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THE VICTORIAN WRITER May 2012 From the Director 05 News 06 Writers Victoria Program 07 The Month, Cate Blake & Laura Jean McKay 10 Pen Report, Arnold Zable 11 Calendar 18 Opportunities & Competitions 30 Quiz Answers 32 Classifieds & Members 33 Voices, John Bartlett & Kat Muscat 34 Features First, Do No Harm, Kris Mrksa 13 Edit This! (A Quiz), Penny Johnson 17 How to Lose Your Poetic Licence, Geoff Lemon 21 Editing: A Health Warning, Caro Cooper 25 Cutting New Trails, Chris Gillard 27
Cover courtesy of artist Alexis Winter, an illustrator based in Melbourne. To see more of her work visit www.alexiswinter.tumblr.com
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
A column turns to columns. editorial, which became the most important in America … and thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts.”
Seems you can’t pick up a paper or magazine these days without being assailed by a column. Take The Victorian Writer as an example. Case closed.
Ignoring facts? Why not? Why let facts get in the way of a good story? This practically opened up a whole new industry.
Actually, let’s open that case up again for a discussion on columns as a form. I’m tempted to say they come in all shapes and sizes, but generally they’re longer than they are wide. Perhaps what I really mean is that the writing within and its quality vary enormously. Editors love them as they can leaven pages of news and add colour.
Lately, columns have spilled into blogs. Now anyone can do it. As a result, the diversity of forms and approaches has multiplied enormously. Perhaps a tweet can be seen as the ultimate contemporary distilled and accessible column. (You just may need to turn it on its side to realise it’s a column!)
A popular species is the written equivalent of a stand-up comedy routine. Something funny/odd/scary/outrageous happened to me/a friend/a family member the other day. What has become of the world, the column continues, usually extrapolating and exaggerating to absurd and comic lengths. Let’s call this comic, short, creative non-fiction.
The most frustrating thing about many old-style op-eds is that you want to yell back at the ones you strongly disagree with; given the emphasis on opinion rather than facts, this can be a frequent urge. The great thing about blogs is that you can get your opposing opinion across, almost instantly, by posting a comment. This has led to a huge lift in the democratisation of communications, but often a lowering of writing standards and an unfortunate tendency towards personal abuse. There is even a relatively new industry emerging of “astroturfers”. As blogs become more important in swaying public opinion, organisations have begun to manufacture comments, websites and online chatter to create the impression of a “grassroots” movement.
Catherine Deveny is a master at this and some of her columns were the funniest and most provocative I’ve ever read. Variations on this theme are more character driven: blokeish Mark Dapin, absurdish Danny Katz, newish Chrissie Swan. Many columns are driven by an ideological position. Someone with a track record of particular opinions, leanings or politics. Take Andrew Bolt. (Please.) Editors know that controversy sells. We’ll call these op-eds.
No sooner do we come up with a new way to allow people’s views to be more easily heard, than techniques emerge to abuse or corrupt this freedom.
I always thought op-ed was an abbreviation of “opinion-editorial”, but it’s actually shortened from “opposite the editorial” page. Shows how much I know. If you take a quick look to the left, we’ve definitely ruled out what you are reading now.
That’s just the sort of topic deserving of a column. The writer does a quick survey of current columns, summarises the different styles, pops in a bit of history and then decries the manipulations of dark forces using contemporary online technologies. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m off to write it now.
The op-ed appears to have been invented, or at least pioneered, by the magnificently named Herbert Bayard Swope of the The New York Evening World in 1920, when he wrote: “It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting, so I devised a method of cleaning off the page opposite the
RODERICK POOLE, Writers Victoria Director
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The Victorian Writer
NEWS The Emerging Writers Festival kicks off this month!
in Elise Hearst’s absence and Jessica Murphy has taken on the role of Program Coordinator while Mary Napier takes an overseas break. We’re also pleased to announce that Booki.sh co-founder Virginia Murdoch was elected to the Writers Victoria Committee of Management at the March AGM.
This year’s Emerging Writers Festival – the last under the fantastic directorship of Lisa Dempster – begins 24 May for an expanded 11-day program of readings, discussion, performances and online action. The 2012 program includes a whopping 50 events. Get to as many as you can! There are masterclasses, writers residencies and a Page Parlour of zines, books and magazines, plus much more. emergingwritersfestival.org.au
Australians going digital A new study has found Australians are among the highest adopters of ebooks. Bowker Market Researches global ebooks monitor released statistics that 21 percent of Australians had purchased an ebook in the six months prior to the survey. Other countries with similar percentages are the US, UK and India. Excitingly, most ebooks purchased in Australia were adult fiction, as opposed to some countries where text books dominated purchases.
Miles Franklin longlist
Thirteen Australian authors are in the running for our most prestigious literary award. There are some familiar names on the list: Kate Grenville has been shortlisted once before, Alex Miller has received the award twice and Steven Carroll won the award in 2008. It is exciting to see debut novelist Favel Parrett alongside these favourites. Running ahead of the pack in publishing are Vintage and Allen & Unwin who have four and three titles respectively. What many have noticed in this year’s longlist, however, is the gender balance, with seven women and six males listed. Judges of the award insist the backlash from last year’s all male shortlist has not affected their decision. Keep your eyes on the Miles Franklin website – the shortlist is due to be announced in just a few days. milesfranklin.com.au
www.bowker.com/en-US/aboutus/press_room/2012/ default.shtml
Clunes Booktown Festival on this month
Clunes Booktown Festival, running from 5-6 May, is the biggest collection of rare, out-of-print, new, small-press, second-hand and collectable books in Australia. Booktraders from around Australia gather in the historic village turning it into a European style Booktown. Program highlights are Alice Pung, Anna Goldsworthy and Peter Rose. Expect hands-on workshops, presentations of rare and precious books and plenty of discussion. Also available at the Festival is The Clunes Little Book of the Book, a collectable, limited edition book of 200 copies, each signed by its five authors.
Applications open for Writers Victoria 2012 Glenfern Studio Fellowships
Writers Victoria is now accepting applications for the 2012 Glenfern Studio Fellowships program. With the generous support of the Readings Foundation and the Grace Marion Wilson Trust, the Fellowships will offer three emerging and three mid-career writers a studio for a period of three months. Successful applicants are awarded time and space to write and the opportunity to be involved in a vibrant community of writers in the historic surroundings of the Glenfern mansion in East St Kilda. Applications close at 5pm Thursday 31 May. Full details are available at writersvictoria.org.au/services/ fellowships/glenfern-fellowships
www.booktown.clunes.org
Hachette Australia accepting unsolicited submissions
Hachette Australia have jumped on the rapidly growing band wagon and are accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Unlike Allen & Unwin’s “Friday Pitch”, Pan Macmillan’s “Manuscript Mondays” and Penguin Group’s brand new “Monthly Catch”, Hachette are accepting unsolicited manuscripts every day! Furthermore, they claim to respond to successful manuscripts within three weeks of submission (the industry standard is three months). Get submitting!
New faces at Writers Victoria
Libby Bramble has hopped over from the Wheeler Centre to take on the position of Membership Services Officer
www.hachette.com.au/manuscriptsubmissions
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PROGRAM 2012
The Writer’s Journey Talk to book publishers, learn about novel structure and experience the writer’s journey; that’s just some of what to expect in May at Writers Victoria. Full event details at writersvictoria.org.au/what-s-on
Writing for Radio BOOKING Book and pay online at writersvictoria.org.au/what-s-on or phone Writers Victoria on 03 9094 7855. Venue details Unless otherwise stated, events are held at Writers Victoria @ the Wheeler Centre, alongside the State Library. We’re at Level 3, 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Booking policy As places are limited, and to allow confirmation of Writers Victoria events, booking deadlines are imposed for all events. We strongly advise bookings at a minimum of one week prior to event start. Cancellation policy Refunds will only be given where a cancellation is made three working days prior to an event or start of a course. Writers Victoria reserves the right to cancel any event due to lack of bookings up until two days prior. Disabled access Writers Victoria attempts to provide disabled access where possible. Please phone prior to your visit if you have any special needs.
with Sian Prior Course: Writer and broadcaster Sian Prior will give you the skills to write for the spoken voice, including: scripting and conducting interviews; understanding the language and formats of radio; writing radio essays; and crafting memorable programs and packages.
Sian Prior has worked in radio for two decades, producing and presenting programs for 3RRR, 774 ABC Melbourne and ABC Radio National. She also teaches Writing for Radio in RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing diploma. rating: Early & emerging When: Wednesdays 6.30–8.30pm, 2–23 May Cost: $220, $180/$165
Non-fiction Masterclass
with Robin Hemley Masterclass: Experienced writers working on longer works of creative non-fiction will discuss the structure and pacing of non-fiction and strategies for completing them.
Robin Hemley is the author of ten books of nonfiction and fiction, and is director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa, the top-ranked writing non-fiction program in the US. He has taught creative writing for 23 years. Rating: early & emerging When: Mon–Fri 10am – 4pm, 7–11 May Cost: $670, Members: $600/$560
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PROGRAM 2012
Ask the Publisher: Children’s Books & Genre
both the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ (SE Asia and South Pacific Region) Prize and the 2008 Miles Franklin Award; and The Lost Life (2009), which was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award and for the ALS Gold Medal. Rating: Early and emerging. When: Tuesday 6.30–8.30pm, 22 MaY Cost: $40, Members $30/$25 per session
with Wilkins Farago and Clan Destine Press Panel: This month features guest publishers Andrew Wilkins and Lindy Cameron who specialise in children’s books and genre writing. Find out the process of submission, the editorial relationship and the best publishing avenue for you.
