Northerly May-June

in this issue ...

02

Noticeboard

03

A word from the Director

04

Festival of Golden Words

Russell Eldridge 05

Julian Burnside

06

On getting published

Sheryl Gwyther

07

My first NRWC workshops

Monique Hartman

08

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation

Karen Williams 10

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 non-profit, incorporated organisation receiving its core funding from Arts NSW. LOCATION Level 1 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 1846 Byron Bay NSW 2481 PHONE 02 6685 5115 FAX 02 6685 5166 EMAIL info@nrwc.org.au WEB www.nrwc.org.au

The Sud

NRWC COMMITTEE Carl Cleves CHAIRPERSON Chris Hanley VICE CHAIRPERSON Lynda Dean 11 Writers’ groups SECRETARY Russell Eldridge Helen Burns TREASURER Cheryl Bourne MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Fay Burstin, 12 Writing Jack’s war Marele Day, Lynda Hawryluk, Anneli Knight, Maria Simms Cathy Tobin, Adam van Kempen LIFE MEMBERS: Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin, 13 Salt Breezes Gayle Cue, Robert Drewe, Jill Eddington, Chris Hanley, Poetry from Byron and beyond John Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Irene O’Brien, Jennifer Regan, Cherrie Sheldrick, Heather Wearne 14 Book publishing options

Euan Mitchell 15 Breathe Polly Jude 16

SCU page

17

Book review

Mike Snee 18

Kids’ page

Tristan Bancks & Raph Atkins 19

From the reading chair

Sarah Armstrong

20

Keeping the memories alive

Sharon Dean 22

Workshops, Opportunities & Competitions

24

Writers’ groups and member discounts

CONTACT EMAIL: northerly@nrwc.org.au PRINTING: Quality Plus Printers Ballina MAIL OUT DATES: Magazines are sent in JANUARY, MARCH, MAY, JULY, SEPTEMBER and NOVEMBER 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.

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.

Cover: photo courtesy of Indigenous Literay Foundation

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 3

Noticeboard Barbara Toner visit We are extremely pleased to be able to offer a unique opportunity to have someone of Barbara’s calibre in our midst in October this year.

Barbara Toner is a journalist and the acclaimed author of twelve published books both fiction and nonfiction. She has used the strategy she teaches on all of them.

The workshop will be for fiction and narrative non-fiction work and held over two days. Over these two days she will guide you through her own tried and tested techniques for converting the germ of an idea into the book you’re imagining If you have no clear idea of what your story is, she will help you develop it and each person leaves with a very clear idea of what their book is and how they might write it. If you have started writing Barbra will work through any areas you require further assistance.

Because she aims to hold your book in her head for the entire two days, the workshop can accommodate no more than eight participants. NRWC will be taking reservations for Barbra’s workshop as we expect to be oversubscribed for this wonderful opportunity.

Please call Penny on 02 6685 5115 to reserve a space.

Cost: $220-250 Workshop Dates: Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th October, 10am-4pm

2014 Residential Mentorship participants announced Four emerging writers have been selected to spend an intensive week under the mentorship of novelist Marele Day. The mentorship is one of the key programs of the Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre. The judges said that the field was very strong this year and congratulated the finalists for the quality of their work. The writers will spend the 5-9 May at Byron Bay Farmstay fine tuning their work.

This year’s mentees and their manuscripts are: Zacharey Jane THE PATCHWORK MAN Diana Jarman OLLIE AND POMPEYTWO Polly Jude BREATHE Susan Reynolds THE ART OF RED MUD

The Susie Warwick Young Writers Award The Susie Warrick Young Writers Award is a short story competition for our local young writers aged between 16 and 25 years is now open.

The competition is generously sponsored by Byron and Districts ADFAS and the Bangalow Lions, and is open to all residents of the Northern Rivers area (from Tweed Heads in the north, to Taree in the south, and west to Kyogle).

The first prize is $1,000 to go towards skills development and furthering the winner’s writing career, as well as a three day BBWF pass, inclusion in the BBWF program, and publication of the winning story in northerly, the bi-monthly magazine of the NRWC. 4Stories - northerly magazine | may june 2014 must be up to– 1,000 words long. The competition closes on Tuesday, 1 July. The application form can be downloaded the NRWC website: www.nrwc.org.au

Words from Penny’s Desk I’d like to congratulate the winners of the Residential Mentorship:- Polly Jude , Diana Jarman, Susan Reynolds and Zacharey Jane and wish them a productive week of writing and working with Marele Day. The recent workshops have been a resounding success (thanks to Lisa Walker for arranging the fabulous presenters) and the Festival planning is well underway.

Applications for our popular Pitch Perfect and the Young Writers Award Competitions are now open and the details are on the NRWC website.

The annual call-out for our wonderful Festival volunteers will open on Monday, 5 May. The online application forms are available on the BBWF website.

The Writing Hour is happening and we’d love members to join us on Wednesday’s at 10am in the NRWC Office. Make a commitment to yourself and spend an uninterrupted hour focussed on your writing. Please contact me if you’d like to book in.

Penny Leonard penny@nrwc.org.au Writer Development Manager In the office Wednesday and Thursday

A word (well several) from the Director

Dear members,

Here in the NRWC office we’re all enjoying our last swims before the full weight of autumn settles on the hills of Byron. It’s the perfect weather for taking to your bed or couch with a book or two – feel free to come in and borrow some from our burgeoning and newly ordered library shelves.

The creeping cold coincides with the warming announcement of our early bird tickets for the Festival. By now you might have read that some 2014 Festival highlights include Mem Fox, Malcolm Fraser, Poe Ballantine with Richard Fidler, Bob Brown and Tim Flannery. So don’t forget to buy your tickets and join in the mind-expanding journey that awaits in August.

We are particularly excited about US author Poe Ballantine’s visit – this is the first time he has left the USA and his latest book, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, part memoir, part true crime, is a compelling story. I love this quote about his writing from Tom Robbins: ‘Mark Twain would have admired his wit, and had Oscar Wilde read him, he would have bought an old Ford pickup and moved to Nebraska the

day he got out of the slammer, hoping that some of his style rubbed off on him.’

Please mark 6 June in your diary when the full Festival guest list and program including more than 100 writers will be announced.

Before Easter, Sarah and Penny and I took a NRWC road trip to Lismore to check out venues at SCU and City Hall – we were delighted by the vibrant community and fabulous spaces. I’m looking forward to seeing a NORPA production soon. The forthcoming LAKE looks quite stunning.

This is how Artistic Director of NORPA, Julian Louis describes it: ‘Lake reflects on the journey of a relationship, tracing its path from sparkling reflection to murky depths; from intense beauty to chilling isolation, to utter wilderness.

Lake merges contemporary dance, video and sound in this major new Australian dance theatre work by acclaimed choreographer Lisa Wilson.’ How lucky are we to have access to such a rich and exciting cultural program across genres throughout the Northern Rivers region.

In the last edition of northerly, I mentioned our ‘Five writers, five towns, in five days’ tour planned for late July and I’m thrilled to be able to tell you that

the five writers are Ashley Hay, Melissa Lucashenko (both recently Miles Franklin long-listed), Zacharey Jane, Matt Condon and Nick Earls. They will be accompanied by blogger extraordinaire Angela Meyer and budding film-maker Tim Eddy. The towns they will cover include Tweed Heads, Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Grafton and Lennox Head. We’ll post more details on our website as they are confirmed. We hope you’ll come out in droves to show your support for this travelling literary roadshow.

On that note... happy reading until next time.

Edwina Johnson

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 5

Festival

of Golden Words

Beaconsfield, March 14-16

by Russell Eldridge

Y

ou know what it felt like? Like the first Byron Bay Writers Festival; when we didn’t know if anyone would turn up; whether the 50 Australian writers we’d convinced to attend would be talking to rows of empty chairs and the slow click of the ceiling fans in the little lakehouse.

But back in 1997 we filled those chairs, the lakehouse rocked, and the writers and crowds have kept coming back for more.

And that’s how it happened in March this year at Beaconsfield, Tasmania, at the inaugural Festival of Golden Words.

They filled the tents, and the writers and punters clamoured for more.

Hang on a sec - Beaconsfield? Isn’t that where the...

Yes, that’s where the rock fall eight years ago killed a gold miner and trapped two others underground for three weeks while Australia held its collective breath.

Beaconsfield also happens to be the home town of internationally acclaimed Australian writer Stephen-Dando Collins.

Stephen has twice been a guest at the Byron fest and enjoyed himself so much he paid it the ultimate compliment of modelling a new festival on the Byron event.

He doesn’t ask much, Stephen. “Oh, just six sessions,” he said on the phone.

“You’ll do just six sessions”.

Six in two days. I’d just returned from overseas and had, like, 20 books to read and six conversations to prepare in a month and a half. Nice.

Fortunately, the writers were lightweights - just a Vogel winner (Rohan Wilson and The Roving Party), an international best-selling sensation

(Hannah Kent and her Burial Rites), an official National Treasure (Julian Burnside), a national broadcaster (Richard Fidler), assorted professors, best-sellers and so on. You get the drift.

The festival was held in two marquees in the mainstreet carpark of the community hall. Writers were housed in a curious but comfortable gingerbread-house fantasy called Grindelwald Resort, and bussed each day into Beaconsfield along the highway that winds alongside the dreamy reaches of the Tamar River.

Half an hour before the first session on Saturday there wasn’t much action around the marquees. A few beardies on bicycles stopped and squinted suspiciously at the white tents, and most of Beaconsfield went quietly about its business. But within minutes the punters came flooding down from the cafes where they’d been fuelling up, and by 9am the tents were full. And they stayed that way both days until the cool Tasmanian autumn evening crept in.

The 80 writers delivered: Wendy Harmer shrieking like a happy harpy and carrying the crowds along. Nick Earls doing similar: If you want a festival to work, invite Nick Earls and just ask him to say “good morning”. It’s the Billy Connolly effect; once he’s told one story, all he has to do is open his mouth and they’re rolling in the aisles.

But there were tears and silences, too.

Steve Bisley’s short reading from Stillways, Alex Miller quietly discussing Coal Creek and the journey of Australia’s indigenous peoples, Sally Dingo’s heartbreaking family portrait (Unsung, Ordinary Men) of two generations shattered by war, Henry Reynolds and Rohan Wilson on

the Tasmanian genocide, and Hannah Kent’s absorbing account of how she came to write about the last woman to be executed in Iceland.

