northerly mar-apr 2017

northerly By ron Writers Festival Magazine

March-April 2017

WALT WHITMAN · BRENTLEY FRAZER · OSAMAH SAMI · CHRIS HANLEY FICTION BY MUSICIANS · NEWS · REVIEWS · COMPETITIONS · WORKSHOPS

CONTENTS

>> THIS ISSUE

MARAPR2017 002 Director’s note 003 Chris Hanley, OAM

Russell Eldridge pays tribute to Byron Writers Festival's founder

004 News

3

Residential Mentorship gears up for another year, plus more

006 Residency report

Henri Rennie writes about his experiences as Nancy Fairfax Artist-in-Residence at the Tweed Regional Gallery

007 Poem

'exergue' by Dusk Dundler

008 Book extract

Read the opening pages of Brentley Frazer's acclaimed memoir, Scoundrel Days

8

010 Song of himself

On the 125th anniversary of his death, we look at how Walt Whitman's work can help us through today's world with author, poet and academic Lindsay Tuggle

012 Perfect pitch

A run-down of significant novels written by musicians (and even rock stars)

014 Notes from the Festival

Osamah Sami interviewed by Katinka Smit

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016 SCU Showcase Poetry by Allanah Bahnsen

017 Arts round-up

ADFAS lectures, music, theatre and more

018 What YA Reading?

Young-adult fiction reviews with Polly Jude

019 Book review

Kathleen Steele on Celebrating Australian Writing: Conversations with Australian Authors by Annette Marfording

12

020 Poetry come to Lennox

Report from the inaugural Lennox Head Poetry Festival

021 Workshops 022 Competitions 024 Writers’ groups

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>>HELLO

Director’s Note Summer is over and the 2017 literary year is already well underway. First books are already off the shelf at Perth Writers Festival and Adelaide Writers Week is celebrating its thirty-second year, while at Sydney Opera House the year’s first literary gathering, All About Women, took place. The best writers and thinkers are flocking to Australia to participate and we will all benefit from the conversations that will inevitably flow from these three significant events.

Speaking of Adelaide, Laura Kroetsch, director of Adelaide Writers Week, was a fellow participant in the 2017 Australia Council India Exploratory delegation. The trip was one of the most exciting, inspiring Photo: Angela Kay and nourishing of my working life. It was also a wonderful opportunity to bond with Australian colleagues, all active participants in our literary world.

We visited festivals and publishers in Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Delhi, providing the opportunity to network, collaborate, learn, and form partnerships.

We met Indian authors, journalists, publishers, agents, and festival directors and I have a stack of business cards that each represent wonderful opportunities and new liaisons. Much good will flow from this trip, as will the colour of India that will inevitably thread its way through the 2017 Byron Writers Festival program and beyond. I can’t wait to introduce you to some of my finds.

It’s Residential Mentorship time of year again and we’re looking for submissions.

This much-loved program hosted by talented author Marele Day has been running for seventeen years. The roll-call of past participants who are now published authors includes, amongst others, Jesse Blackadder, Susanna Freymark, Daniel Ducrou, Sarah Armstrong, Jessie Cole, Russell Eldridge, Emma Ashmere, Claire Dunn, Leigh Redhead, Emma Hardman, Oren Siedler, Matt Webber and Lisa Walker. How about that for an honour roll! Check out our website for more details about how to apply.

If you’re not quite ready to throw your hat in the ring for the RM, then local author Sarah Armstrong is leading a six-week course starting May 6 titled Writing a Novel: The Fundamentals. She’ll offer practical tools, encouragement and insight into the challenges of the writing process.

Finally and most importantly, the Byron Writers Festival team would like to congratulate our northerly editor Barnaby and his partner Julia on the recent birth of their son Arthur: long life and happiness!

Until next time,

Edwina Johnson Director, Byron Writers Festival

northerly northerly is the bi-monthly magazine of Byron Writers Festival.

Byron Writers Festival is a non-profit member organisation presenting workshops and events year-round, including the annual Festival.

LOCATION/CONTACT Level 1 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay P: 02 6685 5115 F: 02 6685 5166 E: info@byronwritersfestival.com W: www.byronwritersfestival.com POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 1846 Byron Bay NSW 2481 EDITOR: Barnaby Smith, northerlyeditor@gmail.com CONTRIBUTORS: Allanah Bahnsen, Lisa Brockwell, Dusk Dundler, Russell Eldridge, Jules Hunt, Polly Jude, Angela Kay, Peter Mitchell, Henri Rennie, Katinka Smit, Kathleen Steele BYRON WRITERS FESTIVAL BOARD CHAIRPERSON Jennifer St George VICE CHAIRPERSON Adam van Kempen SECRETARY Russell Eldridge TREASURER Cheryl Bourne MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Kate Cameron, Marele Day, Lynda Dean, Lynda Hawryluk, Anneli Knight.

LIFE MEMBERS Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin, Gayle Cue, Robert Drewe, Jill Eddington, Chris Hanley, John Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Irene O’Brien, Jennifer Regan, Cherrie Sheldrick, Brenda Shero, Heather Wearne MAIL OUT DATES Magazines are sent in JANUARY, MARCH, MAY, JULY, SEPTEMBER and NOVEMBER MAGAZINE DESIGN Finola Renshaw, Kaboo Media PRINTER Quality Plus Printers Ballina ADVERTISING We welcome advertising by members and relevant organisations. A range of ad sizes are available. The ad booking deadline for each issue is the first week of the month prior.

Email northerlyeditor@gmail.com DISCLAIMER The Byron Writers Festival presents northerly in good faith and accepts no responsibility for any misinformation or problems arising from any misinformation. The views expressed by contributors and advertisers are not necessarily the views of the management committee or staff. We reserve the right to edit articles with regard to length. Copyright of the contributed articles is maintained by the named author and northerly.

CONNECT WITH US Visit www.byronwritersfestival.com. Sign up for a membership. Stay updated and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. http://www.facebook.com/ byronwritersfestival https://twitter.com/bbwritersfest

Cover image: Peacock by Jules Hunt (Byron Bay) www.juleshunt.com, 2/10 Brigantine St, Byron Arts and Ind. Estate, 2481

Byron Writers Festival and northerly magazine acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land.

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Honours for Chris Hanley

>> NEWS

Byron Writers Festival founder Chris Hanley was recently awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) as well as being named Byron Shire Citizen of the Year for 2017. Here, Russell Eldridge salutes the Festival's former Chair.

The manner of Chris Hanley's departure from the Chair of Byron Writers Festival was revealing in three important ways.

By stepping down at the peak of his game, he demonstrated the quality that marked his vision and leadership since founding the organisation in 1995: Chris always put writers, readers, staff, volunteers and members before himself.

Secondly, he left when Byron Writers Festival was in its healthiest financial, staffing and cultural state.

Thirdly – and this is the one that marks the man – the leadership transition has been as smooth as a Jamaican relay team's baton change.

As a nationally-recognised business coach, Chris himself would tell you that it's a black mark against any leader if the organisation slumps after his or her departure. It means there has been poor succession planning; it means that leader did not recruit the right people; it means that leader put their personal interests above the organisation; it means that leader was insecure.

As one of the original members of what was then known as the Northern Rivers Writers' Centre, I have observed how Chris constantly refreshed the organisation, always looking for strong-minded, creative thinkers unafraid of hard work. And always, always, he was looking for leaders.

That's one of the things he did best – gather the right people around him.

Much has been written recently about Chris's vision; how he took the idea of a festival and turned it into an internationally-admired event.

But outside observers may not know just how much personal hard work and persistence underlined that vision. Over the past twenty festivals, Chris has racked up thousands of flying hours to major cities, buttonholing politicians, convincing arts funding bodies, wooing sponsors big and small.

All because – and here's another little-recognised fact – Byron Writers Festival and all its events, workshops, member services, staff payroll and so on, are ninetypercent self-funded. There's no big government bailout underwriting those activities.

Chris himself has said that self-funding 'makes us robust, because if you rely on government funding and it's taken away you shut down'.

Over twenty-two years there have been a couple of lean times, but that robust self-sufficiency has seen the organisation through.

Now, the baton has been handed to Jennifer St George, and she's taken off at a gallop.

Chris is not one for false modesty, which, quite frankly, would be a pain in the arse for those of us in awe of his achievements and ability. But he was visibly touched by the well-wishes that came his way after announcing his retirement from Byron Writers Festival.

How good was it then that he received an Order of Australia Medal this past January, as well as being recognised as Byron Shire Citizen of the Year? Chris Hanley is part of the elastic that keeps our community supple and connected.

He would be equally proud that the organisation he founded and led for twenty-two years has instituted an award in his honour: The Chris Hanley Meritorious Service Award.

The award recognises the work of Byron Writers Festival volunteers, without whom the whole edifice would fall. The inaugural recipient was Liz McCall, a tireless contributor to the inner workings of the Festival.

And that really sums up Chris Hanley: a volunteer. northerly | 003

>> NEWS

Library launches new app

Marele Day (centre) with the 2016 Residential Mentorship participants.

Residential Mentorship 2017 It's that time of year again and Byron Writers Festival is inviting applications for the 2017 Residential Mentorship. If you are living in the Festival's catchment area (north to Tweed Heads, south to Taree and west to Kyogle) and have a well-developed manuscript, we'd love to hear from you. This outstanding opportunity has proven to be a significant launch pad for a number of local authors and is suitable for writers of fiction and creative non-fiction.