TUESDAY TUTORIAL – JUNE
Creative Non-fiction: The Invisible ‘I’
Andrew Wilkins is the director of Wilkins Farago, a Melbourne-based children’s book publishing company.
with Alan Attwood This session will explore when to use a first-person technique and when not to in creative non-fiction writing. In a 35-year career, as a journalist Alan Attwood covered such diverse events as the first free elections in South Africa, soccer in Northern Greece, political intrigue in Morocco, four Olympic Games and all four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. Between 1995 and 1998 he was the New York-based correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers and won a Walkley Award for sports coverage in 1998. Alan is the author of two novels: Breathing Underwater and Burke’s Soldier, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. He is currently the editor of The Big Issue. Rating: Early and emerging. When: Tuesday 26 June, 6.30–8.30pm Cost: $40, Members $30/$25 Early birds receive 10% discount. Offer closes 13 June. Places are limited.
Lindy Cameron is the publisher of Clan Destine Press, which specialises in Australian genre print and ebook publishing.
Host, Ann Philpott, is a freelance editor, proofreader, indexer, corporate trainer, RMIT short course trainer, and lecturer in the Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing at Swinburne University of TAFE. Ann is the Training Officer for the Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc. Held in conjunction with the Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc. Rating: All When: Monday 7–8pm, 21 May Cost: $15, Members $12/$10 Group bookings (8+) $10 TUESDAY TUTORIALS Series: Over the year guest authors impart their expertise of the writing craft in a relaxed and interactive environment. Months alternate between fiction and non-fiction, and topics will address the step-by-step processes of successful writing. Places limited. TUESDAY TUTORIAL – MAY
Structuring a Novel
with Steven Carroll Examine various ways of structuring a novel and the significance of structure in unifying aspects of a novel.
Steven Carroll’s most recent novel is Spirit of Progress (2011), a prequel to his award-winning Glenroy trilogy. His other books include Remember Me, Jimmy James (1992); Momoko (1994); The Love Song of Lucy McBride (1998); The Art of the Engine Driver (2001), which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2002 and France’s Prix Femina literary award for the Best Foreign Novel in 2005; The Gift of Speed (2004), which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2005; The Time We Have Taken (2007), which won
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PROGRAM 2012
The Writer’s Journey
SPECIAL EVENT
Series: Join Writers Victoria director Roderick Poole for an intimate, in-depth discussion with fiction authors and industry professionals who will recount aspects of their writing journeys, forming industry relationships, the process of developing a manuscript to publication standard and getting work out there.
Meet the Residents
Event: The Wheeler Centre residents invite you to relax with your fellow writers and industry folk for informal drinks and interesting conversation. A close writing community is a thriving one; we encourage you to leave your lonely garret behind for an hour or two every second month and enjoy the social side of our City of Literature. When: Thursday 21 June, 5pm Where: The Moat This is a licensed event.
WEEK 1: THE IDEA WED 6.30–8.30PM, 6 JUNE Andrea Goldsmith will reveal her sources of inspiration and methods of developing ideas into a polished manuscript. The first step is to capture the reader within the initial page. From a whole story unfolds, complete with the unique challenges of character, structure and plot.
Andrea Goldsmith has published six novels. Her most recent, Reunion, was published by 4th Estate to wide acclaim. She has mentored many new novelists and has conducted several courses at universities and writers’ centres throughout Australia.
July Sneak Peek ... Courses
WEEK 2: THE MENTOR WED 6.30–8.30PM, 13 JUNE Writing can be an insular process that raises questions of doubt in the quality or direction of the story. One option is to seek advice from an expert who will give guidance on the writer’s craft. A regular mentor for Writers Victoria, Jane Routley will discuss her role in assisting the writer.
Writing for the Web with Mel Campbell Starts 4 July. Editing Your Own Work with Jo Case Starts 5 July. The Play with Van Badham Starts 7 July. Writing from History with Christine Balint Starts 12 July. Writing the Short Story with Paddy O’Reilly Starts 14 July. Taming the Beast: Managing the Writing Process with Lee Kofman Starts 19 July. Writing for the Small Screen with Amanda Brotchie Starts 21 July. The Novel with Carrie Tiffany Starts 28 July.
Jane Routley’s publications include the Aurealis Award winners Mage Heart and Fire Angels as well as Aramaya, and one book as Rebecca Locksley – The Three Sisters. Her short stories have appeared in Meanjin and have been read on the ABC. WEEK 3: THE EDITOR WED 6.30–8.30PM, 20 JUNE Aviva Tuffield discusses the author/editor relationship and the creative collaboration involved in honing a manuscript to publishable standard.
Aviva Tuffield is associate publisher, fiction, at Scribe where she is building an Australian fiction list. Her prize-winning authors include Cate Kennedy, Fiona McGregor and Chris Womersley. She has worked in publishing for almost 15 years.
WEEK 4: THE SPOTLIGHT WED 6.30–8.30PM, 27 JUNE Now that your book is published, it’s time to enter the spotlight in the quest to sell your book. How much of it is your responsibility and what does it really entail? From interviews, festival circuits, media appearances and publicists, author and illustrator Leigh Hobbs uncovers what to expect and how to keep your expectations realistic.
Leigh Hobbs is an artist and children’s author best known for his characters Old Tom, Horrible Harriet, Fiona the Pig, Mr Badger and Mr Chicken. His latest picture book, Mr Chicken Goes to Paris, was shortlisted for the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Award as well as the 2010 CBC Picture Book of the Year. Prestigious UK publisher Bloomsbury published four of Leigh’s picture books in 2010.
Events
Ask the Publisher: Short Fiction with Meanjin and Melbourne Books. Hosted by Liz Steele 23 July. Tuesday Tutorials with Adrian Hyland 31 July.
Rating: All Cost per session: $40, Members $30/$25 Book for all four sessions to receive package discount: $140, Members $105/$90. Limited places for all sessions. Early birds receive additional 10% discount. Offer closes 23 May.
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The Victorian Writer
THE MONTH Month of Reading
Month of Residency
by Laura jean mckay I am ploughing through the middle of the Tasman Sea on a cargo ship. The water is 4.6 kilometers deep and swirls against a bow travelling at 18 knots. Equally 707 nautical miles (1311 km) from Australia and New Zealand, the internet, phone and my pathologically social life: I’m on a self-funded floating residency. During a residency, time staring into the middle distance – in this case the sketched cobaltic lines of the sea – isn’t procrastination. It’s essential. Banging on about it in logbook entries: also essential. In the first days I make dot points that cover notebooks and the back of my left hand like shopping lists for container travel:
by Cate Blake As an associated editor with Penguin Books, I spend a lot of time reading unpublished manuscripts. I work in the Penguin General department, where we publish books for a general adult audience. So I read fiction and non-fiction, literary and commercial – anything and everything. In the first week of February this year we launched our Monthly Catch initiative for accepting unsolicited manuscripts. With the Monthly Catch, writers can send through their manuscripts to us from 1 to 7 of every month. We assess all of the manuscripts that come in and then consider whether we want to pursue any of them for publication. It’s a change in policy for Penguin, as we haven’t accepted unsolicited manuscripts for the past few years. We decided to start the Monthly Catch because we were excited about the possibility of discovering new Australian writing talent. We have invaluable relationships with literary agents both here and overseas, but we see the Monthly Catch as another avenue for connecting with new writers. Writers were very enthusiastic about the opportunity to submit their work to us and we received hundreds of submissions in that first week alone. As such, this had a big impact on all of our reading habits. At the end of the first week, we sorted through the manuscripts, dividing them by genre and subject matter, and then allocated them to our editors depending on interest and publishing style. And then we read. We read on ereaders, on Kindles, on iPads, on computer screens, on loose sheets of paper. We read on trains and trams, in bed, on the couch, at our desks. We read romance, crime, memoir, literary fiction. We looked for great stories, fascinating characters, clean prose and deep insight. We hoped to find the next bestseller or awardwinner among them. It was gratifying to see the level of professionalism and engagement in the aspiring writers who submitted to us. Submissions were carefully thought through, and the cover letters were considered and articulate. We knew, of course, that many people love writing, but it was something of a revelation to see the sheer volume of submissions – all unique and distinctive – that we received. So we’re all reading more than we ever have, but that’s simply an occupational hazard, and a pleasurable one at that. Hopefully this engagement with the Australian writing community will continue to be rewarding for both sides.
South 39°, east 161°. Breakfast: strange sausage, scrambled eggs. No booze is good booze. Engine could power a small city. Dolphins! Throw up seasickness tablet. Take another. By the fourth day of our ten-day voyage we are beyond the reaches of land and I am in a writing routine adapted from a Writers Victoria Steven Carroll masterclass: write for two 90-minute sessions every day, no edits, no breaks. In this, life revolves around fiction. On a cargo ship though, life revolves around the meal schedule. There’s also head bumping cabin yoga, short films to make with co-resident boyfriend Tom Doig, Russian and Filipino to attempt, staring to be done into the deep. I discipline. Urchin away hours to write by the porthole. With no land in sight, my words turn nautical. A residency is usually about producing text. It’s also about giving yourself the time and space to get some perspective on a story. It’s about making room for new words. The short story collection that I’m writing about Cambodia takes huge gulps of sea air in the back of my brain while I write about the ship. I scribble, standing in the control room bridge where the captain and his officers peer at their beautiful charts; where a squiggly line like a sea monster directs our path; and the crew look out with sailors’ eyes over the containers and the ocean beyond. On the circular scale that sits to the west of the South Island chart, one of the officers has written “withdrawn temporary”. Some may not like a cargo ship residency. It’s initially expensive, the food is meaty and you wobble about like a matryoshka (babushka) doll in the swells. The first day at sea is spent with your head in the toilet and the sailors have stories of harbors, oceanic disasters, love and loneliness – it can be hard to be disciplined. But to catch a merchant ship is to enter another country, where starboard and port replace house and street, and nautical miles, fathoms and knots replace metres. Time is liquid. Information is gathered through the stars and you suck in enough material to fuel your writing for the next decade. To catch a cargo ship is to admit to the size of the world.
