northerly nov-dec

northerly The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre Magazine

November-December 2015

LITERATURE OF YOUTH · CHIGOZIE OBIOMA · ARTHUR RIMBAUD & TOBY FITCH SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY · AMANDA GREENSLADE · POETRY · COMPETITIONS

CONTENTS

>> THIS ISSUE

NOVDEC2015 002 Director & Editor’s notes 003 News

Zacharey Jane reflects on a special 555 Road Trip, NRWC Christmas party, Robert Drewe honoured and more

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006 Enfant terrible

Under the spell of Arthur Rimbaud with poet Toby Fitch

008 French connection

A visit to fabled Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company

010 Fishermen’s friend

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Booker-shortlisted Chigozio Obioma interviewed

011 Kind words

Teaching kindness through reading with children’s author Amanda Greenslade

012 Proof of youth

Local writers on the works of literature that best sum up the spirit of youth for them

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014 Writers’ Group

Federal Writers’ Group

015 SCU showcase

Poetry from Katinka Smit

016 A good sport

Stars of the football field turning their hands to children’s literature

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018 Different worlds

Laurel Cohn on the divide between the publishing industry and academia

020 Learning Curve

Poet Mark Young on setting up an e-journal

021 ADFAS wrap

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A look back on another successful year of ADFAS lectures in the Northern Rivers

022 Competitions 024 List of writers’ groups

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>>HELLO

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Photo: Angela Kay

Barnaby and I were quietly pleased to discover we share Paris’s Shakespeare and Company in our respective pasts, so I was delighted when he suggested we write short pieces about our time there for this issue. It’s an iconic book lovers’ destination that has made such an impression on so many generations of readers and writers.

Closer to home, from November 11-14 you can head to Sydney to see the cutting-edge festival Storyology put on by our friends at The Walkley Foundation. Billed as Australia’s festival of media, it “brings forth international storytellers, technology innovators and inspiring speakers from the world of television, print, film, radio, digital

and social media.”

But you can’t head down to Sydney until after you see Kerry O’Brien in conversation with Barrie Cassidy at the Byron Theatre on Wednesday November 11 (tickets via NRWC website)! O’Brien will be talking about his new book Keating, building on the transcripts of the compelling television event of 2013, ABC’s Keating: The Interviews. O’Brien has gathered an enormous bank of new material, gleaned during many hours of further conversation with Keating, to create a book that is more forensic and all-encompassing than the successful series. This is a conversation not to be missed!

I spent a recent Sunday at the Tweed Regional Gallery admiring the work of artist Nicholas Harding. His artwork features in the National Portrait Gallery travelling exhibition Arcadia: Sound of the Sea on show at the Tweed Gallery until November 15. There are many other beautiful exhibitions at the gallery at the moment, including The Same and the Other by local artist Michael Cusack, inspired by a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris last year. Seems the City of Lights is a focus for this issue.

I’m also looking forward to seeing Railway Wonderland at NORPA. Artistic director Julian Louis says to expect “comedic and moving performances, kooky dance numbers, live music, scenes across time, projections, singing and a choir.”

See if you can nab a ticket.

FROM THE EDITOR

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LOCATION/CONTACT Level 1 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay P: 02 6685 5115 F: 02 6685 5166 E: info@nrwc.org.au W: www.nrwc.org.au POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 1846 Byron Bay NSW 2481 EDITOR: Barnaby Smith, northerly@nrwc.org.au CONTRIBUTORS: Anni Abbink, Emma Ashmere, Laurel Cohn, Jessie Cole, Jeff Dawson, Christina de Water, Russell Eldridge, Susanna Freymark, Dr. Lynda Hawryluk, Julia Pannell, Katinka Smit, Lisa Walker NRWC COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON Chris Hanley VICE CHAIRPERSON Lynda Dean SECRETARY Russell Eldridge TREASURER Cheryl Bourne MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Kate Cameron, Marele Day, Lynda Hawryluk, Anneli Knight, Emerald Moon, Jennifer St George, Adam van Kempen, Teresa Walters LIFE MEMBERS Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin, Gayle Cue, Robert Drewe, Jill Eddington, Chris Hanley, John Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Irene O’Brien, Jennifer Regan, Cherrie Sheldrick, Brenda Shero, Heather Wearne MAIL OUT DATES Magazines are sent in JANUARY, MARCH, MAY, JULY, SEPTEMBER and NOVEMBER MAGAZINE DESIGN Kaboo Media PRINTER Quality Plus Printers Ballina 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.

Edwina Johnson Director, NRWC

Welcome to the final northerly for 2015, which is a themed issue: ‘youth’.

The initial reason for this was simply to tie in with the coming of spring, but as the magazine took shape and the writing came in, the concept expanded in several different directions. The lead feature, which sees local literary figures identifying works that best express the essence of youth for them, explores coming of age within the context of world war through Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, as well as the more intimate, domestic experience of youth in Jane Eyre, and more.

Youth as aesthetic and moral rebellion is represented by Arthur Rimbaud, as seen through the lens of Australian poet Toby Fitch, while we

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

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

also meet one of the most lauded young debut novelists of the year, Chigozie Obioma.

Keeping with a vaguely French theme, we also celebrate one of the world’s great booksellers, and long-time supporter of young writers, Shakespeare and Company of Paris.

One thing for sure is that youth has nothing to do with age. On that note, as spring gives way to summer, northerly wishes all readers long lazy days, nights of soft rain and plenty of stimulating reading.

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

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

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

Cover image: Silhouettes by Julia Pannell

Barnaby Smith Editor, northerly magazine

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

100 MONKEYS AND A MEME OF LOVE

>> NEWS

As one of Byron Bay Writers Festival’s key ‘off-site’ initiatives, this year’s 555 Road Trip saw a quintet of illustrious literary figures traversing our region, bringing stimulating ideas and entertaining discussion to audiences who might not have opportunity to attend the Festival itself. 555 Road Trip tour manager and author Zacharey Jane reflects on a week on the road that was as profound as it was uproarious.

Five writers to five towns in five days sounds like a version of a hundred monkeys typing infinitely to create a Shakespearean sonnet.

But this reference to Huxley’s theory has nothing to do with simians and everything to do with the random beauty that can arise from an intense experience, that being the Five Writers Road Trip, an initiative of the Australia Council and NRWC to take Byron Bay Writers Festival to regional audiences in northern NSW. Dragging the writers out of their comfort zones to speak in open public venues is certainly intense, and beauty abounded.

This year’s road trippers were Lian Hearn, Mark Dapin, Chris Flynn, Ellen van Neerven and Zohab Zee Khan, along with documentary maker Coco Clarke and me, the tour manager. We met on day one, in Coffs Harbour.

An uninitiated traveller could be forgiven for assuming Coffs to be populated by life forms seeking a cheap banana experience – possibly the aforementioned monkeys. They would be wrong.

Our first event was held at a library packed to capacity with book lovers.

We were welcomed to country by Elder Aunty Bea with a warmth that continued throughout our visit.

After the library, Coffs Coast Writers Centre provided a tranquil setting for Lian Hearn to conduct the first of many fine workshops. The day ended with a rowdy panel, setting the precedent for impassioned discussions and remarkable performances by all the writers.

So the format continued, through Grafton, Casino, Alstonville and Murwillumbah. There were more wonderful moments than space here can convey and even 500 monkeys typing infinitely could not capture the sense of camaraderie that formed inside our van. Our van was like a diesel-powered meme travelling from town to town, spreading love and literature.

A full house at the Crown Hotel in Grafton was thrilled by Zohab Zee Khan, who performed his awardwinning poem ‘I Write’. Zohab is a dynamic performer who literally worked every inch of the room. In

the van the next day it was agreed that no one could follow Zohab, so he became our closer.

It was a wise decision. As we sped through the kilometres of countryside between Grafton and Casino we espied a Khan Road and Zohab confessed to having history in Casino. That evening the rural folk at the Casino RSM were slightly bemused by our 6’8” gangsta rapper – until they discovered that he was one of the Khans, famed across Casino for their buck-jumping skills and popularity with the ladies. This was greater currency than a mere Australian Slam Poetry title.

Casino also saw the beginning of the unlikely duo of Mark Dapin and Chris Flynn. At Casino High they spoke to a rapt audience about journalism, celebrities and sumo wrestling. Listing the crazy jobs that writers take in order to survive, Chris confessed to having refereed pretend sumo. Of course, Mark one-upped him by claiming to be an Australian Sumo Champion. As he had no medal to prove it no one believed him, but it made us laugh.

The 555 Road Trip writers at the Tweed Regional Gallery. From left: Mark Dapin, Ellen van Neerven, Chris Flynn, Lian Hearn, Zohab Zee Khan.