Sometimes laughter and tears mingled, as when comedian Fiona O’Loughlin talked about her brutally unsparing memoir, Me of the Never Never.

School children and young adults were catered for with two separate days of programming and workshops, featuring the likes of Andy Griffiths, Sherryl Clark and Byron’s own Tristan Bancks.

What was most heartening was the official and unofficial support Stephen Dando-Collins and his competent board received. You know you’ve got the local council on side when they send a team out early each day to clear the surrounding roads of Tasmania’s nightly roadkill horror.

The council was a major supporter of the festival and even appointed a staff member as an official liaison person.

Hellooo, Byron Shire Council? Hellooo?

And while we’re at it, hellooo NSW Government? The Tasmanian State Government was a major sponsor at Beaconsfield. Here’s a measure of their commitment: On the night before the most crucial State election in 16 years, Premier Lara Giddings, a woman walking the plank towards political oblivion, kept faith with her role as arts minister and drove out to Beaconsfield to address the opening.

By the end of the festival, Stephen Dando-Collins’ flamboyant signature cocked hat was still firmly in place, but his suit hung a little on his frame - he’d lost kilos steering this event to success, with the exquisite Louise at his side.

The committee and volunteers were no doubt happily exhausted, too, but the writers were on such a high that some were pledging their support to help make Beaconsfield’s Festival of Golden Words an annual event.

It could be the start of another good thing.

Russell Eldridge is a member of the Byron Bay Writers Festival committee and a regular festival chair.

Russell Eldrige (centre) introduces the panel on biography, Sally Dingo, Fiona O’Loughlin, Steve Bisley and Stephen Dando-Collins.

6 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

Julian Burnside AO QC N

ortherly: How do you marry the two branches of your legal specialities, commercial law and human rights?

Julian Burnside: The same way I can listen to the radio while making breakfast. Each occupies a different space in the head. n: Are there occasions where conflicts of interest present themselves, and if so how do you reconcile these conflicts?

JB: No more than is normal in legal practice. The resolution depends on the precise shape of the problem. n: What piqued your passion for the arts?

JB: I really don’t know. Maybe it’s in the DNA. From an early age most people recognise that there is something beyond the practical present which is interesting, challenging and worthwhile. For some it is religion (not for me); for some it is sport (not for me). By small degrees I discovered that Art was a world I wanted to inhabit: a greater and better realm than what surrounds us. Hiding from the world is hard; losing yourself in music is easy. n: There are two quotes that you utilise in your correspondence can you please explain why these resonate with you?

“Boys throw stones at frogs in sport, but the frogs do not die in sport, they die in earnest.”

Bion (Greek bucolic poet ~100 BC) “All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.”

-- Adlai E. Stevenson JB: I change the quotes every ten days or so. I choose them simply because they say something worthwhile or interesting or challenging or amusing.

I can’t explain why they resonate with me: I will leave that to the psychologists.

n: Clearly you believe that the government’s handling of the refugees is inhumane. Could you please explain your solution?

JB: I do not advocate an open borders policy. Initial detention for people who arrive without papers is reasonable. But it should be limited to one month, for preliminary health and security checks. After that, release them on interim visas with conditions which make sure they stay in contact with the Department; allow them to work or study; allow them access to Centrelink and Medicare benefits.

But require them to live in specified regional towns until their refugee status has been determined. There are plenty of country towns which are slowly shrinking as people leave. The National Farmers Federation estimates that there are 96,000 unfilled jobs in country areas, the likelihood is that many asylum seekers would get jobs.

But even if all of the asylum seekers who were required to live in country towns stayed on Centrelink benefits, they would spend those benefits on rent, food and clothing, to the benefit of the economy of the town where they lived.

If the arrival spike of 2012 became the new norm (highly unlikely) and if every one of them stayed on Centrelink benefits for the whole time of the refugee status determination (highly unlikely) it would cost us $500 million a year, of which would be spent in the economies of regional towns.

At present we spend $5 billion a year mistreating boat people. It makes no sense at all.

n: What is one thing that ordinary Australians can do to make a difference?

JB: Know what is going on and protest when you see that bad things are happening. n: What do being a “Living National Treasure” mean to you?

JB: Not being dead yet n: Can you tell us what’s on your bedside table?

JB: Words That Work (Frank Luntz); Further Fables for Our Time (James Thurber); The Devil’s Dictionary (Ambrose Bierce); +++ n: Your public and your private schedule must be intense, why does it matter to you to participate at writers’ festivals?

JB: Literature, as part of the arts generally, is profoundly important for the human spirit. One of my main preoccupations is to encourage the arts generally. Writers have a fairly tough time making a living; Writers Festivals help them; that’s good, and it’s worth encouraging.

n: Name one thing that gives you hope for the future?

JB: I retain hope for the future because Australia is much better than it is presently behaving. WE are behaving badly because the government has deceived the public for years, demonising boat people by lying about them. We have a Prime Minister and an Immigration Minister who lie to us about boat people and who, by their proclaimed Christian values, expose themselves as hypocrites. northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 7

On Getting Published

by Sheryl Gwyther

R

ecently I had the privilege of delivering a Getting Published workshop, on behalf of the Australian Society of Authors for the NRWC. It was a privilege because it’s a joy to connect with enthusiastic members of ‘the tribe’. Family and friends might support your writing passion, but other writers understand what it’s like facing mountains of hope and valleys of despair.

mouth is a great selector. Research publishers in Australia and overseas.

The internet is invaluable, and so is The Australian Writer’s Marketplace.

2.

Find out what publishers publish. Are they open for submissions?

Do they specialise? Are they a small,

Our Byron workshop participants, at different stages of writing, ages and genres, had something in common – eager to get their work in front of a publisher. And why not? What’s the point of writing unless others read your words?

Some say writing your novel/nonfiction book is the easy part; that publishing or finding an agent is much harder. I disagree – it’s not easy writing a great novel, article, poem, biography or non-fiction! But that doesn’t stop us trying, does it?

Those who don’t persevere with...

• First draft angst • Constant edits and re-writes • Submitting to publishers (maybe too early? Guilty, Your Honour) • Collecting enough rejection letters to fill a folder or paper a wall (it’s been done) ..... DON’T GET PUBLISHED. Rejection letters are your badge of honour. Remember, even well-published authors get them. Unfortunately, nowadays, all you’ll get from some publishers is a resounding silence. That can be disheartening. Look past your frustration. Gird your loins (and your love of storytelling) and get back in that proverbial saddle. You can ensure your submission is a perfect one: 1.

Join manuscript critique groups; organise Beta readers – honest, trusted writers who critique reciprocally.

Or even pay a professional editor who’s familiar with your genre to edit structurally etc. This can be expensive, requiring careful research – word of 8 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

independent publisher or a multinational? It makes a difference to their lists of published work. Hang out in bookshops – note the style/type of books.

Does your work fit a particular publisher?

3.

Follow submission details zealously. You want to ensure a commissioning editor reads your cover letter, synopsis and first three chapters (or whatever) of your manuscript. Most don’t want your whole manuscript, but there are exceptions. (Check out their websites). Find out how they feel about MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS. Most don’t mind – they understand how long it takes to read your submission.

As a courtesy, you should mention it’s a multiple submission in your cover letter.

4.

Follow up your submission.

Mention in your cover letter you’ll contact them by phone in six weeks to see if they’ve had the opportunity to read your submission. When you call, be professional, businesslike. All

you’re doing is checking on its progress.

5.

Build your ‘platform’ so publishers can see your writing profile.

Don’t worry if you’re not published, you can still have a simple website/ blogsite. Free ones are available on Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. Enter writing competitions, do professional development, join a Writers’ Centre, attend writing festivals. Join organisations, e.g. Australian Society of Authors, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Fellowship of Australian Writers. Writing is a rewarding career. To be honest, probably not monetary wealth, but it will provide a wealth of creative experience, great friends and maybe the pleasure of seeing your book ‘in the real’. Never, ever give up on your dream. Keep writing!

Sheryl Gwyther’s publications include novels, school plays and chapter books for children; Flash Fiction for adults. She’s a past Board Director for the Australian Society of Authors, and is an Assistant Regional Advisor for SCBWI Australia/New Zealand. Sheryl is available for author talks, writing workshops at schools, libraries and festivals. sherylgwyther@optusnet.com.au Website: http://sherylgwyther.net Sheryl’s 52-Week Flash Fiction Challenge: http://sherylgwytherflashfiction. blogspot.com.au/ Useful websites: Australian Writers Marketplace: http://www.awmonline.com.au/ Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators: http://australiaeastnz.scbwi.org/ Australian Society of Authors: https://asauthors.org/

Chic-lit, the screen, and beyond: My first NRWC workshops

by Monique Hartman

Left: Monique Hartman with Anita Heiss Above: Anita’s workshop group

I

am fortunate to have recently met Dr Anita Heiss, proud indigenous woman, author, and creator of Koori Chick-lit; and Graeme Simsion, renowned screen writer, producer, and director, through attending NRWC workshops.

In this busy and expensive world, where far too many aspiring writers are deprioritising their work with the very act of prioritising other things, I am guilty of flicking through the NRWC workshop guide thinking ‘I’d love that’ but allow other events to get in the way. So, when I finally had a Saturday free to attend a full-day workshop where I could learn from these venerable Australian writers, I could hardly believe my luck.

In an intimate, Iowa-esque classroom setting at the Byron Bay Community Centre in March, Anita shared the theoretical skills she applies to her work and generously endowed us with realworld examples from her best-selling works as examples. Never before have I experienced an educational session on writing where the facilitator has been so open or so encouraging of their ‘students’.

After repudiating the snobbery toward the ‘chick-lit’ genre, with the perfect master-in-command, we got down to the pragmatics of what it takes to flourish in the commercial writers’ industry. Anita snapped the whimsical hobbyist out of us all and had us writing with ambitious determination within ten minutes of the session’s commencement.

We were all nervous about sharing our impromptu prose with the strangers Photo: Cristina Smith

with whom we sat, but by the end of the six hour workshop, we had all read out our intimate imaginings and vivid interpretations of life, and enjoyed what our peers shared. Anita provided each of us with valuable insight, and gentle guidance on how we could improve and refine ideas and existing stories.