Cate blake is an associate editor with Penguin Books.
LAURA JEAN MCKAY is a Melbourne writer. www.laurajeanmckay.com
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The Victorian Writer
PEN report, May
by Arnold Zable, president of Melbourne PEN The work of PEN on behalf of imprisoned writers goes on unabated. An insight into the scope of the work and what makes advocacy on behalf of writers so worthwhile is provided by a recent “Notebook” entry, dated 4 April 2012, from the chair of the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), Marian Botsford Fraser. Marian writes: “There are moments, encounters, conversations that make sense of this enterprise known as PEN. And not just sense, but joy. Last month, I had one of those moments, on a frigidly windy, bright day in Toronto when I met Zarganar, the Burmese poet, comedian, activist, who has been on the WiPC case list since the late 1980s through at least three prison terms of varying length and severity. After his release last fall in a general amnesty (although he’s very uncomfortable about the fact that several hundred other prisoners were not released), Zarganar immediately got his very first passport, at the age of 51, and began to campaign in Burma and abroad for the by-elections of 1 April, when Aung San Suu Kyi was elected, along with at least 40 other members of her NDL party.” Marian points out: “Zarganar is one of countless writers who, during the WiPC’s 52 years, has acknowledged the tenacity, compassion, patience and sheer bloodymindedness of PEN members when it comes to campaigning on behalf of individual writers in prison and for freedom of expression as a fundamental human right. Our campaigning starts with rigorous research by WiPC staff, the springboard for appeals, high-level interventions with governments, country and issue campaigns, missions and reports undertaken in collaboration with activist centres and other organisations, and conventional and social media outreach.” Marion details recent action on behalf of writers in regions such as the Middle East, North Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas. In reference to Europe and Turkey, for instance, she reports: “The situation in Turkey is an ongoing drama – good news, bad news, conditional releases, 2,400-page indictments. Expressions of solidarity were sent by PEN to Turkish PEN for a freedom of expression meeting in Istanbul on 15 March. On 12 March Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık were released, pending trial … On International Women’s Day we asked centres to send postcards and books to Ayse Berktay and Büsra Ersanli in prison. We’re working on a strategy for trials against journalists … and a research visit to the country before possible PEN International visit to Turkey in November.” PEN Melbourne echoes Marion’s statements. Our WiPC representatives, Chris Flynn and Paddy O’Reilly, continue to respond to Rapid Action Network appeals, which call for immediate advocacy on behalf of specific writers. And some of our members continue to correspond with imprisoned writers worldwide. Please join us at PEN Melbourne. New members are always welcome. www.melbournepen.com.au
Tweet of the month
@johngaspar John Gaspar
I’ve just had confirmation from a University lecturer that ebooks will be allowed in her open 1:29pm via LinkedIn book exam. There goes another milestone.
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The Victorian Writer
First, Do No Harm In script editing, explains Kris Mrksa, knowing when to step away can be just as important as knowing when to get involved. He spoke with Daniel Kovacevic.
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ou might recognise the name Kris Mrksa from the credits of shows like The Slap, Underbelly or Wilfred. The screenwriter and script editor has worked on some of Australia’s most successful television programs, but it’s not a career he aspired towards – in fact, it’s not a line of work he thought was even possible in Australia. “It was never something that I even conceived of, as a career. It had simply never occurred to me before, as a way that someone in Australia could make a living. I don’t know where I thought these scripts for Australian film and television came from. But I never imagined that it could be a job for someone – a full time job.” While studying he was asked to write a script for an RMIT short film and he “had a crack ... The film came out quite well and I rather enjoyed it,” Mrksa says. “Then, all of a sudden, I started thinking about the possibilities, I suppose.” The possibilities have taken him to the writing rooms of several Australian TV stations and into collaborations with book authors, screenwriters and producers. He’s now spent more than a decade writing scripts for film and television, and says that working with an editor on a script – though relationships might vary enormously from show to show – is a vital step in the process. “There are some shows where you will, essentially, deliver a second draft of your script but someone in-house – a script editor or a script producer – takes control of the script and then does the final parts themselves and brings it into line with what they’re looking for. That does happen.” It’s a prospect that might strike some writers as a little disturbing; however, Mrksa reassures: “I have to say, on what I would call quality TV shows, that’s less common. On those shows the writer does take charge and responsibility of their own script.” This is when the relationship with the script editor or script producer is working at its best. “As it was on The Slap [for which Mrksa was scriptwriting and adapting] Tony Ayres was the show runner and Amanda Higgs was the script editor, and I had dialogue with both of them. On those quality kinds of shows you do have a quite collaborative relationship.
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The Victorian Writer “I think that in the ideal situation – in something like The Slap and in Underbelly – the writer retains an enormous amount of creative control and ownership over their script, but they are hopefully in a dialogue with that key person or persons, striving together to make the script better. Hopefully you have a great deal of interaction with them. I mean, I actually welcome that and I think it would be hard to work in TV if you didn’t welcome that kind of dialogue. That person needs to keep an eye on tonal and factual consistencies with other scripts in the series and they need to, hopefully, push you as well to do better and to achieve a higher level of writing.” A little humility, says Mrksa, goes a long way. “What I would emphasise about all of these relationships is that if it’s working well, for a smart TV writer, you don’t fight against it, you welcome it. You see it as collaborative input into making the product better. “It’s interesting; a good script, well written, is a beautiful and entertaining thing to read, but I always try to remind myself that, in the end, the script is not the finished work of art; the finished work is the TV show or the film. So, in a way, I’m a bit more like an architect doing a blueprint when I’m writing. I hope you can admire the beautiful draftsmanship in the blueprint and the elegance of it; you can admire the conception. But in the end it’s a step towards the final building. And there are a whole bunch of other people who come into that execution.”
“I always try to remind myself that the script is not the finished work of art; the finished work is the film or the TV show.”
In working as a writer on the highly successful television adaptation of the Christos Tsiolkas novel, The Slap, Mrksa says focusing on the whole series, and not just his episodes, was essential to reach the high standards the team set for themselves. “All the writers were in the development meetings right from the start so we were all there working on, essentially, a conception of the whole series, as opposed to just our episodes. We developed in collaboration – particularly with Tony [Ayres] but also Christos – a conception of the series as a whole and only then did you walk away and start nutting out how you would make your own episodes work in that whole. So, to some extent, rather than struggling to reconcile my episodes with a particular chapter of the book, just as equally challenging was creating an overall vision for a TV series, and then making them work as a part of that vision.” When it came to writing his episodes, basing them on the chapters of the book, Mrksa believes deviations from the original are required and there is a balance to be found between words written for a page and those to be used on-screen. “As far as deciding what works and what doesn’t work; look, I think particularly with such a well-read book as The Slap, you don’t want to disappoint readers of
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The Victorian Writer the book in your adaptation and you do want to remain always true to the spirit of what’s there, but I think there is a certain point where you have to step away from it a bit and say, this is now screen storytelling it’s not storytelling on a page. And, as a form, that requires different values to be brought to the process. So I think that letting go of the book was equally important, at some point. Once it’s so deeply embedded in your head I guess, maybe, you never really do let it go. You try to push it back from the forefront but it’s still there. “It’s interesting; in conversation with Christos now, he has joked about talking to someone about something that happened in the Manolis episode. He was talking about it as if it was something that was in the book, then all of a sudden he had to pull himself up and say, ‘hang on, I didn’t write that; that’s just in the TV show, isn’t it?’ And I have the same experience. I’m looking at stuff now thinking, ‘I came up with that, didn’t I?’ but then I have to pull myself up and say, ‘I think that’s actually in the book’. So, it’s really funny, for both Christos and myself – and probably others; it’s almost like the two have blended so much in my mind that I’m not even sure anymore.” When storytelling for screen, says Mrksa, there are “different values” required of the text. “You need to hit marks that you don’t need to in a book. The first big challenge on The Slap was the fact that the book is so internal. The second was that the book is, quite strictly, from character to character, all character point of view, or inside the character’s head. While we wanted to retain that point of view stuff we wanted to keep a bigger, broader world alive. We wanted to keep the world of all the characters sort of alive over the course of the series. So I think those were the two big challenges in that adaptation and that was where we had to take a certain amount of liberty to be inventive.” Challenges are particular to each project, says Mrksa, and stations each operate differently. Working on Wilfred, the Tropfest finalist-cum-cult classic, where he put his skills to work as script editor, is a stand-out example of these differences at play. “You could say that Wilfred’s the perfect example of a situation where, because we were doing it for SBS, the standards were quite different. SBS was incredibly hands-off and supportive and permissive; other networks would not have been quite so. So that was enormously liberating. I mean, to tell you the truth, having been working for Nine and others for a while I was a bit terrified by it too; I was kind of expecting reams and reams of network notes and when I didn’t get them I felt like I almost missed them. You curse the bloody things and then when you don’t get them it’s kind of frightening.”