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>> NEWS

Byron Bay Theatre played host to British philosopher, academic and public intellectual A.C Grayling on September 11, in support of his book of essays The Challenge of Things. Among many topics, Grayling’s lecture covered the implications of China’s social and political impact on the world, the nature of mind and the ethical imperative of studying the humanities. Photo: Jeff Dawson

Day four included Lismore and Alstonville. Responding to the 150th anniversary of white colonisation in Alstonville, Ellen read her poem ‘Imaginary Spears’. She had written the poem while on the road and like all Ellen’s writing it is a work of fierce beauty. Chris calls her reading that night his favourite bit.

Day five: Murwillumbah, beginning at the renowned Tweed Regional Gallery, amongst the Director’s Choice collection, where the writers read pieces in response to the paintings. Gallery director Susi Muddiman wrote, “What the writers presented was an inspiring mix of thoughtfulness, nostalgia, humour and irreverence. The writers’ responses added poignancy to the artworks and generated a lot of laughs from the audience.”

Not just laughs. Lian took inspiration from a Margaret Olley picture of bananas in a post-war memoir piece that moved an elderly gentleman in the audience to tears. Chris Flynn read about lost love that reduced this otherwise stoic tour manager to tears. Then Mark made us all laugh by telling his sumo wrestling story, a work of fiction, we were sure.

But we were wrong.

After the event an audience member introduced herself as the president of Sumo Australia, no less. As the meme of the 555 spread she’d heard about Mark’s claims of sumo supremacy and had come to meet him. With his medal. At our evening event she held a small award ceremony, and the van moved on, home to Byron Bay and the Festival.

The stories we told and the stories we discovered proved that five writers in five days in five towns was much more entertaining than a room full of monkeys. As Ellen wrote to me weeks later, “We moved from beach to bush, from river to river, stopping to wonder about our next stories.”

Hopefully, our 555 meme will go on beyond us, spreading love and literature to new readers.

Festive function and NRWC competition

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This year’s NRWC Christmas party will take place on Wednesday, December 16 at the office on Jonson Street, Byron Bay, starting at 5:30pm. The event is exclusively for NRWC members who must RVSP to info@nrwc.org.au or 02 6685 5115.

Members can also enter the Christmas Story Slam competition – just write a Christmas story of no more than 500

>> NEWS

words and send it to penny@nrwc. org.au by December 2. The word ‘silver’ should appear in the story.

The best three will be selected to be read aloud at the Christmas party and the winner chosen on the night.

December book launch NWRC member Kerry Tolson is launching her first book, Buddhas, Bombs and the Babu on Thursday, December 3 at the Nightcap Restaurant in Wollongbar. The book will be launched by Jan Pearson while the evening will also feature art from Donna Sharam and drumming from Samba Blisstas. It all kicks off at 6pm. Published by Brolga Publishing and distributed

by Pan Macmillan, Buddhas, Bombs and the Babu is a humorous travel narrative and memoir, following one family’s journey of discovery through Nepal.

Drewe a ‘living treasure’ NRWC life member and internationally revered novelist Robert Drewe was among those honoured at the Western Australian state government’s State Living Treasures Awards at a ceremony on October 16. The awards were previously presented in 2004 and 1999, and recognise artists who work within or create work about Western Australia. Drewe, who grew up in Perth but now lives in the Northern Rivers, has published fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction and has been the recipient of several international awards.

Also among the writers honoured was Perth-born Joan London, who appeared at this year’s Byron Bay Writers Festival.

Drama on the rails Lismore’s iconic disused railway station is the setting for Railway Wonderland, a theatre event that runs from October 22 to November 7. Fusing drama, dance and song, this production from NORPA tells a story inspired by the region that spans from the Forties to the present day. Railway Wonderland has its origins in a call-out to local writers in 2010 for stories about rail travel and train stations, that were read at the 2010 Byron Bay Writers Festival.

For tickets visit norpa.org.au.

Theatre at Mullum Music Festival This year’s Mullumbimby Music Festival, which takes place November 19-22, features two theatre events. How Deep Is Your Love is a monologue from the pen of local writer and performer Mark Swivel that offers a journey through Bangladesh against a soundtrack of the Bee Gees. Also featuring at the festival is Hooting and Howling, featuring comedian Phil Spencer and singer-songwriter Elana Stone. Mixing comedy, storytelling and music, the show is an “autobiographical account of soul searching and ghost hunting on Sydney’s Cockatoo Island”.

northerly call-out

Here at northerly we have a number of recently published books, both fiction and non-fiction, waiting to be reviewed. If any budding (or indeed experienced) critics are interested in reading and writing about these works, please get in touch. We would also like to hear from any local photographers or visual artists who are interested in the opportunity to have their work featured in the magazine. Reviewers and artists can email northerly@nrwc.org.au.

NRWC diary giveaway Our friends at Pilot Press are offering one lucky NRWC member a copy of Pilot 2016: A Diary for Writers. This essential guide for any writer features advice from Australian literary journals, regular writing prompts and details of more than 150 competitions, festivals and awards. If you are an NRWC member, email your entry to info@nrwc.org.au with ‘Pilot Press diary competition’ in the subject line. Deadline is November 27 with the winner announced at www.nrwc.org.au on November 30. For more information about Pilot Press, visit pilotpress.com.au.

OBITUARIES GEOFFREY BOLTON Australian historian; November 5, 1931 – September 4, 2015 DOROTHY BUTLER New Zealand children’s author; April 24, 1925 – September 20, 2015 JACKIE COLLINS British romance novelist; October 4, 1937 – September 19, 2015 SAM DE BRITO Australian author and columnist; February 2, 1969 – October 12, 2015 DENNIS EICHHORN American writer; August 19, 1945 – October 8, 2015 BRIAN FRIEL Irish dramatist; January 9, 1929 – October 2, 2015 WES FUNK Canadian author; 1968-9 – October 10, 2015 HENNING MANKELL Swedish author; February 3, 1948 – October 5, 2015 W.H OLIVER New Zealand poet; May 14, 1925 – September 16, 2015 DIANA PULLEIN-THOMPSON British children’s author; October 1, 1925 – October 21, 2015 ALI SALEM Egyptian author and playwright; February 24, 1936 – September 22, 2015 HERSCHEL SILVERMAN American poet; April 17, 1926 – September 19, 2015 PAUL WEST American novelist and poet; February 23, 1930 – October 18, 2015 C.K. WILLIAMS American Poet; November 4, 1936 – September 20, 2015 VERA WILLIAMS American children’s author; January 28, 1927 – October 16, 2015

QUOTATION CORNER “In bed, our yesterdays are too oppressive; if a man can only get up, though it be but to whistle or to smoke, he has a presence which offers some resistance to the past – sensations which assert themselves against tyrannous memories.”

-- George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859) northerly | 005

>> INTERVIEW

INVERTED AND PERVERTED

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P

opularly seen as the crown prince of revolt and rebellion and a poet whose work has reverberated profoundly among writers, painters and musicians in the 124 years since his death, French symbolist Arthur Rimbaud remains a literary figure whose capacity to change the lives of his readers seems to be reaffirmed with each new generation.

One Rimbaud disciple is Sydney poet Toby Fitch, whose forthcoming collection Bloomin’ Notions offers a series of ‘inversions’ of poems from Rimbaud’s seminal Illuminations, experiments in ‘mistranslating’ the original French and re-ordering the resultant English text. He talks with Barnaby Smith about the poet’s enduring magnetism and impact on his own work.

>> INTERVIEW

he stares through us [Etienne Carjat’s 1872 photo of Rimbaud, pictured left], should be on one of those hip calico shoulder bags that trade in literary nostalgia, if it isn’t already. Or maybe his mug should be on a mug. But seriously, his doctrine “I is an other” represents, for me, the ability to lose the self in poetry. On one hand, it’s a call for collectivisation, in a political sense. On the other, it’s personally transgressive, in terms of identity and sexuality, and a constant reminder that as we age we have the ability to transform, not just through words and art but in life.

This idea is also embodied in one of my favourite lines of his: “genius is the recovery of childhood at will”.

Can you describe how you came to the idea of inversions, and your poetic intentions with this practice? How big was John Tranter’s influence on your ‘mistranslations’?