These important facets of our craft were explored with activities that showed us how to use our senses to breathe life into a scene, and the questions we need to ask ourselves to develop characters that readers will invest in. Though pushing some of us out of comfort zone, we arrived at an empirical understanding of these theories through practical application.

Then in April, in the same room, Graeme Simsion generated a relaxed, and fun atmosphere to a room of new faces, and some whom I recognised from Anita’s workshop.

In a slightly different structure for this workshop, Graeme established how planning and structure are not only imperative to a sound story, but how such techniques can make the writing process easier and more enjoyable for writers.

Drawing from his own experience as a screenwriter and author, Graeme demonstrated how principles of film apply to writing books and how guides such as the Three-Act Structure, and breaking your work into scenes can help you identify immediate issues with pace, conflict, and character.

Coming from a corporate background, I found this structured guide to apply to my creative writing immensely helpful.

Graeme walked us through principles of structure, plot, characters, setting, and gave us time to consider our synopsises and elevator pitches.

Both Anita and Graeme provided a safe space for us all to feel confident enough to discuss our work, and come out of our respective ‘shells’; regardless of the varying levels we were at, this is something appreciated by all writers and, as one class-mate offered, the attitude of a teacher can sometimes be the difference between walking out of a session feeling empowered and determined to finish your body of work, or feel so inept, you give up completely. I hope Anita and Graeme are aware of the immensity of their grace and generosity as facilitators, to this humble, but now feeling mightier, aspiring writer. I am confident I can speak for my classmates on this.

Beyond the classroom, and equally as important, I have made contacts with some like-minded writers whom I am already making plans to connect with so we can continue our conversations about our work.

If you are considering attending any future workshops, I highly recommend you do so. Invest in yourself, your craft, and network with likeminded people. You won’t regret it!

Thank you to NRWC, Dr. Anita Heiss, and Graeme Simsion for enriching, learning experiences. northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 9

The Indigenous T

he Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) was set up as a not-for-profit charity of the Australian Book Industry in 2011, after a successful five year partnership with the Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF).

The project became an independent Foundation when FHF moved away from its literacy programs to concentrate on eye health and encouraged the project to set up a Foundation.

increase its book supply program by 10%, targeting to deliver over 27,000 books which will be gifted to more than 200 communities to children and families, schools, libraries, crèches and playgroups. Copies will also go to support service organisations and their family support programs such the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, the Flying Doctor Service and health departments.

During the past three years, focusing on its core goal of addressing early literacy, the Foundation has delivered more than 65,000 new and culturally relevant books to some of the most remote and isolated communities in Australia. Here, in places like Warburton on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert and Docker River in the dead centre of Australia, there are few to no books in homes, no community libraries or bookshops. In Warburton, for example, you’d be hard pressed, to buy a book at one of the two shops that service a community of 500-600 people.

Providing access to new books and other literacy resources has been the Foundation’s main program. It has worked with the expertise and generous support of many publishers across Australia to deliver books of the highest quality, a large proportion of which are written by Indigenous authors making the topics and illustrations relevant to children and families who read them.

Another of the Foundation’s core programs, Book Buzz, aims to put quality books (board) into the hands of mothers and babies and toddlers up to the age of five years. Based on research that shows access to quality literature at the earliest age helps to build core literacy skills, the project is currently offered to a small number of communities including Warburton, Yakanarra, Wilcannia and Manyallaluk and is targeted to expand over the next three years. In Warburton where the Program Manager, Tina Raye and Executive Director Karen Williams have just returned from, the Buzz kits have been very successful in developing early literacy skills in children as young as one and two years old. This is largely due to the playgroup environment in which the books have been introduced but also, significantly to the fact that some of the books, like the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Who Sank the Boat, have been translated into the first language, Ngaanyatjarra.

This year, the Foundation aims to

Anne Shinkfield, the early literacy

10 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

program manager at the playgroup is now working with three other communities in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, Jameson, Blackstone, and Warakuna, and the Foundation delivered over 50 Buzz sets for these towns during its recent trip.

Having books in the first language has meant that many of the mums, aunties and elders who attend the playgroups and who are not literate, feel confident to engage with the books and to talk about the story or illustrations. Having the English along with the translation stickers exposes the children to two written languages and is helping build important literacy skills that help prepare the children for school.

COMMUNITY LITERACY PROJECTS Over the past three years, the Foundation has worked in many partnerships, to fund or publish 37 community literacy projects. These are projects that are largely initiated by remote communities and include books that have been translated into the first language such as Yakanarra Dogs and Yakanarra Day, two books translated into Walmajarri for Yakanarra remote community. ILF also publishes stories written by children in remote communities and last year published Growing Up in Nyirrpi.

One of the Foundation’s key projects has been the funding of The Honey Ant Readers, a series of books that were first funded during its partnership with the FHF in 2009. In 2012-13, with

Literacy Foundation support from the Mary MacKillop Foundation, the Foundation sponsored the translation of 18 books in the series into six languages for communities in Central Australia. The project expanded to incorporate language tapes and many Central Australian communities have now received free copies in their languages which include: Western and Central Arrente, Luritja, Pitjantjatjatjara, Yankuntkatjara and Warlpiri.

This year, the Foundation will publish twelve of The Honey Ant Readers in language into a board book format suitable for babies and younger children.

And another three books in the series will be translated into Ngaanyatjarra which will be gifted to communities in the Lands.

WORKING WITH AMBASSADORS ILF’s ambassadors such as Andy Griffiths, Kaz Cooke, Leonie Norrington and John Danalis have visited over 13 remote schools across Australia. Last year, the Foundation took a party of nine people out to the Tiwi Islands, staying at Tiwi College, visiting three schools and conducting writing workshops. As a result of that visit, nine senior girls from Tiwi College travelled to Sydney to write a book, Bangs 2 Jurrukuk, that was published in a week with the sponsorship and help of Allen & Unwin publishers.

PAMELA LOFTS’ BEQUEST This year, the Foundation partnered with Yirara College of the Finke River

Mission Inc in Alice Springs, to deliver a mentoring workshops for eight young talented students who come from a wide range of communities from Broome to Robinson River, Harts Range, Hermansbergand Minyerri. Run by the enormously talented Ali Cobby Eckermann, a former graduate of Yirara College and poet/writers Lionel Fogarty and Lorna Munro, the program was made possible with a bequest from Pamela Lofts, an Alice Springs based artist and well known children’s illustrator who left an enormous legacy. The Foundation aims to offer the mentoring workshop to other students and, where possible, to publish the writing.

ADVOCACY & WORK OF THE FOUNDATION A large part of the Foundation’s year is devoted to its advocacy and fundraising programs, in particular the annual Indigenous Literacy Day event. Schools, libraries, businesses and individuals help to celebrate literacy and raise awareness of the cause. This year national Indigenous Literacy Day is Wednesday 3 September and events including Great Book Swaps and other talks will be held nationally in schools, libraries and businesses. Past events have been held at Parliament House with the then Governor General Quentin Bryce, Art Gallery of WA with His Excellency Malcolm McCusker, Governor and Sydney Opera House with ILF’s ambassadors and past patron, Therese Rein and ambassadors including Andy Griffiths, Anita Heiss, Micky O’Lachlan,

Joshua Pyke and singer Ursula Yovich.

LONDON BOOK FAIR AWARD We are delighted to announce that our Foundation has won an international award, the inaugural London Book Fair Award for Excellence in Education Initiatives, announced in London in midApril. The Foundation was one of three international organisations shortlisted for its work.

Who would have imagined that way back in 2005 when Wilson, owner of Riverbend Bookshop, planted a tiny seed of an idea that it would result in today’s Foundation. When Wilson asked ‘Can You imagine a world without books or reading?’, she was inundated by requests from schools, individuals and businesses, who wanted to help and asked ‘how?’. From small beginnings and with the huge commitment of the current Board members, a team of dedicated ambassadors, volunteers and the Australian Book Industry, schools, libraries, many wonderful festivals and events organisers, the Foundation has been self-funding, raising over $2 million dollars 2011-2013.

Now thanks to the generous support of Byron Bay Writers Festival the Foundation is well on its way to reachings its 2014 fundraising goal.

Karen Williams, Executive Director, ILF

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 11

The Sudd

An excerpt from Tarab- Travels with my Guitar

By Carl Cleves

T

he skies were a constant grey and a warm rain fell as we drifted through a primeval landscape stretching out for hundreds of square miles in all directions around us. The mighty river Nile lost itself in an ocean of ferns and rotting vegetation, a hostile world, neither land nor sea. Hippopotamus and crocodiles splashed in the murky water, strange birds stared at our passing steamer, packs of vegetation floated past, at times entangling the ship so that we were forced to stop and the crew had to cut the steamer loose. I had brought a copy of Alan Moorehead’s White Nile with me. Things seemed the same today as when Baker first sailed the Upper Nile. “All is wild and brutal, hard and unfeeling”, Baker writes, “Here there was not even a present, let alone a past; except on occasional islands of hard ground no man ever had lived or ever could live in this desolation of drifting reeds and ooze, even the most savage men. The lower forms of life flourished here in mad abundance, but for black and white men alike the Sudd contained nothing but the threat of starvation, disease, and death.”

The days passed unmarked in this “claustrophobic green prison” as Moorehead describes it. Proud and tall as basketball pros, the cattle-herding Dinka now dominated on the lower deck. They were a sight. Decorated with colourful beads, six of their bottom teeth missing (these are pulled out during adolescence), their faces scarred with the marks of their tribe: four lines cut across the forehead. At night they looked like ghosts, smearing their faces and arms with grey ash to discourage the mosquitoes, sleeping peacefully while Beatrice and I made love in a sleeping bag soaked with sweat.

12 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

It was late in the afternoon and the ship had anchored some 40 metres from the riverbank. Rain was falling hard, clattering on the swollen river, bending the reeds, shaking the acacia and banana trees, hammering the corrugated iron shacks and beehive huts that I could see through curtains of water. A tumultuous

mob was jostling to reach three small rafts that were bringing goods and passengers to the shore. The people on the riverbank seemed desperate to get on to the ship and Sudanese soldiers wielding whips were beating them back, lashing them and hitting them with rifle butts. Lightning cracked the sky. There was a mad fury in heaven and a frenzied panic on the river.

