 |
2005
Writers' Centre Program |
New England Writers' Centre
- for people who love writing and reading. We gratefully acknowledge the
support of our sponsors, without whom this program would not be possible:
NSW Ministry for Arts, Country Arts Support Program Regional Arts NSW;
Dymocks Armidale,
New England Credit Union.
New England Credit Union
Please check the calendar below for information about this years program including events with Les Murray, Susan Hampton, Tony Gorman, Chris Mansell and Wendy James.
For all bookings (unless otherwise stated) phone 6772 7210 or email newc@northnet.com.au.
All workshops must be booked, and paid in advance.
You can join at the time of booking and take advantage of our member rates. Our Festival Special membership offer including GST: $38.50 , or $6.50 for students under 18, for the rest of this year and until February 2007!
Unless otherwise stated, all events will be held at New England Writers' Centre, on Newling Campus, Kentucky St, (almost opposite cnr Kentucky/Faulkner).
DROP-IN WORKSHOP on the last Thursday of each month, from 1.30pm to 3.30pm at NEWC. You can drop in to read your work in progress and get feedback, or listen to others. Any style of writing is welcome from poetry to excerpts from longer works of prose. This event is free to members, $5 per visit to non-members after the first visit.
New Dimensions — Poetry & Drama Workshop with Adrian Hanks. Phone 0400424417 for details.
WEEKEND INTENSIVES in Creative Writing. These popular workshops always fill up fast, so be sure to book early. Both beginners and advanced will be taken by Wendy James, a published writer with a Masters in Creative Writing, who has run several workshops for NEWC. She is currently working on two books for a major publisher.
The beginners workshop is a great kickstart to writing fiction for people who’ve always wanted to begin but never quite get round to it! The advanced workshop is for people who have attended a beginners session, or have published work. Both workshops run for two days, and cost $100/$80 members each. You can join at the time of booking and do the workshop for the members’ rate. You should arrive 15 minutes before the start of the workshop. All fees must be paid in advance to secure the booking.
* Beginners: April 30/May 1.
* Advanced: June 4/5.
May 21/22—Sat/Sun: EDIT YOURSELF with Susan Hampton For writers and editors, amateur or professional, this two-day workshop takes you through the various types and processes of editing. You will need to bring five pages of your writing: a short story, or the opening of a novel, or poems. The morning class will be advice and examples, and practising editing on sample text. The afternoon class will be workshopping and editing your material.
Susan Hampton has been editing poetry, fiction and non-fiction for many years. She did the final edit on Stravinsky’s Lunch (Macmillan) by Drusilla Modjeska, which won the NSW Premier’s Prize for Non-Fiction, the Nita B Kibble Award, and the Book Publishers Prize, 2001. She also edited Gilgamesh (Macmillan) by Joan London, which won The Age Book of the Year Fiction Prize, 2002, and The Poison Principle (Macmillan) by Gail Bell, which won the NSW Premier’s Prize for Non-Fiction, 2002. Susan has edited 30 novels or literary non-fiction books and 28 poetry manuscripts over the last 10 years. Of these, 11 have been published by major publishers such as Penguin, UQP, Macmillan, Picador, Text. Susan has taught editing and creative writing at universities since 1981, and has been Writer-in-Residence at ANU, UC, ADFA, Darwin, Wollongong and UNE Armidale.
May 21/22. 10am to 4pm.
$100/$80 members.
Must be booked in advance and non-returnable deposit of $20 paid.
August 21—Sunday: SLAM WORDSHOPPER with Miles Merrill
“Lots of performers claim to be multicultural but few straddle as many different cultures as gracefully and powerfully as Miles Merrill." – Chicago Reader.
"Ultra-hip … at ease with every word and movement on stage." – Adelaide Advertiser.
"Work like this gives the lie to the stereotype of a passive, button-pressing generation, and the other stereotype of poetry as a dead, musty form. This work is passionate, deeply enjoyable and demands attention. More please." – Sydney Morning Herald.
