic life Tom has enjoyed in the lane where the family lives is fast coming to an end with the landslide victory of the National Party. Tom begins to notice strange goingson in the lane: black cars driving slowly by in the night and adults discussing political crimes in whispers.

Harry tries to reach out to the masses through newspaper editorials on the dangers of a state intent on bending its citizens to its purpose, but he despairs that his words make no difference. Tom admires his father’s outspoken, larger-than-life character, but also fears for his safety. He wants to share his worries with his best friend and neighbour, Millie, but she has her own secrets to protect.

Tom’s coming of age is deftly managed. The world he thought he recognised and understood shifts inexorably as he matures. When Millie’s father, Sol, speaks to Tom about his experiences in the camps in Germany, he realises there are hidden depths to the adult world. When Tom’s mother retreats into depression as a result of believing his older brother had been killed in the military, and his father drinks and sulks on the verandah, he is confronted with a new understanding: his parents are imperfect and vulnerable, and he loves them both dearly.

Eldridge’s journalistic background shines through in this novel, both in the content and the unembellished prose. From the first sentence, “When dad got tense he smelt like a rhino, a big suffocating smell you wanted to get away from”, the reader is immersed in Tom’s awakening to a new reality in his world – a South Africa where the majority silently acquiesce to political oppression; where Mandela and his supporters are forced underground; where people disappear in the

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night and borders offer scant protection from a regime determined to hunt down and kill dissenters in the name of national peace and security.

The novel is an eye-opener for readers who have never visited South Africa. International debate and condemnation around apartheid have tended to focus on Afrikaaners versus Native Africans, so it is easy for outsiders to forget that South Africa is a multicultural nation. As the novel unfolds, the tightening laws effectively marginalise many groups and are used to push Indian, Asian, Jewish and English inhabitants out of positions of power and influence.

I have one minor quibble with Harry Mac, and it relates to Harry. I am not talking about the way he is presented: Harry is a multi-dimensional character – bombastic, opinionated, downright rude and prone to violence, but also very likeable, intelligent and passionate. My issue is with his behaviour. My belief was stretched at times by the trouble he causes and the people he continues to openly defy. I couldn’t help wondering why he was left alone by such a ruthless regime when he was warned to stop, and other people were ‘disappearing’ for much less.

Harry Mac is an enjoyable read, but it is also a reminder that political scaremongering is used to quell national debate; that quietly accepting the disappearance of liberties, of the right to speak, and of people, cannot happen without the tacit consent of the majority. These concerns are universal, especially in a politically overheated climate of terror, where laws are rushed through to protect the masses, and reprisals are swift and often poorly thought out.

Mixing a great story and timely observations on the human condition is not easy – one often suffers for the other, but Eldridge’s debut is proof that it can be done, and done well.

Allen & Unwin / 304pp / RRP $29.99

WORKSHOPS

>> WORKSHOPS

Start your free Wordpress blog today Do you have something to say? Blogging is a great way to share stories, connect with community, be of service and sell products. Wordpress is the platform chosen by thousands – and thousands - of bloggers and businesses.

In this practical workshop we will show you how to set up a FREE blog from scratch on the Wordpress.com platform. You will learn everything you need to get started in the world of blogging, including how to:

A Winning Submission You have been working away at your brilliant manuscript and now feel it is ready to share with the world. This half-day workshop will give you strategies for writing a distinctive submission that will get your work noticed by agents, publishers, competition judges, and residencies such as Varuna and NRWC Residential Mentorship. Through a combination of discussion, class work and feedback we will focus on: • Developing a professional approach to submitting manuscripts • Identifying what makes your work distinctive • Tagline • Synopsis • Cover letter Suitable for writers of fiction or narrative non-fiction.

Bring your synopsis to the workshop.

Marele Day is the award-winning author of crime novels as well as internationally acclaimed Lambs of God, Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain’s Wife, and The Sea Bed. She has served as judge for literary competitions including Vogel Award and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. A highly experienced teacher, Marele is mentor for the NRWC Residential Mentorship.