Tranter’s influence would represent one step in my thinking about inversion as a poetic device, but only one of many. His versions of French poets often make How and when were you first captivated by Rimbaud? fun of their original poems, especially if those works When I was nineteen or twenty and just starting to take portray a sense of highfalutin-ness, or self-importance, poetry seriously – the same age he was when he quit which they often do. My concept of the ‘inversion’ is poetry for a nomadic life, trading guns and other goods predicated on being an Australian poet at the “arse-end through northern Africa and the Middle East. When of the world”, as Paul Keating put it. Writing inversions I first read the Illuminations, they each gave me the is a way of upending the older and established sensation of being in an “intense European and American cultural and rapid dream” (Rimbaud’s histories and artistic frameworks words). John Ashbery describes I figured I would that we in Australia often seem the “crystalline jumble” of the of Rimbaud by forcing his poetry down my throat, to inherit and take on (in our Illuminations as “a disordered even after I’d lost my appetite own art) without question. Not collection of magic lantern only are there other cultural slides”. I think we have an histories to think about (Asian instinct, as writers, that this and Indigenous Australian, for instance), but there fertile other world of the imagination (submerged in the are always new ways to question, recreate, and deviate unconscious) needs to be newly cracked open in order from our received ideas of Australian-ness. Inversion to create new works. We want access to the “pack-ice” or is a form of subversion, but not a sub-version. It’s “drifting ice-floes” of our dreams (Freud). That feeling is simultaneously an aversion and a diversion. It’s a what reading Rimbaud’s poems still does for me.

Down Under conceit that might open up other ways of thinking about creating works of art in Australia. The Why did you study Rimbaud for your doctorate at idea is also, and simply, to create new poems. the University of Sydney?

I needed to get to the bottom of his influence on me Did you ever find it strange to be devoting so much and on various other Australian poets. He forms the study and reflection to a poet who gave up the art at 21 background of the first essay of my thesis (Stéphane and scorned poetry from then on?

Mallarmé the other essay). But my doctorate is also Yes, it’s very ironic. But the schism in his life – how a creative one in which I’ve written a book of poems. he left a self-proclaimed visionary poetics behind for For such a self-scrutinising project I felt I should capitalism – is a paradox that will never be solved, and conduct an experiment on my influences and on my one that continues to fascinate. The incompleteness of his methods of writing, simultaneously, so I took Rimbaud’s writing gives us blanks that we can fill in – however we Illuminations and wrote ‘inversions’ of them. I’ve called choose to. it Bloomin’ Notions. It’s my third book of poems in the

destroy the allure

larger scheme of things.

Rimbaud’s influence on Australian poetry has been large – especially the Generation of ’68 poets. What makes him particularly attractive to Australian writers?

Rimbaud is the ultimate renegade and larrikin, one of Plato’s outlaws. That appeals to certain Down Under (in)sensibilities, I think. And his poetry is indeterminate.

It can be read and re-read variously with each new generation or artistic movement.

For you personally, to what degree does he represent some kind of spirit of youth or rebellion or sexuality, or is that more the Rimbaud-as-fashion-accessory image?

That’s the Rimbaud-as-fashion-accessory image. His famous mug, that black and white photo in which

Do you foresee Rimbaud being a lifelong obsession for you?

Hopefully not. The point of studying his work more closely was to rid the mythical enigma-child from my life. When you know too much about a subject, it can destroy its allure. That was my perverse logic – I figured I would destroy the allure of Rimbaud by forcing his poetry down my throat, even after I’d lost my appetite.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure it worked. With Bloomin’ Notions being a kind of upside-down version of Illuminations (with new poems flowering up from my throat), it seems I’ll be haunted by him for good.

Toby Fitch is a poet from Sydney. His books include Rawshock, which won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry 2012, and Jerilderies. His new book, Bloomin’ Notions, is published by Vagabond Press.

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>>FEATURE

Photo: Flo21, Wikimedia Commons

HEART OF THE LEFT BANK:

THE ENDURING MYSTIQUE OF SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY

T

he Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, on the banks of the Seine in the city’s Latin Quarter, has been an epicentre of literary life since its first incarnation was opened by Sylvia Beach (on a different site) in 1919. Such was its standing that between 1921 and 1940, regular visitors included the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and James Joyce, whose Ulysses was published by Beach in 1922.

The Nazi occupation of Paris saw the shop closed between 1940 and 1951, when it was re-opened on Rue de la Bucherie by an American, George Whitman (initially under the name Le Mistral, before reverting to Shakespeare and Company, with Beach’s blessing). In the fifties it became a favourite haunt of various Beat Generation writers who frequented the French capital. Whitman died at the age of ninety-eight in 2011, with his daughter, also called Sylvia, now overseeing the grand old establishment, which operates as a recognisable,

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modern English-language bookshop downstairs but offers a fascinating collection of spectacular antiquarian literary treasures on its upper floors.

It is, many say, the most famous independent bookstore in the world.

Shakespeare and Company is also famous for its phenomenon of ‘tumbleweeds’, largely young, budding writers who would live at the shop for a time, sleeping on mattresses and improvised beds strewn about amid the shelves, in exchange for helping out around the place. They are also obliged to read a book a day and provide the shop’s archives with an illuminating autobiographical text.

The store extends a unique branch of kindness to the young. So for this special youth-themed issue of northerly, NRWC director Edwina Johnson recalls her experience working with Shakespeare and Company both on the shopfloor and with its festival, Festivalandco. In addition, northerly editor Barnaby Smith reflects on his taste of life as a tumbleweed.

>> FEATURE

I had been visiting friends in Paris for years; staying and relishing, then leaving. Till one departure day it dawned that I would come and live there. I didn’t know how or when but I felt a certainty about it. Then in July 2007, my friend Helene offered me her bijoux apartment in the eighteenth arrondissement for five weeks. She lived up six flights of stairs in two rooms with a cupboard-sized kitchen and a bathroom window that opened out to the rooftops of Paris. From the two main windows, up the hill to the right was Sacre Coeur, resplendent in white.

During this time I met up with a work colleague from Allen & Unwin in Sydney, Jemma Birrell. She had moved to Paris many years earlier and had worked for some time at Shakespeare and Company. One day she introduced me to the young owner, Sylvia Whitman.

And so it came to pass that in the autumn of 2007 I found myself working both in the antiquarian part of the famed Anglophone bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, and as one of the co-directors on their biannual writers festival, FestivalandCo. I pinched myself as I sat in the tiny antiquarian section looking out to Notre Dame, almost in arm’s reach across the Seine, a first edition of Ulysses stashed under the desk and myriad other first editions in the ceiling-high bookshelves that lined this small room.

Tourists would flock to pay homage and hope to catch a glimpse of the notorious owner George Whitman, then in his nineties. And he would regularly oblige, appearing at the window of his upstairs apartment overlooking the courtyard in front of the shop, white hair curved as wings from his head.

Sylvia regaled us all with vintage George stories and we often gathered for tea and champagne in the front room of his apartment. Jeanette Winterson became a dear friend of the bookshop that year and was a regular welcome visitor, taking us for dinner, bringing us cups of tea and biscuits as we worked. Sylvia bought a black dog and named her Colette. George missed Sylvia when she went to London and ventured down in his pyjamas to place flowers on her desk. “No-one touch these!” he admonished as he tenderly rearranged the blooms for the tenth time, “these are for my daughter!”

Of all the wonderful George stories, one of my favourites can be found on YouTube – George is explaining to a couple of young girls that he doesn’t waste his time in a barber shop when he needs a haircut; he simply takes a candle and burns his hair and pats it down. And then he demonstrates: we see his head in flames. Ten seconds later he very calmly pats the flames out – haircut complete.

Shakespeare and Company is a place of pilgrimage; a rite of passage for young aspiring writers who work a few hours in the bookshop each day in return for the immeasurable honour of sleeping amongst its bookshelves at night. George was the soul of the bookshop for many decades and his truly delightful daughter Sylvia has more than ably taken on that mantle both before and since his passing. I was happy and joyfilled every day I went to work in that magical place.

Truly a fortunate and life-changing experience.

I first became aware of Shakespeare and Company as a teenager living near Oxford, England, thanks to a newspaper article about the close and enduring friendship between George Whitman and American poet (and owner of San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore) Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The article ended by saying there was to be a party in Paris celebrating fifty years of each institution, in August 2002.

My first move was to send off a postcard to Shakespeare and Company asking to stay as a tumbleweed for a period that included this party – I received an enthusiastic reply within weeks. My second move was to apply for a travel grant for the trip from the university I was studying at, which, stupidly, they granted me.

My eventual arrival at the shop on Paris’s Left Bank, in the grand shadow of the Notre Dame, was underwhelming to say the least. A brief, unceremonious conversation with Sylvia Whitman informed me she knew nothing about any party, Ferlinghetti wasn’t around and that there was absolutely nothing special whatsoever about that day. I did stay, however, as a tumbleweed for two nights: the first was excruciatingly awkward as I shyly sat in awe of the freewheelin’, intimidatingly artsy fellow temporary residents, as well as the formidable but somehow charming and utterly sincere Whitman, who would lightly pad about the place. To this day I remember absolutely nothing about the second night, such was one’s indulgence in Paris’s many delights, leaving ignominiously the following day under a cloud of sickness that persisted until well beyond arriving back at London’s Waterloo Station.

