northerly magazine nov/dec 2012

Inside: Christmas issue• book releases • Cate Kennedy • competitions and more!

Degrees to help U pursue your passion Are you seeking a career in writing or the media?

At Southern Cross University we have creative and inspirational courses designed to suit you, from our Associate Degree in Creative Writing, which can be completed in two years of full-time study, to our Bachelor of Media and Bachelor of Arts.

You can also enjoy your study without compromising your lifestyle, by choosing to study full-time, part-time, on campus or by distance education. Explore our range of study options and discover how you can turn your passion into a rewarding career.

Apply now for 2013 at scu.edu.au/arts

School of Arts and Social Sciences

It’s all about U scu.edu.au/arts

CRICOS Provider: NSW 01241G, QLD 03135E, WA 02621K

For writers & readers

Media Press Ad(halfpage).indd 1

Literary events - writer development - workshops The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre is dedicated to the promotion of Australian literature and the development of skills for readers and writers in the Northern Rivers.

The region stretches from Taree to Tweed Heads and west to Kyogle. We are an information and resource base and our office is open 10am - 4pm, Monday to Friday. We are an active and vital arts organisation within the community. We endeavour to assess and address the needs of our members and the wider community and to provide a much needed resource in skill development, artistic opportunity and awareness of the Australian and regional literary scene.

Visit our website www.nrwc.org.au or visit us at level 1, 28 Jonson Street Byron Bay. p: 02 6685 5115 e: info@nrwc.org.au

26/10/12 8:49 AM

in this issue ...

02

Noticeboard

03

A word from the Chair

Hello from the Director

04 Booklovers’ Christmas

Fay Burstin asks six writers to name their top picks

07 Janie Conway-Herron

Tells Russell Eldridge about the next chapter in her life

08 All I Want For Christmas

A Christmas Tale by Marele Day

09

From the reading chair

Laurel Cohn helps new writers over the hurdles

10

The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival

An Indonesian Interlude, Jeni Caffin reports

12 Poetry by Cate Kennedy

Two poems from A Taste of River Water

14

Turning Point

Rusty Miller and Tricia Shantz’s new book looks back

on surfing culture

16

Kids’ pages

Simon Higgins in the writer’s studio

Morris by Raph Atkins

18

Sex, Lies and Bonsai

Lisa Walker talks about her latest release

20

Workshops

21

Events

22

Opportunities & Competitions

24

Writers’ groups and member discounts

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 Level 1 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 1846 Byron Bay NSW 2481 PHONE 02 6685 5115 FAX 02 6685 5166 EMAIL info@nrwc.org.au WEB www.nrwc.org.au NRWC COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON Chris Hanley VICE CHAIRPERSON Lynda Dean SECRETARY Russell Eldridge TREASURER Cheryl Bourne MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Fay Burstin, Marele Day, Robert Hanson, Brenda Shero, Adam van Kempen LIFE MEMBERS: Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin, Gayle Cue, Jill Eddington, Chris Hanley, John Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Heather Wearne, Cherrie Sheldrick CONTACT EMAIL: northerly@nrwc.org.au PRINTING: Quality Plus Printers Ballina MAIL OUT DATES: Magazines are sent in JANUARY, MARCH, MAY,JULY, SEPTEMBER and NOVEMBER 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.

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 attributed articles is maintained by the named author and northerly.

Cover: The Good Ol Days, Lennox Head 1971. Photo by Rusty Miller

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 3

The Northern Rivers Echo (the one based in Lismore) is looking for a collection of short stories to run over the Christmas period.

If you are interested in having your work published please send suitable material to Andy at: editor@echonews.com

Noticeboard

Stories should be no more than 2000 words.

Preference will be given to anything with a North Coast theme or setting, but this is not essential.

Please also send a short, one paragraph bio with the submitted stories.

Call out for TEDxByronBay 2013 TEDxByronBay 2013 is calling out for outstanding speakers to apply to next year’s event under the theme “Agents of Change”.

The series of talks will be an all-day event on 20 April 2013, at the Byron Bay Community Centre and broadcast globally via TED.com.

The TED.com website is home to talks by writers, philosophers, inventors, comedians, artists and scientists that are accessed by millions of viewers worldwide. TEDx are independent events supported by TED, a non-profit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading”.

As well as a call out for speakers, TEDxByronBay is seeking volunteers with skills in stage production, set design, event logistics, photography, filming and post-production to be part of the team and contribute their creative flair to this world-class TEDx event.

The event is also seeking sponsorship partners who would like to align themselves with this prestigious not-for-profit TED.com brand, synonymous with big ideas that challenge and inspire.

For more information please see www.tedxbyronbay.com, join the facebook page at www.facebook.com/tedxbyronbay or contact info@tedxbyronbay.com.

The NR W When: C Chris Thursd t ay 13 D mas pa Where e : Level c e mber rty 1

,2 , 5.30p m ssentia 8 Jonson St B l yron B

or ema ’on 02 6685 ay 5 i l 1 i n 1 Please f 5 note th o@nrwc.org. au at this memb invitat ers On ion is f ly or NRW C RSVP: e

4 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

A word from the Chair

O

n behalf of the NRWC committee and the members I would like to welcome Jeni Caffin back as Director of the NRWC and of the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival.

We thought we’d lost her forever to the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival and are delighted that she has returned to the fold.