The program is seventeen years old this year, while the roll-call of past mentees who have gone on to publishing success include Jesse Blackadder, Daniel Ducrou, Sarah Armstrong, Jessie Cole, Russell Eldridge, Emma Ashmere, Claire Dunn, Leigh Redhead, Emma Hardman, Oren Siedler, Matt Webber and Lisa Walker.

Marele Day has been the program's mentor for the past fourteen years and will be continuing in the role for 2017. Marele is the author of four crime novels as well as the best-selling Lambs of God. She is also a highly experienced speaker, teacher and mentor and has received several awards, including the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

The mentorship sees writers enjoy five days in a glorious Byron Shire location with accommodation and meals provided, along with one-on-one mentoring from Marele and the company of three other committed writers.

Applications for this year's Residential Mentorship open on March 8 and close on March 22. The winners will be notified on April 11 and announced on April 12. The mentorship itself will take place May 8-12. For full details visit www.byronwritersfestival.com

A brand new app has been launched by Richmond Tweed Regional Library, allowing readers and members instant access to the library's online services and resources. The app is a streamlined, convenient means of accessing over 50,000 e-books, e-audiobooks, e-magazines and films to stream. All the user needs is a library card.

'The new app is an exciting addition to improve the user experience for library members wishing to use a mobile device, such as a tablet or phone, to access the library online,' said Jo Carmody, regional library manager.

'With almost 100,000 members across the four local government areas of Ballina, Byron, Tweed and Lismore, the Richmond Tweed Regional Library is thrilled to be able to improve access to the library’s online collections with this app.'

All twelve Richmond Tweed Regional Library branches participated in the launch of the app on February 14.

New directory of editors aims to help authors

The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) has launched a new online directory of freelance editors designed to assist authors seeking the right guiding hand for their work.

Introduced in late February, The Editors Directory is hosted at the IPEd website and offers search criteria including editors' services, subject expertise and location.

All editors are professional members of IPEd. ‘Authors have been asking for a “one-stop shop” where they can find an editor with the appropriate experience and knowledge for their particular assignment,’ said IPEd in a statement.

The new directory comes on the back of the IPEd's restructure in 2016, which saw state and territory societies brought together under a new national membership body.

For more information visit www.iped-editors.org

Bookshop launches anti-Trump reading list

A Sydney bookseller has compiled a list of books it deems 'anti-Trump' and has pledged to donate $1 from the sale of each tome on the list to the Refugee Council of Australia.

Mosman-based retailer Pages & Pages announced the initiative in late February, accompanied by a statement that read, 'To say we are currently living in troubling times is a bit of an understatement. The election and inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States has seen a resurgence of fascism and right-wing rhetoric the likes of which I didn’t think we would ever see again.

'But the best weapon against fascism, Nazism and hateful ignorance … is knowledge and books (that’s why most fascists try to burn them).'

The list, which Pages & Pages say is a work in progress, includes books by the likes of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Franz Kafka, Margaret Atwood, Anna Funder, Richard Flanagan, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Philip Roth, Philip K. Dick and Charlotte Wood. See the whole list and order books at www.pagesandpages.com.au

Black Inc. calls for submissions for Aboriginal-themed anthology

Black Inc. Books are inviting submissions for a brand new anthology, Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia.

Edited by Anita Heiss, the anthology is seeking accounts 004 | northerly

>> NEWS

OBITUARIES HIAK AKMAKJIAN American author; July 17, 1926 – January 10, 2017 DICK BRUNA Dutch children's author and illustrator; August 23, 1927 – February 16, 2017 EDWARD BRYANT American sci-fi author; August 27, 1945 – February 10, 2017 BABETTE COLE British children's author; September 10, 1950 – January 15, 2017 FRANK DELANEY Irish novelist; October 24, 1942 – February 21, 2017 BYRON DOBELL American writer and editor; May 30, 1927 – January 21, 2017 BUCHI EMECHETA Nigerian-British novelist; July 21, 1944 – January 25, 2017 MARK FISHER British writer and cultural theorist; July 11, 1968 – January 13, 2017 HARRY MATHEWS American novelist and poet; February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017 HOWARD FRANK MOSHER American novelist; June 15, 1942 – January 29, 2017 LEV NAVROZOV Russian author and memoirist; November 26, 1928 – January 22, 2017 RICARDO PIGLIA Argentine author; November 24, 1941 – January 6, 2017 EMMA TENNANT British novelist and editor; October 20, 1937 – January 21, 2017 NANCY WILLARD American writer; June 26, 1936 – February 19, 2017

Pleasure Your Shelf can be heard at around 8:30am on Monday mornings as part of Brett Diemar's morning show. Alternatively, you can listen to the girls via Soundcloud at www.soundcloud.com/pleasureyourshelf

Byron Writers Festival AGM of growing up as an Indigenous Australian and is open to a wide range of styles, tones and voices that defy, question or shed light on the usual stereotypes of Aboriginal people. Honesty and originality will be valued over abstract or sociological analysis.

The anthology will be aimed at both high school students and general readers, and submissions should be between 800 and 3,000 words. For more information visit www.blackincbooks.com.au

New books-centric segment for Bay FM

Hosted by Katy B and Prue C, Pleasure Your Shelf is a new literary-minded slot on community radio station Bay FM. Designed to recommend reading and offer insight into weekly themes and genres, the show features interviews with local authors as well as conversations with enthusiastic readers, including the popular Bedsides of Byron section. In addition, Katy and Prue have established the BYO Book Club, with details to be confirmed.

All members are welcome to attend the Byron Writers Festival AGM on Tuesday March 14 at Level 1, 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay from 5:30pm.

Competition success

Congratulations from northerly and Byron Writers Festival to Mirandi Riwoe, who was named joint-winner of Seizure's Viva la Novella V prize with her novella The Fish Girl. Mirandi participated in the Festival's Residential Mentorship in 2013.

QUOTAT ION CORNER

'Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth.'

— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1961) northerly | 005

>> REPORT

A different world The winner of the inaugural Nancy Fairfax Artist-inResidence for Established Writers was Henri 'Renoir' Rennie, who stayed for a week in the studio at Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah in early February to devote himself exclusively to focused writing time.

Here, Henri reflects on a transportive week, during which progress was most certainly made.

W

riters create pictures in the mind’s eye with words and images. What we produce can be as broad as a mural, compelling as a tableau, powerful as a sculpture. It can be as idyllic as a landscape, or as mind-bending and challenging as the most outrageous abstracts.

At the beginning of February I had the extraordinary pleasure of being the Nancy Fairfax Artist-in-Residence in the studio space at the Tweed Regional Gallery. That was courtesy of the gallery and Byron Writers Festival.

It was seven days of splendid isolation – eating and sleeping to my own erratic schedule, and writing. Writing, writing and writing.

I’d spend the early part of the morning out on the balcony, eating breakfast and enjoying the view over the paddocks up to the mountains. Then as the day warmed up (and wow! The days warmed up!) I’d move into my air-conditioned space, surrounded by my maps, notes and references.

At the start of the week I’d set myself the target of completing a first draft of the fifth book in my urban fantasy series – the Dubious Magic books. Ambitious perhaps, but without ambition there’s no achievement.

Seven days later, I held a complete story outline of The Spirits of Sron Dubh, and over 50,000 words of that first draft. Not completed, but better than two-thirds of the way there.

I’d written almost as many words in that week as the entire length of the first book in the

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series (The Wizard of Waramanga). As I look at the Harry Potter series on my bookshelf I see that my expanding word count is not a unique experience. As characters grow and develop across a story arc, it’s perhaps inevitable that the complexity of their relationships and the plots woven around them increases.

The Nancy Fairfax Studio proved an excellent environment from which I could immerse myself in 'my own little world' – in this case an island in the southern Hebrides. Looking out of the window and doing a little mental editing of tree species (and cow species), it was very easy to have my mind in Scotland. When I finally came home my darling bride had to put up with some days of broad Highland accent.

The gallery’s focus is very much on 'visual arts' – painting, sculpting, photography, and the studio is an excellent resource for those working in those fields. But what is more visual than words on a page? Paper or electronic, the images, emotions and reactions that words conjure on their way from eyeballs to brain can be every bit as exciting, stimulating, challenging or soothing as any other art form.

It’s been a privilege for me to use the studio as the incubator for my latest creation, one for which I’m profoundly grateful. I hope that many more authors in years to come will enjoy the same opportunity.

>>POEM

exergue

for Sam Beattie

Dusk Dundler

what wonder of association given elemental sparking reflux of hope collusion of reckoning matter south to lennox the bush fire began this afternoon: oily ducts rising to the mellow touch of slumbering storm's diligent dry strikes. you are sleeping with yr eyes open after a crawl into byron return videos lost wanderings something to do. turkish cafe staffed by friendly americans.

Alle getting better day by day i tell her. driving back thru police cordon to little country flat beneath Queenslander. night set dense on broken head rd. resin spit high beams round corners. meet our landlords at turnoff, heading to catch flame peak. down the drive the crimson tinge is now immense. it’s alright. there are many paddocks in-between. i grab a beer and wander out as she lays on the bed with no lights on. rumbles collate and lightning repeats above the tremendous sway of eucalypts upon the fence line. with my opening sky it all befalls me. over the ridge a growling breath. so unexpectedly real -heavy laden drops waiting so long to soak. ducking under the drenching the bellowing the back of the shed. and then (just as quick) a stop as i walk. being drawn. the smoke rushes thru. so waiting in my car in the paddock for this conjunction to filter thru. the Fireies lights flash by red blue on mute like a lost circus wheel.