First a soldier was overcome by the crowd and careened into the water. Everyone was pushing and shoving. People were

standing up to their waist in the river, hanging on to the reeds. A woman and child fell shrieking into the fast flowing water and almost immediately disappeared from view. Clinging to one of the rafts, a man had managed to reach the outer barge that was tied to the ship when a soldier pushed him back in the river. The man yelled out as the current took him. My lower deck companions, turbaned or uniformed, beaded, nose-boned and scarred, all were pressed against the wire netting of the ship, shouting at the ones on shore, laughing at the terrible misfortunes of the victims. As the paddles of the steamer were set in motion, a small canoe with three men who had been trying to sell skins to the passengers on board was overturned. They too fell into the River Nile, which swept them away, past the small settlement, past the crocodiles lying on an island of reeds and into the vast wilderness of ever expanding aquatic plants and water.

We left that hell world behind us. The storm ended and the rain gave way to an exploding sunset setting the Sudd on fire. It torched the hyacinths, from which a large black water bird with a bright orange beak cawed at our ship, gliding on a river of blood. The Red Nile led us into the night. It was a doomsday landscape, and still shaken with disbelief, I turned my back on the soldiers at the bridge and sneaked a photograph. But I needn’t have since I have never shaken that afternoon’s spectre from my mind.

Tarab – Travels with my guitar is published

by Transit Lounge www.carlcleves.com

Writers’ Groups

by Helen Burns

M

y life as a writer was a solitary one. I quite liked that. Then I was accepted for the NRWC residential mentorship and shortly afterwards, invited to join a writers’ group. The timing was perfect. I had a draft of a manuscript that had potential, but also a long way to go. I was terrified fronting up to that first meeting. One familiar face greeted me and two strangers. A pot of tea was brewed and we sat down to work. That was seven years ago.

Augusten Burroughs once advised a writer, ‘Make friends with writers so that you have a community. Hopefully, your community of writer friends will give you good feedback and good criticism but really the best way to be a writer is to be a writer.’ It’s true; a bit like the adage of not putting the cart before the horse.

But sometimes it’s the cart – my circle of writer friends – that keeps me writing.

Take a look at the back page of this issue.

From Kempsey to Burleigh Heads there are twenty six writers’ groups open to new members, meeting in cafes, at Scout Halls and Bowling Clubs, in a Maritime Museum and libraries. The format of each group is probably as varied as the venues but the love of writing and its many processes would be common to all.

Joining a writing group is a commitment firstly to your self. It requires a willingness to lay open your work and to be receptive to the feedback given. This does not mean you make every suggested change

but if three or more of the group are in agreement about a particular point, well then that’s a red flag for revaluation.

Equally, joining a writing circle is a commitment to the circle – as well as entering a place of confidentiality you will be critiquing the work of others. This was a skill I had never been taught at school. It felt like a huge responsibility. It is. Every time I picked up a manuscript it was as if I had to tune my eyes and mind to a different scale. I listened to the feedback given by the group for each piece submitted, and learned. The rewards of this two-way critiquing process began to inform my own work. More and more I was able to stand back, let go of those ‘darlings’, shuffle paragraphs, cut, paste.

Some writers’ groups specialise in a particular genre – memoir, scriptwriting and poetry are mentioned in northerly’s list.

Our group continues to have a mix of commercial and literary fiction and nonfiction. I began reading genres I would not ordinarily choose; I had to step out of my comfort zone. To my surprise this was not a limiting exercise, it actually enhanced my appreciation of writing styles and informed the genre I had chosen.

Over the years our group has fluctuated from four to six members. Four is a healthy minimum. More than six and the cart wheels would probably start wobbling. We meet roughly every month at a time to suit: in a café or the fabulous soundproof meeting rooms at Byron’s li-

brary. We sometimes gather in a home or at one of the Beach Hotel’s round tables.

The mornings are quiet there and they make a good coffee. We’re a bit loose as far as time and place goes but it works.

Prior to a meeting we submit our work by email, anything from two to five thousand words. Then, either on a laptop or printout, we make comments and bring these along for discussion. It’s rare that all six of us will submit for one meeting.

But if this does happen we time each piece. Generally we give our feedback in turn but sometimes we break the rules.

Watching each manuscript develop – as Margaret Atwood describes, ‘How the rabbits were smuggled into the hat,’ – and then seeing the results, we are sometimes overcome with enthusiasm and all start talking at once!

There is an undeniable chemistry that happens round a table of writers – questioning, prodding, debating, appreciating – that is very supportive. As I walk out the door, four or five bundles of comments under my arm, I can’t wait to get home to sieve, consider and dig deeper at my solitary desk – my cauldron. I’m immeasurably thankful for my writers’ group.

‘Pssst,’ Atwood ambushes me from behind, ‘there’s no free lunch,’ she says.

‘Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but - essentially you’re on your own.’

Introducing our new intern, Adena Rumble For a girl with a keen love of books, a slight case of OCD and a penchant for detail I couldn’t have asked for a better place to work or a more fantastic group of people to work with. My time so far at the Writers’ Centre has been full of a great number of new experiences from book launches to book keeping and thanks to this there hasn’t been a dull day since I started.

The team here are extremely welcoming and this has allowed me the freedom and creativity to implement new ideas and the luxury to edit and update old ones.

I am kept on my toes with a large verity of tasks that at times can seem slightly overwhelming but I am reward by the gratitude of my colleagues and of course the unlimited library of books just waiting to be read. All in all this makes for a lovely work environment, one that I feel quite happy coming into, even as our days grow busier with the oncoming Festival. northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 13

Writing

Jack’s War

by Maria Simms

S

hortly after my father died in 1980 I opened a faded blue suitcase he’d been lugging around with him for years.

His name was Jack Lusby and he’d been a prolific Australian cartoonist and short story writer whose work was published mainly in The Bulletin, The Courier-Mail and in a number of anthologies. In the suitcase, beneath old documents and other detritus, were manila envelopes stuffed with yellowed copies of published cartoons and short stories, and a couple of anthologies. Tucked away at the bottom I found as mall, nondescript cardboard box and a battered biscuit tin.

Neatly stacked in the biscuit tin were the opening pages of an autobiography revealing Jack’s childhood dreams of becoming a cartoonist and a pilot, and the cardboard box held three small notebooks. The hand-written pages turned out to be diaries that Jack had kept during his time as an RAAF pilot during WWII. The carefully dated entries described his experiences flying in North Africa and then as a Spitfire test pilot back in Australia.

Written with wit, accuracy and a writer’s eye for detail, the diaries brought to life Jack’s wartime journey from an enthusiastic young pilot to a flying veteran desperately trying to push on while pilots literally crashed and burned around him. The child’s dream had

14 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

become the adult’s nightmare and I felt an obligation to transcribe the diaries but, daunted by the task, I put it aside.

Decades passed. Then recently I tried writing my own memoir. I was stumped, not by what to write but how to write it. I knew I needed a structure or theme to push the narrative forward, maintain tension and avoid the, I did this and then I did that, trap into which memoirists can fall.

I went back to the diaries and realised they should act as a prelude to my story about a family struggling to cope with the after effects of war. His story was my story. Many stories. I realised I’d stumbled across the grail I’d been seeking because the story of my life really begins in the cockpit of a Spitfire, years before I was born.

I began transcribing the diaries and added historical notes, photographs, and some of Jack’s WWII cartoons. I sent it all, under the title of Jack’s War, to the editor of the No. 3 Squadron website.

James Oglethorpe emailed back that he’d put Jack’s War up on the website (in PDF format and freely available) after I’d finished his extensive list of corrections.

Serendipitously I’d found the perfect editor. James proved to be an excellent military historian and researcher who also had an abundance of patience and generosity.

He corrected my military blunders and helped me trawl through Trove, the Australian War Memorial and the National Archives of Australia, which in turn paved the way for my research in overseas archives. James also suggested I might include more background details about the men Jack had mentioned.

Vivid as Jack’s writing was, I realised there were things in it I couldn’t visualise. To let the reader share the journey more fully, the diaries would need to be expanded. I went back to the beginning and inserted more photographs, maps, war histories and stories from the RAAF’s files. I also included one of Jack’s short stories about a fighter pilot in training who suddenly finds himself in combat.

The final version of Jack’s War is now on the 3 Squadron website and, to our amazement, is attracting more reader interest than we’d expected – over 3,000 downloads in January. The power of the World Wide Web! Find Jack’s War at: http://www.3squadron. org.au/subpages/Jack_Lusby%27s_War_ Book1.pdf Maria Simms is a published author and retired academic living in Northern NSW. Her writing website is WordCraft onsulting: www.wordcraftconsulting.com.au

Salt Breezes Poetry from Byron Bay and beyond Loved in Passing

Don’t Say it

Ozone, sizzling chips, coconut oil on salty flesh Crushed mint, hot coffee, clove cigarette smoke Lover’s breath, pheromones left in his sweater Hard urban perfume: garbage and Versace Diesel and despair, Chinatown red ginger, star anise Baby cheek, fresh page from heaven Earth exhaling after summer rain The invisible familiarity of home.

Not in your mother tongue, diction quick and soft and hushed, not Kalahari style with plosive clicks, orin a guttural throat purr.

Lilith Rocha

Calf You look at me with wonder. Box solid, still slick, a bucket of unruly legs.

You don’t quite trust me, you’re right not to trust me, but listen to me now.

Get your mother and get out of that paddock, I’m telling you.

Otherwise, I will hear her bellowing the day they come for you. Before dawn, I will wake to her screams crusted yellow with pain. No one knows you’re here, yet.

Even the sibilant whisper, the soft palate hum would startle that wagtail’s plucky strut and the pair of wonga pigeons rustling in the brush.

It would interrupt the canticle of crows, The dithering of pines.

Your words would make The searing sky grow pale, the distant hills darken.

Sit here with me and breathe the inarticulate blessings as damp rises and the sun sets.

The heat of your palm on my knee transmits your message most eloquently.

Laura Jan Shore

Lisa Brockwell

About 70 people came along last Friday to celebrate the launch of Dangerously Poetic’s 11th publication, Salt Breezes, poetry from Byron Bay and beyond.

As poet Ross Donlon says in the foreword; “If a very simple definition of art is that it helps us to see the world a little more clearly and to experience the world with a little more profundity then here is a collection from the 18 poets that will surely add to our sense of being alive.”

