northerly may/june issue

northerly The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre Magazine

May-June 2015

| 001ALLEN BELINDA MURRELL · EBEN VENTER · BELLINGEN READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL · northerly DAEVID FESTIVAL NEWS · LISA BROCKWELL · MEMOIR WRITING · WORKSHOPS · REVIEWS

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CONTENTS

>> THIS ISSUE

MAYJUN2015 003 Director and editor’s note 004 News Gillard for BBWF, volunteer call-out, criticism a man’s world?

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006 NRWC new staff Introducing Joanna Trilling, Mouche Phillips and Finola Wennekes

007 Bellingen’s big weekend

A preview of Bellingen Readers & Writers Festival

008 Vale Daevid Allen

Farewell to a Northern Rivers icon

009 Poem

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Lisa Brockwell: ‘When I run’

010 Leader of the pack An extract from Eben Venter’s Wolf, Wolf

012 Living in the past

Belinda Murrell on history in children’s literature

014 Writers’ Group

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Byron Bay Memoir Group

015 Rising

Q&A: Emerging writer Nick Couldwell

016 Frescos and high heels A double dose of ADFAS talks

017 SCU showcase Poetry from Lynn Ward

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018 Passage to India

Reflections on Jaipur Literature Festival

019 Book Review

Buried Country by Clinton Walker

020 Learning Curve Fantasy according to George R.R. Martin

021 Workshops

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022 Competitions 024 Writers’ Groups & Member Discounts

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>>HELLO

DIRECTOR’S NOTE Returning to Byron after Easter I pulled out one of my favourite books by John O’Donohue, Benedictus, in which he writes, “Beginnings are new horizons that want to be seen.” He then poses the question, “What is the new horizon in you that wants to be seen?”

Photo: Angela Kay

This reflection seems timely as we welcome new editor Barnaby Smith to his first issue of northerly, knowing he will engage with stimulating new ideas and open up new horizons or us all.

Since the last edition I have had the pleasure of spending days immersed in the Adelaide Writers’ Week and Newcastle Writers Festival, both very satisfying literary feasts. I was inspired anew for the coming months, when we will be finalising our Byron Bay Writers Festival 2015 program. Already we have announced several headline authors including Julia Gillard, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, Joan London and Jackie French - strong, female Australian voices one and all! Don’t worry, there will be blokes aplenty too...

But before we get to August there will be several NRWC events to whet your appetite.

This year we are partnering with Sydney Writers’ Festival to live stream several sessions on Saturday May 23 at SAE. Featured sessions will include Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri and a panel including Douglas Coupland and Richard Flanagan called ‘Give Me Back My Pre-Internet Brain’. Perhaps a new horizon awaits you there?

Until next time,

northerly

northerly is the bi-monthly magazine of the Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre. The Writers’ Centre is a resource and information base for writers and readers in the Northern Rivers region. We offer a year-round program of readings, workshops and writer visits as well as the annual production of the Byron Bay Writers Festival. The Centre is a non-profit, incorporated organisation receiving its core funding from Arts NSW. LOCATION/CONTACT Level 1 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay P: 02 6685 5115 F: 02 6685 5166 E: info@nrwc.org.au W: www.nrwc.org.au POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 1846 Byron Bay NSW 2481 EDITOR: Barnaby Smith, northerly@nrwc.org.au CONTRIBUTORS: Peter Brew-Bevans, Lisa Brockwell, Diana Burstall, David Hallett, David Hancock, Angela Kay, Janette King, Elixabete Lopez, Annette Marfording, Julia Pannell, Russell Shakespeare, Gage Skidmore, Eben Venter, Lynn Ward NRWC COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON Chris Hanley VICE CHAIRPERSON Lynda Dean SECRETARY Russell Eldridge TREASURER Cheryl Bourne MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Kate Cameron, Marele Day, Lynda Hawryluk, Anneli Knight, Emerald Moon, Jennifer St George, Adam van Kempen, Teresa Walters.

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, Heather Wearne.

MAIL OUT DATES Magazines are sent in JANUARY, MARCH, MAY, JULY, SEPTEMBER and NOVEMBER

Edwina Johnson Director, NRWC

MAGAZINE DESIGN Kaboo Media PRINTER Quality Plus Printers Ballina

FROM THE EDITOR An unintentional theme to emerge from this autumn issue of northerly is that of travel. Children’s author Belinda Murrell and emerging writer Nick Couldwell may be at very different stages in their career, but both tell of the benefits that experiencing different cultures and landscapes holds for one’s work. As well, the extracted snippets from a famous Rolling Stone interview with George R.R Martin prove how a trip to Hadrian’s Wall fired his imagination for A Song of Ice and Fire. Lisa Brockwell’s poem is quite literally about the physical act of travel that is running, while Lismore’s Eben Venter’s unique perspective on his South African homeland has been honed by his years away from it.

The desire to travel is inherent in pretty much everyone, and there is no question that it remains a vital source of inspiration and perspective. But in these globalised days it can also be a source of status anxiety as many look to the extent of their adventures overseas to form their identity.

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing, for another publication, Victorian poet Cameron Lowe’s book Circle

Work, a soulful collection that extols the virtues of sitting still, observing, and letting insight come to you. His poems prove that watching the changing afternoon light from one’s verandah or noticing the magpies come and go from the powerlines above can be just as illuminating for one’s soul, and one’s writing, as epic overseas odysseys. This issue is dedicated to that balance between devotion to the minutiae of our local surroundings, and the universal human desire to explore and experience.

Other things: Sufjan Stevens’s new album Carrie & Lowell is a literary achievement if ever there was one and can’t be recommended enough, while northerly remains keen to hear from any readers who are interested in contributing essays, opinion pieces, reviews, interviews or anything else covering the world of literature, books and publishing: northerly@nrwc.org.au.

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 northerly@nrwc.org.au.

DISCLAIMER The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre 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.nrwc.org.au. Sign up for a membership. Stay updated and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. https://www.facebook.com/pages/ Northern-Rivers-Writers-Centre https://twitter.com/bbwritersfest

Cover photo: Julia Pannell

Barnaby Smith Editor, northerly magazine

The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre, Byron Bay Writers Festival and northerly magazine acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land.

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>> NEWS

NEWS Byron welcomes Gillard

For the second year running, Byron Bay Writers Festival will welcome a former Australian prime minister, with Julia Gillard (pictured left) announced as among the top bills for the 2015 event, which takes place August 7-9. The ex-Labor leader’s appearance follows a memorable turn by the late Malcolm Fraser at the 2014 festival. She will be joined in conversation by award-winning author and historian Clare Wright on the Saturday.

Other early announcements are just as impressive, with Joan London, Helen Garner (pictured centrally) and Kate Grenville also set to appear.

Meanwhile, the festival’s tradition of a strong line-up of children’s authors continues with current Australian Children’s laureate Jackie French along with the double treat of illustrator Terry Denton and writer Andy Griffiths (pictured below). The trio will feature at the ever-popular Kids Day Out event on the Sunday.

The full Festival program is announced on June 12. Early Bird three-day tickets are available until that date.

Festival volunteer call-out

Byron Bay Writers Festival is currently seeking volunteers for some special positions.

Those in love with social media, or perhaps a journalism or communications student seeking opportunities, are required to assist with the Festival’s social media.

As well, the Festival is seeking a green room supervisor, workshop supervisor, survey supervisor and poetry events supervisor.

Anyone interested in any of these roles should contact Penny Leonard at penny@nrwc.org.au

Photo: Peter Brew-Bevans

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>> NEWS

Residential Mentorship writers announced

North Keppel calling

The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre would like to congratulate the four emerging writers selected to spend an intensive week under the mentorship of novelist Marele Day. The Residential Mentorship is among they Centre’s key programs. The judges said the field was very strong this year, and praised the finalists for the quality of their work.

The writers will spend May 11-15 at a beach house in Suffolk Park fine-tuning their work. The 2015 mentees and their manuscripts are:

Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre committee member Lynda Hawryluk is coordinating a weekend writing workshop on Queensland’s North Keppel Island, catering to regional writers of all abilities and experience. The retreat, entitled ‘Writing Resilience’, will see Professor Donna Lee Brian facilitate sessions that will examine ways writers can build resilience and maintain a writing practice. Singer-songwriter Nicole Leah will also be on hand to entertain and offer songwriting guidance.

The weekend workshop takes place on May 22-24, with the fee of $270 inclusive of workshops, meals, accommodation and transfers to North Keppel Island Environment Education Centre from Keppel Bay Marina. More information is available at www.keppelcoastarts.org.au or by emailing keppelcoastarts@gmail.com

Jeremy Tager: Walking the Fence Line Annie Barrett: Brick Walls Jarrah Dundler: Tryst Ahliya Farebrother: Liquid Amber

Study shows men dominate criticism

A study by Vida, an American organisation that champions women in literature, has shown that male writers are overwhelmingly dominant across many of the world’s most esteemed literary publications. The research focused on the likes of the New Yorker, London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and New York Review of Books, finding that male writers were in the vast majority in terms of the reviewers themselves, and the authors of books under review.