Dusk Dundler’s poetry is published in Plumwood Mountain, Cordite, Overland and The Prague Revue. He has produced documentaries for Radio National, and been published in Griffith Review. He was shortlisted for the 2012 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize.

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>>READ

Extract: Scoundrel Days by Brentley Frazer

Brisbane-based author Brentley Frazer's memoir Scoundrel Days is an experimental, occasionally brutal, highly poetic reflection on a wild adolescence defined by graffiti, drugs, violence, sex, alcohol and a desire to escape from the Christian cult in outback Queensland into which the author was born. 'Tom Sawyer on acid' is one colourful description of Frazer's first book. This extract is taken from the opening of Scoundrel Days, which is, interestingly, composed in its entirety using the unusual literary technique that is 'English Prime'.

1

2

—January 1972. Soldiers. Blue heavy sheets flapping in the wind.

Mum ignores me awhile, fussing with a brush, and then says: —The hospital had no roof. The cyclone blew it away.

The army slung blue tarps across the rafters … But a newborn remembering birth? Impossible!

I watch her reflection comb her long auburn hair.

—Cyclone Althea destroyed Townsville, says her mouth in the mirror.

She wears her hair out now. Back in the city she wound it in a bun, spent hours smoothing down strays with lacquer. When Mum swims, she wears it loose. She doesn’t swim often. Diving gives her migraines, since Dad ran her over with a tractor.

On the corner of Cassia and Acacia. Our house and the police station side by side, separated by a driveway and a narrow dead patch of lawn choked with bindii-eyes and goat’s-head thorns. The white brick police station has a huge open-air skylight. The Acacia Drive side has a reception area, an office and a courtroom. The house side has a prison cell, two bunk beds with grey governmentissue blankets, a sink and a stainless- steel toilet with no lid and no door. My bedroom window looks out to the reinforced wall of the prison. The shouts of drunken miners and the moans of sunburned truck drivers seep through the bricks.

Our house on stilts. Seven steps up to the veranda. We moved here right before my fifth birthday. The town has only one policeman: my dad posted here from Townsville by his sergeant. Imagine hills of rolling grass and wild horses grazing on the banks of a slow-flowing river.

Limestone mountains bursting up from the earth. Blue jagged rocks reaching into the heavens, shrouded by gentle mists. Now picture the opposite: a stopping point for tired travellers with dusty caravans on their way to Undara Volcanic National Park, a service town, two hundred kilometres inland from the coast.

Greenvale belongs to the nearby nickel mine.

Queensland Nickel Industries laid it on for the miners and their families when they built the entire town in the early seventies. Golf greens and tennis courts. Olympic-size swimming pool, a library, a theatre, a school, a shopping centre and a pub. Kerbed streets and channelled gutters, sports oval with fifty-metre-high lighting towers, eightyfive houses, a police station and a drive-in movie cinema.

Before that, nothing but the cattle which still roam through town, kangaroos, and yowies that roar in the night above the cacophony of the galahs. The galahs sound like your neighbour falling down the stairs forever, with an entire crockery set filled with boiling water.

The kids at Greenvale State School wear the same shirt.

Pale blue, Greenvale State School – Mining for Knowledge written in white letters around an excavator bucket-wheel.

My first day, in a big dumb hat with stupid shiny shoes and a huge bag with a plastic lunch box containing an orange which thumps and annoys the hell out of me when I walk.

Inside I have a chocolate tin full of pencils and a ragged copy of Tom Sawyer with missing pages. The other kids wear jeans with dirty knees and go barefoot. They slouch and yawn as the teacher introduces herself as Mrs Crisp.

—Now, children, Mrs Crisp says, arranging some papers: Get up off the carpet and pick a desk. You’ll sit there all year. I’ll go into what you can, and what you cannot, keep in your desks later.

A mad scrabble of dusty kids in an eager fit bump and fight over the desks. I grab one as close as possible to the window, beside a strip of linoleum and a room-long stainless-steel sink which separates me from the bush and the creek through the glass. A boy with a crazy mop of orange hair slumps down at the desk next to me.

—Hello! I say, offering to shake.

—Fuck off, with ya pretty gaylord shoes, he says, rolling his eyes at my extended hand.

He has odd eyes. In the left, two colours fight for dominance, bleeding into each other like the edges of shadows: orange, matching his hair, and green, like the greenest blade of grass you’ve seen. His right eye, cold and black as a shadow itself, swallows the light from the window behind me.

So I stop wearing shoes to school. Walking home across the park, I kick a broken bottle and cut the webbing between my big and second toes. Another memory flashes like a punch in the liver. The slice through skin. A man wearing a green cloth hat tied under his chin and a white face mask with a wet patch from his breath. Someone holds me down with rubber hands. The man mumbles for a while. My mother’s voice. The man wipes at me with a cold yellow liquid and with a pair of scissors cuts my penis.

At home from the park. After cleaning up the trail of blood that follows me through the door, Mum produces a box of cotton-wool balls, a sticking plaster and a bottle of the same yellow liquid, marked Iodine. As she dabs at the cut between my toes, I ask: —Mum, what happened to my penis?

Picking up the bottle of iodine from the table and studying the label, I press on to fill the silence: —I remember a doctor cutting me with shiny scissors, and a bottle of this iodine stuff. I remember screaming!

Ashen-faced, she tut-tuts at my foot, dabbing at the wound.

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>> READ

—In the showers at the pool you can see the whole tip of mine. The other boys have a hood-type thing. It wrinkles in the water.

Still fussing with my toe, she says: —We believe in different things than those other boys. Dad has the same … She falters, trails off, composes herself: Jesus said those who truly believe will make the covenant to circumcise our sons.

—Circumcise?

—Ask your father about it. She rearranges the kitchen chairs to dismiss me.

Walking with a studied limp out through the screen door, down the steps, I stick up a middle finger to my little sisters, Jaz and Fliss, on the trampoline and cross the yard to the police station. I find Dad sitting at his desk, typing with two fingers, his police hat on a pile of papers. The air-conditioning circulates the smell of ink stamps, typewriter ribbons, boot polish and copy paper. My head swims. Dad never can spare time for anyone when he has paperwork to do, and he only does paperwork when someone sits rotting in the cells.

—Hey, Dad. I poke his shoulder.

He ignores me, tap, tap, tap, ding.

—Dad! I shake his arm. Nothing but the shouts of my sisters outside on the trampoline and a truck roaring by on the distant highway. I poke his ribs.

—Buzz off! he yells.

I back away and slip through the courtroom. e heavy vinyl-covered oak desks stink of linseed oil.

Out into the jail hall the sun beats down through the skylight. e hot cement burns my feet. I smell piss in the heat and my stomach rises. I blink and focus on a set of filthy fat fingers gripping the prison bars. I can’t see the rest of the man in the darkness of the cell. One of the hands disappears and then comes back through the bars holding a blue melamine cup. A gnarled mask scrunched around sharp predatory eyes aches out of the shadows. He opens his mouth to speak, revealing front teeth cracked, yellow and black: —Get me some fucken water, kid. Water, fuck ya!

A string of drool oozes from his strips-of-liver lips, scabby and swollen. I stand out of his reach in the stretch of sun through the skylight and contemplate his blasted head. Clean shaven and traversed with scars, it lolls to one side like he has a broken neck. As he rocks back and forth, his head disappears from the light and reappears. He resembles a broken lamp, the bulb at an odd angle, flickering before it explodes. He

reaches further through the bars to grab me. He drops the blue cup and it bounces on the concrete.

Dad told me melamine doesn’t shatter. He showed me. He hit one of those cups with a hammer and said: —See! Criminals can’t commit suicide with the shards.

Suicide? A new word to me. Dad said sometimes people decide they don’t have any reason to go on.

Life gets too much, I guess. He told me suicide means someone intentionally takes their own life, a serious tone strumming in his voice. I pressed him of course and he said with a final full stop: the word derives from the Latin. A fancy word for self-murder. Dad rattles off definitions, like he memorised the dictionary: —Murder: the killing of another human under conditions specifically covered by law. Boy, my job involves catching murderers and rapists and thieves and drug addicts and other low-life scum who’d sooner stab you in the guts than help you with your groceries.

The prisoner drools in the cage. I step further out of the gasping low-life’s reach.

—Kid! Water, please, boy. The tap in here doesn’t work. The shape points at the blue cup. I kick the cup. It bounces o the bars and hits the courtroom door behind me. The man glares at me with his antimatter eyes.

—Get your own fucken water, scumbag, I spit at him.

Dad comes out the door and catches me midsentence. Too late – my mouth runs its course. He slaps the back of my head.

—Get the hell outta here, boy! he yells as I bolt from the jail block.