My return visit to Shakespeare and Company, in 2009, was much more memorable and poetic. Hearing that I was a former tumbleweed, staff invited me up to the top floor, which is given over to living areas and a kitchen. I was taken through a dark room full of current tumbleweeds playing poker and into a tiny bedroom with books piled everywhere, collapsing into pools of pages underfoot. On a shabby single bed lay the bynow thin and somewhat shrunken figure of Whitman, eating pasta from a bowl and watching a black and white television. The conversation was lucid and warm, I recall him heavily praising John Pilger, complaining about the pasta “the girl had made” and, finally, marking the bond with Ferlinghetti with some sweet words about his friend (who remains with us, aged ninety-six). Most striking about that scene though, was the number of tiny kittens that swarmed about the room, clambering over his clothes, between limbs, around his head, over the books, between the blankets. The result is that whenever Whitman is mentioned today, I think of a smiling elderly man lying in bed eating dinner, with restless, grey kittens for hair.

Barnaby Smith

Edwina Johnson northerly | 009

>> INTERVIEW

OUT OF AFRICA:

TOUCHING HOME WITH CHIGOZIE OBIOMA Not long after his appearance at Byron Bay Writers Festival 2015, young Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma was named on the shortlist of six authors competing for this year’s Man Booker Prize, for his novel The Fishermen. Marlon James was announced as the winner on October 13 for A Brief History of Seven Killings, yet Obioma remains one of the most exciting new voices to emerge in world literature this year. Between sessions during the Festival, northerly sat down with him to discuss heritage, research, displacement and the prospect of Adolf Hitler paying a visit to Byron Bay. You were born and grew up in Nigeria, before living in Europe and now the United States. How has that peripatetic existence informed your perspective on your African homeland?

I think my perspective on things has been shaped in a way that it wouldn’t have been had I remained in Nigeria. What I noticed about writing creatively is that I come to prefer relying on hindsight, on what I imagine something was more than a complete snapshot of things.

Recollection works in strange ways, and it’s always good to have it malleable, so I can fill in the blanks. So having that disconnection from place gives me perspective. I see Nigeria from many different angles: a bird’s eye view, an insider’s view and an outsider’s view. It’s a triangular thing and the writer is enriched by that. As much as I miss home, I would lose that if I went back to Nigeria and became immersed in the society there.

How useful is the term ‘postcolonial’ in understanding literary history and African literature? Is it a bit outdated now?

I think it is. There is something that Chinua Achebe said: “If you don’t know where the rain began to beat you, you will not know how to escape from it.” By that I mean that colonialism in Africa has formed an inextricable part of our history that we can’t escape from, and it continues to shape and reassert itself as the decades pass and new generations are born – reassertions such as the English language I speak. Though this does not excuse various African countries for their inadequacies. But it is used as almost a blanket label for literature that comes out of Africa – my belief is that not every novel can be seen as postcolonial, it really must be tackling those issues.

The character of Abulu in The Fishermen has attracted a fair amount of attention. How close were you to figures like that during your childhood?

There is a very worrying phenomenon in most parts of West Africa where governments have no room to take out people who are mentally ill, to distinguish them from homeless people and vagrants. So these people are not claimed, they are just allowed to roam the streets and find food wherever. It bothered me as a child, there were 010 | northerly

many of them where I lived in Akura; sometimes you’d even grow a relationship with them. We would be playing soccer and would see one pass and we’d say, “dance for us”. We felt like this was an adult we could command. But then you wake up and see one of them dead in the road. I have always wanted to bring their plight to attention.

You have previously said that you don’t believe in research for writing fiction. How far does that extend?

It depends on what you call research. Just observing things, sitting and watching the kettle boil, is a kind of research. The research I was thinking of was field research, where, say, you want to write about the lives of farmers in Perth or something and you travel there and watch them and write about them. I feel you’d be constraining yourself. You don’t need to go and see what farmers in Perth are like – it’s fiction for Christ’s sake.

Even if you want to write historical fiction and you want everything to be verifiably correct, I think that fiction is an untrammelled zone. You can do whatever you want with it. You can decide to have Hitler exist in Byron Bay today and get away with it.

What works of Nigerian literature have had the biggest influence on you?

My biggest influence, the writer who I believe made me a writer, is Amos Tutuola. His book The PalmWine Drunkard was actually the first African novel ever written. I was fascinated by it as a child and wrote my masters thesis on it. Of course Achebe’s works too, and also Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate we have. In recent times, there has been a pause in the production of noteworthy literature from Nigeria, between the time Ben Okri won the Booker in 1991 and when Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie came up in 2003. I would credit it her with the resurgence that is going on now.

And there are other astonishing writers now like Helon Habila, folks like that.

The Fishermen is available through Scribe Publications.

Photo: Julia Pannell.

CULTIVATING KINDNESS

>> INTERVIEW

Children’s author and NRWC member Amanda Greenslade recently launched her first book, Myra and the Magic Motorcycle. The first in a series for children aged four to seven, the book is designed to raise awareness in children of a variety of social issues, Greenslade explaining that she wants children to “get to know about the world we live in, and some of the challenges faced by other people”. Specifically, she aims to impart a message of kindness to young readers. Here, she explains to northerly how and why this is such a priority. children need to be taught. More importantly, they need it to be demonstrated to them by people in their own lives being kind and considerate to them. As far as childhood books are concerned the kindest characters that comes to mind are Aslan and the beavers from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Do you think children’s books have a responsibility to impart moral lessons?

Yes, not only that but books need to keep pace with our current social situation as human beings. And the many and varied social situations that can be found not only in different parts of the world, but right here in the place each person lives in. We’re all so different yet we’re all very much the same. I don’t think books about super heroes are enough. Fighting the bad guys may be popular, especially with children like mine (two boys aged five and two) but that’s just entertainment fodder.

I want to see more books with the same fun and zap as super heroes, but that also enable parents to spin their own moral tales from them.

Your motto for Myra and the Magic Motorcycle is ‘Teaching Kids To Be Kind’. What inspired this and how does the book do this?

This is a lofty goal that will probably take more than one book to achieve. The first book The Business in Bermuda is introducing the series and sending Myra into a situation in Bermuda where she is able to help a family in need. In my opinion, being considerate of others and being kind is more important than good looks, intelligence, sporting ability or any other learned skill or innate attribute. It’s something that we all can do better at no matter how moral our upbringing. I’m inspired by my own family, especially my sister who is one of the greatest mothers I know, and whose kids are kind and thoughtful.

The Business in Bermuda teaches kids to do something to help another family. And it’s just the very first step in the kindness I hope to exhibit throughout the series.

What books from your own childhood inspired kindness in you?

I am not sure I would stand up and flag myself as being particularly kind, but I do recognise it as an attribute

Financial hardship is a theme of The Business In Bermuda, what made you choose money as a theme through which to communicate kindness?

Financial hardship is experienced by most people at some point in their lives, and it seems to be a key issue for many people. It seemed like a simple enough starting point for me, in a book that was also going to be setting up the series. The feedback so far from teachers has been positive. It shows in quite a simple way that people going through something tough may just need a little bit of help to get them through their day.

In future Myra books, what other themes do you think you’ll use to teach the message of kindness?

I would like to consider all kinds of social lessons, and I will be limited only by the time and the funds I can raise through my business, Australian eBook Publisher. Some imminent issues I would like to explore are the social effects of drought, domestic violence and gender bias and iniquity.

When you come to write a book, does the message of kindness take precedence over plot or is it something you fit into a story you already have in mind?

Kindness is not foremost in my mind when I write, rather I am thinking about how to make the story interesting and engaging, informative enough about the social issue at hand yet not overwhelming for the target market. The simple act of trying to help others is always going to support the kindness theme. www.amandagreenslade.com

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>> FEATURE

YOUNG LOVE

Trying to explore the idea of ‘youth’ in literature could be seen as a daunting task, given how broad and general a theme this surely is. Indeed, it’s difficult to think of works that don’t address an aspect of youth in some way – perhaps, like love and death, this is a theme that can’t help make its way into any work of literature in some, however subtle, fashion.

Like many things though, what constitutes youth is in the eye of the beholder, or the reader. So we asked a selection of Northern Rivers-based literary figures to choose a book, story or poem that best represents the spirit of youth for them, with predictably fascinating, eclectic results.

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain As we commemorate the various centenaries of World War One, the focus is on sacrifice and heroism. It’s all blood and trenches and, in the case of Australia, the birth of a national narrative and the overweening myth of Anzac.

But in all the reading I have done, nothing comes closer than English writer Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth to describing what happened to the hopes, dreams and the very lives of an entire generation of youth.

Brittain was twenty when war broke out in 1914. Until then she had shared in the life of gilded prosperity of the Edwardian era. A burgeoning feminist, academic pioneer and a young woman deeply in love, she was anticipating a life of endless opportunity in the modern world. Instead, she witnessed what started as a romantic adventure degrade into the systematic slaughter of her age cohort.