Held at the Brunswick Heads Primary School, the audience savored the singing of Mark Heazlett on guitar and Belinda McKenzie on fiddle. Music creates the atmosphere of deep listening, preparing the audience for the lyrical language to come.

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 15

Book Publishing Options Old & New The digital revolution has delivered new publishing options for writers, says Euan Mitchell The developments in publishing from Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press of the mid-15th century to today’s digital age have involved countless technological and social changes. The ongoing changes are to be understood not feared. Print books will continue to sell while new opportunities emerge for ebooks to entertain and inform.

Technology in the 21st century has provided new ways for anyone, experienced or not, to publish books.

literary agent who acted as a go-between (costing about 15–20% of the writer’s royalties if successful). If the writer’s manuscript was accepted, the publisher would edit, design, print, promote and organise distribution of the book to bricks-and-mortar retail bookstores, topped up by online sales. Although ebooks have been around since the 1990s, these were considered by many publishers, up until about 2010, as optional extras to the main game of selling print books.

Ignoring the goods and services tax (GST), a published author typically receives 10% of RRP (recommended retail price) from the sale of books in bricks-and-mortar stores. This means if you are a self-published author who directly sells one book to a reader at full price, say after an author talk or event (not via a bookstore), then you receive the equivalent return that a published author would for selling 10 books through retail stores. Of course, the selfpublished author isn’t supported by a major

Diagram 3. (on page 15) Self-published printbook supply chain (older model).

A variation on this traditional model is the self-published print-book supply chain, which became more accessible to writers during the 1990s, as shown in the chart overleaf. The use of this publishing model has declined, but can still be utilised by a writer who believes their printbook will receive healthy publicity, or who finds the online success of their ebook justifies the release of a print edition through bookstores.

publisher’s promotional clout and wide spread distribution, but resourceful individuals often find ways to generate publicity via media reviews and interviews, which gives them a fighting chance in a crowded marketplace.

The influence of print-book models has been challenged by the rise of ebooks. The Australian Booksellers Association expects sales of ebooks to account for about 25% of the Australian book market by 2015.

Regardless of the precise market share of ebooks in coming years, it is safe to say they have modified the ways the previous supplychain models are applied. In addition, the rise of social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, You Tube, Linkedln, etc) has created extra opportunities to promote books. Growing numbers of published writers are choosing to self-publish ebooks, sometimes backed up by print-on-demand editions, because this approach generally provides a simpler and quicker path to readers, as well as

Diagram 1.The four main stages of the book publishing process.

Many people use the terms “publishing”and “printing” interchangeably. Bookpublishing, however, is a multi-stage process,of which printing is only one stage (now optional). See Diagram 1, below:

Diagram 2.Traditionally published print-book supply chain.

Consider the traditional supply chain for book publishing, charted overleaf. A writer typically approached a publisher directly or via a

16 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

Diagram 4. Approximate division of revenue from a print book sold via a traditional store for $11 (to keep the figures simple) in Australia.

The traditional and self-published printbook supply chains share the following typical divisions of revenue from print-book sales inbricks-and-mortar bookstores (via a distributor).

Think about the figures overleaf for a moment.

Breathe W

e were asleep when he died. The shrill ring of the phone woke us at 3.27am. It would be the hospice telling us that he was dead. Instantly, we were a family of three instead of four. We stood in the hallway, watching the phone shriek into the predawn stillness because there was nothing else we could do. If we answered, it would be confirmed. No one reached for it.

It must have stopped ringing because when it started again, I watched Amy crumple to the cold floor. Her flannel pyjamas suddenly seemed so stupid. Why would a fifteen year old wear pyjamas with owls all over them?

Mum’s fingernails cut into the tender skin just above my elbow. I didn’t complain. At least I still felt something. *** What a stupid question! How do you think I feel? Dr O’Neil does her usual pretendingnot-to-look-at-you look. She might give the impression she is reading my file but I know better. She studies me, scrutinising every expression and every word I speak with her tight-lipped judgement.

Why do they keep asking me the same stupid questions? And how can I be expected to take a woman who collects frogs seriously? Anyone who is this into green tree frogs must have a screw loose, surely. They stare at me from all around her office with their beady, glass eyes.

Which one was her first? I bet it was one of the inconspicuous ones, maybe the crouching paper weight. You wouldn’t

start a collection with the ghastly Hawaiian shirt wearing one playing the saxophone.

Why anyone would display that on their windowsill is beyond me.

She clears her throat and I realise she’s been speaking. She waits expectantly for me to reply but I have no idea what she’s on about. As usual, she misinterprets my silence.

‘It can be very difficult to talk about these things. Take your time,’ she says in that practiced voice she reserves for her patients.

I’m glad though, it buys me valuable minutes. Attempting what I hope looks like a deep-in-thought gaze, I try to count all the frogs. Thirty two, thirty three...

‘Tell me why you did it,’ she says in the same patronising tone.

‘You mean cutting?’ Feeling self conscious, I tug my shorts down, trying to cover the bright scars on my thighs. Dr O’Neil, of course, see this and writes something in her stupid, little book.

‘I wanted to feel something.’ I don’t look at her when I answer.

It’s enough to get her scribbling in her book again. She waits for me to spill my guts but I can’t be bothered talking, I’d rather make up names for her stupid frogs.

‘Bailey, have you ever heard of a little town called Green Bay?’ She tilts her head in a deliberate, thoughtful manner before she continues. ‘I’m running a group therapy session there. It’s a two week program and I

by Polly Jude think you would benefit from it. I’ve spoken to your mother and she agrees with me.

What do you think?’

I’m guessing, ‘Shove your group therapy up your bum!’ is not the appropriate answer here. At least I still have some brain matter in there. What do I think? I think you are ganging up on me, kicking a girl when she’s down, rubbing salt into the wounds. Gawd, one on one therapy was bad enough. As if I need to hear about everyone else’s problems. I have enough of my own.

Polly Jude is a local author. She writes contemporary young adult fiction. She was a finalist at Pitch Perfect in 2013 and will be part of this year’s Residential Mentorship.

higher royalties. These writers often call themselves ‘indie writers’. One of the best ways to understand how ebooks have changed the supply-chain models in publishing is to study the chart opposite. lt summarises the ways many indie writers and self-publishers are now making and marketing books.

Dr Euan Mitchell is a former senior editor for a major publisher. He has written three novels and has a range of non-fiction books to his credit. He has also successfully published other writers in several genres.

Euan has taught writing, editing and publishing at Monash University, Victoria University, Swinburne University and Box Hill TAFE. This is an edited extract from Euan’s latestbook, Your Book Publishing Options. Further details at www.euanmitchell.com

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 17

SCU Page A showcase of SCU student work, compiled by Dr Lynda Hawryluk

Creek Associate Degree of Creative Writing Immerse yourself in the world of words and become a confident and skilled creative writer. The Associate Degree of Creative Writing provides students with a broad range of skills spanning several writing genres. It enables students to focus on the practice and theory of writing, along with developing the attributes and skills needed for a professional career in writing.

The course offers a rich mix of creative writing and literary studies across a range of writing modes in fiction and non-fiction, including writing genre, life writing, writing for stage and screen, experimental writing, poetry and journalism.

After completion of the Associate Degree, students may choose to apply to study a further eight units to gain a Bachelor of Arts degree.

The University is the education partner of the Byron Bay Writers Festival and the Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), and supports the Bellingen Writers’ Festival.

Further information: www.scu.edu.au

The light is thinning.

Stray rays are pinning stars onto the evening.

I swing and glide, alive astride a descendant of the penny farthing.

Between warm streets cold air greets my cheeks with slapping kisses, the clacking bridge a thrill of whirring wheels pumping heels; the frogs stop their music.

by Katinka Smit

Rinse Wash Drain, Repeat by Victoria Norton Patrick always wore a pale blue dress shirt, the kind that needed ironing every day. A job for the wife, he thought, and smoothed down the front. From time to time the collars frayed and were taken off and reversed by the elder daughter, in training for her adult life. Careful hand stitching finished the job, sealed as always with the needle stick of blood. DNA transferred back up the genetic line.

Navy trousers completed the outfit, hems tucked into thick woollen socks and riding boots to hold at bay the fuzzy and sticky grass seeds. The socks were carefully picked over by his daughters each afternoon, never mind their own smooth and tender skin. It was a stinky ordeal they all tried to get out of. It was a contest, who could get the most seeds. Who finished first. The winner watched the others pick the socks the next day. They sat together all the same, a solidarity of sisterhood.

The akubra spoke of the employment of the man. It was frayed of edge and stained the darkest brown around the head band. The odour flared nostrils and 18 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

created a space between him and those around him. A large and freshly ironed white handkerchief sat upon his head, little knots tied on each corner. Then on went the hat. He’d soak the hankie often during the day to keep cool. The hankie was to have the tight corners undone, a difficult job after repeated rinses, and be washed up white again in the big copper wash-pot in the laundry.

Blisters and bruises marked his hands and arms, the main tools in his possession. Dried blood settled under fingernails that fell off before they mended and never grew straight again. The white hankie would wrap around his fist if he bled a lot. The job to wash it til the water ran clear of the liquid of his life was completed by the wife.

The day he killed the rooster, he hung its body over the laundry sink to drip, drip its life away. The blood settled on the fresh rinsed pile of hankies, staining them with absolute disregard for the effort involved in repeating the rinse, wash, drain cycle again.

Book Review

J

eff in Venice, Death in Varanasi

Reviewed

By Mike Snee

I

f you’re intending to traverse the well-worn trail from European excess to Eastern enlightenment, you want to choose the right travelling companion.

If you’re not careful, you could find yourself trapped in sentimentality and pseudo-mysticism, or in a poorly written travelogue. If you’re really unlucky, you might find both. So it was a relief, upon opening this book, to feel an instant empathy with Jeff Atman, my travelling companion on this journey. He is witty, observant, self-depreciating and sometimes profound.

Jeff Atman is a jaded journalist living in London, trying unsuccessfully to find a meaningful life through freelance writing. He seizes on the opportunity to write a piece on the Venice Biennale, and interview an ex-model living in Venice, for Kulchur magazine. Venice happens to be experiencing a heatwave, so intense that ‘even the magnificent fridges are struggling to cope with the heat and the

written by Geoff Dyer

insatiable demand for cold drinks.’

