AAWP (Australasia

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 – 26November 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

themes of disability, LGBTQI+, and refugee stories); firebreaks: literal and figurative; exegetical friction; burnings – cool, mosaic, and cultural; collaborative writing; critical and ‘burning’ questions; storying regions; ecologies and crises (climate, literary and other); writing across boundaries, edges and limits; fire sticks / fire stick farming; performance and performative writing; and combustion, crises, and firestorms.

We are delighted to continue our partnership with NAWE, by welcoming a number of NAWE members as virtual guests to the AAWP conference. We hope to continue this gesture of reciprocity in the years ahead. Our 2021 partners include Arts Queensland, Noosa Shire Council, Mantra Mooloolaba, Black Ant Gourmet, and Berkelouw Books. We are hosted by USC’s world-class Creative Industries facilities: the USC Art Gallery and the USC Maker Space (Queensland’s only MIT approved Fabrication Lab). We do hope you are able to join us for our annual conference. We look forward to welcoming our NAWE friends, across the seas, and to sharing published outcomes, after the conference.

Reference: Steffensen, V. (2020) Fire Country. Sydney: Hardie Grant.

Julia Prendergast

Julia’s novel, The Earth Does Not Get Fat was published in 2018 (UWA Publishing: Australia). Her short stories feature in the current edition of Australian Short Stories. Other stories have been recognised and published: Lightship Anthology 2 (UK), Glimmer Train (US), TEXT (AU) Séan Ó Faoláin Competition (IE), Review of Australian Fiction, Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley Prize, Josephine Ulrick Prize (AU). Julia’s research has appeared in various publications including: New Writing (UK), TEXT (AU), Testimony Witness Authority: The Politics and Poetics of Experience (UK). Julia is a Senior Lecturer in Writing and Literature at Swinburne University, Melbourne, and serves as Academic Director Pathways and Partnerships for the school of Social Sciences, Media, Film and Education. Julia is Chair of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), the peak academic body representing the discipline of Creative Writing in Australasia. Julia’s research is practice-led, focusing meta-level processes in creative writing, including neuropsychoanalytic approaches. She is an enthusiastic supporter of interdisciplinary, open and collaborative research practices.

Lee McGowan

Dr Lee McGowan is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast. His primary research interests are in football studies, creative writing and digital narratives. In 2019, he published the monograph Football in Fiction: A History (Routledge) and co-authored the book, Never Say Die: the Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women’s Football (NewSouth). Alongside a number of traditional research outputs, his most recent project, a digital museum launched at Parliament House (2021), is a history of football in Queensland, funded by Football Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane City Council and Arts Queensland.

NAWE NEWS

Writing in Education Changes to Publication Schedule

We have recently conducted a review of Writing in Education’s publications schedule to ensure it best aligns with NAWEs events and activities. As a result, the following changes will be in effect from our next publication:

Winter 2021

Submissions close Monday 22 Nov 2021, published online Wednesday 19 Jan 2022 and hardcopy distributed from Monday 31 Jan 2022

Spring 2022 (Conference edition)

Submissions close Monday 4 April 2022, published online Wednesday 18 May 2022 and hardcopy distributed from Monday 30 May 2022

Summer 2022

Submissions close Monday 1st August 2022, published online Wednesday 21 Sept 2022 and hardcopy distributed from the Monday 3 Oct 2022

You might notice that submission close dates now always fall on a Monday. And the editions are now more evenly distributed throughout the year. We have also adjusted the schedule so that the Spring edition can support our conference. Hopefully these changes will enable us to better support our members, but if you have any feedback or suggestions, please contact us at publications@nawe.co.uk

Writing in Practice

The journal publishes scholarly articles about practice and process that contextualize, reflect on and respond to existing knowledge and understanding.

Volume 6 was in published May 2020 with Principal Editor: Derek Neale, and Volume Editors: Celia Brayfield, Francis Gilbert and Andrew Melrose. ISSN 2058-5535. It contained contributions from: Amina Alyal and Oz Hardwick; Leanne Bibby; Sean Fitzgerald; Michael Fox; Megan Hayes and Sophie Nicholls; Edward Hogan; Kevan Manwaring; Rose Michael, Michelle Aung Thin and Ronnie Scott; Liz Mistry; Graham Mort; Joanne Reardon. The issue’s guest article was by Jen Webb.

Volume 7 will be published in November 2021. It is a Special Issue on Multimodal Writing with guest co-editor Josie Barnard. It is open access and available here https://www.nawe. co.uk/writing-in-education/writing-at-university/writing-in-practice/current-issue.html

Volume 8 – submissions now open

This volume is to be published in May 2022. We are looking for articles about the art of imaginative writing from an authorial perspective. Articles should highlight evolving and current academic thinking and practice. Creative Writing itself is welcomed when integral to an article. Submissions should be 4-10,000 words long and include an abstract of up to 200 words. All submissions will be anonymously peer reviewed. See the contributor guidelines to submit your work via the submissions link: www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-education/writing-at-university/writing-in-practice.html The deadline for submissions is Midnight (GMT) on Monday 11 October 2021.

If you are interested in acting as peer reviewer for the journal, please send details of your expertise to the editorial board, c/o: admin@nawe.co.uk Writing in Practice is an open access, online journal that complements Writing in Education, the NAWE magazine distributed to its members. As the UK Subject Association for Creative Writing, NAWE aims to further knowledge, understanding and support research, teaching and learning in the subject at all levels.