Miles Merrill's Slam Poetry performances and Wordshops explore language, public speaking and creative writing, while dealing with questions of identity and alienation. Miles makes the daunting tasks of writing and performing fun by getting people to treat their own creative ideas with respect and confidence. Every Slam Poetry Wordshop features a performance by Miles Merrill using characters, "wild and witty wordplay", and outrageous physical theatre. Miles also gets you performing your own words. Through his wordshops you, for example, may turn into a salesperson wildly gesticulating your own poems in gibberish or find yourself reciting your verbal magic as a Simpsons character, footy player, John Howard, TV newscaster, or what ever you can imagine.
Born in Chicago in 1970, Miles Merrill is the son of a Black Panther father and a mother with a family tree dating back to the American pilgrims and British Colonialism. His mother's ancestors enslaved his father’s. The tension of embattled generations twists its way through his work. Miles is a writer/performer who guarantees his audience a spellbinding performance. On stage, he rips through characters and personalities written with a biting poetic wit that is timely and confronting. Miles has won numerous performance and writing awards. His shows have won him critical acclaim in New York, Chicago, Istanbul, Sydney, Melbourne and other cities around the world. His CD 'What Night Knows' is an introduction to his diverse capabilities. Currently Miles tackles other writing projects, including, journalism, film-making, radio producing, and publishing.s your poetry a bit passive? Are you terrified of performing it? Here’s the cure! Miles Merrill is coming to Armidale to do Slam Wordshops at the Centre and at schools in August – the workshop at NEWC will be for poets of all ages and stages.
Sunday, August 21, 10am to 4pm. $45/$35.
BREAKFAST AND WORKSHOP with Susan Hawthorne:
August 27—Saturday (Workshop), August 28—Sunday (Breakfast)
NEWC & Dymocks present breakfast with poet, novelist, publisher and feminist political theorist, Susan Hawthorne at Caffiends on Marsh St, Sunday, August 28, 9am to 11.30am.
“In this workshop I'll be drawing on my background of writing across different genres and across different expectations,” says Susan. “My writing crosses poetry, fiction, non-fiction and writing for performance. If a subject really interests me, I tend to have a go at at least three of these. I'll talk about some examples from my work.
Different worlds also encompasses different audiences. For example, my novel, The Falling Woman, received very different responses from readers depending on what they read as the main focus of the novel (feminist content; the rural aspect; the urban aspect; lesbian life and culture; the mythic elements; the road journey; autobiographical - although it is not autobiography).
“In addition to writing in and to different worlds, my work in publishing has also made me very aware of audience expectations. How do you, for example, describe a galah so the Australian reader is not insulted but the American readers gets some small clue to what the bird is like?”
Susan is a novelist, poet, critic, publisher and feminist political theorist. Her literary interests include contemporary feminist writing, myth and cultural traditions, writing for the electronic media and writing that explores lesbian cultural traditions. Her PhD was a feminist critique of globalisation drawing on feminist, Indigenous and ecological theories. More recently, she has written extensively about war and violence. She has had a long involvement in the publishing industry as an editor at Penguin Books and subsequently as co-founder and publisher at Spinifex Press. She is also a performer and works across scriptwriting, aerials and acrobatics in circus.
Susan is the author and editor of numerous books including: Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Biodiversity (2002), The Falling Woman (novel, 1992, reprinted 2003), Bird (poetry, 1999) and The Spinifex Quiz Book (1993). She has edited 10 collections including September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives (with Bronwyn Winter, 2002), CyberFeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity (with Renate Klein, 1999) and Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love (with Cathie Dunsford and Susan Sayer, 1997).Workshop: Writing In Different Worlds – at NEWC, August 27, 10am to 4pm. $45/$35 members. To book, phone NEWC on 6772 7210. To book, phone NEWC on 6772 7210.