Covering the Biennale does involve looking at the art on exhibition, but this is peripheral to the main game, which is attending an endless succession of parties and drinking copious glasses of Bellini. Throw in a few lines of coke and some great sex, and Jeff’s outlook on life is definitely looking up. He even manages to get stoned while conducting the interview, in the process forgetting most of what he was after. Of course, all too soon like a dream it evaporates. The bar, or at least one of them, is literally drunk dry. After a final illuminating experience of the historical art of Venice, Jeff returns to London.

It’s a long way from Venice to Varanasi. Not just in distance, but in time and culture and sensibility. The Jeff in Venice is now the ‘I’ in Varanasi. Like most Westerners freshly arrived in India, he is at first overwhelmed. ‘Everything was piled up. Everything was excessive.

Everything was brightly coloured and loud, so everything had to be brighter and louder than everything else.’

A tale of two watery cities, reflecting each other, yet irredeemably different. There are some beautifully evocative descriptions of the cremation Ghats on the river and brilliant observations on the colourful life of Varanasi. The relentless poverty, dirt and disease, juxtaposed with the spirit of enduring acceptance, is astutely depicted. Just as unsettling is the gradual, and seemingly inevitable, unravelling of ‘Jeff’s’ physical and spiritual self. The few days he was intending to stay drift into an indeterminate time.

‘Time passed, or maybe it didn’t.

Geoff Dyer

All of time is here, in Varanasi, so maybe time cannot pass.’ The world he has left behind is left still further behind. It’s not that he renounces the world, but rather he ‘became less interested in it … destiny had been cheated.’

Jeff has searched for life’s meaning in two cities at opposite ends of the earth. In Venice through drink, drugs and sex, and maybe even love. In Varanasi, through letting go of his ego, in dissolving Jeff, till all that is left is ‘atman’, the essential self. The narrative implies that either way is fraught with danger and uncertainty.

Every journey has a cost.

The two friends he had made in Varanasi, Darrell and Laline, leave for Rajasthan.

Now alone, he is absorbed body and soul into the dusty, ragged fabric of daily Indian life. He shaves his head, bathes in the Ganges, and wears a white dhoti.

And that is where we must leave him, on the banks of the river, in the arms of Ganoona, the kangaroo God. I hope he’s alright.

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 19

Kids’ page How I Got Published by Random House at Age 13

by Raph Atkins I first met author Tristan Bancks in 2012, when I was in sixth grade. Tristan came to our school as a guest writer to do sessions with a small group who had elected to do creative writing at school. I am a pretty scruffy kid and I remember that my very first thought about Tristan was, how does he get his hair to stick up like that but look so neat? Unknown to me at the time, my friendship with Tristan would reveal important mysteries such as these.

I have been writing and illustrating my own comic books since I could hold a pencil.

Unfortunately, in all of the earliest photos of me producing my first masterpieces, I am wearing a pink dress. Not much has changed since then, and making comic books is still how I like to spend my time, so when Tristan came into our classroom to read and write stories with us, I thought it was the best way to spend an afternoon every week for six weeks.

As well as revealing the mysteries of hair products, he taught me things about writing that I had not thought of before.

For example, I now use music while I’m writing, my stories have theme tracks and when I play the music it takes me right into the world of my characters. Most of the time my comics come straight out the end of my pen but sometimes I map out what’s going to happen in a chapter and I learnt that from Tristan, too. One of the biggest things I learnt from him is editing. And I still hate it!

Soon after those creative writing sessions, Tristan revisited the school to make a video for the ‘Stubbies World Change Challenge’ for Room to Read. My friend Maya and I were the main characters in the video, which is about raising awareness about illiteracy in developing countries.

My class raised money to build a library in Cambodia. Apart from making my own very bad movies, that was my first experience in front of a camera and listening to a director. Getting up in front of people has always been pretty difficult for me. I feel OK about it now, but when I was younger I had a speech impediment and a tongue tie. No one could understand me and I had a lisp and a stutter. I would let my older brother speak for me because it was so frustrating and embarrassing that 20 - northerly magazine | may – june 2014

no one could understand me. Maybe it’s why I would draw and write so much. I spent a long time in speech therapy and I can still hear and see the last traces of my tongue tie in that video, so I don’t like watching it much, but it did help me feel more confident about speaking in public and the video is still helping lots of kids.

After the creative writing sessions finished, I started sending Tristan my stories. I sent him a story I wrote called The Hole about Ms Brandy, a disgusting, nightmare teacher who, fortunately for her students, falls into a huge hole while on a school excursion. Tristan liked it and published it on his website and in this very magazine, northerly. That was the first time I had a story published.

Later that same year, our school and the

Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre organised a Writers Camp, and I met with Tristan again and some other authors. Over three days we wrote plays and stories, put on stupid performances and swung from a giant rope.

Not long after that I was back at school doodling in my book while my teacher was blabbing on about nesting boxes that had been installed in the protected wetlands around our school and how soon we would be able to see little birds and possums in the boxes with special cameras that were being set up in there. I thought that was going to be the coolest thing and then I began to think ‘what if?’ and my story Morris sort of just appeared in front of me. It’s about my pet sausage dog who escapes into the wetlands and eats the last remaining Jagrofest birds on earth. I couldn’t take part in the class discussion because the whole story was just playing out in front of me like a movie and so I got in trouble for daydreaming in class. It was first published in a book of short stories called Out at Sea written by all the kids who went on Writers Camp. But I sent it to Tristan

too because I had started sending him my stories. He suggests stuff to me and I give him suggestions for his stories now, too.

Last year Tristan told me that he had showed Morris to his publisher and that he had an idea for my story to go into his book My Life and Other Stuff That Went Wrong.

The biggest thing that I’ve learnt from this is how long it takes to write a really good story that you read in a book. I got to work with an editor. His name is Brandon. He would make suggestions and ask me questions about my story. Sometimes he had to tell me that something had to be cut from the story because it was just too rude and would hurt a fat kid’s feelings. Sometimes I agreed with him and other times I didn’t and I could tell him.

Tristan and I don’t get to see each other much but we write to each other. I like to send him blackmail letters and sometimes I draw funny pictures for him and enter them in his competitions because no one else goes in them and I feel sorry for him. Just yesterday he sent me an email because he was stuck for ideas on a name for a School Principal in one of his new stories, poor guy, so I let him have Mr Bernard, my school Principal from Morris.

But he does ask me to be part of good things too. Like last year he asked me to be in his new book trailer for My Life & Other Stuff That Went Wrong - youtu.be/ OsyLXPmTN4w. Tristan had to play a kids’ author who doesn’t really like kids, and even though he’s supposed to be a good actor, I didn’t think he was convincing enough. He was way too nice, because Tristan is really nice. So during the filming I made up some of my lines to get him going and told him that Andy Griffiths was my favourite author, which he really hated me saying, and he got all angry. You can’t blame him, though, all authors hate Andy Griffiths.

I think I’m really lucky that I met Tristan Bancks. He is one of the funniest adults I know and he’s always doing good things.

He’s also one of the first people to think my stories and drawings were any good, besides my mum, and I can’t trust Mum because she likes vegetables, so I’m always suspicious of her judgement.

From the reading chair GIVING YOUR CHARACTER BODY LANGUAGE Writer Sarah Armstrong explains what body language can do for you

I

remember what a revelation it was when I really ‘got’ how I could use my characters’ body language to serve my stories.By body language I mean a description of what the character does as he or she talks or moves about. Some writers use the term stage directions.

My early drafts are fairly light on body language and I confess to finding the business of adding it in later drafts a bit tedious. It takes time to get right and it can feel contrived or ‘stagey’ while I am doing it. But once I read it back, I am always surprised by how well it works to add layers and complexity.

In the manuscripts I read, this business of adding body language is something I almost always raise with the writer.

He or she may know where the scene is unfolding and how everyone looks but they don’t always translate that knowledge to the page.

Here’s what body language can do for you: CHARACTER Body language conjures images of a real, physical being; your character is not just a disembodied voice. This business of creating a visual image of your character is especially important when a character is first introduced and the reader is getting a handle on them.

Body language might tell us that she wears khaki pants and likes to shove her hands deep into her pockets or we learn that he lights his cigarettes with waterproof matches.

Here’s a couple of great examples from Kate Atkinson’s novel Life After Life: The blonde lit a cigarette, making a phallic performance of it. (page 1) Mrs Glover blinked slowly, like a lizard. (page 27) SETTING You can work setting into body language instead of telling the reader directly that it’s raining or that it’s night time. For example: She opened the curtain and looked out at the dark garden. ‘He won’t be long,’ she said.

He kicked at a stone on the road and she turned away from the red dust that rose around them.

Of course you don’t have to do this ‘weaving’ business. You could give all that description in a chunk, in a paragraph of description when the character first arrives in the place, but if you want to keep the pace up, then it’s worth considering weaving it in.

DIALOGUE Body language works well instead of dialogue attribution (ie instead of he said or she said). Here’s Kate Atkinson again: ‘As I said’ – she swallowed with difficulty – ‘I’ve been thinking – and don’t say anything, Sylvie. The Adventures of Augustus is still wildly successful, I’m writing a book every six months. It’s quite crazy…’

those images in throughout dialogue and my narrator’s observations of the girl.

As a final thought, it’s incredibly useful to watch the people around you and notice their habits, the way they move, their gestures and expressions. The more we notice about the world around us, the richer our writing will be.

Sarah has been teaching writing since 2004, in weekly face-to-face classes, writing retreats in Byron Bay and Bali, and via online courses. She has run writing workshops for, among others, the Queensland Writers Centre, Adelaide’s Fringe festival, Northern Rivers Writers Centre and the Byron Bay Writers Festival. http://www.sarah-armstrong.com/

BRAINSTORM When I am settling in to add lots of body language to my story I’ll often do a free writing brainstorm of the character and setting. Here’s an example from a story I am working on with a young child character: Her lashes are so long they seem tangled, so white-blonde it’s as if they are not there until you look and then Anna sees they are so long they are actually tangled. She has badly burnt shoulders, peeling, flaking skin. Her thumb nails are too long and dirty underneath; has she been digging in the garden. Her hands are warm on Anna’s arm, warm and sticky.