London Review of Books, for example, featured 527 male authors in its pages in 2014, compared with 151 women. New York Review of Books featured 677 men to 242 women.

This trend is at odds with other patterns in the global publishing industry – three of the UK’s best-selling authors in 2014 were Hilary Mantel, Donna Tart and Kate Mosse. In addition, one look at last year’s Byron Bay Writers Festival, as well as the early names for 2015, proves the quality and depth of female writers in Australia. * northerly is interested in receiving ideas for essays or opinion pieces on the gender imbalance in literary criticism: northerly@nrwc.org.au

Inspiration overseas

Northern Rivers writer Dr Jesse Blackadder (pictured right) is among several authors working with Bookshop Travel to offer week-long writing workshops in inspiring locations. An increasingly popular form of cultural tourism, aspiring writers are combining travel with in-depth learning. The other authors include Dr Kate Forsyth and Dr Anita Heiss.

She is also teaching a one-day novel writing masterclass with Guardian Australia in Sydney on May 20.

Bookshop Travel is also running classes in Paris, the Cotswolds, Dublin and New York. For more information visit www.bookshoptravel.com.au.

CBCA Book of the Year Awards

Two local authors have been shortlisted in the prestigious Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards. Tristan Bancks’ Two Wolves was shortlisted in the Younger Readers category and Diana Sweeney’s The Minnow in the Older Readers category.

The Minnow was developed through an NRWC writer mentorship.

More than 400 books were submitted for consideration for the CBCA awards, narrowed to a shortlist of six in each category. Previous winners include Markus Zusak, Sonya Hartnett, Melina Marchetta and Shaun Tan. The winning books will be announced during Children’s Book Week in August.

Blackadder believes that travelling to a new place helps make the week a creative quest. “It’s an inner and outer adventure where mornings are spent immersed in the craft of dramatic, powerful writing.

I work with a small group of students to find the best structure for their work, create memorable characters and vivid worlds and polish sentences until they glow.”

Blackadder’s course ‘Castles, Cloisters and Quests’ will run in May 2016 – in Scotland. “My historical fiction course is being held in Scotland so we can get to know the magical villages of the Borders district and visit the ruins of Blackadder Castle, inspiration for my novel The Raven’s Heart.”

Photo: Elixabete Lopez

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>> WELCOME

NEW FACES AT NRWC

As well as northerly receiving a bit of a facelift, the Byron Bay Writers Festival and Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre is very pleased to announce three exciting new appointments.

Joanna Trilling joins as communications manager, with Mouche Phillips taking the reins as sponsorship manager. Finola Wennekes joins to support Penny Leonard as volunteer coordinator.

Joanna Trilling

Joanna Trilling is an experienced, driven and passionate communications professional having spent the past eleven years working in the arts, cultural and tertiary education sectors.

She is extremely passionate about the arts industry and brings with her a wide range of experience working with artists from around the globe.

After completing a communications degree, majoring in Journalism, Joanna travelled through Europe with her daughter, provoking a fervent interest in other cultures and how they are represented and communicated.

Upon returning to Australia, Joanna continued to explore her love of diverse cultures and artists through her position as media relations coordinator for the Perth International Arts Festival. A highlight of the broader festival program was the Perth Writers Festival, where she worked with renowned authors such as David Malouf, Naomi Wolf, Maureen Dowd, James McBride, AC Grayling, Armistead Maupin and Peter Godwin.

Since leaving the Perth Festival, Joanna has had two children and relocated to Queensland, where she has most recently begun producing radio for the ABC. Photo: Angela Kay

In any spare moment, you are most likely to find Joanna perusing bookshops or curled up in a quiet spot reading, so she is delighted to be returning to the exciting world of festivals and taking up the role of communications manager for the Byron Bay Writers Festival.

Mouche Phillips

Mouche Phillips has been a theatre, TV and event producer for almost 20 years in both Sydney and Byron Bay. Whilst in Sydney, Mouche was the creative producer for actor Jeremy Sims’ production company, PorkChop Productions, which developed several new theatre works for Sydney Opera House and national touring, whilst also running her own TV commercial production company, Ripe Productions.

Other ventures include working for the national theatre touring group, Critical Stages, based at the Seymour Centre in Sydney and since 2012, she has been event and business development manager at Byron Theatre.

Recently she took on the opportunity to curate and manage the closing of Jonson St in Byron Bay to stage Soul Street, the family-friendly New Year’s Eve event, with a fabulous team from Byron Council and Byron Community Centre.

Mouche is thrilled to be coming on board with such a delightful and clever bunch at Byron Bay Writers Festival this year.

FINOLA WENNEKES

Since arriving in the Northern Rivers in 2012, Finola has worked in various media and marketing roles and as a freelance designer. She now runs her own marketing business, Kaboo Media, helping businesses with their media and marketing strategies.

Finola is originally from the UK, where she worked as a media and communications lecturer until 2011 when she left to travel through South America, learning Spanish in the process and documenting her travels through the blog travelola.org. Needless to say, she is passionate about reading and writing.

Since 2012 she has assisted with Byron Bay Writers Festival and the Northern Rivers’ Writers Centre by designing promotional material and indeed northerly. In 2013 she worked as Penny Leonard’s assistant volunteer coordinator and in 2014 as a green room coordinator.

This year Finola is taking on more of Penny’s responsibilities in the role of volunteer coordinator.

Having had the chance to work with a wonderful army of volunteers in recent years, she looks forward to engaging with so many positive, warm and interesting people again in 2015.

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>> FESTIVAL PREVIEW

BELLO TURNS FIVE One of the cosiest events on the festival calendar, Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival this year takes place June 5-8.

Here, program director Annette Marfording looks ahead to a literary weekend that boasts a host of major Australian names, and some familiar faces from the Northern Rivers.

Author of Missing Christopher Jayne Newling will feature in Bellingen alongside her son Nic; Paddle with a poet on the beautiful Bellinger River; Award-winning indigenous poet Samuel Wagan Watson will be among the festival’s highlights.

It’s hard to believe that 2015 only marks the fifth Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival. In this short period, our festival has become one of the most loved literary festivals in Australia, amongst both authors and visitors. There are a few reasons for this, we think.

First, the festival is organised by a committee of between five and ten unpaid people who passionately believe in the power of books.

Second, the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival has always felt it has a mission to familiarise people with the strengths of Australian writing, therefore focusing exclusively on Australian writers, be they novelists, poets, short fiction or non-fiction authors, be they Anglo-Saxon, Aboriginal, former refugees or migrants.

Thirdly, with about twenty to thirty authors in attendance annually, our festival is neither too big nor too small, offering readers and writers genuine opportunities to meet and share their ideas and love of words and stories in Bellingen’s intimate festival setting and relaxed atmosphere.

Fourth, the festival takes place in the historic Memorial Hall and its surrounds right in the centre of town, close to cafés and the Bellinger river, so that visitors can also experience the local vibe. Renowned Australian crime writer Michael

Robotham once said, “If ever there was a town that deserved a writers’ festival, it is this one.”

Fifth, the festival allows visitors to delight in Bellingen’s magnificent natural environment, by staging events on and around the Bellinger River and in Dorrigo National Park.

Sixth, the festival honours and celebrates the region’s long and rich cultural heritage by including Gumbaynggirr people in the program so as to allow visitors to listen to their songs, stories and poems and to learn about their culture. Furthermore, the festival allows local and regional writers to participate actively, launch their books or read from their work.

Finally, the festival features ‘Tastings’, a live Friday night event with music, poetry and performances by festival guests. On Saturday night there is a regularly sold out poetry slam, both events not to be missed.

We’re very excited that this year’s festival theme is politics and society, featuring prominent politicians Bob Carr and Rob Oakeshott and renowned political journalists David Marr and Paul Daley. Another festival coup is brilliant screenwriter Shelly Birse, creator of the award-winning ABC drama series The

Code. Among the poets are Samuel Wagan Watson and Zohab Zee Khan, who will conduct the Paddle with a Poet event on Monday June 8, while Jayne Newling, author of Australia’s first memoir on youth suicide and winner of the 2014 Human Rights Literature Award for Missing Christopher, is also on the bill. Others include psychiatrist and author Professor Gordon Parker, and fiction authors Robert Drewe, Lisa Walker, Jessie Cole, Diana Sweeney and Felicity Castagna.

On Friday afternoon there will be a special session focusing on teenage depression aimed at teenagers, parents, teachers, health and mental health professionals, taking advantage of the festival attendance of Professor Gordon Parker, Jayne Newling and her son Nic, who was featured in an episode of Australian Story on the ABC in April.

Ticket information and a full program, including creative writing workshops held by festival authors, can be found at www.bellingenwritersfestival. com.au. We invite you to reflect on contemporary issues in politics and society by listening to the outstanding politicians, journalists, novelists and non-fiction writers coming to the 2015 Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival in the magical surroundings of Bellingen on the long weekend in June.