She herself was shattered by body blow after body blow of personal tragedy. She quit her Oxford studies and became a front-line nurse tending Allied and German soldiers alike. By the end of the war she is traumatised and bereft. The hardest part was dealing with the new generation of youth coming through, who were indifferent to the war and were already looking ahead to the Roaring Twenties.

Brittain had to wait fifteen years for a form of recognition.

When Testament of Youth came out in 1933, it was a hit, selling 120,000 copies.

Russell Eldridge, author of Harry Mac (Allen & Unwin).

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>> FEATURE

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me

by Richard Fariña Many of the most beautiful books about youth, for me, tend to address some kind of artistic or literary awakening in their main character. Spectacular examples would be Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel and Patrick White’s The Vivisector. So it is perhaps refreshing when a novel portrays the chaos and confusion of young adulthood without any notion of ‘artistic becoming’ attached to it. The central character in Fariña’s 1966 work is a science student, yet also an anarchist who experiments with drugs, sex and political rebellion. This is a novel about youth for youth’s sake, in other words, rather than seeing one’s ‘formative’ years as a step on a path somewhere else. Gnossos Pappadopoulis, as he is called, is ruthlessly present, making for a compelling novel that addresses both the promise and the demise of the countercultural ideas of the sixties like few other works. Fariña, a one-time Greenwich Village folk singer, died at the age of twenty-nine in a motorbike accident two days after this novel, his only book, was published.

‘Writ’ by Ali Smith There’s a razor sharp exchange about age in Ali Smith’s short story ‘Writ’, published in her 2009 collection The First Person and Other Stories.

A middle-aged woman finds her fourteen-year-old self scuffing about her book-lined house, lolling in front of the blaring television, slouching at the kitchen table, perfecting the art of looking needy, bored and beautiful.

There’s so much to say - and not say - to this girl as she smirks, shrugs, advances and retreats.

For a moment there’s a patch of common ground when they talk about the Romantic poet John Keats. But the chasm soon opens up again. “He did die unbelievably young, you know,” says the woman. The girl fires back, “No he didn’t… He was twenty-five or something.”

This is trademark Ali Smith, snapping the elastic of time and place, thrusting a two-way mirror between the other and the self. Just when you think she’s writing about the hopes, anxieties, limitations and freedom of know-it-all youth, you begin to suspect it’s more about the hopes, anxieties, limitations and freedom of know-itall middle age.

Barnaby Smith, editor of northerly

Emma Ashmere, author of The Floating Garden (Spinifex Press).

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Bearing little to no resemblance to any life I have experienced, Jane Eyre nevertheless reminds me of youth. I recall struggling with the language and dense descriptions as a teenager, seeking out books set in similar places and devouring them, being lost in the windswept moors I had never visited, brought to life in the pages of something that felt positively ancient to me when I first came across it. The connection with this text continued when I attempted to teach it to largely disinterested teens, who dismissed the tone, felt no link with the characters and couldn’t see what the fuss was all about. But the story still resonates with me, and the youthful feeling I get re-revisiting one of the first books that made me a capital-R Reader. Even now, where it is a set text in the units I teach at university, it challenges and confounds some of our newly arrived students, many of whom are experiencing literature for the first time. Just like me in my youth; it makes each of us young again.

Linda Hawryluk, Senior Lecturer in Writing, Southern Cross University.

Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven Having two teenagers, and recently witnessing the spirit of youth from this different perspective, I’ve come to associate it with a kind of boundary-defying adventurousness. For this reason I’ve chosen Ellen van Neerven’s Heat and Light. Heat and Light bursts forth from the page. It’s not quite a novel, but not quite a book of short stories. There’s a speculative novella in the centre, with a crossspecies (human and plant) desiresaturated love affair. Each section explores something new, and brings with it a whole host of inventive and imaginative surprises. Van Neerven’s writing is confident and brave, delving into a complex array of scenarios. She’s grappling with politics, identity, family, friendship, and sexuality, and doing so in the way only young people seem to: fearlessly. I was awed by the depth of this short work, its explorative boundary-busting force. My oldest boy often teases me by saying, “Mum, I’m off rails.” Meaning, don’t expect me to play by the rules. Heat and Light was off the rails too, and it reminded me that this wild intensity of youth can create something powerful and utterly new.

Deeper Water by Jessie Cole “They say every hero has to leave home, but what those first steps are like I’m yet to know,” reads the first line of Jessie Cole’s second novel, Deeper Water. Jessie draws us at once into the distinct and unusual world of her protagonist, Mema.

Already we can intuit that this is a novel about awakening.

Mema is twenty-three, but young for her age. She lives with her mother in an isolated valley in northern New South Wales – a place of green hills and flooding creeks.

Home schooled and naive, Mema has an almost pagan attachment to her land, to the creek that runs through it and the animals – native, feral and domestic – that it supports.

Deeper Water is a sensuous portrayal of what happens when innocent desire clashes with the hardened edges of the wider world.

The writing is candid about the pain of first love and longing. As always, the process of discovery is both a troubled journey and a joy. Mema will linger in your mind for some time after you close the pages.

Lisa Walker, novelist whose latest book is Arkie’s Pilgrimage to the Next Big Thing (Random House).

Jessie Cole, novelist whose latest book is Deeper Water (Harper Collins). northerly | 013

>> WRITERS’ GROUP

FEDERAL WRITERS’ GROUP Set in the Byron Bay hinterland, Federal Writers’ Group is a small but ambitious collection of local wordsmiths who have been given a new lease of life by author Susanna Freymark, who here profiles this burgeoning literary community.

you when it’s not working. What you don’t need are people who will pick apart every single thing you write because it’s not what they would have written.

There needs to be respect, empathy and boundaries.”

Boundaries on giving feedback are vital. Listening is even more important. Choosing a writing group is particular to each writer depending on what they want.

Here’s a checklist to see if Federal Writers’ Group is a good fit for you: 1. You take your writing seriously but not yourself (sense of humour essential) Ten years ago, a handful of unlikely wannabe writers agreed to meet regularly at Pogel’s Restaurant in Federal, and later at the cafe next to the Federal store.

At the beginning, all of us were awkward about reading our work aloud, and were worried cafe customers would overhear our creative attempts on the page. We grew into a solid group of five who met every month. We always read our work and many times wrote together during the two-hour Saturday sessions.

Writers work in isolation and I use poetry and inspiring quotes as well as TED Talks on creativity to keep me going. Yet I love being part of a writers’ group so I can share the details of a story that would bore the pants off my non-writer friends.

Discussing the value of a semi-colon or comma or talking about fictional characters as if they were real people doesn’t make for exciting dinner conversation.

Most of all, I require the company of writers to connect to my own writing self. To understand that my self doubt as a writer, my frustrations and impatience are shared. I am not alone.

Returning to Federal after five years in the city with a Masters in Creative Writing and a published book under my belt, I was keen to rejoin our village writing group. The group was down to two people who met more to talk than write.

I decided to reinvigorate the Federal Writers’ Group and while we are currently only two, we are keen for others to join with the aim of a regular group of no more than six writers.

Author Alison Tait sums up exactly what is needed from a writers’ group. “People who understand what you’re trying to do and are not afraid to tell 014 | northerly

2. You are keen to learn and to grow as a professional writer 3. Writing is NOT a hobby but your passion 4. You believe in writing every day and you are not into excuses about your writing 5. You are committed to your own writing process The group meets on the verandah next door to Doma Cafe in Federal, which offers privacy but with the cafe cuisine close by.

Author Charlotte Wood has been in a writing group for twenty years and found it crucial to her development as novelist.

“Whether writing groups in general are beneficial depends – unsurprisingly – entirely on the quality of the people in them. If there’s the slightest whiff of competitiveness or envy I think they’re doomed, but if like me you have a group of intelligent, generous, serious readers who want each other to do well, they are very sustaining.”

At the end of the day it is about making time to write. And doing whatever you need to make that happen.

Author Susanna Freymark (pictured) published Losing February in 2013 and is thrilled to be back in Federal working on her next novel. For further information about the Federal Writers’ Group, email susannafreymark@gmail.com. Follow Susanna on Twitter @Susanna Freymark or visit www.susannafreymark.com.

STORIES FROM THE VILLAGE Susanna Freymark is looking for high-quality short stories/ poems/essays about Federal and surrounds. Stories without a wave. Stories beyond Byron Bay. For an anthology called Feels Like Home. No piece more than 2,000 words. No payment but lots of thanks and glory. Profits from anthology go to Federal Park. Email susannafreymark@gmail.com for details.

>> SCU

A showcase of SCU student work, compiled

by Dr Lynda Hawryluk Secret River (for Kate Grenville) Katinka Smit

The muck you stirred with your stick sullied more than just the water.

There were those aghast at the slime smeared on their torsos; others still who cried from the banks that you could not steer a boat - as though time itself were to be transported across the way – and no reflection could dull the rent sky of fact; blame and understanding smeared forensics that you had no pedigree for.