“You need to hit marks that you don’t need to in a book. The first big challenge on The Slap was the fact that the book is so internal.”
“I think one of the reasons why Wilfred was so, sort of, original and anarchic and darkly funny was because SBS allowed the guys [creators Jason Gann (the dog), Adam Zwar (the man) and Tony Rogers (the director)] so much latitude. I know that my attitude as a
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The Victorian Writer script editor there was really just to try to push them a bit and see if there were better ideas that might come out. I absolutely thought, ‘let the guys run’. It’s their vision, it’s a unique vision.” This knowledge of when to intervene and when to allow an uninterrupted flow of ideas is an important aspect of the editor’s skill. “There’s an old adage in medicine, I believe, for doctors, which is ‘first, do no harm’. I guess the idea is that a doctor would be better off doing nothing than making the situation worse. And I feel that’s exactly what should be written over the computer monitors of every script editor in the country: ‘first do no harm’. You’d be better off just doing a spell-check and stepping away, than getting in and being a negative influence, which I think is what can so often happen.” “So for me, with Wilfred, it was about making sure that the guys’ vision was preserved, that I didn’t impinge on it. I just tried to help them execute it in a way that was more successful and, if anything, closer to their quirky weirdness – what they were looking for.” For those aspiring towards a screen career, Mrksa is clear about what counts. “Getting that first break is the tough part. When you haven’t got any produced credits it’s very hard to get people to read your work and when no one will read your work, it’s hard to get produced credits. Catch 22. There are some producers who will read spec scripts, but it’s always going to help if you come to them with something to recommend or distinguish you – something that might make them move your script up from the bottom of what is probably an enormous, dusty pile. Short films can provide an opportunity to get your work onto a screen, but they are generally seen as a director’s medium, rather than a writer’s, so even that’s not ideal.” One thing is for certain, he says; “you will never get anywhere unless you put yourself out there. You need to follow what’s happening in the industry, to know who’s who and what’s in development. You need to make opportunities to meet and mingle with people who work in the industry. But most of all you need to keep writing. Aspiring to write counts for nothing. To be a writer, you need to write.” KRIS MRKSA has been writing award-winning programs for more than a decade. In recent years his work on projects including Underbelly, the Graham Kennedy biopic, The King and The Slap has seen his reputation boom. In 2011 he was awarded the Foxtel Fellowship for his outstanding work, through the Australian Writers Foundation, and is currently working on two projects: Devil’s Dust and The Docks.
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Edit This! (A Quiz) Got a red pen handy, grammar geeks? Thanks to Penny Johnson from RMIT’s industry reknown Professional Writing and Editing course, here’s a chance to test whether you can pick a dangling modifier from an errant split infinitive. Each sentence below contains a grammatical error – see how many you can find. Find the answers and rationale on page 32.
QUIZ 1. Its no secret that I have every one of Kylies records. 2. He drunk a bottle of whiskey before passing out. 3. The bride began to slowly walk towards the altar. 4. Neither she nor him is talented enough to win. 5. The vegetable-growing guide recommended planting less seedlings but allowing each one more space. 6. John gave flowers to my mum and myself. 7. The Yarra River, that runs through Melbourne, is popular with the rowing crew despite its off-putting colour. 8. The burglar, together with his accomplices, were planning to pull off an audacious robbery. 9. A slab of stubbies were in the fridge in the garage. 10. She is the most famous of the two netballers. 11. Tony was ruefully explaining that Rob who he considered his best friend was now engaged to Gloria who was Tony’s ex-wife. 12. Frantically summoning an ambulance, the corpse was driven to the morgue. 13. The conditions at the festival were unbearable; searing heat, a blustery wind and tons of flies. 14. She asked me why I called her a rude pig? 15. The womens’ hall of residence has a sitting room; the men’s does not.
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MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
EVERY MONDAY
EVERY TUESDAY
EVERY WEDNESDAY
EVERY THURSDAY
Words and Music poetry and readings. 98.1FM. 10.30–11am.
Melbourne Writers Meet-up Group. 6pm in the city. Inspired, emerging and established writers welcome. Social not critique group. (@MelbCityWriters or melbournewriters@gmail.com)
Aural Text on RRR (102.7FM), 12–2pm.
Published ... or not. 3CR (855AM), 11.30–12noon.
ONE WED PER MONTH
Spoken Word poetry. 3CR (855AM), 9–9.30am.
La Mama Poetica. Every 2nd month. 8pm, LaMama, 205 Faraday St, Carlton. $7/5. www.lamama.com.au Phoenix Park Writers. Meet weekly on a Monday and Saturday afternoon. East Malvern. (9530 4397) Scribes Writing Group. 9.30am –12pm, (school terms). South Barwon Community Centre, 33 Mount Pleasant Rd, Belmont. (Vivienne Worthington, 5241 9491)
Book Chat. 11am–12noon, Doveton Library. Share opinions and great reads with book lovers. Find new authors and new friends. Free. Chalk and Cheese. 3WBC (94.1FM), 4–5pm. Arts news, interviews and readings. FORTNIGHTLY
Mordialloc Writers’ Group. 8pm, Mordialloc NeighbourReservoir wRiters and Reciters. hood House. (9587 8757 / 1–3.30pm, Reservoir Library. mairi@ozemail.com.au) (0403 708 759 / ruthvenstorygarden@yahoo.com.au) Wordweavers Writers’ Group. 9.45am–12pm, Waverley Commu07 MAY nity Learning Centre, 5 Fleet St, Mt Waverley. (9807 6011) Passionate Tongues Poetry. 8.30pm, Noise Bar, Bruns1 MAY wick. (9328 8080) Williamstown Writers. 8pm, 21 MAY Williamstown. $2. (williwriters@hotmail.com) Passionate Tongues Poetry. 8.30pm, Noise Bar, Bruns8 MAY wick. (9328 8080) Poets@Watsonia. 7pm, Watsonia Library Community Room. $5. (0404 517 881) FORTNIGHTLY
Roarhouse music & poetry. 7–10pm, Esplanade Basement Bar, St Kilda. Free. (To perform: fi.roarhouse@gmail.com) 02 MAY
Write Now. (88.3FM), 7–8pm. Discussion and talkback. ONE THURS PER MONTH
Roarhouse music & poetry. Coast Lines Poetry Group. 7–10pm, 303 Bar, Northcote. 10.30am, Brighton Library, Wilson (fi.roarhouse@gmail.com) St. (Cecilia Morris, 0412 021 154) 30 MAY
Wednesday’s Child Writers’ Group. 6.30pm, Bartiste Lounge, Ross Smith Lane, Frankston. (francashman@msn.com)
03 MAY
Australian Society of Technical Communicators (VIC) meeting, 6.30–8.30pm, VTR Consulting, Roseneath Pl, South Melbourne. Brunswick Poets’ & Writers’ Workshop ©. 7pm, Community Room, Campbell Turnbull Library, rear 220 Melville Rd, Brunswick West. (9384 1277) Darebin Writers’ Group. 7.30pm, SPAN Community House, 298 Victoria Rd, Thornbury. (9480 1364, info@spanhouse.org) 10 MAY
Caulfield Writers Group. 7.30pm, Godfrey St. Community House, 9 Godfrey St, Bentleigh. (caulfieldwriters@gmail.com) 17 MAY
Baw Baw Writers’ Network. 6.30pm, Drouin Public Library. (bawbaw.writersevents@gmail.com)
May 2012 18
The Courthouse Readings. 8pm, 728 Main Rd, Eltham. $5. (9439 9732) 24 MAY
Caulfield Writers Group. Details as above.
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
EVERY FRIDAY
EVERY SATURDAY
06 MAY
Andrew Thompson on 3WBC (94.1FM), 12.30–1pm. Short stories, poems, music.
Poetica. 3.05pm, ABC Radio National.
Poems on Main. Book club run by Jordie Albiston. 3–4.30pm, Eltham Bookshop. (9439 8700)
Mornington Community Writers Group. 10am and 7.30pm, Mornington Community House, Albert Street, Mornington. (5975 4772 / www. morningtoncci.com.au)
Poetry Sessions. 2pm, Dan O’Connell Hotel, 225 Canning St, West Word. 2pm, Carlton. (9387 2086 / 0412 224 655) Dancing Dog Café, 42A Albert St, Footscray. poetry@fedsquare. 2–4pm, (west_word@yahoo.com) Feb–Nov. In the Atrium. (www.fedsquare.com) 13 MAY
Phoenix Park Writers. Meet weekly on a Monday and Melbourne Poets Union meeting. Saturday afternoon. East 7pm, various locations, usually Malvern. (9530 4397) the Wheeler Centre. $10/$9. 05 MAY (home.vicnet.net.au/~mpuinc) Word Tree. 3pm, Society of Women Writers Burrinja Cafe, 351 Glenfern VIC meeting. 10.30am, meeting room, 4th floor, Wheeler Centre, Rd, Upwey. (9754 1789) City. $5. (www.swwvic.net.au) 12 MAY 25 MAY
Wordsmiths of Melbourne Poetry Group. 2–5pm, 8 Woodhouse Rd, Doncaster. $30 yr/$5 session, $3 concession. (9890 5885 / poeticachristi@netspace.net.au) 19 MAY
Henry Lawson Society. 1.30–4.30pm, St. Francis Church, Lonsdale St, City. (9785 7079)
FAW Mornington Peninsula Branch. 1.45 for 2pm, Community Contact House, 9 Albert St, Mornington. (Contact Philton, 5974 4561 or Margaret, 9781 1231.) 20 MAY
West Word. 2pm, Dancing Dog Café, 42A Albert St, Footscray. (west_word@yahoo.com) 27 MAY
Readings by the Bay. 2–5pm, Mordialloc Neighbourhood House. (mairi@ozemail.com.au / 9587 8757)
HIGHLIGHTS SUNDAY 13 MAY
Oliver Jeffers, internationally reknowned children’s author, visits Melbourne. Collins Street Dymocks. Phone 9660 8500. MONDAY 14 MAY
Sydney Writers Festival. Runs until 20 May. www.swf.org.au SATURDAY 19 & 26 MAY
Australian Country & Style Literary Lunch, launching Annie Smithers’ Annie’s Garden to Kitchen. Kyneton. Contact 5422 2039. THURSDAY 24 MAY
Emerging Writers Festival 2012 www.emergingwriters festival.org.au SATURDAY 26 MAY
Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan, curators of Heide Museum, discuss their new book, Sunday’s Garden. Robinsons Bookstore, Greensborough. Phone 9783 6488.