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>>TRIBUTE

Vale Daevid Allen: 1938-2015

Though known internationally for his seminal contribution in the realm of prog-rock through bands Gong and Soft Machine, Daevid Allen was also an adventurous experimental poet who performed and published widely and was an influential and much-loved literary presence in the Northern Rivers, where he lived. Local poet David Hallett pays tribute to a genuine one-off, who died in March at the age of 77.

For over 30 years, Daevid Allen proved to be a fascinating, iconic and hugely inspirational poet and performer in the Northern Rivers. Yet, while he was revered as a poet in the region, he also toured the world for over 50 years as a cult musician.

Born in Melbourne in 1938, Daevid became involved in beat poetry and jazz in the late Fifties at Melbourne’s Jazz Centre 44.

Moving to Paris in 1960, he represented Australia at the Biennale de Paris in 1963 and 1967, and established himself as a pioneer of performance poetry in clubs and pubs throughout the UK and USA. In Paris he performed with author William Burroughs and composer Terry Riley, and in Spain with Robert Graves. While living in a houseboat on the river Seine he became embroiled with a freewheeling, existential mix of artists, philosophers, poets and musicians. Moving to Spain in 1965 Graves introduced Daevid to Idries Shah, Spike Milligan and painter Mati Klarwein.

Daevid’s fascinating career took another turn back in London in 1966 with poet Gilli Smyth, when they began performing as ‘Pop Poets’ with Michael Horowitz and Pete Brown/New Departures. In the same year Daevid was a foundation member of the influential progressive/psychedelic/art-rock band Soft Machine. Back in Paris, during the student riots of 1968 Daevid was renowned as a beatnik poet handing out teddy bears to the police and reciting poems to them in pidgin French.

Escaping the aftermath of the riots in the late Sixties, he and Gilli fled to Deya, Majorca where they formed the cult community-based psychedelic/fantasy/rock band Gong, who were still performing and touring with Daevid in 2013. Over the decades, various incarnations of Gong, Planet Gong, New York Gong and even Gilli’s Mothergong have toured and recorded internationally. Meanwhile, Daevid continued to branch out

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with other projects, such as the United States-based University of Errors, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet and the jazz/ rock band Brainville 3. Always an artist, Daevid was constantly immersed in a potpourri of writing, performing, publishing, recording and mixing albums, creating artwork for books and recordings, and, of course, the many years of touring to the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, United States and South America.

In the early Eighties Daevid began staying regularly in the Northern Rivers before he settled, for many years, at South Golden Beach. Daevid’s arrival coincided with a wave of performance poetry and spoken word events that began to crop up in cafes and hotels and halls in Byron Bay, Bangalow, Lismore and Nimbin, and he quickly became a critical influence and inspiration to all manner of poets in the region. Daevid was always a cutting-edge poet, and there were no holds barred in his words. While he often appeared dressed as a jester in the mad court of kings and tycoons and shopping malls, he was always one to see through the schemers and find some masterful poetry that jumped from the page to the stage.

Daevid’s recent publications include his collected works Poet For Sale (2002), Gong Dreaming 1 and Gong Dreaming 2 (2007), and poems for da revelation (2010).

On the afternoon of Sunday March 1st, St David’s Day, Daevid Allen gave his final poetry performance at Byron Bay’s Writers at the Rails. He passed away on Friday March 13th.

He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by many here and around the world. Daevid is survived by his four sons Tali, Orlando, Toby and Ynys, and partners Gilli, Maggie and Turiya.

Photo: Daevid Allen performs at The Rails in Byron Bay on March 1st, 2015. Photo: www.wildbyron.com

>> POEM

When I run Lisa Brockwell

I hear them when I run, the dead leaves parting like the Red Sea. Lizards might as well be brush-turkeys, all feet crashing through the verge, mine drumming the road. But snakes don’t break the brittle scrub, they hush their way through tinder.

I hear them when I run, like the tide coming in, a swathe of sound, a wave that soothes the thirsty ground, then stops - frozen.

Cicadas, magpies, the steady tambourine of wind in the trees, rolling through the gully, but more than these. A warning – lighthouse clear – this is not your element, stay out of here.

But when a car takes this narrow strip too fast, coming up behind me, the bends more than most bargain for, I plunge thigh deep into their world with all the stiff bravado of a child walking the plank over the shark-infested sea. All I want is not to tread on that cold throb of muscle, to find my feet when the gash of car has gone.

Lisa lives near Mullumbimby with her husband and son.

She has been shortlisted for the Newcastle, the University of Canberra, the Australian Catholic University and the Montreal International poetry prizes and highly commended in the Bridport Prize (UK). Her poems have appeared in The Spectator (UK), Australian Love Poems, Eureka Street and Best Australian Poems 2014. She is working on her first collection.

Photo: Julia Pannell

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>> READ

EXTRACT: WOLF, WOLF

BY EBEN VENTER

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>> READ

Eben Venter was raised on a sheep farm in Eastern Cape, South Africa and migrated to Australia in 1986, currently residing in the Northern Rivers. He has been publishing acclaimed novels since the Eighties, his latest being Wolf, Wolf, which was translated into English from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns and is Venter’s first to be published in Australia.

Wolf, Wolf centres on Mattheüs Duiker, who hopes to win his ailing father’s respect by establishing a take-away restaurant in Cape Town. At the same time, Mattheüs must wrestle with an addiction to internet porn and his relationship with his boyfriend. Wolf, Wolf addresses issues of intolerance, the emotional impact of contemporary social mores on relationships and indeed questions of South African identity. The book was described by the Guardian as “a mesmerising novel”, adding that “Matt Duiker rings true – stuck between the old South Africa now passing away, and a new world painfully coming into being.”

At one o’clock on the dot, he walks into the room with a tray of food for his dying father. Privately, he uses the word dying in lower case – unlike the oncologist who rubs it in: I give your father another month or so. He’s also taking along a request that he may be ashamed of. And yet he will – he wants to – ask his father for the cheque so that he can start his own business. Every word has been sifted and weighed; and lunch is tomato and lamb stew, hisfather’s favourite.

The study is on the south side of the house, while the en suite master bedroom is on the north; the mattress and base will have to be lugged all the way down the passage to the entrance hall and then left into the study, where they’ll need to clear a space for the double bed and all. And then, what about ablutions and going to the toilet, has he even considered that? Up to three times a night while he’s surfing the Net in the small hours, he hears Pa’s toilet flushing.

He’s surprised to find the old man propped up already, his back against two cushions – the willpower that must have taken.Without preamble, the voice issues from the decrepit body, forceful and peremptory, just as he remembers it. Pa wants to be moved from the bedroom to the study. Irrespective of Mattheüs’s opinion concerning his condition.

‘This afternoon, then, and it’ll all be over and done with. I’m not asking for much, my son.’ At the tail end of the instruction there’s just a shred of a scruple.

‘Now, this afternoon, Mattie.’ He says: Now. This. Afternoon.

‘No point in putting it off, my son. I’m here on borrowed time.’ He inclines his head towards the spot where he imagines Mattheüs is standing with the tray of food, pinning him to the striped kelim, the eyes behind their closed lids holding him captive.

For weeks now, he’s been mulling over the request, considering its consequences: in truth, it’s a final favour to the dying man. His father would depart serene in the knowledge that his son is not a wastrel: Mattie will land on his feet again. He’d bought lamb and ripe tomatoes and baby carrots and left it all to simmer. He’s thought of everything.

His saliva thickens in his mouth. The entirety of what he hasn’t planned for flashes before him: double bed, mattress, bedside cabinet with pills and medication and special sweets for dry mouth, and the Sorbolene, all Pa’s clothes and handkerchiefs and toiletries, slippers – the pictures on the walls can surely be left behind? – everything will have to be schlepped across. The bed remade, and pillows shaken down and puffed up and, finally: the frail body. And then the grumbling at the slightest mishandling. Now. It must all happen now.

The cheque he wants to ask for, his carefully considered request, is fading into the background. He’s beginning to tread water.

He’s facing a man who’s never been known for his tact, at least not in his own home. Who wants to be moved just as the week is drawing to a close, the day almost at an end. And his father knows perfectly well that Friday evening is his night on the town with Jack. Part of his plan was that they’d kick off with a double brandy, a shooter or two in between, then an ice-cold beer. (The cheque by now snug in his pocket.) At dusk he’d come to say his goodbye, his hand in his father’s, with its thin, worn papery feel. Take my car, Pa would say, as always. And even though Mattheüs knew that he and Jack would get wasted, he’d take it all the same.

It becomes, admittedly by mere degree, something between a request and an instruction. He places the tray with the tomato stew on his father’s lap. It has been prepared according to his mother’s recipe on page three of her dog-eared book. The only difference is the ground cumin that he adds.

He tucks the linen serviette into his father’s pyjama top; he can smell the disease emanating from his body. Then he sits down on the wooden chair with its slatted sides and adjustable backrest and two fat cushions, the kind you come across in Afrikaner homes where old things are still cherished. The chair will go to his sister, which is okay; he’s getting the house.