Who apportions what, and how?

And now, all that fertile silt that swam through our pores has flowed down stream.

Small spores leave traces on the tidal flats.

Some might engorge an oyster, but the mystery of that mighty river has run along, washed out to sea; lost, like so much history.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY NORTHERLY Due to the Christmas break, the next issue of northerly will be sent out in mid-January.

Katinka Smit is studying creative writing at SCU with an eye to becoming a professional, but has been an amateur enthusiast for all of her literate life. She has published mostly poetry, some short stories, and is in the planning stages of her first novel. northerly | 015

>> FEATURE

FROM PITCH TO PAGE One of the big hits on the children’s program at this year’s Byron Bay Writers Festival was former Queensland and Australia rugby league star Scott Prince, who with author Dave Hartley has produced the Deadly D and Justice Jones series of children’s books. But Prince is not the only hero of Australia’s most popular football codes to put his name to a line of books with the aim of promoting literacy. Here are four admirable examples of sporting heroes applying their role-model status to the world of children’s literature.

Scott Prince (left) and Dave Hartley at Byron Bay Writers Festival 2015.

Photo: Julia Pannell.

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>> FEATURE

Piri Weepu A tenacious scrum-half, Piri Weepu, of Maori and Niuean descent, earned seventy-one caps for New Zealand in rugby union, and was instrumental in the All Blacks’ Rugby World Cup triumph on home soil in 2011.

He now plays in France, and this year he published the picture book Piri’s Big All Black Dream in collaboration with author Jared Bell and illustrator Jimmy Diaz. The book tells of Weepu’s own journey from a rugby-mad boyhood in Wainuiomata to fulfilling his dream of wearing the famous black jersey.

The picture book is for readers aged between three and nine.

Scott Prince Scott Prince retired from rugby league in 2013, having represented Queensland in State of Origin five times, Australia four times and playing 300 club games for North Queensland Cowboys, Brisbane

Broncos, West Tigers (winning a premiership in 2005) and Gold Coast Titans. The first Deadly D and Justice Jones book, written with school principal Dave Hartley, appeared in 2013. The premise is that Dylan, an eleven-year-old Indigenous boy, turns into a fullgrown man whenever he gets angry, with obvious implications for his performance on the footy paddock.

Prince told Children’s Books Daily, “Most of the events, moments and people in our books have been life experiences for both of us. I think it’s important to keep some ‘reality’ so children may experience those things in their life. That way they understand where our characters are coming from.” The Deadly D and Justice Jones series is published by Magabala Books and is for readers aged seven to fourteen.

Shane Crawford Former AFL player Shane Crawford won a premiership with Hawthorn in 2008 and captained the team for five years. He was a Brownlow Medallist in 1999 and over a career spanning fifteen years played 305 games. In 2014, Crawford embarked on a series of children’s books called Crawf ’s Kick It To Nick, co-authored with Adrian Beck.

The books tells the story of main character Nick, captain of the Cobar Creek Crocs football team, yet the series also offers a rather surreal take on the game: in the fifth book, Footybot Face-Off, mini-robots are taught to play footy and promptly

malfunction on the oval, while in The Fanged Footys, the footballs themselves grow fangs and attack.

Crawford has said of his books, “I just wanted to come up with books that not only give you a story from a football point of view, but also kids can relate to. There’s some strong messages in there, but there’s also some fantasy.” Published by Penguin, the series is for ages seven and above.

Israel Folau Of Tongan descent, Israel Folau has proven himself among the world’s best in both rugby league and rugby union, as well as having a two-year stint in AFL. He currently plays for New South Wales Waratahs and Australia in rugby union and is widely regarded as among the best fullbacks in the game.

Folau has teamed up with writer David Harding for the first four instalments of the Izzy Folau series, all published by Random House this year. The books tell of the trials and tribulations of rugby-loving Daniel and Sione, two boys from contrasting backgrounds who come together in a team coached by Folau himself. The latest in the series, Izzy Folau 4: Standing Tall, sees their junior team competing in the state championships in their toughest challenge yet. Folau has said of the series, “There are a lot of messages in my books which I have specifically targeted for children, based on my own experiences growing up: the importance of healthy eating and being active, playing fair, setting goals, working together and antibullying.” The series is intended for readers aged nine and above. northerly | 017

>> FEATURE

THE ‘C’ WORD: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA

The economics of the publishing industry and the rarefied domain of academia have long seemed poles apart, but as the world of books and reading evolves, it’s time to foster a more collaborative relationship between the two seemingly disparate realms, writes Laurel Cohn.

Commerce. That’s the ‘C’ word. I know, very unsexy.

But imperative to the publishing industry. After all, publishers are concerned with not only producing great reads, but also with making money. Those who work in the industry are cognisant that the ‘C’ word is going to influence decision-making all the way through the process, from acquisition to marketing.

Those wanting to get their work published need to get their head around this reality (if they haven’t already).

While individuals may choose to devote years to the writing of a manuscript that may or may not produce any remuneration, publishers are running a business with staff, overheads and, in some cases, shareholders.

Now, none of this is new. I have been working with writers for over twenty-five years, mainly as a freelance editor, and while my work focusses on helping writers develop their manuscripts to a publishable standard, I am well aware that having a strong, well-written story, as good if not better than other books on the market will not necessarily ensure you will find a publisher; there are many variables that affect decisions about what will make it into print and what won’t. And the ‘C’ word is central to most of them. Understanding how the industry works and keeping up with publishing news, sales figures, trends, book reviews and so on is all part of staying abreast with the world in which I choose to engage.

A couple of years ago I took my interest in publishing and books as cultural artefacts a step further and embarked on a PhD in Australian literature at the University of Queensland. And that is when I discovered a curious disjunction between academia and industry. While many PhD candidates doing practice-led research in creative writing (producing fiction and narrative non-fiction manuscripts destined for trade publication) are aware of the machinations of the industry, I have been somewhat puzzled (and 018 | northerly

at times dumbfounded) by how little knowledge academics in the field of literary studies have about the how the publishing industry works. There is an ‘us and them’ divide between the two arenas, which I find bizarre.

This divide was made obvious to me several months ago when I attended a conference at the University of Worcester organised by the International Research Society for Children’s Literature. There were over 350 delegates from forty different countries, a truly international congress. I was heartened to see that one of the keynote speakers was Julia Eccleshare, Children’s Books editor for the Guardian, with a background in publishing. This was the first conference (out of five) that I had attended where industry was invited to engage with academia. It was certainly a brave move by the conference organisers to bring Julia and her industry perspective into the conversation.

Julia’s address on how contemporary jeopardy fits into the traditional themes of children’s literature was inspiring, impassioned, and well received. However, when she referred to the business side of things, she was apologetic about it: “I hate to mention the ‘C’ word – commerce – but...” I’m sure she didn’t ‘hate’ to mention it at all; she was politely acknowledging the divide that exists, framing the idea of commerce as something outside the scope of academic interest.

Unintentionally, her phrasing and intonation served to draw attention to the divide, and uphold it.

And that got me thinking more about this niggle that has perplexed me for several years now. It seems to me absolutely imperative that academics in the field of literature understand that the ‘C’ word is part of the matrix of cultural production, and crucial that there is dialogue between those who research texts as cultural artefacts and those who determine which texts will be published. A basic understanding of the criteria that shape editorial, design and marketing decisions is often lacking. At Worcester I had to correct a misperception voiced by one academic that a particular picture book may have been published in a larger format than a previous book by the same

>> FEATURE

author because the author was more famous when the second book was published. Clearly there was no understanding here about how paper is cut and how the price fluctuations in paper affect publishing decisions, or about different sizes across different formats such as hardback and paperback, or about the influence of the illustrator and designer in determining page size and shape.

Now I admit that having worked in the industry for many years I have more knowledge than most about what goes into producing a book. My familiarity with how publishing works informs my research in a particular way, and while this may not be applicable or appropriate for every research project, I am aware of how this knowledge helps me situate the publishing industry as both a driver of and responder to cultural change and exchange. I am certainly better acquainted with the publishing industry than I am with academia.

I am only touching the edges of the academic world with my engagement in conferences, my reading of research articles and books, and my attendance at academic seminars and workshops. However, when I have raised my puzzlement about the divide between academia and industry with seasoned academics (including the conference organiser at the University of Worcester, Professor Jean Webb, and my own supervisor at the University of Queensland, Professor David Carter), they do confirm that those studying literature don’t engage widely with the practicalities and politics that inform publishing decisions, agreeing that there is room for more consideration by academics of the parameters of the industry and the way they shape cultural production.