Her energy and creativity are well suited to the role and her work in Ubud over the past two years will add an extra level of experience. Happy news!

Chris Hanley northerly@nrwc.org.au

D

ear members,

Well look who it is. t that it will mean very much to those of you who have never met me, but for those who have, yes, it’s true; I’m back!

When I left this Director’s position in 2010, I tidied my desk in a tiny, buzzing and happy office and ran headlong

into the world to see what adventures awaited. I hurtled abruptly into the position of International Program Director of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali and what a gloriously wild, exotic and hilariously chaotic couple of years ensued. I was privileged to work with an Indonesian and Australian crew and created two Festival programs of which I am fiercely proud and will forever remember. For those of you imagining that life in Bali was a long lazy series of days swaying in a hammock, daiquiri in one hand and writerly tome clutched in the other, here’s a reality check. The office squats in a building where the bathroom is an open invitation to typhoid, Herculean rats swing from the electric cabling, power failures are frequent and the internet connection is as reliable as a politician’s promise. How I will miss it, and Spotty the office dog and my chilli spicy, coconut fragrant fifty cent lunches. And my,

what writers, what people with whom to plot and plan and conjure conversations! I have been blessed.

And now I find myself in this beautiful, spacious, oh so clean and quiet office in my beloved Byron Bay, with the increasingly impressive, funny and fabulous Sarah Ma plus a Committee of familiar and interestingly new faces to steer and guide me. I am poised to lead the Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre and the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival into 2013 and grateful for the opportunity to share my extraordinary experiences of the last two years. Once more, I am blessed. Once more, I am the Director of the NRWC and the BBWF. I have much to celebrate this festive season.

May Christmas and the New Year bring everyone the joy and happiness my homecoming has given me.

Jeni Caffin

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 5

BOOK LOVERS’ CHRISTMAS MORNING

By FAY BURSTIN FOR Harper Lee, the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of To Kill A Mockingbird, books were precious Christmas stocking staples that would bring delight to an entire community, long after the tinsel had been torn down. In a 2006 letter to American daytime television queen Oprah Winfrey, she wrote about growing up reading: “…In my hometown, a remote village in the early 1930s … books were scarce.

There was nothing you could call a public library, we were a hundred miles away from a department store’s books section, so we children began to circulate reading material among ourselves until each child had read another’s entire stock. There were long dry spells broken by the new Christmas books, which started the rounds again... Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it. Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer?”

Harper Lee isn’t the only one struggling to embrace the kindle and its ilk, but thankfully books of all formats and genres still feature strongly as Christmas gifts for readers of all ages. But Christmas book shopping can be mind-boggling. Unless you’ve read a book your-

self, received a reliable tip, come across an intriguing review or been inspired by a particular writer at a festival, choosing someone’s holiday season reading can be an onerous task.

So in a bid to avoid disappointment (and minimise Christmas shopping anxiety) we consulted a panel of respected booklovers – writers, readers, editors and publishers – for some timely yuletide gift advice.

Nadine Davidoff, a former commissioning editor at Random House Australia and Black Inc. and now freelance book editor, publishing consultant and lecturer, is a longtime Ian McEwan fan and would be very excited to find his latest title under her tree.

“His new highly acclaimed novel, Sweet Tooth, is about a young woman recruited to MI5 in the 1970s,’’ she said.

“Apparently it has all the momentum and narrative trickery that we have come to expect from this master storyteller.”

Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl is also high on Davidoff’s Christmas wishlist. “This New York Times bestseller is by one of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time; here she has written a thrilling and compelling narrative of a marriage gone terribly wrong,’’ she said.

“And ever since I turned the last page of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, I’ve been looking forward to the sequel. Bring Up the Bodies has been as well-received as its

Michaela McGuire 6 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

Nadine Davidoff

predecessor, so I’d be thrilled to receive this in my Christmas stocking.”

Tim Pegler, award-winning YA author of novels Game As Ned and Five Parts Dead, said anything new from Markus Zusak or Peter Temple would “make Christmas memorable in all the right ways”.

“But I believe these books are still in the pipeline (so) in the meantime, two titles that have definitely caught my eye are Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project and Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan,’’ he advised.

Michaela McGuire, author and co-curator (with Marieke Hardy) of the lovely literary salon Women of Letters, said she’d been “hanging out all year” for the latest offering from her favourite fiction writer, Michael Chabon.

“I’ve been saving Telegraph Avenue to read while lazing on a beach in Thailand, so it’d certainly be convenient if that was dropped under a palm tree nearby,’’ she said.

Hot tips from author and publisher of fiction and non-fiction at HarperCollins Australia, Jeanne Ryckmans, include the new Chris Koch Lost Voices and J.R Moehringer’s Sutton.

“I’m a little bit obsessed by Sutton at the moment and will be buying multiple copies to give to friends and family for Christmas,” she said.

Tim Pegler

DELIGHTS … AND DISAPPOINTMENTS

“It’s the most extraordinary, moving book I’ve read all year. Who would think that a dying old bank robber (Willie Sutton) could have such an effect?”

Comedian, musician and author Justin Heazlewood, aka The Bedroom Philosopher, would love to discover A Hologram For The King, the latest book from one of his favourite authors Dave Eggers, on Christmas morning. Paul Kelly’s How To Make Gravy would also delight the ARIAnominated musician.