Presenter: Marele Day When: Saturday February 13, 10am-1pm Where: Byron Community College, 107 Jonson St, Byron Bay (Across the road from Woolworths carpark) Cost: $45 NRWC Members or $55 non-members

• Discover your blogging niche/expertise/focus • Set up your account on Wordpress.com • Style your blog with themes and widgets • Create and edit blog post entries • Select and add images, videos and links • Organise your blog with tabs and categories • Carry out advanced keyword research • Write great posts with tried and tested headlines proven to attract an audience • Create copy and content that’s search engine friendly • Publicise your blog, including on social media • Schedule posts to publish at the most effective times We’ll also cover how to connect with the blogging community, why you might want to upgrade to a custom URL and whether Wordpress.com or the more advanced Wordpress.org is ultimately right for you.

Finola will provide plenty of free resources, tips and tricks of the trade and will take you step-by-step through the process of setting up your blog, building your blogging community and hitting ‘Publish’ on your first post.

Working (and teaching) in media, marketing and communications for over a decade, Finola has been blogging for pleasure and business since 2010. She sets up websites and blogs for businesses, ghost writes for various company blogs and also publishes travel stories at travelola.org. Connect with her on Twitter @finolatravelola or at www.kaboomedia.com.au.

Presenter: Finola Wennekes When: Saturday, April 2, 10am-4pm Where: Byron Community College, 107 Jonson St, Byron Bay (Across the road from Woolworths carpark) Cost: $100 NRWC Members or $120 non-members

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COMPETITIONS

BANJO PATERSON AUSTRALIAN POETRY COMPETITION 2016 This competition is open to all poets to recite their original poetry on Saturday, February 20, 2016 as a signature event during the Banjo Paterson Australian Poetry Festival in Orange, NSW. There are four classes for entrants: Open (individual contestants); Novice (individual contestants who have not won first prize in a poetry recital competition); Junior (for individual contestants of sixteen years and under) and Group (for groups of two or more contestant performing together). Prizes range from $50 to $600, and entry fees apply. For more information visit www. rotarycluboforange.org.au.

THE HOPE PRIZE This new national short story competition, organised by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, encourages Australian writers to tackle a subject that is all too often hidden from public view or reduced to clichés. The short story entered can be fiction or fact.

Whatever the genre, the story submitted must convey the experience of people facing hardship in their lives. Stories should be between 2,000 and 5,000 words, with a deadline of January 31. Judges are Cate Blanchett, Kate Grenville and Quentin Bryce. For more information visit www.bsl. org.au/about-the-brotherhood/the-hopeprize

2016 CARNIVAL OF FLOWERS ONE-ACT PLAYWRITING COMPETITION Aspiring and experienced playwrights are invited to submit unpublished one-act play scripts to the fourth annual Carnival of Flowers Toowoomba Repertory Theatre

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One-Act Play Writing Competition. Plays must be thirty-to-forty-minute productions.

The winning plays will be performed during the 2016 Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers for a five-night season. First prize is $3,000 with the deadline for entries January 31. $30 entry fee applies, for more information visit www.toowoombarepertorytheatre.com.au

EJ BRADY SHORT STORY COMPETITION Stories of up to 2,500 words are invited for the ‘Mallacoota Prize’ ($2,000 for first prize, $12 entry fee) in the EJ Brady Short Story Competition. There is also the ‘Gabo Prize’ ($300 for first prize, $8 entry fee) for stories of less of no more than 700 words. Visit www.artsmallacoota.org for further details.

Entries close February 28.

WB YEATS POETRY PRIZE The WB Yeats Poetry Prize is open to residents of Australia for previously unpublished poems. There is a limit of fifty lines for each poem and an initial entry fee of $8.50. First prize is $500, and deadline for entries is March 31. Go to www.wbyeatspoetryprize.com for more information.

SCARLETT AWARD The Scarlett Award offers the opportunity to enter reviews about sculpture exhibitions or public art installations, whether solo, group, or a major event internationally or within Australia. All reviews will be judged in the period leading up to Lorne Sculpture Biennale 2016 with a cash award of $3,000 being presented to the best written and most engaging review at the LSB 2016 opening, March 12, 2016. There is no entry fee and pieces should be between 500 and

2,000 words. Deadline is January 31. www. lornesculpture.com/the-scarlett-award.php

THE TEXT PRIZE FOR YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S WRITING The $10,000 Text Prize aims to discover new books for young adults and children

by Australian and New Zealand writers.