Scoundrel Days by Brentley Frazer is published by University of Queensland Press, $29.99 Brentley Frazer is an Australian author whose poems, prose and academic papers have been published in numerous national and international anthologies, journals, magazines and other periodicals since 1992. He holds a MA (writing) from James Cook University and is completing his PhD (experimental creative non-fiction) at Griffith University. He is also a lecturer at Griffith University and the editor-in-chief of Bareknuckle Poet Journal of Letters.

northerly | 009

>> FEATURE

A cultural echo: Walt Whitman and America today On the 125th anniversary of Walt Whitman's death, Barnaby Smith, with assistance from Whitman expert Lindsay Tuggle, examines what the great poet might mean to Americans today, and how he might represent a source of hope and solace for those struggling to adjust to the reality of a Trump presidency.

Whitman photographed in 1887 by George C. Cox. Restoration by Adam Cuerden. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

010 | northerly Photo: Candid Lane

At sunset on March 26, 1892, Walt Whitman died peacefully at his home in Camden, New Jersey at the age of seventy-two, as a result of complications stemming from pneumonia. That day in early spring brought to an end one of America's great literary lives, albeit one with its fair share of inconsistencies, controversies and even some troubling views – all characteristics of a poet whose most famous line arguably remains the ubiquitous 'I am large, I contain multitudes' from 'Song of Myself ', part of his visionary collection, Leaves of Grass.

Whitman's poetry has spent decades and decades at the heart of school curricula and academic study, and for some he is indisputably the most influential and celebrated poet in the American canon. Our particular juncture in history then – as American culture seems decisively splintered and, many feel, has succumbed to false, empty rhetoric and fear-mongering – seems a good time to gauge just how large a presence Whitman and his work holds in the United States in 2017.

After all, his poems (and journalism) advocated love, companionship, kindness, democracy, science, spirituality and communion with the natural world. Moreover he also offered, as Lindsay Tuggle puts it, 'an ecologically and spiritually unified alternative to evangelical Christianity'.

Tuggle is a literary scholar at Sydney University specialising in Whitman. Her book, The Afterlives of Specimens: Science and Mourning in Whitman's America, will be published later this year. Tuggle, who is a dualnational of both Australia and the United States and has lived for long stints in both countries, was in Philadelphia on a research trip when approached by northerly about participating in this article. She was in the country as Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the land in which she was born and grew up. How Whitman's legacy and values can be nurtured and sustained in mainstream culture in a nation governed by such a figure, and following such a dispiriting election tussle with Hillary Clinton, may be difficult to see.

'I think of it more as a haunting than a presence,' writes Tuggle via email in answer to the question of whether Whitman is relevant in American life today. 'A ghost is ever-present, yes, but also transient, elusively partial.

Whitman is a trace, rather than a legacy these days.

He is a ghost in the dark machine of the twenty-first century zeitgeist. He is literally inscribed into the cultural landscape at strange retail attractions such as the Walt Whitman Mall in New York or the Walt Whitman Rest Area on the New Jersey Turnpike.

>> FEATURE

'Whitman is [also] a recurring figure in pop culture: Leaves of Grass plays a climactic role in the capitalist dystopia Breaking Bad, whose anti-hero is also named Walt.

'I have found that Leaves of Grass endures as a cultural echo, capturing something of the sense of American possibility, that inchoate feeling of purpose and longing that has haunted the national consciousness. In its wake, the disillusionment of contemporary America is startlingly fluorescent and bleak.

'To envision Whitman's ideal alongside Trump's latecapitalist reality is to experience an historical vertigo, a fall from the transcendentally erotic to the hyper-violent and virtually (un)real.'

This grim summation need not signify, however, that Whitman's example and ideals have been overwhelmed and become extinct. If we look at Whitman's life, as opposed to just his work, we see a man who worked amid and against extreme political turmoil, who can to some extent be seen as an inspiring figure whose expression flourished in resistance to wider injustices and political turbulence.

The first edition of Leaves of Grass was published in 1855, and as Tuggle explains, the 1850s were marked by 'systemic political corruption' at all government levels, defined by graft, patronage and vote-buying that Tuggle compares with 'the current assaults on the rights of immigrants, women, African Americans, Native Americans and LGBT communities'. Whitman also lived and wrote in the wake of the disturbing Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally enforced the repatriation of runaway slaves and criminalised 'harbouring, concealing or rescuing' an enslaved individual. Again, Tuggle draws a comparison with today's 'rapidly escalating policy of deporting so-called illegal aliens living and working in the United States'.

Tuggle makes the point that, while large sections of society may be engulfed in gloom as the Trump presidency unfolds, if something as life-affirming and sensuous as Leaves of Grass can emerge from similarly chaotic times, maybe today's malaise can give rise to something similarly hopeful, in whatever shape or form.

'On my good days,' says Tuggle, 'I think that if Whitman could conjure Leaves of Grass in the face of a nation divided along lines of race, class, gender and geography, then perhaps we can continue to hope that America is not a failed state.

'On the other, pessimistic hand, I feel that, despite Whitman's optimistic vision of America, "out of hopeful green stuff woven", precious little has changed since reconstruction. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle, as is usually the case.

'I find solace in Whitman's prolific literary output and his resilience in the face of criticism, most of all in his refusal to be silenced by either personal tragedy or political tyranny.'

An obvious but difficult question must be, then, how does today's poet or novelist, or indeed journalist or non-fiction author, go about channelling the spirit of Whitman in creating a potent spirit of openness, progressive thinking and compassion? Tuggle herself is a widely published poet whose work has been recognised by various major awards, with her first collection set for publication in 2018. She believes that while the optimism inherent in Whitman's work remains a source of philosophical and spiritual nourishment for new generations, 'it is not Whitman's optimism, but his rage and resistance that we must strive to emulate'.

She adds, 'I think it would be naĂŻve, perhaps even unethical, to act as if America can still be seen through Whitman's "hopeful" green-tinged lens. Having said that, I feel a sense of urgency to write and read as a form of

protest. I think we have a responsibility not to turn away from the dangers inherent in the escalating Western tendencies (also manifesting in Europe, and here in Australia) toward xenophobia and isolationism.

'We have to resist the urge to numb out, to escape reality through any of the plethora of soma-like substances and screens at our fingertips. We have to fight the impulse to recalibrate our collective reality and normalise this dangerous administration. Whitman gets overlooked as a political agitator and protest poet, but inhabited those genres too.'

Idolising Whitman as America's poetic-political benchmark is, however, not without its problems. In a well-documented news story from 2013, a graduate student at Northwestern University refused to participate in a music class where he was required to perform Whitman's writings put to music because he regarded the poet as 'one of the most historically racist poets of U.S. history'. Indeed, plenty of modern commentary has also homed in on this troubling part of his legacy.

Tuggle writes that, depressingly, Whitman's 'empathetic persona is unrecognisable alongside documents in his private correspondence that express nothing short of scientific racism'. She adds that he 'subscribed to nineteenth-century theories of racial superiority that are appalling to contemporary readers'.

The difficult question of whether one can enjoy and appreciate an artist's work in the face of their inexcusable views or behaviour need not be ventured into here.

For Tuggle though, Whitman's racial views represent a paradox that cannot be reconciled, an irredeemable stain on his memory, yet not one that overpowers his overarching influence or importance.

'It is a manifestation of cognitive dissonance that those of us who look too closely for too long at revered writers must inevitably come to terms with. But for me, ethically, it cannot be a reconciliation. We revere our beloveds despite their flaws, and we choose to see their grace as, at least partially, eclipsing their darkness. The same can be said of certain documents in Abraham Lincoln's archive, where it is equally shattering. I think racism taints the legacy, in both cases, but does not erase it.'

For now at least, perhaps Leaves of Grass should be seen in splendid isolation divorced from the more repellent opinions of its creator, as some of us look towards the poet to restore our faith in America and for a blueprint for protest and resistance. Taken on its own merits, the collection offers a doctrine of fellowship, communion, sensuality, empathy and grace. Tuggle says she often turns to a passage from the preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass on the occasions when, she says, 'history writes itself in blood and bone': This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. www.lindsaytuggle.com

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>> FEATURE

From stage to page: The musicians who turn to fiction Among the performers at Bluesfest 2017 (April 13-17) will be John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, a unique talent who has managed the significant trick of becoming a master of two art forms: songwriting and fiction. His first novel, Wolf in White Van, appeared in 2014, while April of this year will see the publication of his second book, Universal Harvester. Indeed, these are productive times for singer-songwriters making the crossover to writing, with Australia's own Holly Throsby attracting plenty of admirers for her 2016 novel Goodwood.

In anticipation of Darnielle's appearance at Bluesfest, here is northerly's guide to some of the more noteworthy, and perhaps overlooked, examples of musicians turning their hand to fiction.

House of Earth

by Woody Guthrie

This long-lost novel by America's greatest folk singer was unearthed and published

by Johnny Depp's production company Infinitum Nihil in 2012. Completed in 1947, Guthrie's book tells the story of a young couple trying to set up a life for themselves in Dust Bowl Texas in the 1930s. The novel was inspired by Guthrie's fascination with the possibilities of adobe houses (a proposed design solution for poor people in rural areas), thus the novel celebrates adobe and employs it as a symbol of solidarity representing various aspects of American life.

House of Earth is light on plot but rich and ambitious in style, with Bob Dylan once remarking he was 'surprised by [its] genius' and one recent review describing it as a 'hillbilly Finnegan's Wake'. Another of the book's key preoccupations is sex: one long, floral passage describes a wild stint of copulation between the two protagonists, written in an such an explicit, unusual manner that the book was inevitably nominated for the Literary Review's notorious Bad Sex in Fiction Award in 2013.