Breakfast with Susan Hawthorne: $16 includes breakfast. MUST be booked in advance. To book, phone the café, Caffiends on Marsh Street on 6771 3178.
August 14—Sunday: WRITING FOR PROFIT– a workshop with Lesley Sly
A one-day workshop in writing for media. Learn how to develop ideas and contacts, find your niche, angle, pitch, sell, syndicate stories. Journalism has been called literature in a hurry and, while it’s true that you do need to work quickly to make a profit, first you need to develop skills to write in the correct style for different publications. Freelancing for magazines and newspapers is good way of getting paid to sharpen your writing skills, research things that interest you, and develop the habit of getting published! Lesley Sly has worked as a reporter in news for print and radio, feature-writer, travel writer (BBC Radio, Scotsman), sub-editor (Sydney Morning Herald, the Financial Review, Dynamic Small Business) and newspaper and magazine editor. She has been freelance for 17 years, her work has appeared in Good Weekend, the Bulletin, Limelight, HQ, various arts, music, technology magazines, she was a columnist for Rolling Stone for 10 years and is the author of The Power & The Passion, a guide to the Australian music industry – a 400-page book written from 150 interviews.
DATE: Sunday, August 14. 10am to 4pm. $45/$35.
November 12/13—Sat/Sun: WRITING YOUR LIFE - a workshop with Jan Cornall
Want to write memoir, biography, community history? For publication, or for personal use? This weekend workshop with Jan Cornall will get you on the right track.
Jan is a playwright, screenwriter, performer and teacher. who uses memoir and biography as a base for her writing. She uses practical, theoretical and experiential knowledge gained in some 25 years in the theatre and film industry, to support and guide writers across all genres.
Using meditation and creative visualisation, Jan takes writers deep into their creative source. By introducing writers to the essential elements of storytelling, she shows how by learning to access your true writer’s voice, your stories and the structures that support them can emerge as effortlessly as your first original, unique ideas.
Jan teaches writing at The University Of Technology, Sydney, at community colleges and writers centres in Australia. She has written over 10 produced plays and musicals, a feature film, and has written and performed her own solo works. She is currently working on a memoir called Autobiography of a Performed Life, some new short plays and a book on writing.
DATE: Saturday/Sunday, November 12/13. 10am to 4pm. $100/$90.
October 29—Saturday: EXPERIMENTAL WRITING — a workshop with Susan Hampton
Susan Hampton will be launching a new volume of poetry at Reading Writers in October, and will run an exciting one-day course at NEWC. Numbers will be strictly limited, so book early!
Experimental Writing is designed to help you invent ways of experimenting with the techniques of fiction and poetry. What are some alternatives to linear narrative? How do they relate to film? And to the history of fiction?
What is the modernism/post-modernism debate about? What is the importance of surprise? What gives a poem 'bite'? What's the difference between the mental states of the first and last drafts? Where do creative ideas come from? The original writer is always working at an edge where writing moves towards incoherence, says Susan. We will look at cut-ups, deconstruction, automatic writing, statements of poetics, and the understory. There will be practical class exercises.
Susan Hampton co-edited The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets. Her short story collection Surly Girls won the Steele Rudd Award in 1990. It is a collection of monologues, non-narrative fiction, scripts, and performance pieces. Her last book ‘A Latin Primer’ (poems) has been described as ‘an original voice with immediate appeal’.
DATE: Saturday, October 29. 10am to 4pm. At NEWC. $50/$40 members.
August 20–Saturday: WRITING FOR CHILDREN - a workshop with Felicity Pulman
Want to write for children or young adults? Felicity Pulman’s workshop will cover the following:
* Introduction to writing for children: a look at what is being published now - various age groups and genres; some rules about what to do (and what not!) when writing for children.
* Ideas – some short exercises to tap into life experience and interests, and get the imagination going – read out one example around the table.
* (Depending on who is interested in what) an in-depth look at: fantasy, crime, gritty realism or slice of life, picture books, non-fiction, etc. There will be short writing exercises associated with each genre of interest.