When he notices the frown about to form, he jumps up and adjusts the tray. The stew has sloshed around, leaving reddishorange crescents on the rim of the plate. Pa’s hands flutter about, his fingers groping for the tray, fossicking to find out what’s what and where everything is.

Mattheüs sits down again. Beyond the French doors, which are always open to the fresh air except in a storm, are the wrought-iron security gates opening on to a small garden with a fountain, and flowers, white and pale-pink and yellow and so on, and two plovers on the patch of lawn that realise they’re being watched and kick up a racket, a bird call with usually pleasant associations that now drills discordantly into Mattheüs’s ear: his father’s request throws him and reason goes overboard, so that it becomes a command pure and simple, raking up similar commands from his past with Pa, and smothering him under them.

In the meantime, Pa has sensed what inner nourishment is on offer today, and instead of taking up his knife and fork and eating like a good boy, his little paws clutch at the handles of the tray, his stretched skin translucent over the bone. Thin, thin. Weight loss, and a ring finger long since ringless. Clutch, release, clutch and release yet again.

Wolf, Wolf is published by Scribe Publications.

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>> INTERVIEW

Making history:

mining the past with Belinda Murrell

C

hildren’s author Belinda Murrell has proven herself to be among Australia’s leading practitioners of this notoriously challenging, but highly rewarding, art.

Her oeuvre includes a series of ‘time slip’ novels for ages nine and up such as The Ruby Talisman, in which the heroine is transported back to the French Revolution, and The Forgotten Pearl, which visits wartime Darwin. In The Locket of Dreams, she recreates the gruelling conditions of 1850s Scotland.

For younger readers (ages six to nine), Sydney-based Murrell has created the Lulu Bell series of books, about a young girl growing up with a vet as a father – echoing Murrell’s own upbringing. “Where there’s Lulu,” reads the promotional blurb, “there’s family, friends and adventures galore!”

Interestingly, Murrell’s great-great-great-great-grandmother was Charlotte Waring, author of the first known children’s book in Australia, A Mother’s Offering to her Children: By a Lady, Long Resident in New South Wales, published in 1841. Murrell’s sister meanwhile, is Kate Forsyth, also an acclaimed writer for both adults and children. northerly was able to sit down with Belinda Murrell as she passed through the Byron Shire on a tour of the area’s primary schools in March, to discuss her path to children’s literature stardom, sneaking history lessons into her stories and how the best children’s books introduce young minds to the various inevitable hardships that life has in store.

When you do tours of schools and events like this, are the majority of children already familiar with your books?

It’s always a real mix. You get the diehard fans who are really excited and bring along their battered copy of your book and say they’ve read it seventeen times, which is such a thrill.

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Then you get kids who have never heard of you and then get enthused over something you’ve said and rush home and drag their parents off to grab a book. After you’ve been to schools and events, you tend to get a lot of emails and letters from kids saying how inspiring it was, or you might get a parent saying that their son or daughter had never read before, but now they’re switched on to reading.

What were the books that you loved when you were a child yourself?

I was a voracious reader, who at night in bed would have a doona over my head and a book and torch, and I would read until four in the morning and then fall asleep at school the next day. I particularly loved Enid Blyton when I was really young, and read all of The Famous Five, The Magic Faraway Tree and The Wishing-Chair books. When I got older I loved CS Lewis, and a bit later I loved Tolkien. What I often tell kids is that a really good book offers that feeling of stepping through the door in the back of a wardrobe and into another world, and when you’re reading it should feel like you’re there in that world experiencing it for yourself.

You’ve travelled widely both in Australia and overseas. How much of a bearing has this had on your writing?

I think it’s very much inspired my writing. I love bringing a sense of the world to children who maybe haven’t been able to travel yet as I’ve been able to. I used to work as a travel writer, and I think that has really influenced my concept of setting, and setting is often where I start, creating and evoking a world that is maybe based on a place I’ve been to, and once that’s done I start to people it with characters. When I’m writing a new book I can’t really get into it without having visited the place, and

>> INTERVIEW felt what it’s like, smelled the smells and soaked myself in that environment.

goes into historical books, and the writing is intense and all-consuming.

A lot of Australia’s best children’s authors, like Morris Many of your books have plots based around time travel, Gleitzman, allow their books to gently introduce children to where characters are transported to pivotal points in history. things like cultural diversity, serious illness and even politics.

To what degree are you offering a history lesson as well as Do you have any similar mission? entertaining literature?

Teachers love asking that question, and I always say I never set I think that’s really important, but it depends on the age group. out to give a history lesson. I always set out to tell an exciting With something like the Lulu Bell age group, it’s very gentle, and engrossing story, to make the reader feel emotions and but it’s introducing them to diversity through characters that experience a journey with another child who is basically a come from different cultural backgrounds, whether they might friend. That’s where I start. I’m fascinated by history myself, be indigenous or from Vietnam, Iraq or Sri Lanka. But I don’t and do lots of research, but I try to make the history very light. make a big deal of it – there might be a character who you don’t My books are not about grand world events; for example, The find out is Sri Lankan until she’s been in four books.

Forgotten Pearl is set during World War Two, but it’s not about Then there’s different families, some might have just a mum and battles and tanks and planes, it’s about families and what they no dad. Lulu has an Anglo-Saxon were eating and doing. It’s a personal family made up of a mum, dad and domestic sense of history, more Some kids feel as if they should be and three kids, which reflects my about people than events. own background, but lots of other I’m sure you’ve had that experience and I guess I’m trying to show that life families in the books are of different where you’ve been in a history class kinds. is about ups and downs and you’re getting bashed over the Another thing I’m aware of head with dry facts, where you just among kids of this generation – and I’m aware of this rather zone out and don’t take anything in, it doesn’t mean anything to than trying to preach – is this sense of entitlement, which I you. But when you read about a character who is going hungry sometimes see in the friends of my kids. They feel as if they or has lost someone or is living in fear, it’s a more real way of should be happy all the time, and I guess one thing I’m trying experiencing the historical event. to show is that life is actually about ups and downs, and I’m hoping that by reading about people’s lives it will teach you And it’s important also to show that such things as war are full about how you deal with difficult times. I think it’s really of complexity, as opposed to any ‘us versus them’ mentality. important to make readers aware of this, seeing someone else’s I do try and give kids a balanced view of what was going on. life and realising its never always rosy for anyone else, so why In The Forgotten Pearl, I didn’t want to write a book where should it be for you.

Australians are good and the Japanese are bad. I was trying to show how Japanese families were devastated by the war too, You have a website (www.belindamurrell.com.au), but it and how the friendship between the two girls was affected by doesn’t seem to be a particularly elaborate online presence, the fact that when the Japanese bombed Darwin, Japanese unlike some children’s authors who make their website an Australians were carted off to internment camps. I don’t like interactive experience that is its own concept. What role does the idea of black and white heroes and villains, because I think the internet play for you? there’s a lot of grey in the world. I try and encourage kids to I love the way the internet has made books more accessible, I think about it like that. love that kids can look at my website or at interviews that I’ve done. I love they can look at photos of me and my family and Can you describe what your day-to-day life as a children’s my dogs, and most importantly, it’s so easy for them to email author is like? me. But I don’t want my books to be propped up by technology I tend to have rhythms: a yearly rhythm, a monthly rhythm – my characters don’t need to run real blogs, for example. The and a weekly rhythm. At the moment I’ve got two new books book is the story, and if kids want to go further they can with launching [Lulu Bell and the Koala Joey and Lulu Bell and the the website. But it’s just a supportive thing.

Arabian Nights] so about one week a month will be spent going away and doing tours like this. The school term is really busy.

And then I have my deadlines. My next book will be another in the time slip series, so I’ll be researching that. I spend a few months researching and reading and working out what I’m going to do, write a synopsis when I’ve worked out my story, then go through it with my publisher, sign a contract with them and start writing it. I’ll be going for a few months and as I get closer to deadline I’ll be working seven days a week, eighteen hours a day to get it finished, and I’ll become obsessed with it.

Then when it’s finished, the editing process is much easier, as you’re going back and forth with your editor, and that’s another Belinda Murrell with young readers at Bangalow Public School, which few months. It all takes a lot of time with all the research that the author visited during a tour of the region’s schools in March.

happy all the time,

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>> WRITERS’ GROUPS

BYRON BAY MEMOIR GROUP

On a recent episode of The 7:30 Report on the ABC, author Kate Grenville said that writing memoir was like “drinking your own bath water”. But this challenging, confronting and rewarding mode of writing can be both enjoyable and indeed therapeutic, writes Diana Burstall of the Byron Bay Memoir Group.

The Byron Bay Memoir Group has been meeting monthly since 2004 at my house in Sunrise Beach. Over the years, membership has reached more than ten at times, but fewer than six is generally a more manageable number. Currently there are three ‘core’ members who have been attending for many years: myself, Jill Keogh from Federal and Sally Wilson from Coffs Harbour. People write memoir for different reasons – for family, to retain memories, as therapy, to tell a special story – and may or may not be aiming for publication.