Awarded annually to the best manuscript written for young readers, the prize has unearthed extraordinary, multi-awardwinning books and launched international publishing careers. Published and unpublished writers of all ages are eligible to enter with works of fiction or non-fiction.

The winner receives a publishing contract with Text and a $10,000 advance against royalties. Submissions open on February 1 and end on March 4 – for further details visit www.textpublishing.com.au/text-prize

2016 NEWCASTLE SHORT STORY AWARD Australian residents are invited to submit stories of up to 2,000 words to the Newcastle Short Story Award. Entry fee is $15, with a first prize of $2,000 and second prize $1,000.

There will also be smaller commendation and local prizes, and the best thirty stories will be published in our 2016 anthology.

Judges are Michael Sala and Glenys Osborne.

Deadline for entries is January 31, for more information go to www.hunterwriterscentre. org/short-story-award.html

GRIFFITH REVIEW 54: THE NOVELLA PROJECT IV COMPETITION Submissions are now open for Griffith Review’s The Novella Project IV competition.

Winning novellas will share in a $25,000 prize pool and will be published in Griffith

>> COMPETITIONS

Review 54: The Novella Project IV (October 2016). Submissions close on May 13, with a maximum word-count of 35,000. There is a $50 entry fee for Griffith Review nonsubscribers, and $35 for subscribers. For full details visit www.griffithreview.submittable. com/submit/48310

ABR ELIZABETH JOLLEY SHORT STORY PRIZE Entries are open for the 2016 Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. The 2016 Jolley Prize is worth a total of $12,500, with a first prize of $7,000 and supplementary prizes of $2,000 and $1,000. The judges will also commend three additional stories, the authors of which will each receive $850. Entries must be a singleauthored short story of between 2,000 and 5,000 words, written in English. Stories must not have been previously published or be on offer to other prizes or publications for the duration of the Jolley Prize. Entries close on April 11. Entry is $15 for ABR subscribers and $15 for non-subscribers. More details at www.australianbookreview.com.au/prizes/ elizabeth-jolley-story-prize/current-jolley

NAKATA BROPHY SHORT FICTION AND POETRY PRIZE FOR YOUNG INDIGENOUS WRITERS This prize, now in its third year, recognises the talent of young Indigenous writers across Australia. This year, the prize will be awarded to the best poem (up to 88 lines) by an Indigenous writer who is thirty years or younger at the closing date of the competition.

The prize is $5,000, publication in Overland’s print magazine, and a three-month writer’s residency at the beautiful Trinity College, the oldest student residence at the University of Melbourne. Two runner-up prizes may also be awarded. Deadline is January 31, for more

information visit www.overland.org.au/prizes/ nakata-brophy-short-fiction-and-poetry-prizefor-young-indigenous-writers

THE NORMAN MCVICKER AWARD Young people up to twenty-two-years-old are invited to submit their original literary work such as stories and poems. The scope of the work may contribute toward Australian literature or have Australiana contents such as life, aspirations, vision, current affairs, the bush, and so forth, but this is not a prerequisite. The work of Henry Lawson and others may provide guidelines but not limited to the style. Invention of new style, creativity or breaking the old boundaries are also key aspects of the award.

Total prize money $2,200; short stories are up to 2,000 words and poetry to 100 lines.

More details at www.mudgeevalleywriters. wordpress.com/competition

FOREST FELLOWSHIP OF AUSTRALIAN WRITERS SHORT STORY COMPETITION Entries to this short story competition should be original, unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. Theme is open, with a maximum word-count of 2,000. First prize is $200, second prize $100.