* Participants will pick one piece of workshop writing each and have a brainstorming session with a partner to decide on how to develop their piece into a story.
* Participants will then be given some time to devise a story plan based on the discussion with their partner. Invitation to share and discuss story plans around the table.
* A talk about how to edit and present a manuscript for publication, how to choose a publisher, etc.
Felicity Pulman has been writing stories since she was a child, and has many published novels to her name. Her novel, Ghost Boy, reflects Felicity’s fascination with the past, while the award-winning Shalott Trilogy explores the unknown and mysterious in our world, and gives new insight into the doomed and devious characters of Arthurian legend. In Rosemary for Remembrance, Book 1 of her new series, The Janna Mysteries, Felicity stays in the middle ages to unravel clues and solve crimes, along the way examining issues of importance to teenagers today. Other novels include a time-slip adventure, Surfing the Future, and Wally the Water Dragon, a true story based on the head-banging ‘Wally’ who lives near her fishpond.
Felicity has a degree in Communications and an MA in Children’s Literature. She has won many prizes for her short stories, including the KSP Fantasy Award and the inaugural Queen of Crime Award.DATE: Saturday, August 20, 1pm to 5pm, at NEWC.
$30/$25.
November 19/20—Sat/Sun: CREATIVE WRITING WEEKEND with Wendy James
We’ve scheduled another weekend intensive for advanced writers in November. Advanced means, you’ve either done a beginners workshop with Wendy James or had some work published. Wendy is a published writer with a Masters in Creative Writing and has run several workshops for NEWC. She is currently working on two books for a major publisher. Please book early as numbers will be limited.
DATE: Saturday/Sunday, November 19/20. 10am to 4pm, at NEWC.
$100/$80 members.
READING WRITERS—AT CAFFIENDS ON MARSH. In partnership with Kardoorair Press, we present monthly readings with visiting and local writers at Caffiends on Marsh St, Armidale. Entry charge of $15 includes a meal. The events start at 6pm. Bookings must be made in advance to ensure a seat, phone the café on 02 6771 3178.
Local writers who want to read and launch books at the events should contact Tony Bennett on 6772 2995.
Email: tony@kardoorair.com.au
Visit the Kardoorair Press website at www.kardoorair.com.au
March 24—Thursday: Chris Mansell reading from Mortifications and Lies. Mansell is widely published in literary journals in Australia and overseas. Her first book of poems, Delta, was published in 1978; her collection, Shining like a Jinx, won the Amelia Chapbook Award, USA, and in 1993 she won the Queensland Premier’s Award for poetry with Yarmul.
April 28—Thursday: Emerging Voices. We want to hear from writers of all ages and styles. If you’d like to read at this event contact Tony Bennett by email or phone (see above).
May 26—Thursday: Tony Gorman’s Songs of Hope. Award-winning composer, arranger and musician Tony Gorman woke up one morning and found his energy low and movement extremely restricted. The diagnosis: multiple sclerosis. Following a period of reflection and adjustment Tony emerged with a beautiful suite Songs of Hope. In an interview on Radio National Tony said: ‘The artist paints what the poet can’t say, and the musician plays what the artist can’t paint … I’ve got a million thoughts in my head, there are just thousands of thoughts entering my head. And physically I’m pretty stiff and numb and all that, and I reckon getting lost in a long note is I had to play music that didn’t hurt, least of all me, and I didn’t have the energy to kind of go wild like I used to, but I find this music’s just as wild, in its own way, it’s wild.’
June 23—Thursday: Les Murray
Australia’s best known, biggest selling and most internationally acclaimed poet. His poetry has garnered him many national and international awards.
New England Writers' Centre - for people who love writing and reading. We gratefully acknowledge the support of our sponsors, without whom this program would not be possible: NSW Ministry for Arts, Country Arts Support Program Regional Arts NSW; Dymocks Armidale, New England Credit Union.