Goodnight Steve McQueen

by Louise Wener

To many, Louise Wener was an icon and role model as frontwoman with the credible and still much-loved Britpop band Sleeper in the 1990s. When their heyday was over, Wener wasted little time in turning her hand to fiction and she has now published four novels and a memoir of her time amid the maelstrom

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of British pop music. Her first novel, Goodnight Steve McQueen, caused a moderate stir on its publication in 2002. Pilloried by some commentators and admired by others, the book can be grouped with humorous, relatively lightweight works such as Nick Hornby's High Fidelity or Tony Parsons' Man and Boy. It tells the story of an aimless video shop worker waiting for the day his band cracks the big time, who is forced to re-energise his life when his girlfriend threatens to leave him. Hardly deep stuff, to be sure, yet the skill it takes to create so nimble a novel that can be absorbing on a flight, for example, should never be sniffed at. Goodnight Steve McQueen also offered a faithful, unflinching portrait of the life of a struggling musician, and indeed the novel as a whole deserves credit for its attempts towards realism in its characterisation and dialogue.

The Motel Life

by Willy Vlautin

As singer and songwriter with the Portland, Oregonbased band Richmond Fontaine, Willy Vlautin has unassumingly gone about his business of making acclaimed folk-rock across more than ten albums since 1996. In 2006, Vlautin published his debut novel The Motel Life, which received praise from some very serious quarters, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, while the book was adapted into a film in 2013 starring Emile Hirsch and Dakota Fanning. The Motel Life portrays two brothers, one of whom is the novel's narrator, whose lives are plunged into chaos in the wake of a horrible accident. Vlautin has pointed to influences including John Steinbeck and Raymond Carver, while Charles Bukowski is another

>> FEATURE

oft-cited touchstone. Vlautin has since published three more equally accomplished novels, Northline (2008), Lean on Pete (2010) and The Free (2014), making him arguably the most successful contemporary musician to make the crossover to writing fiction.

The Vulture

by Gil Scott-Heron

Poet, activist, musician and, many say, godfather of hiphop Gil Scott-Heron published The Vulture in 1970 when still a student and barely out of his teens, and four years before the release of his seminal album The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

The novel can be seen as 'urban noir' and is, as you might expect, full of rich accounts of life on the street, as well as Scott-Heron's uniquely poetic social commentary. The Vulture is also formally experimental, switching between four narrators and employing a fastand-loose prose style influenced by one of the author's heroes, the poet Langston Hughes. The plot is a relatively simple murder mystery, yet in Scott-Heron's youthful hands it becomes all of a political treatise, exercise in social realism and cutting state-of-the-nation address.

Scott-Heron followed up The Vulture with another novel, The Nigger Factory, in 1972. Both were re-published in 2010, a year before he died at the age of sixty-two.

Bright's Passage

by Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter's fans will attest that part of his music's appeal lies in the distinctly literary treatment he gives to the characters and stories that make up his songs.

Across all of his eight studio albums, historical themes have been to the fore, therefore it is no surprise that his debut novel, Bright's Passage (2011) tells the story of a young veteran of World War One who, with his young son, is forced to flee various troubles in his home town, embarking on a strange, distinctly American journey across country. Critical response to the novel drew comparisons with Cormac McCarthy and Ray Bradbury, and noted the genuine promise shown by this still-developing writer of fiction. Like many of his songs, the novel has the feel of a parable to it, and addresses certain biblical themes. Six years on from the publishing of Bright's Passage, we are surely due a follow-up novel that might capitalise on the potential of Ritter's debut.

Go Now

by Richard Hell

Richard Hell holds a special place in the annals of twentieth-century culture. He was, after all, a formative influence on the punk movement in the 1970s through his work with Tom Verlaine in Television, as part of the Heartbreakers and with Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

Always a prolific writer, he wrote and published poetry from a young age and has published nearly twenty books over the course of his long career (he is now sixtyseven). Hell's debut novel, however, did not appear until 1996, with Go Now depicting a riotous road trip across America as seen through the eyes of an unkempt punk rocker. The book features its share of sex and drugs, and is at least partly autobiographical. In the spirit of the Beat Generation and Hunter S. Thompson, Go Now moves at a breakneck pace that can sometimes leave the reader a little disoriented. Hell's second novel, Godlike, appeared in 2005 and it too was an unrepentant tribute to decadence and youthful hedonism.

Beautiful Losers

by Leonard Cohen

One review of Leonard Cohen's second and final novel described it as a 'kind of intelligent Naked Lunch'. This 1966 work was without doubt a mature step forward for Cohen following his slightly erratic debut, The Favourite Game (1963).

The complex plot weaves between seventeenthcentury Quebec and researchers in Cohen's 1960s present day, and employs a wide range of varying, 'post-modern' literary techniques, earning its reputation as a 'difficult' book. Cohen wrote Beautiful Losers during two amphetamine-fuelled periods on the Greek island of Hydra over 1964-5. It was the indifferent commercial performance of both this novel (the sexual content ensured it ran foul of censors) and his volume of poetry Parasites of Heaven that convinced Cohen that a career as a musician was the more sensible course.

That proved a wise decision, but he did leave us with this fascinating, weird opus.

Bodies of Water

by Rosanne Cash

Rosanne Cash, eldest daughter of the late country music behemoth Johnny, in 1996 produced this thin but powerful collection of short stories that is a quiet celebration of the transformative moments in women's lives. Cash's career as a country musician has yielded over a dozen albums, and for this book she translated her sensitive and thoughtful creative eye to fiction, addressing such things as ageing, childbirth and marriage. Occasionally witty and often sappy (in the nicest possible way), Bodies of Water sits alongside the memoir and children's literature that Cash has also successfully dabbled in over the years.

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Notesfrom the Festival:

>> INTERVIEW

Osamah Sami

Osamah Sami is a multilingual Melbourne-based writer and actor born in Iran to Iraqi parents. His acting and screenwriting has attracted plaudits in both Australia and the United States, despite the fact he was once refused entry to the latter long before Donald Trump even thought about running for president. Sami's forte is comedy, with his memoir Good Muslim Boy winning the NSW Premier's Literary Award in 2016. He is also a screenwriter and poet. He spoke to Katinka Smit at Byron Writers Festival 2016.

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>>INTERVIEW

Surrounding culture can have a strong effect on family life. Can you discuss this in regards to your life in Iran and in Australia?

Culture is closely tied to identity, so growing up I wanted to hold on to some of my Iraqi culture but I also wanted to assimilate in Iran with the Persians – but I didn’t want to disintegrate. I wanted to be like the Iranian kids but my family was Iraqi. So there was already that when we came to Australia, which exacerbated the whole thing because then I had a third culture to deal with. But then I think at the end of the day, what’s culture anyway? I keep some of the stuff that we have in Iraqi culture that I love, and some parts of the Iranian culture and the Australian culture. For example we’re here sitting and I’m ordering the fine cuisine of Australian culture, fish and chips. You just take the best from whatever that world gives you.

How much of a role has your father played in your life and your writing?

He’s had a galaxy of effect on me, from an early age.

He bought me this book called (in translation) The Lion’s Pride. I’ve still kept that book. It survived everything, all the molestations of the war, and it goes with me wherever I go. That was my introduction to story. From then on he encouraged me to read stories. We’ve got a storybook in Arabic called Kalila wa-Dimna, it’s as big as 1001 Nights, but instead of the Scheherazade story it’s talking animals, and they’re all politically motivated. When he came back from the war, every night he was home he would tell us a story from that book. And like the Scheherazade thing, he wouldn’t finish the story and the next night he would start by recapping, finishing it, starting a new one and leaving it unfinished. He introduced us to a world of stories and storytelling from around the world. That was the early influence, which of course just carried right through to my adult life. I just switched languages.

Your father held the rather traditional role of a cleric, but he but was far from conventional.

Yes, he was an unorthodox orthodox cleric. Deep down he was a storyteller. He wrote musicals that we performed at the mosque. He also wrote and spoke about other social justice issues, like homosexuality and equality. The holy Qur'an was written 1,400 years ago so it’s open to interpretation, but under Islamic jurisprudence it’s only allowed to be interpreted by those who are highly esteemed in Islamic law and theology, which he was. He had a different take on it, like the whole eye for an eye thing, for example, which leads into capital punishment. He was against that. He became an influence on so many kids in the community, so up until his passing there was a change, a shift within the community to better understand how we can live in a country without having the inner conflict, without living in contradiction. He used religion in a positive way. And he used a bit of humour. Some would see that as blasphemy, but he had the authority to do it.

There are a lot of young Muslims now pushing for reinterpretation of the Qur'an and practices that result from this. Do you think this is likely to happen and would it make a difference?

It would definitely make a difference. But how much of it will actually pass, how many laws will actually pass the cleric senate, is up in the air, because fundamentally challenging religion at its roots is a big no-no. So there are these radical clerics, in a liberal radical sense, who come out and preach something different, for example they say, 'yes you can be Muslim and gay'. That stirs the pot. But people who are traditionalists don’t want to hear that because it challenges

their authority. It’s like the Vatican. I mean, let’s see when the Vatican is going to pass that. It’s not just a Muslim issue.

It’s an ongoing issue with religions of the world. But I think it will happen, like the abolition of slavery, like the apology for the Stolen Generation. It took years but they did happen eventually. For us who seek that change it’s important not to be dissuaded by how long that process takes. We have a saying in Persian, if you are patient, from sour I can make a flower. Patience is the key.