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The Victorian Writer
How To Lose Your Poetic Licence As a poet, Gina Rinehart makes a great billionaire, writes Geoff lemon, poet and editor of Going Down Down Swinging. This article was commissioned by and originally published at Crikey and also appears at heathenscripture.wordpress.com
T
hank you, Gina Rinehart. As the editor of a long-running poetry journal, I thank Rinehart for putting the noble art of verse in the media spotlight.
The critics, as Rinehart knows, are harsh. They criticise your poetry. They criticise your attempts to become a media magnate. They are probably going to abduct your children. That could be handy, because you don’t like your children very much, but that is nobody else’s business. Get off my lawn. But in all the talk of Rinehart as a crazy person, people are forgetting what matters – the poetry. Australia, it’s time to assess Rinehart’s work dispassionately, in content and structure. “Our Future” attempts a noble challenge: the rendering of economic theory and politico-economic ideology into stirring verse. Some call it impossible to include phrases such as “special economic zones” in a fluid and aesthetically pleasing poem. Those people are right. But Rinehart doesn’t let that stop her. If it doesn’t fit, she’ll shoehorn the bastard in there anyway.
I thank Gina Rinehart for putting the noble art of verse in the media spotlight.
The first thing you notice about Rinehart’s poem is that it passes the Crusty Old Bugger in a Pub test. Namely, it rhymes. Second, she starts out with noble intent. She’s read “The Man from Snowy River”. She knows poems go dum-de-dum. And in fact, the first two lines are in almost functional iambic pentameter. If that phrase scares you, it just means there is an unstressed syllable followed by an emphasised syllable. That pattern repeats five times, for ten syllables in total, which in combination form a line. Viz: The globe is sadly groaning with debt, poverty and strife / And billions now are pleading to enjoy a better life
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The Victorian Writer Obviously Rinehart is aware of the metre, as she’s thrown the word “now” into that second line to maintain it. Her only false step is “debt”, which doesn’t work as an unstressed syllable before a stressed “pov(erty)”. I might have suggested “with economies in strife”, had she had the forethought to seek my professional opinion. (Hint, Gina: good poetry editors are pretty freaking thin on the ground.) In terms of content, it is perhaps a little dubious to hear sad tales of poverty from the person stewing in the most obscene swill of mineral cash in the entire country. For those who do want a better life, the poet in question would be in a better practical position to help them than any other Australian. Set up farms across the sub-Saharan belt? Still got change to play blackjack with Kerry Packer’s ghost. Dengue fever in India? Scrub it off like the Spray and Wipe chick. A team of mercenaries to take out Bashar al-Assad? Her PA would have his scalp in Gina’s inbox before she’d finished her morning muffin.
Every bad poet loves adjectives. Who can resist “massive”? And then we get to that third line, which actually came from an Institute of Public Affairs white paper.
Their hope lies with resources buried deep within the earth / And the enterprise and capital which give each project worth Not bad, not bad. The metre is a bit frayed, but still there in intent. Maybe a slight reshaping would help: “Their hopes are the resources buried deep within the earth / And the enterprise and capital which make ‘em what they’re worth”. Always read the lines aloud to yourself. Plus, the abbreviation of “them” gives it a nice bush-ballad feel, no? True blue and that. But then we start to go off the rails …
Is our future threatened with massive debts run up by political hacks / Who dig themselves out by unleashing rampant tax / The end result is sending Australian investment, growth and jobs offshore / This type of direction is harmful to our core The first line of those four abandons metre, as rhetoric stirs from its meat-coma and begins to lick its spit-flecked jaws. Every bad poet loves adjectives. Who can resist “massive”? Who can resist an awkward phrase like “political hacks”? And then we get to that third line, which actually came from an Institute of Public Affairs white paper. Poetry is basically about making something sound good, or putting across a new and interesting way of seeing. This sounds like a Joe Hockey press conference submerged in tomato soup. The line is overly long and awkward, the Bruce Reid of this poem, which is then followed by the Danny de Vito, jammed in there as an afterthought while Gina tried to think of something to rhyme with “offshore”. Rhetoric is off the leash now and it roams like the Beast of the Apocalypse (either Biblical or the weird creature in The Brotherhood of the Wolf ). Those who criticise Rinehart for being insanely rich and still bitching about taxes are
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The Victorian Writer “envious unthinking people” who think wealth is magically created. (To be fair, inheriting an immense mining company does help sprinkle a bit of fairy dust on the old investment portfolio.) Rinehart is hurt and troubled by their attitudes. And then, the final four lines: a crescendo of disjointedness, as both reason and poetic technique disintegrate. Develop North Australia, embrace multiculturalism and welcome short term foreign workers to our shores / To benefit from the export of our minerals and ores One, the long line/short line thing again. Rinehart is getting all Ogden Nash on us here, if you replace the wit with self-righteous indignation. Two, “embrace multiculturalism and welcome short term foreign workers to our shores” just doesn’t cut it as a line. Does that sound good to you? Does that ring with the authority of naturalistic rhythm and truth? Is this question rhetorical? Three, is it strictly fair to equate “embrace multiculturalism” with “bring in a bunch of really cheap foreigners for a while to make us arseloads of cash and then make sure to send the dirty buggers back to wherever it is they came from”? The second phrase is even more unwieldy in a poetic sense, but I feel it cuts closer to the essential truth of the matter. The world’s poor need our resources: do not leave them to their fate / Our nation needs special economic zones and wiser government, before it is too late Ah, the crowning triumph. “Special economic zones” bounding in like a photobomber of verse, resting its nuts on the crown of poetry’s head. Again, the not-so-delicious irony of an appeal on behalf of the world’s poor. Not to labour a point here, but we are talking about the richest man, woman or erotic llama masseuse in the country. And yet, this is about philanthropy. The poor need our resources. Not for free of course, for an appropriate fee. So, the world’s poor need to buy shit from Gina Rinehart. Do not leave them to their fate of not buying shit from Gina Rinehart. Do not abandon them. And you know, as it happens, those things that are in the interests of the world’s poor just so happen to be in the interests of making Gina Rinehart wealthier. Not that that’s the issue here. It’s just a coincidence. Rinehart just loves art and literature, and really, guys, this is all about the poor. Rinehart’s philanthropy, it seems, is much like her iambic pentameter. It can be applied when it suits and abandoned when it becomes inconvenient. Yep. Poetic licence revoked. Geoff lemon is a political commentator, sportswriter, satirist, poet and spoken word performer. He edits the literary journal Going Down Swinging, co-directs the National Young Writers Festival and writes at the controversial website Heathen Scripture: heathenscripture.wordpress.com
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Editing: A Health Warning Think reading is the best part of an editor’s role? Caro Cooper is here to tell you otherwise. She details the little known health afflictions of editors, their papercuts and the mounds of books threatening the lives of their small animals.
I
n the last decade the Australian government has introduced a series of occupational health and safety codes of practice aimed at preventing workplace injuries. The federal government has also invested heavily in an advertising campaign promoting safe work practices. The advertisements have been hard to avoid – pictures of scarred faces, missing limbs, broken bones; they’re not subtle. So why hasn’t the publishing industry heard about OH&S? Many people think that working in a publishing house would be fun – hours of reading, interesting authors, thoughts and ideas bouncing off the walls like our cheques at the bank. But it’s not fun, it’s agony. The primary cause of pain for editors, one possibly addressed by the 2007 Code of Practice for Prevention of Musculoskeletal Injuries, is the swelling hunchback. Nothing says sexy like a woman in glasses, with pencil shavings in her hair and a giant hump rising from her blouse. Hours spent bent over pages slavishly deleting and stabbing manuscripts with nubby pencils leads to hunchbackery (that’s the technical term) and an addiction to codeine. On Valentine’s Day many an editor can be seen taking her hump out to dinner. Editorial addictions span further than codeine. Like all office workers, we have our caffeine dependencies but most editors also have a thing for hard liquor. This isn’t entirely because we’re ugly, humpbacked loners, rather it is to wash away the many exclamation marks, misplaced apostrophes and Generation-Y abbreviations we’re exposed to throughout the day. It’s the editorial equivalent of douching. Death by a thousand cuts, also known as slow slicing, was outlawed in China in 1905. We are still waiting for it to be outlawed in publishing. Editors’ hands, dried to resemble pale beef jerky by the moisture-sucking paper we fondle, are then sliced and slashed by the very same pages. By the end of the day we look like Edward Scissorhands’ girlfriend. If only.