At the same time, there appears to be little encouragement within academia to engage with industry and the general public with our research (as in publish in non-academic areas, attend nonacademic conferences and other forums, connect directly with industry) and yet I think publishers and editors would be interested in some of what is being discussed and teased out in research. Admittedly, some research is quite obscure and narrow and may not lend itself to a wide audience, but there are a lot of interesting research projects being undertaken by academics and post-graduate students investigating how books encode and promote cultural values, teasing out what these values are, and asking questions about what we as a society are communicating through texts.

At the International Research Society of Children’s Literature conference, for example, the diversity of topics reflected wide-reaching and cross-cultural concerns with papers on literature from Taiwan, Canada, Philippines, Turkey, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Britain, USA, Ukraine, Ireland, Poland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Hong Kong, Finland, New Zealand and India. Topics included the way war is framed in books for children, the impact of anorexia stories in young adult fiction, the politics of publishing stories on taboo topics, contextualising cultural heritage and changing constructions of childhood. There were papers on refugee, queer, multicultural, eco-warrior and vegan literature.

My own presentation was on sugar-rich foods in Australian picture books as I’m interested in how we communicate the meaning of food to young children through books. There were discussions on race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and new technologies. The diversity of origins, approaches and topics was rich.

So why isn’t this research penetrating beyond academia? While there are some publications that offer a bridge between academic research and the wider public (such as, in Australia, Griffith Review and Australian Book Review), in all the information that has been fed to me as a postgraduate student about publication, the only non-academic channel of communication that has been promoted is the online publication The Conversation which only takes articles by academics and researchers. I have always had the intention with my own research to start a dialogue with book creators, the publishing industry and the wider public about the picture book diet (depictions of food, food practices and our relationships to food), to join the robust discussions that are already happening across society about what we eat. With this in mind, I have been made acutely aware of the paucity of encouragement to take research beyond the confines of academia.

Perhaps it takes someone with a foot in both camps, so to speak, to question and challenge the strange disjunction going on here. I don’t presume to be a trailblazer; I know there are others in the literary field who have danced the dance of industry and academia before me. But it seems to me more voices are needed from those of us with an understanding of both worlds to promote different ‘C’ words that may bring those who research texts closer to those who produce them: collaboration, communication, conversation.

Laurel Cohn is a developmental book editor passionate about the power of stories in our lives. She has been working with writers for twenty-five years and is a popular workshop presenter. She is currently working on a PhD in Australian literature at the University of Queensland. www.laurelcohn.com northerly | 019

>> LEARNING CURVE

AGE OF THE E-JOURNAL

One of Australia’s most eclectic poetry e-journals, Otoliths was established by poet Mark Young in 2006 and has now published thirty-eight issues. northerly decided to pick Rockhampton-based Young’s brains about the technical and aesthetic concerns surrounding setting up an online literary journal.

What inspired you to establish Otoliths in the first place in 2006?

Both a lack of opportunity and opportunity. I went back to work for four days a week and found I no longer had the time available to maintain my then-current blog at the level I wanted it to be at. So I did a kind of swap. I hadn’t thought about doing a journal for years, but it suddenly came to me – you know all these people, why don’t you sound them out? I sent off about sixty emails to ask if the recipients were interested in contributing.

A seventy-five-percent positive response was received within twenty-four hours. So the creative side was fine. I was familiar with Blogger, knew enough html code to be able to do a bit more than the ragged right edge format, created a new blog, fiddled around with the template to remove almost all of the standard blog features and structured it to replicate a printed journal – cover, contents, separate pages. I was in business.

One of the things I had noticed about the web and e-zines, was that there were definite lines of demarcation. If you wanted to read poetry influenced by the West Coast poets of the fifties and sixties, you went here; if you wanted to read third-generation New York poets you went there.

If you wanted to see vispo, then you brought in a finetooth comb to scour the web with. My tastes have always been quite eclectic, so that became my first editorial rule: publish anything you like, don’t differentiate.

Is there any sort of stigma about publishing poetry online? What are the advantages for poets to be published in an e-journal?

There probably still is some stigma around, but it’s rapidly disappearing and, perhaps, even being replaced by the stigma of appearing in print. Take, as an indication of the change, the amount of online presence that print journals have these days. However, I don’t think there is yet an online journal that has the prestige and, let’s say, tradition of a print journal such as Poetry.

The advantages? Ease of submission, speed of response, the range of places available to submit to, the variety, the

opportunity to include work that incorporates colour without cost penalty.

The disadvantages? Linkrot and the lack of ability of some sites to format pieces as the writer intended.

Otoliths leans towards the more experimental, visual side of the poetry spectrum – what, if any, technical problems does this pose?

Surprisingly few. Most submissions of visual pieces come through in formats such as jpeg and are simple to put up. Text pieces with formatting can usually be coded for posting to the web without too much trouble, but if they are too complex for coding, then they can either be scanned or screen-captured and turned into jpegs.

What are the biggest challenges in editing Otoliths?

Time, time, and oh, did I mention time? Plus, being a writer as well as an editor sometimes poses priority problems.

Refreshingly, Otoliths does not seem to bother with social media. Are you ever tempted, and why not?

Never tempted. Social media seems to me to be intrusive, obscenely arrogant and egocentric, a poor vector for human interaction. Plus, judging by the large number of hacked email identities that appear in my inbox, open to easy intrusion and usurpation.

It does, however, cause an extremely large number of people to visit Otoliths. The downside of that is that, in the main, they only visit the page of the generator of the post or tweet and venture no further into the zine.

What piece of key advice would you give to anyone hoping to establish an online literary journal?

It’s easier than you think, it’s harder than you think.

Know in advance what sort of stuff you want to publish, how often you want to publish it, how you want to it to appear. Your own or an existing platform? Is there a need for a new e-zine? Do you have the feedstock? Will you have an audience?

Visit Otoliths at http://the-otolith.blogspot.com.au/ 020 | northerly

ACCESS TO THE ARTS

>> ADFAS

As another year of compelling lectures from ADFAS Byron Bay and Districts comes to an end, chairperson Anni Abbink reflects on this unique organisation and the highlights from the last twelve months.

Monday October 19 saw the last ADFAS Byron Bay presentation for 2015 with an interesting and revealing talk by Hugh Ellwood entitled ‘The Lost Civilisation of Cambodia’, covering the rise of this civilisation and the huge complexes of palaces and temples, including Angkor Wat, built between the first and twelfth centuries, and their subsequent abandonment to the jungle when the kingdom fell to the Thai people in 1431.

ADFAS, the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society, was established twenty-five years ago with the aim of providing entertainment and enjoyment to anyone interested in the broader arts through a series of lectures each year. There are thirty-five societies in Australia, mostly in the eastern states and many in rural areas.

ADFAS is a non-profit organisation run by an executive committee of volunteers. There is much organisation required to provide the eight lectures a year at each society. The societies are divided into three circuits with approximately twelve societies in each circuit. Each circuit takes about three weeks to complete. Byron Bay is on the Cook circuit which starts in rural New South Wales and ends in Cairns, north Queensland. The lecturers come from a pool of exceptionally qualified people in the UK and Australia and are selected two years in advance.

ADFAS Byron Bay was established fifteen years ago and has been providing a wide range of lectures to its members and guests each year since. These lectures are held in the beautiful A&I Hall in Bangalow.

This year ADFAS Byron Bay has presented a wonderful range of interesting, eclectic topics. Who can forget Paul Atterbury’s lecture in March, ‘At Home in the Twentieth Century’, on the styles of the domestic interior in the twentieth century? Paul, a regular on the British television show Antiques Roadshow, brought back memories for many of us of our parents’ kitchens and home interiors. In April we enjoyed ‘The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World’ with Professor Alastair Blanshard of the University of Queensland. We also learnt much from ‘The Art of Frescos’ about why this technique was so perfectly suited to the Italian Renaissance period.

‘High-Heel Heaven’, presented by Peter McNeil, Professor of Design History at University of Technology, Sydney, showed how shoes convey a wide range of meanings associated with fashion, style, personality, sexuality, class and gender. Yasha Beresiner took us on a journey through the history of the City of London, from Roman times to the present day including the devastation caused by the Great Fire of London. Linda Smith’s ‘Great Tarts in Art’ gave us great insight into the portraits of courtesans and mistresses over the centuries, and how their clothes

and poses revealed their position in society. Linda clearly adored her subject and her anecdotes about the antics of the subjects were most amusing.

ADFAS Byron Bay continues to provide a diverse range of interesting topics in its program for 2016. In the lecture ‘The Best Photographs of the 20th Century’, Paul Harris will present fifty of his favourite photographs including pictures by Henri Cartier Bresson, Karsh, Robert Capa and others. Another lecture will seek to locate Gustav Klimt in the social milieu of Vienna, and reveal his charming personality and idiosyncratic art.

‘Marie Antoinette - France’s Ill-Fated Queen’ will look at one of the most controversial figures in French history.