I might do three times that amount of writing in a given brainstorm and I may do four or five such brainstorms as I move through the story. As I wrote that, I saw the child in my mind and then tried to translate that to the page, thinking all the while about what I want to show about her and her life, and what picture I am building for the reader. Do I want some aspects of the child to dawn on the reader slowly? Perhaps I will reveal things in a particular order. Then I weave northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 21

Keeping the Memories Alive

by Sharon Dean

It’s 1938. A young Sydney woman wins nineteen waltzing competitions.

Two years later, a ten-year-old Dutch boy immigrates with his family to Australia, where his new teacher tells him, “You don’t know our language; go outside and play marbles.”

Fast forward to 1970. During a trip to Queensland, a young bloke from a farm on the Alstonville plateau watches a peanut thrasher in action. He returns home to design and build his own.

These are just a handful of the hundreds of unassuming yet intriguing tales collected in the three years I’ve been running a digital storytelling program for a large residential aged care organisation.

Based in the Northern Rivers, the Interactive Life Stories program empowers residents to share their stories with care staff, families and each other – mainly in the form of posters that we display in the foyer of our facility, and movies that we launch both at public screenings and online.

Late last year, a crew from the Australian Aged Care Channel visited our facility to make a documentary about storytelling in aged care. Their production features scenes from our movies as well as interviews with author and social activist Arnold Zable.

There’s a beautiful symmetry to this. Since attending a lecture delivered by Zable back in 2011, I’ve been using one of his comments as a guiding light for our program: If I look you in the eye and tell you my story, you’ll see who I really am.

Zable notices the way older people can often be overlooked, explaining that, “When we hear an older person’s story,

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it gives them a sense of their life having been worthwhile and continuing to be worthwhile. From the listener’s point of view, they get to know someone and see that this person has lived an interesting life.”

This is what the program is about: listening and connecting. I mainly work with people who live with some degree of memory loss or cognitive impairment, so in the initial stages of the information-gathering process I seek input from a resident’s family and friends.

Once I have enough material to chart a resident’s personal history, I focus on discovering and documenting what’s important to that person now. What brings joy into their life? Are there new and meaningful activities we can build into their day?

One resident was born in Italy and first came to Australia as a prisoner of war in 1943.

While making his movie, we worked with a singer who’d learnt some traditional Italian songs. We discovered the resident adored singing Italian duets, so now we’re on the lookout for volunteers who are happy to come to our facility to sing with him.

As a writer, I’m an anomaly in what is largely a clinical environment. My colleagues are mostly registered nurses, general care and activities staff, and physiotherapists.

But it isn’t my interviewing or literacy skills that best equip me to gather and share people’s stories. While my colleagues are flat-out dispensing medications or helping residents with personal care tasks, I have

the time to listen – to sit and cry with people when painful memories arise, or to organise activities that enable us to get outside and have fun.

Over summer, I made a little movie about a keen gardener called Phyllis. Born in Lismore in 1918, Phyllis led a rewarding life on the far north coast of NSW – dividing her time between nursing at the Lismore Base Hospital and caring for the farm her parents bought at Perry’s Hill when she was seven.

As part of the movie-making process, I took Phyllis for a visit to the property, which she hadn’t seen since moving into care. Unable to walk, she urged me to look behind the farmhouse to “check for hippies”. Assuming she was worried about squatters, I took a good walk around before returning to the car all smiles. “Not a hippie in sight,” I reported.

But Phyllis wasn’t happy – at least not until after I realised she’d been referring to her favourite flowers: hippeastrums.

Fortunately, there were indeed many clumps of them growing behind the house.

When we drove back to her home later that afternoon, Phyllis sat clutching a freshly picked bouquet of the large red flowers.

It was as if she had found her childhood memories and was holding them in her hands.

Workshops Navigating the maze – marketing and promotion in the digital world with Simon Groth from if:book When: May 17, 10am – 1pm Where: SCU Room, Byron Community Centre Cost: $35 members, $45 nonmembers

Ever felt that pressure to understand technology and publishing from the inside out and engage with every fledgling social media network and writing platform ever conceived because it’s just something you suddenly have to do? What’s it all for? And will you ever be able to just write?

This seminar-style presentation explores and unpacks the issues and challenges of writing in a networked world faced by all writers, from aspiring to mid-career. Rather than a hands-on tech-oriented session, the seminar focuses on broad knowledge and skills with plenty of tips and pointers for acquiring any tech knowhow in your own time.

SIMON GROTH’S stories can go anywhere, from tangled relationships and virtual writers to rock music and sleep disorders. His first two novels were shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and his short fiction has been published in Australia and the US. Simon was co-editor with Sean Sennett of Off The Record: 25 Years of Music Street Press, published by UQP. As director of if:book Australia at the Queensland Writers Centre, Simon writes regularly on the future of the book and took the role of lead writer for the 24-Hour Book.

Workshops

Write Your Own Life

What use is truth?

Learn how to tell your own unique life story. Access a box of literary tools and learn the importance of setting scenes and using dialogue to bring your story to life. Learn the discipline of getting the words on to the page as we work through exercises to connect with your past. Have your work critiqued and gain confidence to tell a bigger story.

The proposition that no absolute truth can be found is no excuse for surrendering the search.

Writing is commonly a journey, and the pursuit of truth a worthy motivator. Failing to get there does not have to be the point. All good writing, in news, non-fiction or fiction is informed and elevated by truth.

In this workshop Chris Masters draws on half a century of truth seeking to outline techniques for uncovering facts, developing ideas and forming narrative. The focus of the sessions will be practical, revealing techniques for gaining cooperation, knowing where next to look, managing burgeoning research and liberating creativity.

with Lindsay Simpson When: May 31, 10am – 4pm Where: SCU Room, Byron Community Centre Cost: $75 members, $95 nonmembers

DR LINDSAY SIMPSON is the author and co-author of eight books. Brothers in Arms, her first book, published in 1989 and co-authored with Sandra Harvey was made into a six part television series Bikie Wars, Brothers in Arms which screened on Channel 10 last year to more than a million viewers. She has written a travel book, The Australian Geographic Guide to Tasmania and a novel, The Curer of Souls which was shortlisted for the Colin Roderick prize. Her most recent book was Honeymoon Dive, coauthored with Jennifer Cooke. Lindsay has designed two postgraduate writing degrees at the University of Tasmania and James Cook University and spent 12 years as an investigative journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald. She runs 5-day life writing retreats.

with Chris Masters When: June 14, 10am – 4pm Where: SCU Room, Byron Community Centre Cost: $75 members, $95 nonmembers

CHRIS MASTERS claims a writing apprenticeship from birth. A son of acclaimed author Olga, Chris went on to develop expertise in a range of disciplines, radio, television, print, documentary and publishing. Reports for ABC TV Four Corners proved nation shaping. Books such as Jonestown and Uncommon Soldier achieved critical and commercial success. An Honorary Doctor of Communications, Chris Masters continues to write, and teach.

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 23

Workshops Character Development : Whose Story Is This, Anyway? with Melissa Lucashenko When: June 28, 9am – 1.30pm Where: SCU Room, Byron Community Centre Cost: $65 members, $85 nonmembers

When we remember ‘great stories’ most often it is actually great characters we recall. Without those astoundingly handsome leading men and their bewitching, complicated love interests, you can have the best plot in the world, but who’s gonna be listening? Great characters grab your reader and make her care about the rest of your story.

In this workshop, award-winning novelist and essayist Melissa Lucashenko will be taking you through the essential processes of constructing character.

How do you convey men, women and children of courage? Passion?

Vulnerability? How can character development express more than just an individual’s plight, but extend to represent family, culture, community or very broad themes like Trust – Hope – Redemption? What is the difference between constructing fictional and non-fiction characters? What are our responsibilities to our characters?

Whether comic, tragic or romantic (or a mixture of all three) great characters leap off the page into your reader’s hearts. Bring your ideas along and be prepared to walk out knowing your own original characters more intimately than you ever imagined!

MELISSA LUCASHENKO is an awardwinning novelist who lives between Brisbane and the Bundjalung nation.

Her writing explores the stories and passions of ordinary Australians with particular reference to Aboriginal people and others living around the margins of the First World. Melissa’s most recent book is Mullumbimby, a contemporary novel of romantic love and cultural warfare set in a remote NSW valley.

Melissa is a founding member of Sisters Inside, a groundbreaking organisation which supports criminalised women in Queensland. She is a member of the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, and is currently working on a novel of historical Queensland, as well as several screenplays.

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Opportunities

Harlequin romance publishers are looking for new submissions for their Love Inspired Suspense, Heartwarming, Cosmo Red-Hot Reads and more, including digital imprints. Full details and submission information: http://www.harlequin.com/ Questions is a new online journal seeking submissions from emerging writers who have bravely decided that their voice needs to be heard. The next issue of Questions will be on the theme of ‘Questioning Truth’. Ideally, your submission should be loosely based on this theme. Full details of the magazine and submissions can be found on the website: http://www.questions.com.au/ submissions/index.php Three Kookaburras is an independent publishing company seeking manuscripts.

It neither pays advances nor requires any money from the authors published.

The website includes a monthly blog of writing tips. Author and writing mentor Sydney Smith also answers questions sent to her about writing problems. See their guidelines and sumbission details: http://threekookaburras.com/ Dimension6 magazine (Issue 2) is looking for strong, original speculative fiction stories, up to 4,500 words (though novellas will also be considered). Dimension6 is a new electronic magazine distributed free, with work collected in an end-ofyear ebook sold for $0.49. Full submission details available: https://plus.google. com/+CoeurdelionAu/about Closing: 24 May Positive Words Magazine is seeking submissions of short story and poetry ‘fillers’ for upcoming issues of the monthly magazine. Longer pieces are also always welcome but shorter, and no less important, pieces are perfect for filling spaces. Hard copy submissions only, with SSAE or email address for response to the Editor, Sandra James, PO Box 798, Heathcote 3523, Victoria. More information: http:// positivewordsmagazine.wordpress.com/ information/.

Tasmanian Geographic - Your stories, photos, enthusiasm and ideas are kindly

requested! Tasmanian Geographic is a free online digital magazine. They are seeking stories and images of exploration, research, science, adventure, education, mapmaking, documentary filmmaking, ecological toursim, historical musings, museum studies, project updates and more. See the magazine and how to contribute: http://www.tasmaniangeographic.com/ Momentum Monday - Momentum, Australia’s first major digital imprint, is open to submissions. Momentum accepts submissions weekly on Mondays between 12.00 midnight and 11.59 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time via email only.