You’ve mentioned before that you feel a disparity between public representation in Australia and the actual people that you meet, but at the same time, this has been a voted-in trend in Australia for the last fifteen or so years. How do you account for that and how do you keep your sense of Australia as a positive place headed in a positive direction?

I think the fact that I’m here at the Festival, that we’re talking together, that tells me about the want for progress, the want for change. There is a thirst for that. There’s a bit of a gridlock happening in the top end of town, but once we’re free – it’s like the freeway – then it opens up. Society is that open highway, and the gridlock is the pollies, the bureaucrats and the demagogues. If I was to judge Australia by the Daily Telegraph, it’s a horrible place to live in, but I know that’s not the Australia that I live in. We’re being fed how to think about this issue. I don’t wake up thinking, 'I’m going to catch a tram as a Muslim', but I get reminded of it each time I open the paper. But people themselves? I’m yet to have a meal with anyone who’s told me to fuck off or told me that I’m not welcome here. Even if they feel it, we’d start talking and they’d realise, oh, you’re not taking anything away from me personally. It’s not so complicated.

Does this form a little bit of your attraction to humour?

Yes, I use it to invite people in. As I’ve said before, I want people to come into my backyard rather than peek over the fence. It’s not just for white Australians to do, it’s for Muslims to do as well, for the marginalised communities to do. But it’s very difficult for the oppressed to welcome the oppressor when the oppressor is holding them by the throat and expecting them to say 'yes please, choke me more'. Our differences should be celebrated rather than criminalised.

It’s got to work both ways. Sharing stories and having a good old yarn, finding out that we’ve actually got heaps more in common than we thought - what’s wrong with that?

Do you think if you stayed in Iran you would have pursued this career of being an actor and writer? Or is it something that has happened because you moved to Australia?

In Iran I was given small opportunities to work. In my first role I played the wind on stage. It was a proper production. I would come on stage for three minutes and blow. Then I got a little story published. I was asked to finish a story about a shepherd who loses his sheep on the mountain and then gets lost on his way back. I wrote an ending to it and it won a prize in my city, then I got to go to the capital city. So I was already drawn to that.

I also had great mentors, including my dad. Coming to Australia was actually a bit of a bummer because I didn’t know anything about here. But my dad kept writing those plays at the mosque. The plays were done in Arabic because it was the language we all felt comfortable in.

When I decided it was what I wanted to pursue, my English got better and I went to acting school and started writing in English. One thing led to another.

Good Muslim Boy is published by Hardie Grant.

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>> SCU

A showcase of SCU student work, compiled by Dr. Lynda Hawryluk

Songlines Allanah Bahnsen

magic is about to be through nerves dreams emerge surrounded by nature moving in exquisite awe driving songlines … now, past and future rock foundation of the caldera hold her firm sugar mill stack fluffy & warm panting like an expresso machine she is about to release fog hugs the ranges hued for her eyes river waters reflect stillness in songs of love sweet blue skies whisper you are in the now of possibilities cane fields line the road witnessing the emerging form ‘Clocks’ from Coldplay plays … she is at her core an artist witness her painting

Allanah Bahnsen is an intuitive, mentor, counsellor and dancer. She wrote and selfpublished the non-fiction book You Can Love You in 2010. She currently lives in Surfers Paradise and is an external BA undergraduate at SCU majoring in English and Communication. 'Songlines' was inspired by the journey to Murwillumbah Eisteddfod.

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>> ARTS Sidney Nolan as photographed by Albert Tucker in 1940.

Nolan's First Class Marksman (1946) remains the most expensive painting by an Australian ever sold, fetching $5.4 million in 2010. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Australian art on the world stage ADFAS Lecture: Contemporary Australian Art in the Global World An illustrated lecture by Julie Ewington, Monday April 3.

Many Australian artists and galleries participate in significant international exhibitions and art fairs with considerable success. In this lecture Julie Ewington will examine many topics, including what it is that determines the reception to their work in new and different cultural contexts and how artists from any country ‘make it’ as international art stars.

This presentation will sketch the background to the current ‘international art world’, and consider where Australian artists and their work fit into it, with reference to leading artists including Richard Bell, the late Gordon Bennett, Fiona Hall, the late Emily Kngwarreye and Tracey Moffatt.

Julie Ewington is an internationally recognised authority on contemporary Australian art. In this lecture she will explore the role of Australian artists, their art and their place in the global world of international contemporary art.

Ewington is currently living and working in Sydney as a freelance writer and curator.

This ADFAS lecture will take place at The A&I Hall, Bangalow.

Members and guests are invited to drinks at 6pm prior to the lecture at 6:30pm, followed by a light supper afterwards. Guests are welcome at $25 per person. For general enquiries contact Anni Abbink on 02 6684 3249 or anne.abbink@yahoo.com.au, or Denise Willis on 02 6687 1724 or denisewillis50@gmail.com

Arts round-up...

Martha Wainwright at Lismore City Hall Lismore will host Martha Wainwright for the first time on March 18 as she promotes her fifth studio album, Goodnight City. Wainwright, of course, is the daughter of folk luminaries Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and brother of Rufus Wainwright. A Martha gig is always an emotionally charged yet highly witty affair as she performs songs inspired by her tumultuous relationships with family members.

Martha Wainwright plays Lismore City Hall on March 18.

Tickets are $69.90 and can be purchased at www.norpa.org.au

Arj Barker at Ballina RSL

A very regular visitor to Australian shores, Arj Barker has come a long way since his days playing the pawn shop owner in Flight of the Conchords.

His acclaimed stand-up has been delighting international audiences for nearly a decade now, with the American making the long trip across the Pacific this time to perform as part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Before then, however, he will drop in on Ballina on March 23 as part of his Organic tour of 2017.

Arj Barker performs at Ballina RSL Club on March 24. Tickets $45 and can be purchased at www.rsl.ballinarsl.com.au

Stones in his Pockets at Byron Theatre

This award-winning play has now played all around the world, including a five-year run in London's West End. Written by Marie Jones and directed by Chris Bendall, Stones in his Pockets, on at Byron Theatre on April 2, is a comedy that tells the story of a sleepy Irish community that is turned upside down by the arrival of a Hollywood movie shoot.

Amazingly, just two actors play fifteen characters between them.

Stones in his Pockets plays at Byron Theatre on April 2. Tickets are $29 and can be purchased at www.byroncentre.com.au

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>> BOOK REVIEW

What YA Reading?

Reviews by Polly Jude

NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD

FRANKIE

BY CLAIRE HENNESSY

BY SHIVAUN PLOZZA

Do you believe in angels? Spirit guides? Ghosts?

Nothing Tastes as Good is told from the point of view of Annabel, who recently lost her battle with anorexia and has returned in spirit form to help save Julia who is struggling with her own eating disorder.

Together they go on a journey that helps Annabel come to terms with her death and gives Julia the strength to reclaim her future.

Julia is an aspiring journalist whose life is unravelling when Annabel turns up. Her parents don’t notice how much Julia has changed and they don’t recognise the warning signs.

This book might appeal to young adults who are experiencing problems with body image and eating disorders. When Julia overcomes her dangerous food spiral, Hennessy offers her YA readers hope and one character’s strategy for recovery. Hennessy’s writing is fast-paced and her characters likable.

Finally, a kick-arse chick who is funny, ballsy and lovable.

Frankie Vega’s got a problem with anger. Her cheating ex can vouch for that. Life has dealt Frankie a really dodgy hand. Her druggy mum left her when she was four and Frankie’s lived with her aunt Vinnie ever since. They aren’t a traditional family, but it works.

Then a kid shows up claiming to be her halfbrother and for a heartbeat Frankie sees her chance to have a real family. Her brother, Xavier, is fourteen and a talented graffiti artist. When he disappears though, everything changes. Nate might be the only one who can help her find Xavier… and Nate’s undeniably hot but might be more trouble than he’s worth.

First-time author Shivaun Plozza gives us a fastpaced, gritty story that packs a punch. Frankie will appeal to older teens that like their contemporary Aussie fiction edgy. The book featured on numerous best-of-2016 lists, and for good reason.

Allen & Unwin / 336pp / RRP $19.99

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Penguin / 314pp / RRP $17.99

Talking books

>> BOOK REVIEW

CELEBRATING AUSTRALIAN WRITING: CONVERSATIONS WITH AUSTRALIAN AUTHORS

BY ANNETTE MARFORDING Review by Kathleen Steele

Celebrating Australian Writing is an easy-toread resource for those interested in finding out more about contemporary Australian writers and equally enjoyable as a literary ramble with some of Australia’s most illustrious writers.

Marfording has managed to draw together a diverse group of twenty-one distinct literary voices and tease out themes that are rarely explored by mainstream journalism.

Let’s take, for example, Bryce Courtenay’s frank admission that he has enough money to pay two researchers to do in eight months what it would take one writer years to achieve, or Cate Kennedy’s equally insightful reluctance to become 'one of those gee-whiz Westerners going to the third world and making it my own'.

Forget the romance of a writer starving in a garret or soaking up the unique ambiance of universal human experience. There are honest pickings within the covers of this unpretentious self-published book, and a real commitment to celebrating Australian authors for no other reason than a passion for literature.

