NAWE NEWS
AAWP Report (Australasia) By Julia Prendergast and Lee McGowan Dear NAWE readers, Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update about the activities of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), the peak academic body representing the discipline of creative writing in Australasia. Let us begin by introducing ourselves: we are Dr Julia Prendergast, AAWP Chair, and Dr Lee McGowan, convenor of the 2021 annual conference. This year, the AAWP will celebrate our 26th annual conference: https://www.usc.edu.au/ about/structure/schools/school-of-business-and-creative-industries/australasian-associationof-writing-programs-26th-annual-conference The theme of the conference is Fire Country. To support and care for Country, Tagalaka man, Victor Steffensen, author of Fire Country, argues that we must burn as if we’re ‘gardening for food’, as if we’re ‘living off the land to survive’ (2020). This wisdom is borne of and speaks directly to Indigenous practices—to conceptions of land that acknowledge more than human agency. Steffenson’s book sits like a firebreak, between discerning regenerative methods, on the one hand, and well-intended though ill-informed practices that lead increasingly to tragedy and environmental devastation, on the other. The text provides a timely focal point and, as such, the wisdom and guidance provided by Fire Country is positioned as the overarching theme for the AAWP conference: 24 – 26 November 2021. The AAWP annual conference is our most important national forum on the practices and pedagogies, as well as current and nascent debates, at the nexus of creative writing and research. Designed for creators, researchers, teachers and publishers of creative writing, who operate within and across the blurred lines of local, regional and national territories, our conference gathers some of Australasia’s most revered writers and writing researchers. We aim to build cultural capital and community capacity, facilitating meaningful community engagement and increasing our universities’ value and standing within our respective communities. You will find articles developed from many members of the AAWP community in TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, Australia’s leading journal of creative writing research: https://textjournal.scholasticahq.com/ In 2021, AAWP aims to situate traditional practices, pedagogies and conceptions at the heart of the annual conference. Our conference keynote speakers include: Victor Steffenson (Wakka Wakka Country), Professor Sandra Phillips (Gooreng Gooreng Country), Professor Phillip McLaren (Kamilaro Country), and First Nations Advisor at Queensland State Archives: Rose Barrowcliffe (Butchulla Country). The conference will be held at the Sippy Downs (Queensland) campus of the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). The Sunshine Coast Campus is situated on the unceded lands of the traditional owners, the Kabi Kabi people, a land known for its beaches, lakes, rivers, creeks, mountains and forests. The main conference program facilitates engagement with and reflection upon the theme of ‘Fire Country’, as it relates to creative writing and research. We consider the intersection between marginalised and mainstream voices and the way these voices are represented in wild acts of making and thinking. Further, we consider the way in which this intersection reflects an iterative discourse. The program includes academic and professional development sessions for Higher Degrees by Research candidates and Early Career Researchers. We offer our membership body the opportunity to gather and to promote new creative and critical work, while building networks and engaging with industry practitioners. We have received abstract submissions that respond to the overarching theme of Fire Country through the following sub-themes: regrowth and renewal; Indigenous practices, concepts and experience; firebrands, backdrafts and ignition; minority and marginalised voices (including Writing in Education 9