For Lambs of God and Mrs Cook author Marele Day, the soon-to-be-released second novels of two NRWC Residential Mentorship graduates - Jesse Blackadder’s Chasing the light: a novel of Antarctica and Sex, Lies and Bonsai by Lisa Walker - would make ideal Christmas gifts.

For wives, girlfriends, mums and sisters, Michaela McGuire has it on good authority that the second Women of Letters book, Sincerely, would warm the hearts of women all around the country. Tim Pegler was reluctant to tell secrets but admitted that Chloe Hooper’s The Engagement and Kristy Chambers’ hilarious Get Well Soon! My (Un)Brilliant Career As a Nurse were distinct gift possibilities for his nearest and dearest.

For children, both Pegler and Ryckmans recommend new editions of the Astrid

Jeanne Ryckmans

Lindgren classic Pippi Longstocking, especially the version illustrated by Lauren Child, of Charlie and Lola fame. Pegler also hinted that younger book-lovers he knows might be unwrapping a selection from Robert Muchamore’s Cherub series.

And for teens, the YA connoisseur suggested new titles from David Levithan, Every Day, and Paul Griffin, Burning Blue.

For cooks and foodies, Davidoff recommended Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s Jerusalem.

“These two cooks – one Palestinian and one Israeli – created the highly successful chain of London cafes called Ottolenghi,’’ she said. “This book is a celebration of Middle Eastern food and flavours.’

And for sports fans, Pegler’s tip was Rupert Guinness’ The Tour: Behind The Scenes of Cadel Evans’ Tour De France.

For non-fiction readers, Justin Heazlewood recommended Anna Krien’s Into The Woods, which he described as a “terrific analysis of the Tasmanian forestry debate”. And Nadine Davidoff suggested Salman Rushdie’s long-awaited memoir, Joseph Anton, about his years of living “underground” after the controversial publication of The Satanic Verses and the pronunciation of the fatwa, might interest fans.

are always safe, if a little uninspiring, especially for junior lit-lovers on Christmas morning. But magazine subscriptions can typically become the “gift that keeps on giving”, especially for special interest readers such as sports or music fans.

“My best-ever presents … (include) a subscription to the New Yorker magazine, which is now a long-term addiction,’’ said Nadine Davidoff.

We also probed our expert panel about their most and least cherished offerings from Santa over the years. Strangely, Enid Blyton figured highly on both lists.

“My parents gave me a whole box of brand new Enid Blyton books when I was about eight,’’ said Michaela McGuire.

“The whole Mallory Towers set, and another full set of books about young ladies getting up to very PC mischief in a boarding school. I ripped through all thirty or so books in a fortnight, and don’t think I’ve ever been as happy with a Christmas gift ever again.’’

But for Jon Doust, author of To The Highlands and the Miles Franklin longlisted Boy On A Wire, the innocent tales of juvenile hi-jinks came about a decade too late.

“One year an aunty gave me a copy of Enid Blyton’s The Secret Seven,” he said despairingly. “(Except) I was sixteen and reading James Bond and Alistair McLean.”

For the undecided, bookshop vouchers

Justin Heazlewood

Jon Doust northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 7

For Heazlewood, the boxed set of Grug books stands out as an all-time favourite (although he was 27), while the Bible failed to impress the younger Justin: “I was four. I thought it was a little overwritten,’’ he said.

But it’s hard to go wrong with collections of children’s classics. One of Jeanne Ryckmans’ favourite presents ever was a boxed set of C.S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia her father gave her when she was about six or seven.

“It was weighty, handsome and felt so terribly adult as up until then, it was pretty much large, childish picture books,’’ she said. “This boxed set made me feel like I’d crossed over into “real” grownup books! I still have the boxed set - tatty and battered - on my shelf.”

But bestsellers can be tricky. Nadine Davidoff welcomed J.K Rowling’s longawaited adult novel, A Casual Vacancy, recently knocking Fifty Shades of Grey off the bestseller lists, but struggled with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

“I did try to read (it), curious about what all the fuss was about – but I didn’t get past the first page,’’ she said. “I must also be one of the very few people on the planet who didn’t enjoy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

bookholder called “The Bookseat”.

“It’s a miniature bean bag upon which you nestle your reading material, thus leaving hands free for drinks and canapés,’’ she said.

NRWC’S BOOKLOVERS’ TOP 20 CHRISTMAS BOOK-ISH GIFT IDEAS (in no particluar order)

Marele Day And for a humourous read, you can’t go past Heazlewood’s own The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries, a collection of tragicomic tour reports and self-analy sis from the past five years.

“It’s an e-book though,’’ he said. “I’m not sure how you wrap up an e-book and present that to someone. You may have to buy them the e-reader to go with it, which may turn into a credit card nightmare. But hey, that’s Christmas!”

Not even Harper Lee could argue with that.

Poetry rates highly as a gift for Jon Doust, who would love to find a copy of Aristotle’s second book of Poetics, the one about comedy, under his tree.

“But my best book gift ever was probably Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, which I travelled with for most of the 1970s until it was stolen by a gloriously beautiful Italian woman with connections to a well-known terrorist organisation,’’ he recounted. “I never forgot her beauty - or her theft.”

1. Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan 2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn 3. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel 4. Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon 5. The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion 6. Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan 7. A Hologram For The King, Dave Eggers 8. Chasing the light: a novel of Antarctica, Jesse Blackadder 9. Sex, Lies and Bonsai, Lisa Walker 10. Lost Voices, Chris Koch 11. Sutton, J.R Moehringer 12. Sincerely: Further adventures in the art of correspondence from Women of Letters, Marieke Hardy & Michaela McGuire 13. How to Make Gravy, Paul Kelly 14. Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie 15. The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries, Justin Heazlewood (e-book only) 16. Five Parts Dead, Tim Pegler 17. To The Highlands, Jon Doust 18. The Engagement, Chloe Hooper 19. Get Well Soon! My (Un)Brilliant Career As a Nurse, Kristy Chambers 20. “The Bookseat” http://www. thebookseat.com

One of Marele Day’s best-ever book-ish presents wasn’t even a book, but a handy Fay Burstin is a journalist and NRWC committee member

WRITER’S JOURNEY creative adventures

Writer’s Journey offers annual writing sojourns in extraordinary places: • Fiji Writers - March • Desert Writers - June • Backstage Bali - July

• Mekong Meditations - November • Burmese Temple Tour - December • Moroccan Caravan - January 2013 Writer’s Journey is committed to supporting writers in all genres.

For further details, go to www.writersjourney.com.au or call 0415 921 303

8 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

Subscr ibe today and re ceiv your FR e EE suppor t packa ge

Dr Janie Conway-Herron

by Russell Eldridge

Course Coordinator: Associate Degree of Creative Writing Senior Lecturer, Writing School of Arts and Social Sciences Southern Cross University For Dr Janie Conway-Herron, it all comes back to story-telling.

Whether the motivation is to change the world, giving voice to forgotten people, or writing down family history, the Southern Cross University academic believes story-telling is a basic human urge.

‘It’s the most under-estimated social activity,’ says Janie, who is about to step down from fulltime academia so she can concentrate on her own story-telling. Janie is a senior lecturer in writing, and is also course co-ordinator for SCU’s Associate Degree of Creative Writing.

‘I’m actually writing a unit on how narratives glue us together. Everyone wants to communicate - that’s why people now blog and use social media.’

It’s something she has witnessed first-hand, with the phenomenal growth of university writing programs in recent years. At SCU, Writing is the most popular major in the BA degree, with twice as many enrolments as the next major.

‘And that popularity is mirrored elsewhere in Australia and internationally,’ she says. ‘It tells me people want to communicate through creative writing, and they realise it is a skill that can be learned.’

While only about 10 percent of creative writing students will actually go on to be writers, they will all gain the skills to use in other vocations.

Janie has also embraced the growing interest in memoir and personal experiences, seeing a change in society’s view of personal stories.

‘Autobiographies in the 20th Century were viewed as being just about important people. I now see the incursions of women saying “what about our stories?”; or migrant groups telling their stories.

The voicing of personal stories is important as part of history.’

And this touches on her passion.

Janie likes to relate that she was

born in 1948, the year of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was born from the trauma of World War II and was the first global expression of human rights.

‘I was aware of having a Jewish background and I realised that if we had lived in Europe, my whole family might have disappeared. I read Anne Frank at about the same age as when she wrote her diary and it tipped me into wanting a much more peaceful world.’

That desire has anchored much of her thinking and writing. In 2007, Janie became involved in a project

to set up writing workshops for Burmese women living as refugees on the Burma-Thai border. The goal was to bring the plight of these refugees into the public eye.

The women’s stories are gathered into anthologies and distributed within Burma and internationally.

At the time of our interview, Janie was preparing to return to Burma to run more workshops and prepare another anthology, this one hopefully with a foreword by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. ‘The project is so important because things are changing in Burma and international funding is being directed inside the country. But there are 500,000 refugees on the border, mostly ethnic majorities, and they need attention.’

Janie’s focus in the near future will also be on her own writing. Despite an impressive publishing background of prose, poetry, academic

papers and songs over many years, her recent writing has been on the backburner because of the intensity of academia.

The project which excites and scares her is a novel which she intends to combine with a CD of her own songs. And she’s under no illusions about how tough it will be to find a publisher in the current downturn and with the challenge of digital pubishing.

‘The publishing business has changed forever, and we almost have to re-invent it. In Australia we have always struggled to find a readership big enough to support a local publishing industry. A lot of very good books are not being published, and although there have always been too many manuscripts to choose from, it’s going to get worse.’

She fears the commercial pressures may erode Australian identity and even content. Her hope is that Australian publishers are looking at ways to make it all work, for their own survival.

Janie believes self-publishing can be viable, if writers engage with new technologies and social media. It’s something she is prepared to do, but she doesn’t relish the thought of marketing and selling herself. ‘It’s empowering at one level, but also scary.’

While she makes the bold move into finding her publishing niche, Janie intends nurturing her long-standing relationship with the Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre.

‘When I started at SCU, it was the early days of the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival - around ‘97 - and I remember talking to people at work about how important it was to have the festival and such a focus on writing. And I’ve watched the university writing program develop in parallel with the festival and seen people moving to the area to grow their writing.’

So, as she wraps up her life as a fulltime academic, Janie ConwayHerron’s eye is on the next story.

‘Story-telling underpins everything we do. I just love it.’

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 9

All I Want for

I

Christmas

t may be a generational thing but by age seven my nephew had dismissed the whole Santa concept through one small flaw in the logic. This all came to light when we encountered a Santa queue. ‘Are you going to tell Santa what you want for Christmas?’ My nephew looked at me with patient indulgence.