Marfording has done her research and knows her subjects well. The interviews touch on topics such as creative process, the reasons one writes and dealing with awards (or lack thereof), but they also delve into particular novels, teasing out the thinking behind specific characters or the original motivations for authorial choices of theme, metaphor, character and so on. It is hardly surprising that there is a feast of considered thought and interesting gems from authors such as David Malouf, Robert Dessaix, the late Georgia Blain, Di Morrissey, Robert Drewe and Kristina Olsson (my apologies that I cannot list the whole deserving twenty-one!).

Every writer interviewed offers a plethora of excellent local and international writers as their ‘go to’ reads and each has their idea of what it takes to keep writing: Peter Goldsworthy chooses patience, Alex Miller believes one should write what they love, while Charlotte Wood suggests focusing on the sentence has more value than focusing on an advance. When the subject of reviews is raised with Debra Adelaide, she offers a formula that should, perhaps, be given to all aspiring reviewers. She states that the book that is written should be reviewed, not the book the reader believes the author should have written, and the reviewer should remember they are 'reviewing the book, not the author' and that their job is to give a balanced, thoughtful opinion.

As a labour of love, Celebrating Australian Writing is an outstanding example of a local critic and writer who has followed her passion and discovered that Australian authors are not only approachable, they are more than willing to share their craft with an interested audience.

Finally, although this probably goes against Adelaide's advice, I feel Marfording should be applauded for self-publishing a book on Australian fiction and donating all profits to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation of Australia.

Annette Marfording / 280pp / RRP $30 Book available at www.annettemarfording.com/celebratingaustralian-writing

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>> REPORT

Poets gather in Lennox The inaugural Lennox Head Poetry Festival proved to be a resounding success, writes poet and festival participant Peter Mitchell.

At a poetry salon in A.E. Housman's Shropshire, Susan Bradley-Smith, senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Curtin University, was reading to Martin Chatterton's (president, Lennox Arts Board) family and art college friends. In the ensuing drunken socialising, Martin lit the spark of an idea: 'Let's have a poetry festival in Lennox Head'.

With support from Curtin University and the Lennox Arts Board (old hands at community events), planning began, with the intention of 'creating joy through community engagement'.

A 1970s-like grassroots approach took hold.

A call was made to local poets who took on degrees of ownership and the festival program developed directly from the responsive participants, resulting in a free-to-the-public event held on January 20-22.

Friday night was Poet's Pot Luck. Southern Cross University students and staff performed an interactive, themed reading, featuring SteviLee Alver, Sharon Fearnside, Andrew Woods, Lynda Hawryluk and Moya Costello.

'Saturday night was Poetry Fever.
 Susan's collection The Screaming Middle (Interactive Press, 2017) was launched (Susan pictured bottom-right). Poetic interpretations of 'surf poetry' were read by featured poets Alver (top-left), Lisa Brockwell (centre), Nick Couldwell (top-right) and myself (bottom-left), followed by an open mic. On Sunday morning, participants chalked their favourite lines of poetry all the way to the lookout as part of Pavement Poetry while, in the evening, a poetry picnic was held at Lake Ainsworth.

Throughout the weekend, poet Lana Woolf conducted a poetry workshop, using biomythography, a series of creative principles that shape important stories for participants to tell. Different genres of poetry were explored as well as poetic and performance devices.

Each event was well attended. A familyparty feel immersed everyone in friendly, funfilled informality, complete strangers yarning as if old friends.

The Lennox Head Poetry Festival is now stamped in hot-red letters onto the national and state festival circuits. Keep a watch for next year's wordplay!

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Workshops Structure with Laura Bloom

You wouldn’t build a house that had no supporting beams, no foundation and no ceiling.

Neither can you tell a satisfying story without having certain structural elements in place. This one-day workshop will introduce participants to the basic elements of three act structure and help them learn how to identify and strengthen these elements in their own work.

To prepare for the it is requested that watch the film Witness – twice, preferably – starring Harrison Ford, as we’ll be using it to look at the main points of structure throughout the day.

Laura Bloom is the author of four novels, including the critically acclaimed In The Mood. Her latest and most structurally complex novel, The Cleanskin has been described as a ‘masterpiece of drama and characterization.’ www.laurabloom.com.au Presenter: Laura Bloom When: Saturday March 25, 10am – 4pm Where: Byron Community College – Room 1, East Point Arcade (opposite Woolworths) Jonson Street, Byron Bay, NSW 2481 Tickets: $95 Byron Writers Festival members or students / $115 non-members

Publicity with Jennifer St George

Love to see your name and books in the media but don’t know where to start? Does the idea of a journalist calling you for an interview make you shake? Let bestselling author and marketing communications specialist Jennifer St George teach you the tricks to get your name up in lights! Learn how to develop a media strategy and handle interviews in a fun and interactive workshop. You’ll leave with the tools you need to make an impact in the media.

• Understanding why authors need to engage with traditional and new media • Step-by-step guide to generating editorial coverage in traditional and new media • Developing a media strategy • Understanding your target audience’s media habits • Understanding what you are trying to achieve • Understanding when to conduct media relations • How to generate news • Interview tips with an interactive component Jennifer spent the first twenty-five years of her career in corporate marketing and management consulting roles. She has a graduate business degree and completed an MBA at Melbourne University and Duke University (USA) where she was presented with the Rupert Murdoch Fellowship and the Academic Award of Achievement.

Jennifer is now a best-selling author of seven romance novels published by Penguin Books Australia. She is a past vicepresident of Romance Writers of Australia and the Chair of Byron Writers Festival. She also teaches public relations at Griffith University.

Presenter: Jennifer St George When: Saturday April 29, 10am – 4pm Where: Byron Writers Festival Office, Level 1, 28 Jonson St, Byron Bay (office is accessible by stairs only) Tickets: $95 Byron Writers Festival members or students / $115 non-members

>> WORKSHOPS To book tickets please go to www.byronwritersfestival.com or call 02 6685 5115

Writing Safari with Tristan Bancks (ages 9-13)

Head out on a Writing Safari workshop with popular children’s and YA author Tristan Bancks. Tristan has designed a fun and active half-day writing adventure where participants will be encouraged to use nature and their own lives for inspiration. The day will involve fully supervised walks along the beach, tracing Tristan’s own regular writing paths and teaching kids how they can use the world around them to inspire ideas and spin them into fun, must-read stories.

Tristan writes the My Life book series of weird and funny short stories as well as Two Wolves, which won Honour Book at the 2015 Children’s Book Council Awards and was nominated for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

His new books are My Life & Other Weaponised Muffins (February 2016), a fourth book of weird-funny-gross, semi-autobiographical short stories and The Fall, a new thriller for ages ten and older. Tristan is excited by the future of storytelling and inspiring others to create. Kids love Tristan’s workshops because of his enthusiastic approach to writing and his use of a range of media to tell stories; parents and teachers love him because of his encouraging and inclusive manner, and the way he inspires kids to have fun with their imagination.

What to bring: • Hat and sunscreen • Jacket • Lunch and water bottle • Writing book & pen Presenter: Tristan Bancks When: Thursday April 20, 10am – 1pm Where: Meeting at Byron Writers Festival Office, Level 1 – 28 Jonson St, Byron Bay (office is accessible by stairs only) Tickets: Free. To register please email coralie@ byronwritersfestival.com, limited spaces

Writing a novel: The fundamentals with Sarah Armstrong

Each week of this six-week course will focus on a different aspect of writing a novel, whether it be plot, developing character, setting, point of view or rewriting. Sarah will explain how important the difference is between first draft and rewriting, and will have you writing each week. She’ll offer practical tools, encouragement and insight into the writing process. This course would suit those who have a work in progress or an idea for a novel (or narrative non-fiction such as a memoir).

Sarah Armstrong has written three novels, including the Miles Franklin-shortlisted Salt Rain. She was a journalist at the ABC for many years where she won a Walkley Award.

She has taught writing for more than ten years and lives in Mullumbimby where she is writing her fourth novel.

Presenter: Sarah Armstrong When: Saturdays May 6, 13, 20, 27 and June 3, 17, 10am–12pm Where: Byron Community College – Room 1, East Point Arcade (opposite Woolworths) Jonson Street, Byron Bay, NSW 2481 Tickets: $95 Byron Writers Festival members or students / $115 non-members northerly | 021

Competitions

CREATIVE WRITING FELLOWSHIP FOR NSW WRITERS Varuna, the National Writers House, invites writers living in regional New South Wales and the greater Sydney area to apply for a two-week residency at this historic home in the Blue Mountains. Funded by Arts NSW, Varuna offers five LitLink Fellowships to writers working in all creative forms, including fiction, drama, poetry and narrative nonfiction. Residency dates for 2017 are September 11-24. For full details of the program and to apply, visit www.varuna.com.au. Closing date for applications is April 30.