Entry fee is $5, and submissions should be posted. See http://fawnsw.org.au/forestfellowship-of-australian-writers-short-storycompetition

1000 WORDS OR LESS FLASH FICTION COMPETITION This inaugural competition is open to writers in Australia and overseas. The competition has cash awards for winning entries and printed and e-book publication for up to fifty selected entries. First prize is

$1,000. There are additional cash prizes of $100 for up to five other entries. Entry fee is $15 AUD. Competition closes January 31, for more information visit www.1000wordsor-less.com.au

AICON 2016 FAN FICTION COMPETITION This competition for fan fiction will award prizes in three categories: Best Overall, Most Creative and Most Innovative. Up to two submissions are allowed per person, with each entry up to eight pages long. Works must be centred around a fandom, but original characters are allowed, as are crossovers between fandoms. Multiple forms and styles are permitted, with a closing date for submissions of March 15. For guidelines and requirements, visit www.aicon.org.au/fanfiction-competition

QUESTIONS WRITING PRIZE 2016 The Questions Writing Prize 2016 recognises and rewards talented writers aged between eighteen and thirty. Submissions can be fiction or non-fiction and be on any topic, and should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Prize money of $2,000 is available, with the winning entry published in a book and in Questions journal. For more information visit www.questions.com.au/ writing-prize/index.php

MULGA BILL WRITING AWARD The Mulga Bill Writing Award features three categories: short story, bush verse and poetry.

Prizes range between $200 and $600. There is an open theme but the word ‘Eaglehawk’ must appear in bold in all entries; entry fee of $5 applies. Submissions close on February 16, for further entry requirements visit www.eaglehawkfestival.org.au.

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>> WRITERS’ GROUPS

>> Alstonville Plateau Writers Group

>> Dorrigo Writers Group

>> Ballina/Byron U3A Creative Writing

>> Dunoon Writers Group

Meets second Friday of each month, 10am – 12pm. All genres welcome, contact Christine 66288364 or Kerry 66285662 Meets every second Wednesday at 12pm, Fripp Oval, Ballina. Contact Jan on 0404007586 or janmulcahy@ bigpond.com

>> Ballina Creative Writers

Meets every second Wednesday from 10am-2pm.

Contact Iris on 66575274 or email an_lomall@bigpond. com or contact Nell on 66574089 Writers on the Block. Meets second Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm – 8:30pm at Dunoon Sports Club.

Contact Helga on 66202994 (W), 0401405178 (M) or email heg.j@telstra.com

Workshops meet third Thursday of each month at 10am -12:20pm at Richmond Hill. Focus is on personal development and spirituality. Contact 0404007586 or janmulcahy@bigpond.com

>> Federal Writers’ Group

>> Bangalow Writers Group

>> FAW Port Macquarie-Hastings Regional

Meets Thursdays at 9:15am at Bangalow Scout Hall.

Contact Simone on 0407749288

>> Bellingen Writers Group

Meets at Bellingen Golf Club on the fourth Monday of the month at 2pm. All welcome, contact Joanne on 6655 9246 or email jothirsk@restnet.com.au

>> Byron Bay Fiction Writing Group

Meets monthly at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay. Contact Diana on 0420282938 or diana.burstall@gmail.com

>> Casino Writers Group

Meets every third Thursday of the month at 4pm at Casino Library. Contact Brian on 0266282636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com

>> Cloudcatchers

For Haiku enthusiasts. A ginko (haiku walk) is undertaken according to group agreement. Contact Quendryth on 66533256 or email quendrythyoung@ bigpond.com

>> Coffs Harbour Writers Group

Meets 1st Wednesday of the month 10.30am to 12.30pm. Contact Lorraine Penn on 66533256 or 0404163136, email: lmproject@bigpond.com. www. coffsharbourwriters.com

>> Coffs Harbour Memoir Writers Group

Share your memoir writing for critique. Monthly meetings, contact 0409824803 or email costalmermaid@ gmail.com

>> Cru3a River Poets

Meets every Thursday at 10:30am, venue varies, mainly in Yamba. Contact Pauline on 66458715 or email kitesway@westnet.com.au

>> Dangerously Poetic Writing Circle

Meets second Wednesday or each month, 2pm-4pm at Brunswick Valley Community Centre. Contact Laura on 66801976 or visit www.dangerouslypoetic.com 024 | northerly

Meets first Saturday of each month at 1.30pm at Federal. Contact Susanna Freymark on 6688 4457 or susannafreymark@gmail.com Meets 1pm on last Saturday of each month, Maritime Museum, Port Macquarie. Contact Joie on 65843520 or email Bessie on befrank@tsn.cc