‘He’s not real. That’s kids’ stuff,’ he said. At that moment, Santa glanced in our direction.

I gave him a little wave and we moved on.

It was a crushingly hot day. We were out in the street eating Splices before I asked: ‘So what makes you think Santa’s not real?’ ‘Well,’ said my nephew between licks, ‘you know in those countries where it snows, where Santa is supposed to come from? Their roofs are very steep – the reindeer and the sleigh would fall off.’ We walked on, silently licking Splices. With each lick another year fell away till I was back in my own childhood, examining the pitch of the roof on a starry Christmas night, wondering about the very same thing. A monkey perhaps, but six hoofed ruminants and a sleigh load of toys? Not on our red tiled roof.

‘It used to be a sleigh, but now he comes in a truck,’ explained Dad. ‘Like the garbagemen.’

‘Garbage disposal in reverse,’ said one of Dad’s mates who was around for a Christmas drink. ‘You leave out an empty stocking at night and in the morning it’s full of garbage,’ he chortled.

Another thing that bothered me was Santa’s ubiquity. How could he be in all the department stores at the same time?

Mum looked into my eyes the way she did when she was about to tell me something important. ‘Santa has helpers, people who dress up and act on his behalf. The pretend ones,’ she whispered, ‘wear hats so you can’t tell they’re wearing wigs.’

The last concern was Santa’s age. He must have been about 300 years old by now. ‘He’s reincarnated, like the Dalai Lama.’ Dalai Lama? ‘C’mon, off to bed,’ Mum said briskly.

‘That’s enough for one night.’

So I had all the answers when my school friends started asking questions. I believed fervently and, as long as I kept believing, I kept getting the presents. The glass of milk we put out for him had been drunk by the morning, and the piece

10 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

of Christmas cake eaten.

Finally, though, I had empirical evidence. It was the year we spent Christmas with my grandparents by the beach.

I’d left a note saying where we’d be. It was late at night when I heard a noise. I knew I was supposed to be asleep but couldn’t resist the temptation.

I opened my eyes a fraction of a millimetre. At the foot of my bed a shadowy figure was filling up the pillowcase. I couldn’t make out all the details through the mosquito net, but it had to be him. I had caught Santa on the job.

The thing that astonished me most was the clothes. I wasn’t that surprised not to see the red suit with the fur trim, but I thought he might at least be dressed like the garbagemen, in sensible gum boots and singlet.

But who would have thought he’d be wearing a nightie?

Maybe his other clothes had got sweaty and he’d just pulled something off the clothes line.

I know it’s been a while, Santa, but if you happen to drop by this year I’ll be leaving out some lacy undergarments.

Dress up as much as you please. I won’t breathe a word.

Marele Day

From the reading chair

The Steeplechase...

Editor Laurel Cohn looks at the challenges and hurdles facing emerging writers

I

was recently asked what I thought

I have read as a developmental editor, all

THE FINISH LINE

were the three main challenges and

have been able to be improved in some way,

In a typical 3000m steeplechase event,

hurdles facing emerging writers. The

even those that were very close to being

competitors have to get over 28 barriers and

question brought to mind the idea of

ready and have gone on to be successfully

through 7 water jumps before reaching the

a steeplechase, replete with barriers to get

published.

finish line. The journey that transforms the

over and water jumps to scramble through.

It is always useful to get feedback from

adjective ‘emerging’ into ‘published’ lacks

Getting from ‘emerging’ to ‘published’ status

a caring, dispassionate reader (such as a

such clarity of definition but possibly holds

is a bit like that.

fellow member of a writers’ group, or from

more challenges and hurdles. So to make it

a professional assessor or editor) and be

the finish line, you need to keep writing, keep

COMMITMENT

prepared to listen to it. Even if the thought

revising, keep reading, keep learning, keep fit

One main challenge is commitment. Most

fills you with dread, you may well need to

and keep breathing!

writers I work with who are preparing their

tackle another draft. And to be able to do

first book-length work comment at some

that with the right attitude, you may need to

LAUREL COHN is an editor and mentor

stage of the revision process that they had

put the work away and come back to it a few

passionate about communication and the

no idea what they were getting into when

months later.

power of narrative to engage, inspire and

they began their first draft. Don’t you just

Take the time needed to develop your work

challenge. Since the late 1980s she has been

write a manuscript, get an editor to tweak

to as high a standard as you can get. This is

helping writers develop their stories and

a bit here and there, and then send it off

crucial for all writers, whether looking for a

prepare their work for print and, more recently,

to a publisher? Well, actually, it very rarely

trade publisher or self-publishing; whether

online publication. www.laurelcohn.com.au

happens like that.

aiming for print publishing or digital

Writing is a craft and it takes many years to

publishing. By all means fantasize about your

learn it well. Even if you are writing a non-

book launch, but don’t book a venue before

fiction book on an area you have expertise

you’ve had some professional feedback on

in, that does not automatically make you

your work!

an expert writer. If you’re not committed to the long haul, you are less likely to find the

COMPETITION

time, patience, space and focus required

The reality of the industry means that writers

to develop your work to a publishable

face stiff competition when trying to find

standard. Without a deep commitment to

a publisher or an agent as more and more

the writing journey, you will find endless

people turn their hand to writing books. The

excuses as to why you can’t finish that draft.

percentage of unsolicited manuscripts taken

And you will need that commitment to be

up by trade publishers is minuscule, which

steadfast as you navigate the sometimes

is why it is so important to make sure your

rocky terrain of the publishing landscape.

work is as polished as it can be. Getting a contract can feel like making it over a huge

TAKING THE TIME NEEDED

barrier.