In ‘Constantinople and Istanbul’, lecturer and tour guide Sue Rollin will explore the diverse and magnificent heritage of this city with two names, while a further lecture will look at the development of Zen Gardens in Japan, and more. The full program for 2016 will be available in mid-November. For information about ADFAS Byron Bay visit www.adfas.org.au or contact Anni Abbink on 02 6684 3249.

ADFAS Byron Bay and Districts chairperson Anni Abbink with star of Antiques Roadshow, Paul Atterbury. Photo: Christina de Water Photography

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COMPETITIONS

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

NEEDLE IN THE HAY MAJOR SHORT STORY CONTEST Needle In The Hay is seeking short story entries for their competition along the theme of ‘Giving new meaning to our understanding of love’. Stories should be 800 words or less, with first prize receiving $1,000. Final date for submissions is December 31, with the shortlist announced in February and the winner in March. A single entry is $10, while two or three is $20.

For more information visit www.needleinthehay.net

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

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

LITTLE FICTIONS Publishers Spineless Wonders is seeking submissions for its Little Fictions live shows. They are seeking “fiction with strong dialogue and memorable characters that will delight and amaze us. Stories that take off on flights of fancy as well as ones that take a satirical or offbeat look at life. Give us writing that rings with truth and insight. Writing that will have the audience in stitches or close to tears.” Submissions should be previously unpublished works of fiction up to 1,000 words in length in the form of microfiction, microlit, dramatic monologues, or any other written form (except line poetry).

Deadline is December 1 and there is a $7 entry fee. For more information visit www. shortaustralianstories.com.au/submissions/ little-fictions-call-out/

CALIBRE PRIZE Australian Book Review welcomes entries in the tenth Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay, Australia’s premier prize for a nonfiction essay. All essayists writing in English are eligible, regardless of where they live.

Entries must be between 3,000 and 7,000 words, with a first prize of $5,000 and publication in ABR. The judges are Sophie Cunningham and Peter Rose, while the

deadline is January 16. For further details go to www.australianbookreview.com.au/ prizes/calibre-prize

TOM COLLINS POETRY PRIZE The Tom Collins Poetry Prize is an annual competition inaugurated by the Fellowship of Australian Writers Western Australia (FAWWA) in 1975 in memory of Australian author Joseph Furphy (1843-1912) who wrote as Tom Collins. Poems should be no longer than sixty lines, with a deadline for entries of December 15. First prize wins $1,000, and entry fees apply. For more information visit www.fawwa.org

HAL PORTER SHORT STORY COMPETITION The Hal Porter Short Story Competition, run by East Gippsland Art Gallery, invites short stories of up to 2,500 words on any theme. Entry fee is $10 and there is a first prize of $1,000. Entries close on December 18, for more information visit eastgippslandartgallery.org.au

2016 CARNIVAL OF FLOWERS ONE-ACT PLAYWRITING COMPETITION Aspiring and experienced playwrights are invited to submit unpublished one-act play scripts to the fourth annual Carnival of Flowers Toowoomba Repertory Theatre One-Act Play Writing Competition. Plays must be thirty- to forty-minute productions.

The winning plays will be performed during the 2016 Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers for a five-night season. First prize is $3,000 with the deadline for entries January 31. $30

>> COMPETITIONS

entry fee applies, for more information visit www.toowoombarepertorytheatre.com.au

OVERLAND JUDITH WRIGHT POETRY PRIZE The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize is open to Australia or New Zealand permanent residents who have not had one collection of poetry published with a commercial publisher. Entry fee is $20, with first prize $6,000. Works should not exceed eighty lines and the deadline is November 15. www.overland.org.au/prizes/poetryprize-guidelines/

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

WB YEATS POETRY PRIZE The WB Yeats Poetry Prize is open to residents of Australia for previously unpublished poems.

There is a limit of fifty lines for each poem and an initial entry fee of $8.50. First prize is $500, and deadline for entries is March 31.

Go to www.wbyeatspoetryprize.com for more information.

BLACKENED BILLY VERSE COMPETITION Organised by Tamworth Poetry Reading Group, entries to the Blackened Billy Verse

Competition should be bush verse, with a first prize of $600. Entry fee is $5 per entry with the deadline for submission November 30. For more information visit www.abpa.org.au.

BIRDCATCHER BOOKS AUSTRALIAN SHORT FICTION AWARD The Birdcatcher Books Australian Short Fiction Award is open to Australian residents aged eighteen and over for stories of between 1,500 and 2,500 words on an open theme. First prize is $250, while the cost of entry is $8. Entries close on December 12. Go to birdcatcherbooks. com.au for further information.

SCARLETT AWARD The Scarlett Award offers the opportunity to enter reviews about sculpture exhibitions or public art installations, whether solo, group, or a major event internationally or within Australia. All reviews will be judged in the period leading up to Lorne Sculpture Biennale 2016 with a cash award of $3,000 being presented to the best written and most engaging review at the LSB 2016 opening, March 12, 2016. There is no entry fee and pieces should be between 500 and 2,000 words. Deadline is January 31. www. lornesculpture.com/the-scarlett-award.php

NORMAN MCVICKER AWARD Writers of up to twenty-two years of age are invited to submit stories or poems to the 2016 Norman McVicker Award, organised

by Mudgee Valley Writers. There is an open theme yet it should be noted that, “The

scope of the work may contribute toward Australian literature or have Australiana contents i.e. all aspects about Australia, for example, life, aspirations, vision, current affairs, the bush, and so forth”. First prize is $800 in both the short story (up to 2,000 words) and poetry (up to 100 lines) categories. Entry fee is $5 and the deadline for entries is February 29. For more details visit www.mudgeevalleywriters.wordpress. com/competition/

JOHN O’BRIEN LITERARY AWARDS The John O’Brien Literary Awards, organised by the Narrandera Visitors Centre, welcome short stories and poems written to the theme of ‘The Pioneer Flame’. Stories should be of 1,000 to 2,000 words, and poems should be of no more than forty-eight lines. A fee of $10 per entry applies, and the deadline is January 31. For more information visit www.johnobrien.org.au/open-writingcompetition-guidelines/

FAW TASMANIA 2016 NAIRDA LYNE AWARD The 2015 Nairda Lyne Award, organised by the Fellowship of Australian Writers Tasmania, is seeking original, unpublished short stories suitable for readers aged between eight and twelve years old. Stories should not exceed 1,000 words and there is an entry fee of $5 per story. First prize is $100 and the winner’s name will be inscribed on a plaque at Launceston State Library. For further information go to www.fawtas.org. au/competitions/

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>> WRITERS’ GROUPS

>> Alstonville Plateau Writers Group

Meets second Friday of each month, 10am – 12pm. All genres welcome, contact Christine 66288364 or Kerry 66285662

>> Ballina/Byron U3A Creative Writing

Meets every second Wednesday at 12pm, Fripp Oval, Ballina. Contact Jan on 0404007586 or janmulcahy@ bigpond.com

>> Ballina Creative Writers

>> Dunoon Writers Group

Writers on the Block. Meets second Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm – 8:30pm at Dunoon Sports Club.

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

>> Federal Writers’ Group

Meets first Saturday of each month at 1.30pm at Federal. Contact Susanna Freymark on 6688 4457 or susannafreymark@gmail.com

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

>> FAW Port Macquarie-Hastings Regional

>> Bangalow Writers Group

>> Gold Coast Writers Association

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

Contact Simone on 0407749288

>> Bellingen Writers Group

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

>> Casino Writers Group

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

>> Cloudcatchers

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

>> Coffs Harbour Writers Group

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

>> Coffs Harbour Memoir Writers Group

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

>> Cru3a River Poets

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

>> Dangerously Poetic Writing Circle

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

>> Dorrigo Writers Group

Meets every second Wednesday from 10am-2pm.

Contact Iris on 66575274 or email an_lomall@bigpond. com or contact Nell on 66574089 024 | northerly

Meets 1pm on last Saturday of each month, Maritime Museum, Port Macquarie. Contact Joie on 65843520 or email Bessie on befrank@tsn.cc Meets third Saturday of each month, 1:30pm for 2pm start, at Fradgley Hall, Burleigh Heads Library, Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads. Contact 0431443385 or email info@goldcoast-writers.org.au

>> Kyogle Writers

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

>> Memoir Writing Group

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

>> Nambucca Valley Writers Group

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

>> Poets and Writers on the Tweed

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

>> Taree-Manning River Scribblers

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

>> WordsFlow Writing

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

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

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

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• Access to resources and services from the Centre and guidance from Centre staff • Discounts on workshops, seminars, and Byron Bay Writers Festival tickets, as well as priority copy of Festival program and invitation to program launch • Access to a year-round mentorship program with industry professionals and the opportunity to apply to the annual Residential Membership • Borrowing rights to the Centre library and access to reference materials, wi-fi and reading area • Voting rights at AGM • Discounts at nominated local businesses and subscriber rates to NORPA shows All memberships are valid for 12 months from date of payment

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