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The Victorian Writer Another injury often overlooked is the collapsing book pile. Many green, young editors think collecting all the books published by their house will be the most wonderful part of the job. It’s not; it’s the slow construction of a death trap. I wondered for months why my asthma had let up only to realise that my cat had been killed by a collapsed pile of early Text publications. Judging by the degree of decomposition, he’d died around a week before my symptoms disappeared. It’s funny how their little skull remains long after their flesh has decayed. If an editor fails to turn up for work, it’s generally assumed they are pinned under piles of unread books. Killed by the one they love. How very common. On this note, I was informed that if a bookcase is falling towards you and you cannot escape in time, it is best to run towards the shelf as it falls. The closer you get the less inertia the projectiles and the shelf will have and the less substantial your injuries will be, or alternatively, the more slowly you will die. I hope my cat died fast under that copy of Atlas Shrugged. Lord knows it nearly killed me. Have you seen The Shining? Remember what happens to Johnny when he is left alone in the quiet hotel for too long? Cabin fever. Murderous cabin fever. This is the final editorial disease – final because it usually results in jail time or a happy life in the psych ward (have you ever wondered why psych wards have the most grammatically correct of signs?). It is not uncommon for an editor to go days without speaking to anyone but himself or herself, the office cleaner and the various spectres that begin rising from their manuscripts. Give a semicolon a glass of rye and he will tell you the kind of stories that will have you laughing all night. There are many other, smaller, side effects of an editorial life, things like bald patches, lead poisoning, an addiction to social media for the lack of real world friendships, fear of rejection (slips), sycophantry and bleeding eyes. This list only scratches the surface of editorial suffering but even this meagre portion of our pain makes it clear that being an editor is more painful than reading Proust. So come, stand with us as we demand our own health and safety codes of practice because, the way this country is going, soon there will be no editors left and then who will tidy up after you all? Caro Cooper is an editor at Text Publishing. She works across fiction and non-fiction titles. She is also a writer for frankie magazine.
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The Victorian Writer
Cutting New Trails Verbosity does not a good online application make, says Chris Gillard, head of new Melbourne app-based travel company Appy Travels. He offers a guide to travel app editing 2.0.
M
obile technology that offers immediate access to relevant information has fundamentally changed the dynamic between the travel writer and travelling reader. We are talking about a different type of reading experience now, one that is consumed through a different medium and offers interactive content like photos, videos and website links. Add to that the ability of a mobile device to recognise exactly where you are, to provide the most contextually relevant travel reading, and your eyes are suddenly opened to a whole new world. When first confronted with this as a writer or editor, you feel like a tourist in your own country. But once familiar with the territory you’ll find these variables allow you to tell the same story differently, in different ways, with a variety of collaborators. The experience of reading a travel guide within an app is not linear, like reading a book with a beginning, middle and an end; it’s not about a long, in-depth read. App guide writing is about providing the most relevant and accurate “snack” or article length information at the right time for the traveller. At Appy Travels we still categorise the writing into formally ordered chapters and subchapters allowing the reader the option of reading in the form presented, but we also know that travellers will follow whichever trail they’re interested in at the time – in this sense, each chapter in a guide can be the first. The content can ultimately be cut several ways depending on the traveller’s interests or needs, and exactly where (geographically) they are accessing the information. Nevertheless, we try to lead the reader by presenting the answers to the big travel questions first: “Where is it?” and “Great Reasons to Go”. These chapters are first and second in all Appy Travels guides. Where is it? presents simple geographic information that helps decision making at research stage. Great Reasons to Go is an unashamedly positive summary. We see it as our editorial opportunity to be more floral and descriptive, romanticise a little and develop a recognisable voice and strong tone while having fun with the reader’s imagination, tempting them to pack their suitcase then and there or, if they’re already at the destination, to immediately bound out the door. We understand that travel is exciting. We understand the thrill. We like a reader to experience the particular feeling that comes with a particular place. But we’re not overly verbose.
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The Victorian Writer A very important consideration and another variable particular to apps is that presentation changes according to device type. All our apps will ultimately be published to present on iPhones, iPads, iPods and Android phones and tablets. The many screen sizes and pixel densities make it difficult to control the experience and this changes the editing priorities. Android tablets and iPad’s are often called “presentation” mediums, since they are an excellent alternative to paper based publishing with large, colourful visuals and easily read text options. Here the travel reading experience can be more magazine like, with larger amounts of text emphasised with larger photos and videos. But we can’t just cater to this traveller. We also need to account for the poor old backpacker with yesterday’s crappy little no-name phone, with a pitiful screen size, that may be over, like, a year old. Heck, it may even be two years old! These broad device differences mean writing and editing for apps is not a straightforward exercise and are yet another reason that snack size content is the most pragmatic solution. With heavily edited travel writing we are well supported, with photos and videos doing much of the talking for us, reinforcing points and filling in gaps, allowing us to maintain punchy content. We don’t need to say everything when it can be easily and dramatically shown. We might fully describe the rugged, dusty, bumpy journey to a secret outback oasis, but once the reader arrives, thirsty for full-colour detail, the words might suddenly dry up. Enter video link. Writing for a travel app does not stop at the guide content. Points of Interest (POI) on our maps will have a link connecting the traveller with the most relevant website. We do not always need to provide all the details on a restaurant, bar or hotel; sometimes we just slightly open the door to offer a peek inside. Finally, our guide creation involves interaction with travellers, picking up on their tips, advice or insight on an area, panning for the unexpected nuggets of gold that we all find so thrilling when off on an adventure. Our guides are initially merely the framework for an evolving piece of writing. We encourage traveller feedback but exercise editorial control, curating this content to successfully add crowd-sourced information to our guide in a seamless way. This “value call” method of editorial judgement and continuous guide refining and addition is a unique feature of Appy Travels and an editing challenge to retain a common tone, but it ultimately results in “live” guides that present fresher, and more up to date and relevant information for travellers. There are no set rules, but in many ways writing for travel apps follows the same principles that might be applied to advertising copywriting: grab attention and get quickly to the point. Go into detail if it’s warranted but bear in mind your support visuals can do a lot of the talking. It’s also important to develop a strong tone and a recognisable voice that readers can come to trust. Having said all this, an assessment of the approach to travel writing/editing 2.0 may be premature. The road ahead for Appy Travels will give you travel apps that intelligently predict your interests, cross-referenced with highly accurate geographic and other proximity information. With each tech breakthrough and new iPad and iPhone release, the rules for writing and editing words for travellers in a mobile world may well continue to change. Appy Travels – appytravels.com – has developed 37 travel apps for Australian destinations and published 15. It has its sights set on publishing 50 for the USA next. Appy Travels was created by projectproject.com.au
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The Victorian Writer
OP PORT UNI T I ES Reviewers wanted for Emerging Writers Festival
Veemingos seeking submissions
Veemingos, an online magazine that has its base in Melbourne, is looking for pieces about photography, fashion, illustrating, films, music. http://veemingos.com
Closing date: 10 May The EWF folk would like to send you a self-published book to review. Reviews must be received by May 10. www.emergingwritersfestival.org. au/2012/03/reviewers-we-want-you
Positive Words magazine seeks poetry and prose
Poetry and prose accepted for the upcoming issues of the monthly magazine. Works on the theme - The Queen’s Birthday - will be especially appreciated for the June issue but work on any theme is always welcome. Send submissions and SSAE for response to the editor, Sandra James, PO Box 798, Heathcote 3523, Victoria.
The Big Issue wants your fiction! Closing date: 31 May Yes. It’s time to lie your pants off – to tell your biggest and best porkies – because entries are officially open for this year’s Big Issue fiction edition. Each year stories are selected from open submissions, which are run alongside commissioned pieces by well-known writers. This year’s fiction edition co-editors, Chris Flynn and Melissa Cranenburgh, are looking for intriguing stories, humorous tales and lively and interesting writing. You can choose an original topic (with an emphasis on original, folks) or rip off the theme “The End of the World”. www.bigissue.org.au
Little Raven Publishing
Little Raven Publishing is calling for submissions for an erotic fiction anthology and a future ebook. www.littleravenpublishing.com Dark Prints Press call for submissions
Dark Prints Press is seeking short stories, novellas and novels in the genres of dark fiction: crime, thriller, horror, dark fantasy and dark comedy. Submissions are now open for novellas 15,000 to 40,000 words. Publication will initially be as ebooks, with print to follow. Submissions remain open unless stated otherwise. Email info@darkprintspress.com.au for more information or see www.darkprintspress.com.au
Verandah 27 submission call-out Closing date: 1 June Deakin University’s literary and art journal Verandah is calling for submissions of fiction, poetry, art and design (art and design has a submission deadline of 1 May) for its 27th issue. Limit of three submissions per artist and 3000 word limit (or 30 lines for poetry). Submission fee $10, or $15 for up to three.
Pan MacMillan’s Manuscript Monday
Currently accepting electronic submissions between 10am and 4pm on Mondays. If they like your work, they will get back to you within one month. Submission guidelines www.panmacmillan.com.au/manuscript_monday.asp
www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/verandah-res/index.html International Festival of Literature Ideas & Translation
Call for Emerging Writers Festival panelists
Each and every event at the Emerging Writers’ Festival features a writer in their first-ever festival appearance – and one more who is well advanced in their career. The main requirement for writers taking part in the festival is passion and commitment. The EWF is looking for writers who are opinionated, informed, informative and inspiring, not to mention happy to speak in front of a large (but friendly!) audience. If you’d like to be a considered as a festival guest in 2012, email writers@emergingwritersfestival.org.au with a simple explanation of what you write and why you write it.