Allowing the necessary time to see a work

Some writers unable to secure a contract

through to fruition is both a challenge and

with a trade publisher, or for other reasons,

a hurdle. Often unpublished writers are in a

decide to self-publish. This sidesteps the

rush to secure their first contract and they

competition in one way, but once a book is

send their work out before it is ready. You

produced (whoever publishes it), you hit the

may feel you have revised and polished and

water jump – you and a crowd of others at

honed your work to within an inch of its

the same time. A writer faces competition

life; you may be thoroughly sick of the sight

for shelf life, media publicity and general

of your manuscript by the sixth draft and

exposure. There are on average more than

just want to hit that send button; you may

a hundred new book titles hitting the

indeed have a manuscript ready to go out.

marketplace on a weekly basis (and that’s

However, of the hundreds of manuscripts

just Australian publications).

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 11

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival An Indonesian Interlude I couldn’t let this edition of Northerly escape without sharing memories of October’s Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, where I relished the challenge of devising the program for the 8th and 9th annual events. My title in Bali meandered between Creative Producer, International Program Director, Princess of Ubud and The Only Bule Foolish Enough to Walk Uphill to the Office from Home Every Day When the Rest of Ubud Rides Scooters. Wayan, my sometime driver, clearly thought I was insane and would often drive slowly beside me in case I saw the error of my ways (unlikely), fell down a hole (likely) or was besieged by Bali dogs (highly likely, in fact guaranteed once they realised I had a bag full of dog treats intended to ward them off.)

My head is full of the heartbreaking, entertaining, inspirational and side-splitting conversations and panels and arguments that unfolded. Bali is still one of the most culturally and physically splendid places on this earth and Ubud its cultural hub. How did I get to be so lucky as to call it home, albeit briefly? And how can I sum up this most complex and diverse of Festivals? I’ll let others speak instead.

From WA based international novelist Colin Falconer: “On 12 October, 2002 a violent Islamic sect detonated two bombs in a crowded nightclub on Kuta, Bali, killing 202 people and injuring 240 more, many of whom suffered horrific burns. The first Ubud Writers & Readers Festival occurred in 2004 to heal the damage. The brainchild of Australian born, Ubud based Janet de Neefe, it took as its theme After the Dark, the Light is Born.

This year’s event was organized by the inimitable Jeni Caffin, who turns her passion for books and music into brilliant international events year after year.

I was honoured to be invited and found myself surrounded by Nobel peace prize winners (Jose Ramos Horta) Pulitzer Prize winners (Jeffrey Eu-

genides) rock stars (Nick Cave) as well as Oxford dons, leading international journalists and writers from around the world.

One night I found myself at a dinner where I was the only one at my table never to have been imprisoned for my writings or my political beliefs.

What a wimp!

But it helped me appreciate that in many places writers are feared and persecuted. Freedom of speech should never be taken for granted.

Extremists, regardless of their nationality, religion or political persuasion do not like writers.

Which is why this was such a joy to be part of.

I do like writers and I do like readers; they laugh a lot, and they love books and bars, often with equal passion. I made great friends and came away inspired and invigorated. After the Dark, the Light is Born. It is the best way to answer murderous people with minute minds; with laughter and with hope - and with great, great books.”

Among the diversity of fiction and non fiction writers, journalists, musicians, poets, bloggers, political figures, film makers, historians and performance artists was Lonely Planet writer Don George. I have rarely seen a human being immerse so totally in a Festival and so fully “get” its intent. In his words: “I had the extraordinarily good fortune to participate in the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, which took place on the island of Bali 3-7 October. This gloriously cornucopic and chaotic event was a literary love-fest that brought together writers from all corners of the globe to celebrate words and humanity.

I absolutely loved it. Among the robust schedule of more than 100 workshops, panels and special presentations offered, I taught an all-day travel writing workshop (with students from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, England and the U.S., we were a world-girdling odyssey without going anywhere!), pontificated on panels about travel writing, savored a delicious lunch-cumpanel-discussion on the intersections of culture

and cuisine, and forecast the future of publishing with a trio of writers from Australia and the UK. The theme of the Festival, “This Earth of Mankind,” taken from the title of the first book in the famed tetralogy by the late Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer, resonated throughout the Festival as dozens of casual conversations with wonderfully worldly people – writers and Festival attendees alike – immeasurably broadened my worldview. From exhibits in museums and galleries to performances by local poets and dancers to al fresco dinners in enchanted settings, and with participants ranging from American Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides, Australian journalist John Pilger, Norwegian novelist Kjersti Skomsvold, British novelist Louise Doughty and Australian musician Nick Cave to Indonesian artists Happy Salma, Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana and Iswadi Pratama, the Festival spectacularly showcased and synthesized the local and the global.

And this was all in addition to the joy of being in Ubud itself, which – once you get away from the main drag, which is clogged with motor scooters, taxis, touts, trucks and tourists – bestows a little piece, and peace, of heaven. The UWRF was one of the most enjoyable and enlightening literary festivals I’ve ever attended, and I’ve blocked out the dates on my calendar so that -- gods and Festival organizers willing – I can attend next year.”

One of Australia’s most innovative and forthright poets is the Northern Territory’s Kelly-lee Hickey.