Momentum is open to publishing fiction and non-fiction in most traditional and non-traditional genres. This includes new and previously published shorter length stories, essays and journalism between 15,000 to 50,000 words, genre novels and non-fiction between 50,000 to 100,000 words and longer and complex narratives of over 100,000 words. Writers can be based anywhere in the world.

Details: http://momentumbooks.com.au/ submissions/ HarperCollins’ Unsolicited Submissions Portal - The Wednesday Post.

HarperCollinsPublishers ANZ has an online unsolicited submission program, The Wednesday Post. Their goal is to uncover, develop and promote the most outstanding voices writing today. The new portal can be accessed at www. wednesdaypost.com.au and will also link from the HarperCollins homepage.

Submissions are accepted every week on Wednesday only. Aspiring authors will be asked to present synopses of their work and the first 50 pages of a manuscript.

HarperCollins are looking for writers at every stage of their career, from closet scribes to those who have a history of publication. Adult and YA books are the focus for this initiative, and they will be accepting manuscripts in both fiction and non fiction genres, particularly exceptional contemporary women’s fiction. The Wednesday Post will respond to authors within three weeks. All submissions will be considered for print and e-book publication as well as digital-only publication. www.wednesdaypost.com.au

Competitions University of Canberra, Vice Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize. With a first prize of $15,000 and a total prize pool of $25,000 this is a prestigious new award on offer for a poem of up to 50 lines. The prize celebrates the enduring significance of poetry to cultures everywhere in the world, and its ongoing and often seminal importance to world literatures. http://www.canberra.edu.au/vcpoetryprize Closes: 30 May The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award is one of Australia’s richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five. Offering publication by Allen & Unwin, with an advance against royalties plus prize money totalling $20,000, The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award has launched the careers of some of Australia’s most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan. The award was won by Rohan Wilson in 2011. Entries may be fiction, biography or history. http://www.allenandunwin.com/default. aspx?page=443 Closes: 31 May 2014 Proverse Prize; a Hong Kong-based international competition for unpublished fiction, non-fiction or poetry. They have requested the consulate distribute the competition information to those who may be interested. Hence we now contact you. Australian authors have previously been represented among prize winners.

Entry is open to all aged 18 or above, irrespective of residence, nationality or citizenship. Work may be previously edited, acknowledging the editor.

Entry fee is HK$200 (approx.: A$28) and the winner receives publication of the entered work and HK$10,000 (A$1,400). Additional publication prizes may be awarded. http://www.proversepublishing.com.

Closes: 31 May The Barbara Jefferis Award is offered for ‘the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society’.

Barbara Jefferis was a feminist, a founding member of the Australian Society of

Competitions

Authors, its first woman President and, in the words of Thomas Keneally, ‘a rare being amongst authors, being both a fine writer but also organisationally gifted. She was a professional and internationally published writer long before most of us dreamed of such things.’

In 2014 the Award is valued at $55,000, including a $50,000 prize for the winner.

This year’s Award will be assessed by Margaret Barbalet, Georgia Blain and Dorothy Johnston. https://asauthors.org/the-barbara-jefferisaward-1 Closes: 13 June The Royal Society of Literature is delighted to announce that we are now accepting entries for the sixteenth V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, awarded for the best unpublished short story of the year.

The winner will receive a prize of £1000 and their work will be published in Prospect online and in the RSL Review.

In addition to this, there will be an opportunity to appear at a RSL event with established short story writers in autumn 2014. The judges for this year are Margaret Drabble, Tibor Fischer and Helen Oyeyemi.

In order to be eligible for the competition, stories must be 2000- 4000 words and must not have been published previously or broadcast in any other medium.

Entrants must be citizens of the UK, the Republic of Ireland or Commonwealth countries or have been resident in one of the aforementioned countries for the past three years. www.theroyalsocietyofliterature. submittable.com/submit.

Closes: 16 June Hunter Writers Centre is thrilled to announce that the 2014 Newcastle Poetry Prize is open for entries.

Now in its 33rd year, the Newcastle Poetry Prize is the country’s most prestigious poetry award. The competition is judged anonymously and you can enter as many times as you wish. Prizes are awarded from a prize pool of over $20 000 and the shortlisted poems will be published in the annual anthology.

Enter at: http://www.hunterwriterscentre. org/newcastle-poetry-prize.html Closes: 20 June

Comprising two sections, fiction and non-fiction, the Cowley Literary Award will have no subject theme. It is for writers to decide their subject. Your ideas. Your sources. They just want quality stories. http://www.australianartsales.com.au/ cowley-award Closes: 30 June The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) invites applications for the newly endowed CHASS Australia Prize for a Book in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (Cash prize of $3,500).

The Prize will be awarded to the author whose book, in the opinion of the judges, contributes most to Australian cultural and intellectual life. The Prize is being sponsored by Routledge, the world’s leading academic publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences. https://www.chass.org.au/forum/ australiaPrizes.htm Closes: 30 June The Future Justice Prize 2014 is awarded to Australian individuals or organizations for leadership and initiative in the advancement of future justice. Future Justice is concerned with what those living today leave behind for future generations.

Attached is information about previous winners and the nomination form for this year. Further details are at: http://www.futurejustice.com.au/ Closes: 1 July As of June Barnardos Australia will be launching The Great Aussie Book Prize, in conjunction with our partner Australian Voices In Print, are looking for the great Aussie unpublished memoir, a true story centred on Australian family and home – however that is seen by the author.

The winner of the Book Prize will receive agency representation from Australia’s most renowned literary agent Selwa Anthony, and print, ebook and audio book contracts from well- known Australian publishers. More information at: http://www.greataussiebookprize.com.au/ Closes: 31 August

northerly magazine | may – june 2014- 25

WRITERS’ GROUPS

Alstonville Plateau Writers Group Meets 2nd Tuesday of the month. 10am to 12pm. All genres welcome. Contact Christine on 66 288 364 or email gcpioneerina@ hotmail.com Ballina/Byron U3A Creative Writing Meets at 12.00pm every second Wednesday, Fripp Oval Ballina. Contact Jan on 0404 007 586 or jan.mulchany@bigpond.com Bangalow Writers Group Meets Thursday at 9:15am at the Bangalow Scout Hall.

Contact Simone on 0407 749 288.

Bellingen Writers Group Meets at Bellingen Golf Club on the 4th Monday of the month at 2:00pm. All welcome. Contact Joanne on 6655 9246 or email jothirsk@ restnet.com.au Casino Writers Group Meets 3rd Thursday of the month 4pm at the Casino Library.

Contact Brian on 02 6628 2636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com Cloudcatchers For haiku enthusiasts, a ginko (haiku walk) is undertaken according to group agreement. Contact Quendryth on 02 6628 3753 or email quendrythyoung@bigpond.com Coffs Harbour Writers Group Meets 1st and 3rd Thursday of month, 10:30am12pm. Contact Lorraine on 02 6653 3256, email lmproject@bigpond.com or visit www.coffsharbourwriters.com Coffs Harbour Memoir Writers Group Share your memoir writing for critiquing.

Monthly meetings. Contact 0409 824 803 or email costalmermaid@gmail.com Cru3a River Poets Meets every Thursday at 10:30am, venue varies, mainly in Yamba.

Contact Pauline on 02 6645 8715 or email kitesway@westnet.com.au Dangerously Poetic writing circle Meets 2nd Wednesday of month, 2pm-4pm. At the Brunswick Valley Community Centre. Contact on Laura, 6680 1976 or visit www. dangerouslypoetic.com Dorrigo Writers Group Meet every 2nd Wednesday from 10am-2pm. Contact Iris on 6657 5274 or email an_lomall@bigpond.com or contact Nell on 6657 4089.

Dunoon Writers Group Writers on the Block. Meets 2nd Tuesday of month, 6:30pm8pm, at the Dunoon Sports Club. Contact Helga on 02 6620 2994 (W) 0401 405 178 (M) or email heg.j@telstra.com Federal Writers Group Meets 3rd Saturday of month in Federal. Contact Vicki on 02 6684 0093 or email ganden1@gmail.com FAW Port Macquarie–Hastings Regional Meets 1pm on last Saturday of month, Maritime Museum, Port Macquarie. Contact Joie on 02 6584 3520 or email Bessie on befrank@tsn.cc Gold Coast Writers Association Meets 3rd Saturday of month, 1.30pm for a 2.00pm start, at Fradgley Hall, Burleigh Heads Library, Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads, Qld. Contact 0431 443 385 or email info@goldcoast-writers.org.au Kyogle Writers Group Meets 1st Tuesday of the month 10:30am at the Kyogle Bowling Club. Contact Brian 02 6624 2636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com Memoir Writing Group Meets every month at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay. Contact Diana on 02 6685 5387 and 0420 282938 or email diana.burstall@gmail.com Ocean Shores Writing Group Meets fortnightly on Tuesdays, 7.00pm. Contact Louise on 0401 567 540 or email louisepm¬ccabe@gmail.com Nambucca Valley Writers Group Meets 4th Saturday of month, 1.30pm, Nambucca.

Contact 02 6568 9648, or nambuccawriters@gmail.com Poets and Writers on the Tweed Meet weekly in the Tweed Heads Library, Tuesdays 1.30pm to 3.00pm. Poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers all welcome. Fun group meets for discussion, support and constructive criticism. Free membership.

Phone Lorraine 07 55909395 Taree–Manning River Scribblers Meets 2nd Wednesday of month, 9.00am– 11.30am in Taree. Call first to check venue. Contact Bob Winston on 02 6553 2829 or email rrw1939@hotmail.com UKI Writers Meet last Sunday of most months to share and encourage our literary endeavours. Contact Elspeth on 0266797029 or email windelwood@bigpond.com WordsFlow Writing Group Meets Fridays in school term, 1.00pm–3.30 pm, Pottsville Beach Neighbourhood Centre, 12a Elizabeth St, Pottsville Beach. Contact Cheryl on 0412 455 707 or email jazzsinger@gmail.com visit http://words-flowwriters. blogspot.com

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