When: 15–17 June The IFLIT is a celebration of literature and the arts in the broadest sense of the word; it brings together celebrated poets, authors, and translators, as well as editors, critics and publishers from across the world, as well as readings, recitals, keynote presentations, workshops and performances including the Japanese women’s choir Yukari Echo. Chief among the presentation will be a session on Copyright Law pertaining to literature in translation. There will also be a multilingual Poetry& Music salon hosted by PEN Melbourne. Free entry. Held at Federation Square. For details and bookings email: iflitmelbourne@gmail.com
YABBA call-out
Young Australian Best Book Awards is seeking the assistance of people who are interested in the question of how to engage with children and how we can work collaboratively to nurture young readers. YABBA aims to increase awareness of its program, designed to encourage Prep to Year 9 students to discover, read and voice their opinions about Australian books. It increases their knowledge of “who’s who” in books and develops confidence when discussing books. For information contact Graham Davey at yabbabooks@yahoo.com
Hachette Australia Hachette will accept fiction, non-fiction and children’s manuscripts, but not poetry, self-help, screenplays or academic works. Submissions must include the first chapter or first 50 pages of the manuscript, along with a synopsis, writer biography and covering letter and nonfiction works must include a chapter outline. www.hachette.com.au/manuscriptsubmissions
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The Victorian Writer
COMP E T I T I ONS 2012 Alan Marshall Short Story Award
The Stringybark Seven Deadly Sins Short Fiction Award 2012
Closing date: 7 May
Closing date: 10 June
Writers from Nillumbik and across Australia are invited to enter this annual short story competition held in memory of the great writer and former resident of Eltham, Alan Marshall. The three categories in the Award are the Open Section - stories up to 2500 words by writers who reside in Australia, Local Writers’ Section – stories up to 2500 words by writers who live, work or study in the Shire of Nillumbik, and the Young Writers’ Section – stories up to 1000 words by writers aged between 15 and 19 years who reside in Australia. www.nillumbik.vic.gov.au
The award is given for a short story of 1500 words or less, that relates to one (or more) of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony; greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride/vanity. www.stringybarkstories.net/ The_Stringybark_Short_Story_Award/Home.html FAWNS Vibrant Verse Poetry Competition 2012 Closing date: 30 June
There are two categories. Category A – Free verse, open style, open theme. Category B – Traditional, rhymed or structured verse, open style, open theme. Maximum 60 lines. First prize $200, second prize $100. http://sites. google.com/site/fawnorthshoreregional/competitions-1
ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize Closing date: 31 May
The ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, in memory of the late Australian writer, offers a first prize: $5000, second prize $2000, third prize $1000. www.australianbookreview.com.au
Blake Poetry Prize Closing date: 27 July
The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award
Entries now open for the 2012 Blake Poetry Prize. $5,000 in prize money for a new poem that explores the religious or spiritual. www.blakeprize.com.au/how-to-enter
Closing date: 1 June
Do you dream of being a published writer? Enter Australia’s most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript. The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award is one of Australia’s richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of 35. Offering publication by Allen & Unwin and prize money totalling $20,000. The Award has launched the careers of some of Australia’s most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan. www.allenandunwin.com
Aesthetica Magazine creative writing competition Closing date: 31 August
Hosted by Aesthetica Magazine, the international art and culture publication, this creative writing competition has two categories poetry and short fiction. Prizes include cash plus the opportunity to be published in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual. www. aestheticamagazine.com/submission_guide.htm
2012 Shoalhaven Literary Award: Poetry
Write-a-Book-in-a-Day Competition
Closing date: 1 June
Closing date: 31 August
This year’s judge of the prestigious award is Australian poet Judith Beveridge, poetry editor of Meanjin. First prize is $1000 combined with a two-week residency at Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon artist complex on the Shoalhaven River, with a second prize of $300, third $100 and a $200 encourage award for a resident of the Shoalhaven city. www.fawnswshoalhaven.org.au
The Write-a-Book-in-a-Day is a wonderful, fun, team-building writing experience, open to people of all ages with all levels of writing, computer and graphic skills. In the past all teams have written successful books (to most of the entrants’ utter amazement) and the majority say they will have another go this year. Try forming a team at your school, writing group, office or book club. www.writeabookinaday.com
Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing
FAWNS Super Short Story Competition 2012
Closing date: 1 June
Closing date: 30 September
An annual prize awarded to an outstanding unpublished manuscript. It aims to discover more wonderful new books for young readers, by Australian and New Zealand writers. Published and unpublished writers of all ages are eligible to enter with works of fiction or non-fiction. http://textpublishing.com.au/about-text/the-text-prize www.allenandunwin.com
There are two categories. Category A - Super Short Story. Category B - Memoir. A memoir is defined as a memory in the writer’s life of an incident, or a number of incidents relating to a single theme. Maximum 700 words. First prize $200, second prize $100. http://sites. google.com/site/fawnorthshoreregional/competitions-1
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The Victorian Writer
Q UIZ ANSWERS & RAT I ONALE We often use split infinitives when we talk, but some people frown on the split infinitive in writing.
Answers: 1. It’s no secret that I have every one of Kylie’s records.
4. As the pronoun is a subject of the verb “is”, it needs to take the subjective form “he”. “She” is correct for the same reason. Please note that “is” is correct here, as it needs to agree with the subject after the “nor”.
2. He drank a bottle of whiskey before passing out. 3. The bride began to walk slowly towards the altar. 4. Neither she nor he is talented enough to win.
5. “Fewer” goes with count nouns; “less” goes with noncount nouns. As we can count the “seedlings”, we need to use “fewer”.
5. The vegetable-growing guide recommended planting fewer seedlings but allowing each one more space. 6. John gave flowers to my mum and me.
6. Take away “Mum and” and you would always give flowers “to me”, not “to myself ”.
7. The Yarra River, which runs through Melbourne, is popular with the rowing crew despite its off-putting colour.
7. The word cluster “that runs through Melbourne” offers extra (non-essential) information, so you bracket it with commas and use “which”, not “that”.
8. The burglar, together with his accomplices, was planning to pull off an audacious robbery.
8. Verbs need to agree with their subjects, which in this case is “the burglar”. When word clusters have been bracketed off by commas, the sentence should still make sense when the cluster is deleted.
9. A slab of stubbies was in the fridge out in the garage. 10. She is the more famous of the two netballers. 11. Tony was ruefully explaining that Rob whom he considered his best friend was now engaged to Gloria who was Tony’s ex-wife.
9. The subject here is singular “slab” not plural “stubbies”. 10. As there are only two netballers, you need to use the comparative form of the adjective, which is “more”. The superlative “most” refers to more than two.
12. After an ambulance had been frantically summoned, the corpse was driven to the morgue.
11. It needs to be “whom” as it is the object of the verb “considered”. One trick is to rewrite the word cluster the “who/m” belongs to. “He considered him his best friend.” Him … mmm … whom.
13. The conditions at the festival were unbearable: searing heat, a blustery wind and tons of flies. 14. She asked me why I called her a rude pig.
12. “The corpse” can’t frantically summon an ambulance! This is called a dangling modifier and needs to be rewritten to make sense.
15. The women’s hall of residence has a sitting room; the men’s does not. Rationale:
13. Colons introduce lists; semi-colons join main clauses (or word clusters that can form a simple sentence).
1. “It’s” is the contracted form of “it is”; apostrophe “s” is added to “Kylie” because the records belong to her.
14. Indirect questions don’t need question marks.
2. “Drank” is the past form of the verb “to drink”. If you use “drunk”, the auxiliary “had” needs to go before it, e.g. “He had drunk”.
15. The apostrophe “s” goes after “women”, because the “hall of residence” belongs to the “women”. “Woman” is singular, “women” is plural and there is no such word as “womens”.
3. “Slowly” is splitting the infinitive “to walk”.
MEMBERS’ DISCO UNTS Bookshop, Carlton; Paperback Bookshop, Melb; Soundbooks, Glen Iris (cash/eftpos); Syber’s Books, Caulfield 15%: Angleton’s Office Supplies, Fitzroy (excl copy paper, cartridges) Special: Punt Hill Apartment Hotels & Serviced Apartments, 1300 731 299. Govt rates/option of best available rate.
