FEATURE
Marele Day farewells Residential Mentorship After twenty years, celebrated local author Marele Day is stepping down from her role as leader of one of Byron Writers Festival’s key longstanding initiatives, the Residential Mentorship. In that time, she has nurtured the talents of countless writers from both near and far – and here we present messages from just a few of them, paying tribute to how Marele’s mentorship has encouraged, motivated, transformed and inspired. Participating in the mentorship with Marele was a real turning point for me. It boosted my confidence and increased my skill in fine-tuning prose and structure. Even though it’s a long time ago now, Marele’s careful attention to finding the perfect word for every occasion has stayed with me. Her supportive feedback allowed me to feel like a true writer for the first time. 08 | AUTUMN 2022 northerly
Marele’s quirky sense of humour, which manifests in her own fiction, also made the mentorship a lot of fun. When I try to think of an elevator pitch for my novels, I often remember her pitch for Lambs of God – ‘three feral nuns’. How could you go past it? — Lisa Walker, author of Trouble Is My Business (Wakefield Press, 2021). Residential Mentorship 2004.
Marele is a wise, welcoming, and generous mentor and friend to many. She’s given her writerly support to countless budding manuscripts, gently suggesting ways to tighten slips of logic, untangle woolly ambiguities, galvanise unwieldy structures, and distil voice, theme and plot. Her encouragement to keep on going and her integrity, clarity, and worldly savoir faire have