Her work moves me and encourages me to see my world in unfamiliar ways. She also wears fabulous frocks. After this year’s UWRF, she offered this: “It was late on the last night of the Festival.

Sprawled on couches in one of Taman Bebek’s idyllic Dutch-Indonesian bungalows, supping on the balmy night air, I realised, despite my sobriety, I’d been intoxicated for days. I was in the midst of another passionate conversation between

The UWRF staff 12 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

Ubud Dancers

Tribute Night Kopano Matlwa writers; all fiery emotions and explosive; personal anecdotes intermingling with factual theories as we traversed the issues of gender, violence and sexuality into the early hours.

Every October, in the bustling spiritual centre of Bali, a vortex opens for a few short days and sucks writers and readers from around the world into a decadent parallel universe where words reign supreme. The past two years I’ve left the UWRF with a renewed faith in the power of writing; this year it was American author Justin Torres’ achingly beautiful reading from his debut novel We the Animals and a weeping panel discussion between Aboriginal Australian author Sue McPherson and Indonesian poet Ketut Yuliarsa that left me breathlessly inspired.

One of the greatest gifts of festivals is that they provide a forum for writers to exchange ideas, both with and without audiences present, and UWRF excels at both. Festivals in Australia could learn much from their Asian counterparts about hospitality; providing media free spaces for writers to mingle and swap ideas is a treat akin to a month of pony rides. I’ve had some of the best conversations of my life at the UWRF; discussing post colonialism with Nigerian poet and novelist Chris Abani, and exploring the merits of investigative journalism with Palestinian based Maltese journalist Karl Schembri are two exchanges at the fore of my mind that transformed the way I understand the world, and consequently the way that I write.

In her essay Writers in the time of change, Kate Grenville highlights the writer’s role in shaping society. Festivals like UWRF provide a nexus for writers, as cultural agents, ambassadors and commentators, to meet and gain deeper insights into each other’s perspective, if only for a few short days. In our tumultuous and divided world, this can only be a good a thing.”

Melbourne writer Ruby J Murray has participated in the UWRF several times, lived in Jakarta and in fact her recently published first novel, Running Dogs, is set in that vast and darkly congested city. I loved her response to the UWRF: it’s gritty, it’s honest and as incisive as her fiction.

“Leaving Denpasar is always a relief. Driving past the Bintang-bedecked tourists shoving their way into bars, and the barefoot men smashing rocks on the median strip while traffic crawls past them in the fumy afternoon sun.

Up in the lush Balinese hills, there are cool winds in the evening and incense crushed underfoot.

Ubud is not an easy literary festival. It carries with it all the contradictions and paradoxes of our region; five days in October where attendees and writers alike are confronted by how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.

This year over one hundred and forty novelists, poets, journalists and thinkers, from thirty countries, made the journey over oceans and land, out of Denpasar and up into the hills to join our Indonesian hosts. It’s a place not just for writers but for readers, and like reading, the days and nights in Ubud take you out of yourself, and ask you to remember where you’ve constructed your borders.

I’m never quite sure what to expect. The rituals of the Festival – opening night, the structure of the day’s sessions, the table at the Honeymoon with hot sambal and delicate tempeh – are frames through which you catch sight of something else.

This year’s Festival theme was ‘This Earth of Mankind’, in memory of the Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Toer wrote his most famous novels without pen or paper, reciting them every night of the fourteen years he spent as a political prisoner on the island of Baru during the Suharto era.

When the Festival was finished I passed the still emerald rice paddies again, down to the hot streets of Denpasar. And, like it always does, Ubud reminded me that things are much stranger than I know, and that there is great ugliness and great beauty in the world.”

Lastly from UWRF sponsor Sue Tweddell, another perspective. Sue is Coordinator of South Australia’s Mud Literary Club Inc. and has a fine taste in fine wine. She is hugely supportive of Australian writers and an intelligent and discriminating reader. A glass half full sort of woman and I like her immensely.

As literary festivals go, the UWRF is as good as it gets.

Four days of internationally renowned speakers providing stimulation and so many wonderful experiences in beautiful Balinese surroundings.

Whether it was the inspirational and remarkable Jose Ramos Horta, Miles Franklin Award winner, Anna Funder, or rock star/writer Nick Cave, amazing experiences seemed to be around every corner. Thought provoking sessions with John Pilger added spice and controversy, whilst the US Pulitzer prize winning author Jeffrey Eugenides provided wonderful literary insights. Add ChangRae Lee, Justin Torres, Colson Whitehead and a host of other luminaries, who inspired and excited us for four magical days.

A breathtaking program of over 140 speakers meant very full days as we juggled to catch the speakers who were our immediate focus.

The cultural elements which form part of the Festival make this event unique, and visitors have the opportunity to attend sessions in a multitude of venues, with lunches and cocktail parties in some of Ubud’s most glamorous resorts. Book launches, cultural workshops and special events add to the dynamic feel of this brilliant Festival, making it truly one of the top international literary festivals.

With the sun setting over the rice paddies at the end of an exhilarating day of venue hopping, a relaxing gin and tonic by the pool discussing the day’s activities with fellow guests was the thing to do. Making new friends and exchanging views with strangers was part of the appeal.

In the evenings, apart from the many special events there was always the opportunity to try Ubud’s myriad wonderful restaurants, and rub shoulders with writers who mingled happily, soaking up the wonderful Balinese atmosphere.