5%: Deans Art, Fitzroy, Melbourne and South Melbourne 10%: Ballarat Books, (general books); Brunswick St Bookstore; Ben’s Books, Bentleigh; Collected Works Bookshop, Melbourne (credit 5%); Continental Bookshop, Glen Iris; Create a Kid’s Book Assessment/Workshops ph 9578 5689; Hares & Hyenas Bookshop, Fitzroy; New International
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The Victorian Writer
CLASSI FI EDS New Book: The Creative Screenwriter This exciting book provides inspiring writing exercises to help you produce more exciting scripts. Each area of screenwriting is covered, from finding ideas and designing structure, to enhancing scene writing and improving pitching. DIY Script Surgeries help you with screenwriting problems such as writer’s block, rewriting, and selling your work. www.allenandunwin. com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781408137192
Online Writing Classes for Kids and Adults Online writing classes (six-week courses $60 to $80), manuscript assessments ($3 page), lesson plans and free writing competitions - published author and qualified writing teacher Dee White. www.writingclassesforkids.com Creative Writing – Hampton Community Centre Do you have a story to tell? Experienced teacher, Lucy Treloar, helps you develop the skills you need to succeed with your project. A range of subjects including fiction, non-fiction and journalism are covered in the stimulating and confidence-building classes. Phone: 9598 2977
Writer’s Retreat, Hepburn Springs Charming self-contained bungalow in peaceful setting; close to Bathhouse, cafes and bush walks. Non-holiday Mon-Thurs $50 per night otherwise $75. Contact Elizabeth, 0425 723 502 / elizian@bigpond.com
Write Away With Me for Young Writers “Write Away With Me” invites creative young writers in Grades 2-6 to join “The Writer’s Club”. Learn the essential skills of creative writing in a fun and supportive environment. You can find us at two venues: Parkdale (Mondays) and Oakleigh (Wednesdays). Check out our website www.writeawaywithme.com
New Crime Writing Group St Kilda Crime Writers is a new writing group starting in July. If you are writing a crime novel and would like to join the group, we’d love to hear from you. 7.30-9.30pm, July 30. The community room at St Kilda library. Cost: $5(to cover room hire). Contact: Christine James csjames@live.com.au or 0407 197 411
Writers Journey Creative Adventures Offering intensive programs for writers of all genres in inspiring international locations: Desert Writers, June 23-30; Backstage Bali, July 8-15; Mekong Meditations, Nov 28 - Dec 5;Temple Writing in Burma Dec 13 - 20; Moroccan Caravan, Jan 10-21; Fiji Breakthrough, March 9-16. Limited places, booking now! Subscribe to Writers Journey Newsletter today and receive a free Avoidance Buster eBook - bust your procrastination habits forever! 0415921303 / www.writersjourney.com.au
Henry Handel Richardson Writing Competition Henry Handel Richardson Centenary Writing Competition. Closing date: August 31. Judge: Helen Garner. Open section, up to 5000 words, prize: $1000 plus books. Youth Section (sponsored by Text Publishing), up to 1500 words, prize: $350 plus books. Further information including guidelines and entry form at www.henryhandelrichardsonsociety.org.au
MEMBER MI LESTONES ROSIE ABBOTT’s first published novel The Scent of Belonging was published by Sid Harta Publishers.
BEVERLEY LELLO’s short story “The Road Home” won the Stringybark Short Story Award 2011.
JUNE ALEXANDER published an ebook, Hope at Every Age – Developing an Appetite for Recovery.
DEREK SCALES published a book, Unexpected Corollary, set in 1860s Melbourne. This follows Eleventh Horse, his first novel set in Melbourne 150 years ago. Another story “Road Rage” was Highly Commended in the FAW Angelo B Natali Short Story Award.
JOHN CONDLIFFE had a book published, Kiss of the King Brown, a classic Australian novel. TRU S DOWLING published poems in Poetrix, Poetry Monash and Tamba. She launched her debut poetry chap book, Memoirs of a Consenting Victim, through Mark Time Books. Two of her poems were named in the 25 winners of the 2011 Poetica Christi Press Poetry Competition, with one, “Climbing”, awarded the Francis Webb Prize for a poem that best reflects a spiritual journey.
AMANDA STUART’s book The Longest Journey: Finding the True Self was launched at Simple Affair. EDEL WIGNELL’s picture-story Bilby Secrets was shortlisted in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. Her article “Reflections on 30 Years of Writing” was published in The Australian Writer; poem “Santa’s Journey” in Rowville-Lysterfield Community News; and “The Athlete” in Hopscotch: a Collection of Short Stories and Poetry for Children.
PATRICK JONES’ poem “Step By Step” was awarded equal runner-up in the 2011 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize.
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The Victorian Writer
VOICES Review
Interview
Adelaide Writers’ Week
Five quick questions
In 1984, at the first ever Writers’ Week, major drawcard Salman Rushdie unfairly nominated Adelaide as “the perfect setting for a Stephen King novel or horror film”. “Adelaide” he proclaimed “is Amityville or Salem, and things here go bump in the night.” He was referring of course to the fact that Adelaide has had more than its fair share of particularly gruesome and distressing murders.
1. I first became involved with Express Media… – in 2005 through work experience during the Voiceworks handover of Tom Doig to Ryan Paine. I did data entry for the John Marsden Prize, went to Crossways for the first time and somehow stapled myself in the finger. Later that year I volunteered for the Emerging Writers’ Festival and hung about until Ryan asked me to join EdComm.
for Kat muscat
by JOHN BARTLETT
2. The difference between working on the Editorial Committee (EdComm) and being an editor is… – accountability I guess. The buck really stops with me. That’s definitely something new to come to terms with, but in an exhilarating sort of way (in that I’m two parts excited and one part terrified, a very motivational mix).
There was no sign of that face of Adelaide when I visited for the most recent Writers’ Week in March. I grew up here and some feeling always hooks deep in my gut as my car heads west through the burnt umber paddocks of the Wimmera towards the “Athens of the South”. Sitting under shady plane trees in the Women’s Memorial Gardens and listening to local and international writers talk is Adelaide at its most sedate. The highlights for me were interviews I conducted with international writers for the books and writing programme (The Blurb with Bernard) on Geelong’s 94.7 The Pulse.
3. The challenges of editing are… – many! Every once and a while you’ll come across a writer who is just not into being edited, which is all kinds of tricky. Generally, though, it is less about knowing all the answers like some kind of grammar wizard, but rather knowing when to double check something (for example, is that hyphen there for a reason or because that just looked like a good place to put one).
Appalachian writer Ron Rash was a charming and generous interviewee and I was besotted by much more than his Southern accent. He’s been described as a worthy successor to Cormac McCarthy in the Southern Gothic style, and says he regards “that landscape as destiny” and that it “shapes the fate of his characters”. He “feels a kinship with Australian writers such as Patrick White, especially with his novel Voss.”
4. What I like about Voiceworks… – is its unique position in the literary community. We’re the only national publication for peeps under 25 that not only pays pretty darn well but also provides feedback for all unsuccessful submissions. Even those who are accepted go through an editorial process, which is so valuable. We’re not just about publishing the best. There is a strong commitment to supporting and developing fledging artists.
He talked too about his short stories (Burning Bright), gems, I believe, of a technique described by English crime writer John Harvey as storytelling by “inference rather than explication.”
5. Being the editor of an established publication means … – that there are fantastic networks available to me. It’s a very privileged position to be in – there’s a lot of good will surrounding us that editors and volunteers prior have generated. But Voiceworks also allows you a lot of room to play and figure out your own thing. Each editor gets to leave their mark and take ownership of the magazine’s direction, while being confident of its solid foundations. It’s pretty ace.
I was smitten yet again the following day when I met the diminutive but dynamic New York crime writer Megan Abbott who’s expanding and experimenting with the “femme fatal” theme in her crime writing. Megan’s crime novels have won numerous awards in America and her most recent, The End of Everything, I believe is much more than a crime novel. She says it’s “an exploration of the taboo topic of teenage female desire and the way young girls can wield power over older men.”
KAT MUSCAT is a 21-year-old word enthusiast. She has just begun her tenure as Voiceworks editor after seven years on its Editorial Committee. She’s written for Crikey and had poetry and short fiction published by Paroxysm Press and Voiceworks. She wants all creative types under 25 to submit to the next Voiceworks, COPY/PASTE (deadline 24 June - http://expressmedia.org.au/voiceworks/ indexphp/submissions). http://expressmedia.org.au
As writers we can sometimes feel jaded by the proliferation of literary festivals but for me these face-to-face encounters inspire me to keep exploring the craft. John Bartlett is a writer, reviewer and teaches at Deakin University. His interviews can be found at www.heartsongcreative.com
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Writers VICTORIA Inc ABN 18 268 487 576 Level 3, the Wheeler Centre 176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000 T> 03 9094 7855 F> 03 9650 8010 E> info@writersvictoria.org.au W> writersvictoria.org.au Office Hours> 10am – 5pm weekdays Director Roderick Poole | Administration & Finance Manager Jacquelin Low Program Coordinator Jessica Murphy | Editor Anna Kelsey-Sugg Membership Services Officer Libby Bramble | Competitions Sue Penhall Editorial Assistant Allee Richards | Office Volunteers Angela Murnane, Terry O’Loughlin, Barbara Erskine | Events Volunteers Barbara Erskine, Gabrielle Ryan, Allee Richards, Jeremy Johnson, Brendan Paholski, Susie Chong, Delia Sinni | Editorial Intern Daniel Kovacevic Patron Noel Turnbull Committee Members Bronwyn Blaiklock, Eddie Creaney, Maria Katsonis, Isolde Lueckenhausen, Simone Lunny, Annie O’Hanlon, Ben Starick, Virginia Murdoch Honorary Life Members Kevin Brophy, Barbara Giles (dec.), Kris Hemensley, Joyce Lee (dec.), Iola Mathews, Christine McKenzie, Sue Penhall, Bev Roberts, Judith Rodriguez, Joan Sellar, Chris Thompson, Chris Wallace-Crabbe For advertising queries contact editor@writersvictoria.org.au or see writersvictoria.org.au/media The Victorian Writer is published ten times a year with a readership of more than 4000. It is distributed to 3000 Writers Victoria members and more than 300 literary and arts organisations throughout Australia, to Victorian public library services, and community and regional arts officers. While information is printed in good faith, Writers Victoria can take no responsibility for its accuracy or integrity. Inclusion of advertising material does not imply endorsement by Writers Victoria. Views expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the Committee of Management or Writers Victoria staff. The Victorian Writer is printed on 100% recycled paper by Southern Colour: www.southerncolour.com.au Design by transmig.com
MAY 2012
THE VICTORIAN WRITER