I began while attending a workshop by Patti Miller called ‘How To Write Your Life’ at the Byron Bay Writers Festival in 2003. A general writing group formed after this festival as well as a memoir group, but both foundered after a few months, so I started running a memoir group from my house. I wanted to record my (nowadays) extraordinary childhood on a Mallee farm in the Fifties, and was awarded a Varuna Litlink Residency in 2006, and a place in the Varuna Longlines Reading and Consultation Program in 2008.

Jill, originally from New Zealand, wanted her grandchildren to know about her experiences, and says, “Always a scribbler, I was excited to find a memoir group up and running in Byron Bay six years ago. Since then I’ve shared my jottings as an outsider-beatnik-boho-hippy-eco-feminist-activist. I wouldn’t miss it for quids.”

Sally’s friends kept suggesting she write about her interesting life. She says, “My memoir efforts to date consist of stories plucked from various eras of my life. Putting them all together and understanding the common thread is yet to be established. I would not have come this far had I not joined this group. The benefits of peer review and evaluating the works of others are without question. I’ve gone on to dabble in fiction

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and have started my own writing group in Coffs, using the same meeting format, as it works so well.”

David Roland from Bangalow came for two and a half years, working on a manuscript about his recovery from stroke and trauma. He pitched his book idea successfully at the Byron Bay Writers Festival in 2012, gaining a literary agent soon afterwards, and then a publication contract. He completed a residency fellowship and a Litlink fellowship at Varuna in 2013.

His book How I Rescued My Brain was published in 2014 by Scribe.

Eddie from Pottsville came for many years, but has now left the area. Fay comes and goes. Many more people, far too many to name, have attended for varying periods of time, and we currently have two recent new members. The group has many discussions about the writing process such as how to edit, write convincing dialogue, find appropriate structures, identify a theme and so on. We focus less on content and more on the writing itself, welcoming new eyes as we strive to improve our skills. Beginners are encouraged to write down everything that comes to mind – the writing process can release more memories, and often people end up writing deeply about something they initially didn’t think of as important. Some people have been working on their stories for many years, and others knock off a page or two for the meeting. It’s helpful to remember there is no wrong way to write.

We also enjoy the social aspect, allocating half an hour at the beginning for catching up, and bring snacks to share.

Meetings are on the last Monday of the month, starting at noon and usually finishing around 3pm. For further details, contact diana.burstall@gmail.com or phone 0420 282 938

NICK COULDWELL

>> RISING

In this new section, northerly will hear from a series of emerging writers who have had some publishing success but whose voices and styles are still coming into being. Some will come from the Northern Rivers, some will come from further afield – either way, each will be an exciting nascent talent.

First up is Nick Couldwell, a twenty-four-year-old writer from Byron Bay. His fiction has been published in Visible Ink, Writing to the Edge, Seizure, Spineless Wonders’ forthcoming Out of Place anthology and their Slinkies e-Singles edition. Nick won the 2015 joanne burns Award and his story ‘Presents’ placed third in the 2013 Rockingham Short Fiction Award. He lives with his partner and two daughters.

Can you describe your own work in terms of style, practice and form?

What is the most important piece of writing advice you have been given?

I try to keep my style minimal and simple. I don’t rigorously follow the usual traits of minimalist writers, however their writing is definitely a source of influence and inspiration.

Setting is also a big factor in my writing. My stories are mostly set on the coast of Australia and I feel like this has the biggest impact on my work. If I take out the setting of my stories, the characters and plot would lose a lot of potency. Place is the anchor point for my writing. Adolescence, the human condition and characters coming of age are consistent themes I play on. I tend to call my stories works of coastal fiction.

I’ve been given plenty of advice and I’ve heard plenty more from other authors but I find the most important thing was not really advice, but confidence. I believe that confidence is the most helpful thing I received while at uni. Whether it was work-shopping stories or reading in front of the class, it was extremely beneficial for the growth and development of my writing. It got me ready for the anxiety of submitting stories and also stemmed the disappointment of rejection. It’s a hard thing sitting back down at your desk after an editor has just rejected your stories, especially if you’re just starting out. That inner confidence to get back up and keep writing is paramount.

When and how were you first drawn to literature and a desire to be an author?

I started writing stories in primary school, however I really started to enjoy writing during high school English. At the time I didn’t realise that it was what I wanted to do as a passion or a career. It took me a few years travelling and a lot of reading to put two and two together. When I returned to Australia I decided to study professional writing and editing at RMIT in Melbourne. My love of writing obviously came years before when I was reading fantasy novels such as The Hobbit and the Harry Potter series. As I matured I began moving towards literature and the fiction that shapes my writing today.

Which writers have influenced you most?

Obviously the greats had a huge influence: Kerouac, Orwell, Camus, Hemingway, Carver… but in the last few years I’ve found that Australian authors have really shaped my writing style, writers such as Tim Winton, Nam Le, Robert Drewe and Tony Birch. I would also do terrible things to write stories as well as Thom Jones, Mark Richard, Junot Diaz and D.W Wilson.

Are there enough opportunities for young writers like yourself in Australia?

I think there is. There are so many competitions, scholarships, workshops, internships and mentorships available for young and emerging writers. I really think that publishers, editors, magazines and journals are all on the same page when it comes to establishing, building and helping young writers.

The opportunities are definitely available, however I think it also comes down to the writer or person wanting to get involved. Even if it’s joining a book club or a writers’ group, subscribing to a magazine, entering a competition, networking and discussion on social media, it all helps to establish writing in Australia. I think information and opportunities are more accessible than ever with things like the internet and digital publishing. The writer has more power than ever before.

Some of Nick’s flash fiction will appear in northerly later this year.

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>> ADFAS

Frescos and high heels The coming months will see a pair of illuminating lectures organised by ADFAS Byron Bay – one with a classical theme, the other with a rather more modern emphasis.

The Creation of Adam, a fresco painting by Michelangelo that forms part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome

Virtual Realities: The Art of Fresco An illustrated lecture by Nicole Mezey, Monday May 22.

Fresco is a technique of mural painting on freshly laid, or wet, lime plaster. Water is used to merge the pigment with the plaster and when the plaster sets, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word ‘fresco’ is derived from the Italian adjective meaning ‘fresh’, and differs from other mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and was especially popular in Italy during the Renaissance and Baroque periods when it was used to decorate the walls and ceilings of churches, public buildings and private dwellings. Frescos are vulnerable to moisture and may be damaged in a cool, damp environment, so the arid Mediterranean climate is very favourable for its preservation.

Nicole Mezey studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris. She was senior lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast until 2009. Nicole now lives in Central London and is a freelance lecturer, working for organisations including the National Museum of Northern Ireland, the National Trust, universities and private companies.

High-heel Heaven An illustrated lecture by Professor Peter McNeil, Monday June 22.

Professor of Design History at the University of Technology Sydney Peter McNeil will address the mobility and history of high heels, from Renaissance platform chopines to Sex and the City’s ‘limousine’ shoes.

Shoes convey a wide range of meanings associated with fashion, style, personality, sexuality, class and gender. New studies have given us an awareness of the personal, social and sexual connotations attributed to footwear and created by footwear.

Different shapes and colours for men’s and women’s shoes today revolve primarily around the construction of gender difference.

Many of these gendered distinctions developed in the so-called

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An iconic heel designed by Roger Vivier for Dior, 1959.

Image provided by lecturer.

‘long eighteenth century’. Why do men’s and women’s shoes look so very different today? Peter will explore and explain the evolution of these differences in his presentation.

Prior to his role at the University of Technology Sydney, Peter was a Foundation Professor of Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. He studied Art History at University of Sydney and Australian National University. He has published ten major works on fashion including the best-selling Shoes (2006), which was translated into Italian in 2011. Other titles include Fashion Writing and Criticism (2014 with S. Miller), Nordic Fashion Studies (2012) and Fashion in Fiction. He has published several other works on the history of fashion. He is currently working on projects including Luxury: A Rich History (with G. Riello) and Pretty Gentlemen: The Eighteenth Century Fashion World. Peter is a regular critic, reviewer and co-curator and has published with the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Both presentations are held at the A&I Hall on Station Street, Bangalow. Presentations begin at 6:30pm, with doors opening at 6pm for welcome drinks. Guests are welcome at $25 per person, including drinks and a light snack. www.adfas.org.au

>> SCU PAGE

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

When the house swells

Roses

With teenage girls, Smooth-skinned,

Lynn Ward

Slim-bodied,

She proffers tea.

Digestives shingle

Delicate roses,

like a roof upon

entwined in gold,

the plate – it has no roses,

encircle saucers;

entwined or otherwise.

clamber over china cups.

Lynn Ward

She does not drink the tea.

Wafts of Earl Gray

She does not eat

wisp betwixt

the bland biscuits.

the musky coat

She hugs the musky

that shrouds old

coat about her shoulders,

people’s houses.

like a shawl,

Silken décolletages, I forget, Sometimes, To be thankful That I am not seventeen And my life is not a theme park ride.