>> Gold Coast Writers Association

Meets third Saturday of each month, 1:30pm for 2pm start, at Fradgley Hall, Burleigh Heads Library, Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads. Contact 0431443385 or email info@goldcoast-writers.org.au

>> Kyogle Writers

Meets first Tuesday of each month, 10:30am at Kyogle Bowling Club. Contact Brian on 66242636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com

>> Memoir Writing Group

Meets each month at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay. Contact Diana on 66855387 or 0420282938 or email diana. burstall@gmail.com

>> Nambucca Valley Writers Group

Meets fourth Saturday of each month, 1:30pm, Nambucca. Contact 65689648 or nambuccawriters@ gmail.com

>> Poets and Writers on the Tweed

Meets weekly at Tweed Heads Library, Tuesdays 1:30pm – 3pm. Poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers all welcome. Fun group meets for discussion, support and constructive criticism. Free membership. Phone Lorraine 0755909395

>> Taree-Manning River Scribblers

Meets second Wednesday of the month, 9am-11:30am, Taree. Call first to check venue. Contact Bob Winston on 65532829 or email rrw1939@hotmail.com

>> WordsFlow Writing

Group meets Fridays during school term, 12:30pm-3pm, Pottsville Beach Neighbourhood Centre, 12a Elizabeth St, Pottsville Beach. Contact Cheryl on 0412455707 or visit www.wordsflowwriters.blogspot.com

The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre offers a wide and varied range of literary activities, special interest workshops and reading programs on all aspects of writing as well as the annual Byron Bay Writers Festival. Membership of the Northern Rivers Writers Centre is open to all individuals, non-profit organisations and corporations whose interests are in accordance with the objectives of the Centre.

Most of our members reside in the NSW Northern Rivers, but membership is open to all.

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY INDIVIDUAL

For individual writers, readers and anyone interested in literature and the arts.

Concession rates are available for concession cardholders and students with valid ID. $60 adult $50 pensioner concession $40 student concession

FAMILY

Family membership represents extraordinary value and is available for two adults and up to three children under 18 years from the same family.

The family receives one issue of northerly per edition and multiple discounts for workshops and festival tickets.

Postal Address _________________________________________________________ Male Female 7-16 17-30 31-45 46-64 65+ I identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander I am from a non-English speaking background I do not want my details passed onto other arts organisations I am interested in volunteering at Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre I am interested in volunteering at Byron Bay Writers Festival

MEMBERSHIP CHOICE $60 Individual $50 Concession (Govt Pension cards only) CRN# $40 Student (requires ID) $90 Family $120 Organisation Eco Option: Enjoy all the usual NRWC benefits, but opt to receive your copy of northerly electronically (rather than a print copy), help care for the planet AND receive a $10 membership discount.

PAYMENT DETAILS Total Amount Payable $_______ Payment Method Cheque* Cash Mastercard Visa Card no. __________________________________ Expiry date ________/_________ Name on card _________________________ Signature ________________________ Send completed form and payment to: PO Box 1846, Byron Bay NSW 2481 *Please make cheques payable to Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre

For businesses, writers groups and arts organisations.

Each organisation receives five issues of northerly and reduced admission prices for five members per project or workshop. $120

$90

Organisation Name (if applicable) __________________________________________ First Name ______________________ Surname ______________________________ Phone ____________________________ Mobile _____________________________

Are you: Age:

ORGANISATION

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS • northerly magazine posted every two months

• Access to resources and services from the Centre and guidance from Centre staff • Discounts on workshops, seminars, and Byron Bay Writers Festival tickets, as well as priority copy of Festival program and invitation to program launch • Access to a year-round mentorship program with industry professionals and the opportunity to apply to the annual Residential Membership • Borrowing rights to the Centre library and access to reference materials, wi-fi and reading area • Voting rights at AGM • Discounts at nominated local businesses and subscriber rates to NORPA shows All memberships are valid from date of payment through to February of the following year.

JOIN ONLINE AT WWW.NRWC.ORG.AU OR CALL 02 6685 5115 FOR MORE INFORMATION