HENRY SAVERY NATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD

The 2017 Henry Savery National Short Story Award is open to writers residing in Australia. With an open theme, stories should be no longer than 2,500 words. There is an entry fee of $5 per story, with a deadline of June 30. First prize will receive $400, with second prize taking $100. For further entry information log on to https://fawtas.org.au/competitions/

ADELAIDE PLAINS POETS INC POETRY COMPETITION

This competition invites entries on the theme of 'Freedom' and features an open class (aged eighteen or over), and classes for primary school and secondary school students. Poems should be no longer than 60 lines, while there is an entry fee of $10 for the first poem entered and $5 for those entered thereafter. Entries close on April 13, for more information visit http://carolyn-poeticpause. blogspot.com.au/

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BRONZE SWAGMAN AWARD

The forty-sixth Bronze Swagman award will take place in 2017, and invites entries of traditional Australian bush verse with no limit to length. There is an entry fee of $20 per form with three poems allowed on one form – entries are by post. Winners, runnersup and highly commended will receive trophies and publication in an anthology. Deadline for entries is April 30. Details at http:// www.bronzeswagman.info/index. php?p=1_47

KYD UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT AWARD

Organised by the journal Kill Your Darlings, this award will assist an early-career author in the development of an unpublished manuscript. The award is open to writers of fiction and non-fiction.

The winner will receive $5,000 and a mentorship with either Rebecca Starford (non-fiction) or Hannah Kent (fiction). Submissions close on Friday March 31, for more information visit https://www. killyourdarlings.com.au/awards/

THE SHEILA MALADY SHORT STORY COMPETITION

This Gippsland-based competition aims to celebrate and breathe new life into the works of Shakespeare by inviting writers to send in their own creations. These creations should be short stories of up to 2,000 words on the theme of 'Light/Dark'. First prize wins $300 cash and theatre tickets, while there are special prizes for those local to Gippsland and those aged under eighteen. The closing date for entries is March 23, there is a $5 entry fee, and more

information can be found at http:// www.stratfordshakespeare.com.au/ short-story-competition/ WB YEATS POETRY PRIZE There is a fifty-line limit for the 2016 WB Yeats Poetry Prize, which invites entries in an open style. Winner takes $500, with second and third winning $75. Entries are via email or post, with a deadline of March 31.

There is a fee of $8.50 for the first entry and $5.50 for further entries.

Full details are available at http:// www.wbyeatspoetryprize.com/

QUESTIONS WRITING PRIZE

The 2017 Questions Writing Prize aims to recognise and reward the talents of writers aged between eighteen and thirty. Submissions should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words and can be either fiction or non-fiction on any topic. The winner will receive $2,000 and have their work published. Deadline for entries is May 1, and full details can be found at http://www.questions.com. au/writing-prize/index.php

ABR ELIZABETH JOLLEY SHORT STORY PRIZE

Entries are open for the 2017 Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. The 2017 Jolley Prize is worth a total of $12,500, with a first prize of $7,000 and supplementary prizes of $2,000 and $1,000. The judges will also commend three additional stories, the authors of which will each receive $850. Entries must be a single-authored short story of between 2,000 and 5,000 words, written in English. Stories must not have been previously published or be on offer to other prizes or

publications for the duration of the Jolley Prize. Entries close on April 10. Entry is $15 for ABR subscribers and $25 for nonsubscribers. More details at https:// www.australianbookreview.com.au/ prizes/elizabeth-jolley-story-prize/ current-jolley

PETER COWAN 600 SHORT STORY COMPETITION

Open to residents of Australia, this competition has an open theme and invites short story entries of up to 600 words. In addition to the Open category, there is a Novice Writer section for writers who have never won a prose competition. There is also a Youth award. First prize in the open section takes $200, while the closing date for entries is March 31. For more information visit http://www.pcwc.org.au

BRISTOL SHORT STORY PRIZE

The Bristol Short Story Prize is open to writers from all over the world, for stories of up to 4,000 words. Stories can be on any theme, while there is an entry fee of £8 (approximately $13.50). Entries must be previously unpublished, with first prize taking £1,000 (approximately $1,650). Twenty shortlisted stories will be published in an anthology, with a deadline for entries of May 3. For more information visit https://www. bristolprize.co.uk/rules/

COUNTRY STYLE SHORT STORY COMPETITION

Country Style magazine offers a $5,000 prize for its short story competition, which invites entries that can involve any situation or setting, but must incorporate 'light'

as a major or minor theme. The winner will be announced and their story published in the August 2017 issue of Country Style. Entry is free (one per person), for full terms and conditions head to http://www. homelife.com.au/lifestyle/thingswe-love/5000-prize-country-styles2017-short-story-competition

BOREE LOG AWARD FOR BUSH VERSE

The Boree Log Award invites entries of bush verse that are in perfect rhyme and metre, at a maximum of eighty lines and have an Australian bush theme. Entry is $5 per poem (maximum of four per person), with first prize receiving $100 plus a trophy and certificate. Closing date is May 31. For full details go to https://hillsfaw.files.wordpress. com/2017/02/boree-log-2017.pdf

SHOALHAVEN LITERARY AWARD This year, the Shoalhaven Literary Award is seeking entries of short stories of up to 3,000 words on an open theme. First prize for the Shoalhaven Literary Award is $1,500 along with a two-week artist residency at Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon on the Shoalhaven River.

There is $250 for second, $150 for third, and $200 for the winning entry from a Shoalhaven resident.

Deadline for submissions is May 27 and there is an entry fee of $12 per story. The judge this year is Laurie Steed. More details at http:// www.fawnswshoalhaven.org.au/ competitions

FUTURE LEADERS WRITING PRIZE The Future Leaders Writing Prize is designed to recognise and reward talented young writers and aims to

encourage expressive and creative writing. Year 11 and 12 students in Australian secondary schools are invited to submit a piece of writing of between 800 and 1,000 words. The writing can be fiction or non-fiction and on any topic. The award winner will receive $1,000. Where there is more than one winner the prize money will be shared. The winners of the Future Leaders Writing Prize will also have their work published.

Entry is free, the deadline for entries is May 31 and more information can be found at www.futureleaders.com. au/awards/index.php

UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA VICE-CHANCELLOR'S INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE

This prestigious international poetry competition offers a first prize of $15,000, with the runner up receiving $5,000. Poems must have a maximum of fifty lines, while there is an entry fee of $20 per poem. Head judge for 2017 is Billy Collins. For more information and to enter visit http://www.canberra. edu.au/about-uc/competitions-andawards/vcpoetryprize. Closing date is June 30.

BEST OF TIMES SHORT STORY COMPETITION

For this competition, humorous short stories on any subject are invited of up to 2,500 words. Entry fee is $10 with unlimited entries allowed. First prize will range between $300 and $500 depending on number of entries, with second prize receiving $100. The deadline is May 31, with more information available at http://wildthoughts.com. au/comp23.html

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>> WRITERS’ GROUPS

>> Alstonville Plateau Writers Group

Meets second Friday of each month, 10am - 12pm. All genres welcome, contact Kerry on 66285662 or email alstonvilleplateauwriters@outlook.com

>> Ballina/Byron U3A Creative Writing

Meets every second Wednesday at 12pm, Fripp Oval, Ballina. Contact Ann Neal on 02 6681 6612.

>> Bangalow Writers Group

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

Contact Simone on 0407749288

>> Bellingen Writers Group

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

>> Byron Bay Memoir and Fiction Writing Group

>> Dunoon Writers Group

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

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

>> FAW Port Macquarie-Hastings Regional

Meets 1pm on last Saturday of each month, Maritime Museum, Port Macquarie. Contact Joie on 65843520 or email Bessie on befrank@tsn.cc

>> Gold Coast Writers Association

Meets third Saturday of each month, 1:30pm for 2pm start, at Fradgley Hall, Burleigh Heads Library, Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads. Contact 0431443385 or email info@goldcoast-writers.org.au

>> Kyogle Writers

Meets monthly at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay. Contact Diana on 0420 282 938 or diana.burstall@gmail.com

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

>> Casino Writers Group

>> Lismore Writers Group

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

>> Cloudcatchers

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

>> Coffs Harbour Writers Group

Meets second Tuesday of the month from 7:30pm to 9:30pm at Communities Hub Art Space on Keen Street.

Cost is $5 for Hub members, $7.50 for non-members.

For more details phone 0410832362.

>> Middle Grade / Young Adult Fiction Writers’ Group

Meets monthly at 2pm on Sundays in Bangalow. Contact Carolyn Bishop at carolyncbishop@gmail.com or 0431161104

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

>> Nambucca Valley Writers Group

>> Coffs Harbour Memoir Writers Group

>> Taree-Manning River Scribblers

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

>> Cru3a River Poets

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

>> Dangerously Poetic Writing Circle

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

>> Dorrigo Writers Group

Meets every second Wednesday from 10am-2pm.

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

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Meets fourth Saturday of each month, 1:30pm, Nambucca. Contact 65689648 or nambuccawriters@ gmail.com Meets second Wednesday of the month, 9am-11:30am, Taree. Call first to check venue. Contact Bob Winston on 65532829 or email rrw1939@hotmail.com

>> Tweed Poets and Writers

Meets weekly at the Coolangatta Senior Citizens Centre on Tuesdays from 1:30 to 3:30pm, NSW time.

Poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers are all welcome. Phone Lorraine 0755248035 or Pauline 0755245062.

>> WordsFlow Writing

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

Support northerly in 2017 northerly is the bi-monthly magazine of the Byron Writers Festival.

Published in January, March, May, July, September and November, it is distributed to members, community organisations, libraries, universities, schools, festivals, publishers and bookshops and has a readership in excess of 3,500. Each issue features interviews, reviews, essays and national and international news.

An array of discounts and deals are available for organisations and individuals interested in advertising. To discuss your advertising needs in northerly, contact us on
02 6685 5115 or via email at northerlyeditor@gmail.com