Lynn is a mature-age student at SCU and a children’s picture book author with two books published (The Big Beet and Sally Snickers’ Knickers). Her next book, Cyril’s Place, will be published in 2016.

and chooses her husband’s urn, She apologizes.

with gold roses

She would have liked,

that clamber

she says, to offer scones.

and entwine.

She doesn’t bake these days.

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>> FESTIVAL REVIEW

FIVE DAYS IN JAIPUR Since its inception in 2006, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival has become one of the most colourful, well-attended and occasionally controversial events on the global circuit. NRWC member Janette King reflects on the 2015 festival, an extravaganza that was both sensorily and cerebrally stimulating, and which saw a pair of literary heavyweights bury the hatchet.

It sounds exotic, and it is. From the colourful grounds of the Diggi Palace to the musical evenings at Hotel Clarks Amer to the farewell dinner in the grounds of the Le Méridien Hotel, this is a festival celebrating the splendour of Rajasthani culture as well as literature, all in the metropolis known as the ‘Pink City’.

At the heart of the festival are, naturally, the writers, poets, philosophers and historians, all 400 of them, debating, reflecting, educating and entertaining among more than 80,000 literature lovers attending 230 sessions across five days – all for free.

sessions available. As Dalrymple says, “I only wish it were possible to clone one’s self, so one could attend five sessions simultaneously.”

With events taking place at the Char Bagh, the Rajnigandha Front Lawns, the Mughal Tent, the Baithak and the Durbar Hall, it was necessary to make difficult decisions regarding which sessions to attend, which included ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, ‘The Concubine Who Launched Modern China’, ‘The Buddhas of Bamiyan’ and ‘Why the Ancients Matter’.

literary landscape and how its place in world literature has changed over time.

VS Naipaul, India’s Nobel Laureate, was also in Jaipur this year. His first novel, A House For Mr Biswas (1961), was the subject of a session where panellists Chaudhuri, Hanif Kureishi and Paul Theroux, along with moderator Farrukh Dhondy, could not speak highly enough of Kureishi’s narrative style, with each sharing how 82-year-old Naipaul was vital in cementing a love of literature and the desire to write.

Of course, Naipaul and his protégé Theroux had been involved in a very public and lengthy literary feud. The two had previously been very good friends, and this stoush seemed now at an end, with Theroux describing Naipaul’s work as “Dickensian”. At the end of this session, the wheelchair-bound Naipaul himself appeared on stage, overcome by the generosity of his fellow writers and the audience. This was one of many festival moments to savour.

The fact the festival is free is key for William Dalrymple, the English-born, Delhi-based co-director of Jaipur Literature Festival who is responsible for luring many of the international participants each year. His aim is to make the festival accessible to all, from the urban-based intellectuals to India’s massive literary and democratic-minded population who might be able to afford the train fare to Jaipur, but not the accommodation, and must sleep on the train January is winter in Jaipur, platform. They attend the with the temperature below 20 Indian novelist Chandrahas Choudhury (right) lunches with Argentinefestival as one, and imbibe the degrees each day – the wraps born writer Alberto Manguel following the session ‘The Library at multi-lingual discussion, which and pashminas adorning both Night’, which discussed Manguel’s career. Photo: Janette King is balanced between an Indian men and women added to and an international focus, the colour and warmth of the covering subjects that are literary, festival. There is free chai on every corner, historical, religious, social and political.

‘The Art of Biography’ saw Jung Chang, food stalls and fashion stalls amid the Mark Gevisser and Lucy Hughes-Hallett noisy, colourful chaos. discuss technique and literary obsessions, Dalrymple’s colleague, Bengali writer while Esther David, Keki Daruwalla, Mahasweta Devi, programs the Indian and With a delegate’s pass, attendees are Amish Tripathi, Alberto Manguel, Ambi South Asian writers, poets, filmmakers able to indulge in Rajasthani curries Parameswaran and Rajiv Malhotra and thinkers. In her memorable keynote and wine in the sunny banyan-treed discussed the impact of religious identity address in 2013, she declared that, “The courtyards, rubbing shoulders with writers, and upbringing on their creative selves in right to dream is the most fundamental moderators and organisers. The 2016 ZEE ‘Matters of Faith’. human right… The festival believes in the Jaipur Literature Festival (January 20-24) human imagination, beyond borders and will feature Rohinton Mistry, Ian McEwan, boundaries, nations and ideologies.”

‘Racism, Murder and Rape in the Deep Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Noam South’ with Akash Kapur and Gilbert Chomsky and Neel Mukherjee along with King, discussed King’s 2014 PulitzerThe atmosphere of the Jaipur Literature many other stellar names. winning tome Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Festival 2015 reflects this, offering a pervasive generosity of words and spirit, with the Diggi Palace the hub and meeting place for all these great minds. The audience – young and old, Indian and Western – can bask in the huge choice of

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Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, while the session ‘Granta on India’ saw moderator Ian Jack joined by Amit Chaudhuri, Deepti Kapoor and Sam Miller to discuss India’s changing

More information can be found at www.jaipurliteraturefestival.org.

>> BOOK REVIEW

HERITAGE

UNEARTHED Buried Country: The Story of Aboriginal Country Music, Revised and Updated Edition

By Clinton Walker Review by Barnaby Smith

When the singer and songwriter Herb Laughton was two years old in 1929, he was stolen away from his mother in Alice Springs. He grew up in an institution and spent large chunks of his young manhood seeking out the woman who bore him. The rest of his early life involved a rambling search for work across Central Australia and, indeed, composing songs such as ‘Old MacDonnell Ranges’. He played with bands here and there in Alice before settling down to work with the roads department and putting music aside in 1955. The pain that lingered from his early life was such that in the late Eighties, Laughton attempted suicide.

He recovered sufficiently to pick up his guitar again and enjoy a sort of renaissance in Alice until his death in 2012, but his sad tale is one of many in Clinton Walker’s Buried Country, a lovingly assembled but unflinching history of Aboriginal country music. Walker, among Australia’s finest chroniclers of traditional/folk culture, is as scathing of the arts community’s attitude towards this genre of music as much as he is its cheerleader. In the afterword he spits, “Liberal-arty Australia puts career curators on the cover of newspaper supplements ahead of the struggling artists themselves, and it fears and loathes Aboriginal country music because it loathes country music and popular music in general – because it’s lowbrow, the work of the underclass.” He also refers to the “cultural apartheid practised by Australia’s cultural elites”.

Buried Country was originally published in 2000, with this updated edition featuring a new introduction by Walker as well as a brief but poetic foreword by Paul Kelly.

The book features plenty of names that will be familiar to anyone who has been paying attention to the wider spectrum of Australian music over the past half a century. Chief among them is of course Jimmy Little, a country singer who played the game of show business smartly and fairly conservatively. Lionel Rose enjoys a meaty chapter too, while Archie Roach, Troy Cassar-Daley and Isaac Yamma are also given plenty of pages.

More dramatic tales come with accounts of the life of outlaw

troubadour Dougie Young, whose songs reflected the fact he was in and out of jail and struggled with alcoholism, and Roger Knox, who famously managed to survive two outback plane crashes in one day. Such stories make up much of the appeal of Walker’s book, yet an equal priority for him is to emphasise how Aboriginal country music, a fairly unlikely concoction to many, is a relatively undiscovered treasure trove – at least partly because many important recordings by these artists are either long lost or out of circulation.

The quality of the music described is of course in the ear of the beholder, but it would take a particularly soulless individual who failed to be moved by what must be among the finest songs to emerge from this world, Bob Randall’s ‘Brown Skin Baby’, with its tremulous howl and its anguished lyrics, a quite extraordinary lament for the stolen generation. Walker’s chapter profiling Randall and this song is among the book’s most fascinating sections.

The author’s veneration of these musicians is not unconditional, and it is to Walker’s credit that he occasionally calls out what he sees as sub-standard recordings – indeed, even more critical discernment over the music being discussed would have been welcome. It is also at times difficult to keep track of the constant stream of dates, details, personnel, places and connections that reflect Walker’s epic research efforts that took him to various remote corners of the country, while there is also the odd, trivial, error of fact (Glenn Miller’s plane was lost over the English Channel, not the Atlantic, for example). As well, for socio-historical reasons rather than any omission on Walker’s part, Buried Country’s women are largely limited to Auriel Andrew, Ruby Hunter and Wilga Williams – interestingly, Walker’s next book will be about black women in Australian music, entitled Deadly Woman Blues. Like Buried Country, it is likely to be a hearty celebration of, and yet a mournful tribute to, underappreciated voices.

Verse Chorus Press / 368pp / RRP $45

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>> LEARNING CURVE

George R.R. Martin on fantasy

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons

In 2014, the sometimes-reclusive George R.R. Martin, author of the notorious A Song of Ice and Fire series, adapted to television as the preternaturally popular HBO series Game of Thrones, gave an unprecedented interview to Rolling Stone (Issue 1208, May 2014). While the lengthy interview covered a range of topics, we extracted some key snippets of advice for writing fantasy, which, as Martin has proved, is a genre that can be a nice little earner if you can get it right.

Ideas and originality are meaningless compared to the graft

Travel is a catalyst for ideas

“Ideas are cheap,” Martin told Rolling Stone. “I have more ideas now than I could ever write up. To my mind, it’s the execution that is all-important. I’m proud of my work, but I don’t know if I’d claim it’s enormously original. You look at Shakespeare, who borrowed all of his plots. In A Song of Ice and Fire, I take stuff from the Wars of the Roses and other fantasy things, and all these things work around in my head and somehow they gel into what I hope is uniquely my own.”

“The Wall [a terrifying huge fortification in the fictional country of Westeros, where much of the novels’ action occurs] predates anything else. I can trace back the inspiration for that to 1981. I was in England visiting a friend, and as we approached the border between England and Scotland, we stopped to see Hadrian’s Wall. I stood up there and I tried to imagine what it was like to be a Roman legionary, standing on this wall, looking at these distant hills. It was a very profound feeling. For the Romans at that time, this was the end of civilisation; it was the end of the world. We know that there were Scots beyond the hills, but the Romans didn’t know that. It could have been any kind of monster. It was the sense of this barrier against dark forces – it planted something in me. But when you write fantasy, everything is bigger and more colourful, so I took the Wall and made it three times as long and 700 feet high, and made it out of ice.”

Writing screenplays can hone your technique (Martin worked as a Hollywood screenwriter prior to his novels’ success) “The big secret about writing screenplays and teleplays is that it’s much easier than writing a novel or any kind or prose.

William Goldman said everything that needed to be said about it in Adventures of the Screen Trade: it’s all structure, structure and technique. Being there improved my sense of structure and dialogue. I’d spent so many years sitting alone in a room, facing a computer or typewriter before that. It was almost exhilarating to go into an office where there were other people – and to have a cup of coffee, and to talk about stories or developments in writers’ meetings.”

Be open to flashes of inspiration “It was the summer of 1991. I was still involved in Hollywood. My agent was trying to get me meetings to pitch my ideas, but I didn’t have anything to do in May and June. It had been years since I wrote a novel. I had an idea for a science-fiction novel called Avalon. I started work on it and it was going pretty good, when suddenly it just came to me, this scene, from ultimately what would be the first chapter of A Game of Thrones. It’s from Bran’s viewpoint; they see a man beheaded and they find some direwolf pups in the snow. It just came to me so strongly and vividly that I knew I had to write it. I sat down to write, and in, like, just three days it came right out of me, almost in the form you’ve read.”

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Kill your darlings “Both as a writer and as a reader I like stories that surprise me.

Hitchcock’s Psycho has tremendous impact because Janet Leigh is the movie’s star: she’s stealing, travelling across the country – are the cops going to get her? – and all that. The next thing is, she’s being knifed in the shower – you’re only 40 minutes into the movie. What the hell is happening? The star just died! After that, you really don’t know what the hell is going to happen. It’s great; I loved that. That’s what I was going for with Ned [Stark, who, spoiler alert, was killed off after being firmly placed as a heroic moral centre]: the protector who was keeping it all together is swept off the board. So that makes it much more suspenseful. Jeopardy is really there… Whoever it was who said ‘kill your darlings’ was referring to his favourite lines in a story, but it’s just as true for characters. The moment the reader begins to believe that a character is protected by the cloak of authorial immunity, tension goes out the window.”

To read the full interview visit http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/ news/george-r-r-martin-the-rolling-stone-interview-20140423

>> WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOPS A DOUBLE-DIP INTO THE SURF WORLD CULTURE

Want to take great photos and write about the surf? Then this is your chance to spend the day with two surf culture legends and learn from their experience and gain practical tips to get into the industry. The program will be: First session with Craig Parry, 10am - 12.30pm • Surf and water photography basics • The best ways to market yourself as a photographer (social media/websites) HOW TO HOOK A READER TO THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE

Sometimes it works best to think of the story of our life as a movie. In thinking about that, we need to ask what type of film would the story of my life be? Comparing memoir writing to script writing allows us to analyse our lived experience through the lens of genre. It also allows us to think carefully about what we are going to leave out of our memoir in order to focus on what is most important. Is the story of your life primarily a romance? An action, adventure story? Crime? A drama or comedy? Most of these stories have elements of each within their narrative, but by settling on a particular paradigm, as writers, we can concentrate on craft elements of our writing that keep a reader hooked to the story of our life.

Presenter: Jim Hearn

• Your copyright and how to protect yourself • What camera will work best for you • Editing programs and the difference between Photoshop and Lightroom • Insurance and protecting yourself as a pro photographer • Aerial photography and drones in photography • Contracts for your services and their importance • Getting into the photography industry: the dos and don’ts • Printing labs Second session with Tim Baker, 1.30pm - 4pm • A brief history of surf writing and the genre high points

When: Saturday May 16, 10am - 4pm

• Free writing exercises to warm up your writing muscles

Where: Byron Community College, 107 Jonson St, Byron Bay. East Point Arcade (Across the road from Palace Cinema)

• Life lessons to be learnt from surfing and the ocean

Cost: $75 NRWC members or $95 non-members

• Why surfing makes such great subject matter for story-

and teach you to get out of the way of your own writing

telling and how it parallels the archetypal ‘hero’s journey” • Practical tips for interviewing, observational reporting and travel writing • Pitching and submitting stories • How to evoke all the senses to engage your reader • Making a living from writing in the digital age When: Saturday June 13, 10am - 4pm Where: First Floor, Lennox Hotel, 17-19 Pacific Parade, Lennox Head

AN INTRODUCTION TO ROMANCE WRITING

Cost: $90 NRWC members or $110 non-members. This includes a buffet lunch of gourmet sandwiches, rolls & quiches.

Vegetarian options included. Any other dietary requirements, please advise Penny at penny@nrwc.org.au by June 8.

Think you could be the next EL James, Nora Roberts or Jane Austen? Want to be a part of the global, billion-dollar romance writing industry? Romance author Jennifer St George will introduce you to the romance writing industry, the essential concepts you need to know and the contacts you need to have.

Presenter: Jennifer St George When: Saturday May 23, 10am - 4pm Where: Byron Community College, 107 Jonson St, Byron Bay. East Point Arcade (Across the road from Palace Cinema) Cost: $75 NRWC members or $95 non-members

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>> WORKSHOPS & OPPORTUNITIES

WORKSHOPS FREE NRWC MEMBER SESSIONS HOW TO CREATE AND RUN A BOOK GROUP

Ever wanted to know how to go about starting and running a book group? Come and learn the tricks to keeping a group committed and interested from someone who has been running a successful group for years.

Bring your favourite book along with you and network with other members who might be looking to start a group.

When: Thursday June 18, 6pm-7.30pm Where: NRWC Office, Level 1, 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay Photo: Russell Shakespeare

CREATIVE NON-FICTION: BRINGING REAL LIFE TO THE PAGE

Cost: NRWC Members free but please book to reserve your place. $10 non-members.

This workshop focuses on anything from memoir to travel to general non-fiction, contemporary or historical. It will be aimed at all writers – those who might not have yet committed a word to paper, through to those who might have a substantial portion of their manuscript completed.

The workshop will cover: • Technical issues, like identifying a potential or existing work’s structure, voice, and narrative point of view to ensure the writer is on the right track from the outset.

• Practical issues, such as work methods, tricks of the trade to keep the writing flowing, and ways to get writers excited and enthusiastic about their manuscripts.

• The life of the writer. We’ll workshop the whole gamut, from conceiving of an idea and completing a manuscript, to the best ways to get published. We’ll also discuss the demands of the craft, and how to organise your time to actually complete a project rather than keeping it in the bottom drawer.

• Exercises. The workshop will offer some simple writing exercises that will instruct students on the infinite ways to observe and think like writers about their own lives and the world around them.

• If time permits, we’ll open up the workshop to questions and debate. Some students will have very specific problems that can potentially be unravelled with communal discussion.

Presenter: Matthew Condon When: Saturday September 19, 10am - 1pm Where: Byron Community College, 107 Jonson St, Byron Bay. East Point Arcade (Across the road from Palace Cinema) Cost: $45 NRWC members or $55 non-members

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>>COMPETITIONS

COMPETITIONS

2015 NEW ENGLAND THUNDERBOLT PRIZE FOR CRIME WRITING

In this, the third year of the Prize, New England Writers Centre has six prizes on offer for crime writers, including an Emerging Authors prize for writers who have not yet been published, and a brand new Youth category for writers under 18.

All genres of crime writing are eligible, from hard-boiled to comic, paranormal to rural, historical to contemporary, noir to cosy. Entries welcome from anywhere in Australia.

Strong local support has again made possible the following generous awards: The New England Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Fiction First prize: $500, for a story of up to 2,500 words. Open to writers all over Australia, whether published or unpublished.

Sponsored by The School of Arts, University of New England. Judge: Felicity Pulman The New England Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Non-Fiction First prize: $500 for an article of up to 2,500 words. Open to writers all over Australia, whether published or unpublished. Sponsored by The Armidale Express. Judge: Matthew Thompson The New England Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Poetry First prize: $500 for a poem of up to 60 lines. Open to writers all over Australia, whether published or unpublished.

Sponsored by the New England Writers’ Centre and the Armidale Dumaresq Library. Judge: Les Murray The New England Award $250 for the best entry in any category by a writer resident in New England, sponsored

by Reader’s Companion Bookshop, Armidale.

The Emerging Authors Award $250 for the best entry in any category from new, unpublished writers only (over 18). Sponsored by Friends of Tamworth Libraries.

The Youth Award $150 for writers under 18, Sponsored by

Granny Fi’s Toy Cupboard, Armidale.

Entries close on August 24, 2015. Fee: $10 per entry, entries to be sent by post.

Winners announced October 8 2015.

Downloadable entry forms and full details at http://www.newc.org.au/thunderboltprize.html

to 2000 words. First prize $400, second prize $200 and highly commended. $7 per entry, two entries $10, three entries $15.

For entry form and conditions of entry visit www.swwvic.org.au. Entries close on August 14.

2015 CARMEL BIRD AWARD

2015 ACU PRICE FOR POETRY

The 2015 ACU Prize for Poetry aims to support writers and to continue the tradition of the Catholic Church as a key patron of the arts. Following the success of the inaugural ACU Prize for Literature in 2013, the ACU Prize for Poetry will be awarded for outstanding poetry with the theme or ‘peace, tolerance and understanding’. The prize is made possible through the sponsorship of the Directorate, Identity & Mission at Australian Catholic University (ACU).

First prize: $7000 Second prize: $2000 Third prize: $1000 Judge: Professor Kevin Hart Open to all citizens or permanent residents of Australia and any international student currently studying at an Australian university may also apply. Entries close June 16. For more information: http:// www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/our_ university/catholic_identity/acu_poetry_ prize

New short crime writing is wanted for the 2015 Carmel Bird Award, organised by publishers Spineless Wonders. Closes August 31. Maximum of 5000 words. First prize $500. All stories will be considered for publication in the Spineless Wonders short crime fiction anthology. To be judged by Zane Lovitt. For more details and competition guidelines see http:// shortaustralianstories.com.au/submissions/ the-carmel-bird-award QUESTIONS WRITING PRIZE 2015

Submissions are invited for the Questions Writing Prize, which recognises and rewards talented writers aged between 18 and 30. Writing can be fiction or nonfiction and 1500-2000 words. The prize for the best writing submitted is $2,000.

(Where there is more than one winner the prize money will be shared.) The winner of the Questions Writing Prize will have their work published in a book and a forthcoming issue of Questions.

Send all submissions electronically in a word document by July 1 to: helen@ futureleaders.com.au BEST OF TIMES SHORT STORY COMPETITION

YARRAM COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTRE SHORT STORY AND POETRY PRIZE

Open theme. Short stories (1500-3000 words) and poetry (8-48 lines) rhyming or free verse. Short story first prize $200, second prize $100. Poetry first prize $100, second prize $50. Entry fee $5 per story, $3 per poem. To request an entry form: PO Box 212, Yarram, Vic, 3971 or email: yclc@ dcsi.com.au or phone (03) 51 826 294.

SWWV BIENNIAL LITERARY AWARD

An Australia-wide award for women writers. Poetry of up to 50 lines, short stories of up to 2500 words, articles of up

Humorous short stories of any theme up to 2500 words. First prize $500, second prize $100. No entry form is required. Include a cover sheet with your name and address, story title and word count, and where you heard about the competition. Entry fee is $10 per story. Send a cheque or money order made out to Chris Broadribb or use Paypal to pay cabbook-17@yahoo.com. au. Post your entry to PO Box 55, Blaxcell NSW 2142 (including a large SSAE for return of story and results) or email it to cabbook-17@yahoo.com.au. Competition closes May 31. Website: http://spiky_one. tripod.com/comp17.html

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>> WRITERS’ GROUPS >> Alstonville Plateau Writers Group

Meets second Friday of each month, 10am – 12pm. All genres welcome, contact Christine 66288364 or Kerry 66285662

>> Ballina/Byron U3A Creative Writing

Meets every second Wednesday at 12pm, Fripp Oval, Ballina. Contact Jan on 0404007586 or janmulcahy@bigpond.com

NORTHERN RIVERS WRITERS’ CENTRE 2015 MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNTS

>> Ballina Creative Writers

BOOK WAREHOUSE 107-109 Keen Street Lismore 02 6621 4204

>> Bangalow Writers Group

BOOK WAREHOUSE 26 Harbour Drive Coffs Harbour 02 6651 9077

Workshops meet third Thursday of each month at 10am -12:20pm at Richmond Hill. Focus is on personal development and spirituality. Contact 0404007586 or janmulcahy@bigpond.com 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

BOOK WAREHOUSE Shop 6 Ballina Fair Ballina 02 6686 0917

>> Casino Writers Group

BOOK WAREHOUSE 70 Prince Street Grafton 02 6642 6355

>> Cloudcatchers

BOOK WAREHOUSE Settlement City Port Macquarie 02 6584 9788

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

BOOK WAREHOUSE Yamba Fair, Treelands Drive Yamba 02 6646 8662

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

BYRON BAY LONGBOARDS 1/89 Jonson Street Byron Bay 02 6685 5244

>> Coffs Harbour Memoir Writers Group

CLIX COMPUTER CENTRE 3/3 Marvel Street Byron Bay 02 6680 9166

>> Cru3a River Poets

COLLINS BOOK SELLERS Unit 3. 9 Lawson Street Byron Bay 02 6685 7820

>> Dangerously Poetic Writing Circle

CO-OP BOOKSHOP Southern Cross University Lismore 02 6621 4484

>> Dorrigo Writers Group

CO-OP BOOKSHOP Coffs Harbour Education Campus, Hogbin Drive Coffs Harbour 02 6659 3225

Share your memoir writing for critique. Monthly meetings, contact 0409824803 or email costalmermaid@gmail.com Meets every Thursday at 10:30am, venue varies, mainly in Yamba. Contact Pauline on 66458715 or email kitesway@westnet.com.au Meets second Wednesday or each month, 2pm-4pm at Brunswick Valley Community Centre.

Contact Laura on 66801976 or visit www.dangerouslypoetic.com Meets every second Wednesday from 10am-2pm. Contact Iris on 66575274 or email an_lomall@bigpond.com or contact Nell on 66574089

>> 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

>> Federal Writers Group

Meets third Saturday of each month at Federal. Contact Vicki on 66840093 or garden1@gmail.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

DOLPHIN OFFICE CHOICE www.officechoice.com.au Cnr Fletcher & Marvel Streets Byron Bay 02 6685 7097 DRAGONWICK PUBLISHING www.dragonwick.com 02 6624 1933 EARTH CAR RENTALS 18 Fletcher Street Byron Bay 02 6685 7472 EBOOKS NEED EDITORS www.ebooksneededitors.com 15% discount to NRWC members Call 02 6689 5897 for further details

>> Kyogle Writers

HUMBLE PIES Pacific Highway Billinudgel 02 6680 1082

>> Memoir Writing Group

KEEN STREET COMMUNICATIONS www.keenstreet.com.au 50 Bulmers Rd Hogarth Range 02 6664 7361

Meets first Tuesday of each month, 10:30am at Kyogle Bowling Club. Contact Brian on 66242636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com Meets each month at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay. Contact Diana on 66855387 or 0420282938 or email diana.burstall@gmail.com

>> Nambucca Valley Writers Group

MARY RYAN’S BOOKSTORE Shop 5, 21 -25 Fletcher Street Byron Bay 02 6685 8183

>> Poets and Writers on the Tweed

NORPA www.norpa.org.au PO Box 225 Lismore 02 6621 5600

Meets fourth Saturday of each month, 1:30pm, Nambucca. Contact 65689648 or nambuccawriters@gmail.com Meets weekly at Tweed Heads Library, Tuesdays 1:30pm – 3pm. Poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers all welcome. Fun group meets for discussion, support and constructive criticism. Free membership.

Phone Lorraine 0755909395

>> Taree-Manning River Scribblers

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

>> 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

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PAGES BOOKSHOP Park Beach Plaza Coffs Harbour 02 6652 2588 THE BOOKSHOP MULLUMBIMBY 39 Burringbar Street Mullumbimby 02 6684 1413 THERE’S ALWAYS MORE HAIRDRESSING Shop 5, 14 Middleton Byron Bay 02 6680 7922

QUALITY PLUS PRINTERS IS PROUD TO BE A SUPPORTER OF THE NORTHERN RIVERS WRITERS’ CENTRE

THINK PRINT = THINK QUALITY

+ PRINTERS

Phone: - (02) 6686 7488

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EARLY BIRD TICKETS AVAILABLE UNTIL 12 JUNE

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