As the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival heads into its 10th year, it has earned the recognition it deserves, and more and more attendees make the repeat trek to this unique and inspiring event.”

Thank you for having me, Ubud.

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 13

Selected poems from Cate Kennedy’s

The Taste of River Water

8 x 10 colour enlargements $16.50 Let me lay it out for you: a rural photography competition in a local town hall and the woman next to me, sitting with her husband and two children, had travelled three hours to be there.

the light pouring in, their faces upturned with wonder, and the woman stood again and politely collected this photograph, tucked it with the certificate on her lap, saying nothing.

Her kids were quiet with the soft, cowed politeness of remote life, a farm up in the lonely dry stretch of the western districts, her husband’s boots smelling of polish, and he, preoccupied as the judge made her speech, thinking no doubt of the work waiting for him back at home and the cost of filling up the car to return.

Later, as her husband checked his watch, and spoke softly to his kids, a hand on his daughter’s fair head, I told her how much I loved that picture and what a wonderful photographer she was, and she smiled and looked at her photo.

‘You know,’ she said, ‘it didn’t break the rules.

This was the first moment my children ever saw rain.’

He looked at his hands on his knees and then over at the photos on the wall--the ‘dead-tree-silhouette-and-sunset’ photos the ‘cobweb-misted-with-dew-at-dawn’ photos--and his wife drank it all hungrily and then stood to be awarded her second prize.

They left then, back to their car, to the long drive home, to the big bone-dry expanse of land beyond salvaging with a second prize certificate and so few words between them

I want you to imagine the brief economical smile they exchanged when she sat down again, holding her certificate--her landscape photo on display carefully mounted on card, enlarged at the chemist’s in town, budgeted for, cautiously admired.

The judge announced the winning photo, A massive sunset shot, the colours juiced with Photoshop, Someone else stood for that applause and that cheque.

Then the judge added in passing that there’d been another photo she’d admired, which would have been the winner except it’s theme was not ‘Images of Rural Life’ as specified in the competition rules, and she held up a picture of the woman’s two children gazing transfixed out of a window,

14 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

no speaking up no protest or complaint no claim of being wronged, or misrepresented but I think, even now, about how the light streamed onto her children’s rapt faces, the tired love in her husband’s hand, and her, running to find her camera and frame it the smell of the rain-marked dust rare momentary joy.

They left, and all this passed into silence: unremarked and unacknowledged, that’s why I’m telling you now.

Like a storm Forty weeks swelling like a circus tent, pulling on the rigging ropes to bring it swaying and stretched to extravagant completion, and now in lamplight we marvel at the show ringside seats for joy and terror as beneath the rosy Big Top you kick your heels under our trembling hands every molecule perfect as you arch your back acknowledge our upturned, awestruck faces and swing your darling trapeze somersaults already a showstopper under the taut canvas already no-net death-defying ladies and gentlemen the morning my waters broke I was kneeling in the garden pulling up couch grass and I felt you coming like a storm: the promise of pleated grey cloud on the horizon and in that small downpour that patterned onto the earth I caught the beloved scent of you – the sweet, sharp, forgotten tang of the inland sea.

Cate Kennedy is the author of the highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, which won the People’s Choice Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2010.

She is an award-winning short-story writer whose work has been published widely. Her first collection, Dark Roots, was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal.

She is also the author of a travel memoir, Sing, and Don’t Cry, and the poetry collections Joyflight, Signs of Other Fires and The Taste of River Water, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry in 2011.

IShe lives on a secluded bend of the Broken River in north-east Victoria.

For more information or to buy the book please go to: http://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/title/the-taste-of-river-water/

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 15

Turning

S

urfing icon and local Byron Bay legend, Rusty Miller, and his partner Tricia Shantz have recently released their debut book, Turning Point: Surf Portraits and Stories From Bells to Byron 19701971. Featuring photographs of surfing’s most interesting characters at the 1970 World Surfing Contest held at Bells Beach, Victoria, and the following year at Byron, Lennox Head and Angourie, Turning Point captures a revolutionary period in surfing history and living styles.

‘

The Bells Beach images were taken at a point in time when the concept of surfing’s fundamental essence was being challenged; whether surfing could be put into a competition format, along

with all the commercialisation that follows, or whether it should remain a pure, free form. Is it a sport or an art?

This ideological discussion permeated the Bells event,’ explained Rusty. ‘But, there was more going on at Bells than just the debate about what surfing was. As the 60s spilled over into the 70s, outside influences of the time were poured into the mix, which were impacting on our surfing world: the Vietnam War and conscription, revolutions in music, and the blooming of alternative lifestyles. The Bells event was a tribal meeting that focused on these matters, along with changing board designs and styles.’

In the immediate years following the Bells event there began a trend of

‘

16 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

movement of many of the surfers who participated, and others who they influenced, to the North Coast of New South Wales – Lennox Head, Byron Bay and Yamba/Angourie.

Here, as we discovered the freedom and joys of country living, we also learned about the realities of being close to the land and what it entailed.

The uncrowded point and beach breaks were plentiful and conducive to inspiring the creative nature of these original-thinking individuals.’

T

his time was also a major turning point in Rusty’s life, having moved from Hawaii to the ‘fresh, free, surfing life in Australia.

Point

R

usty and Tricia’s Turning Point project began in 2010 with an exhibition of some of the photographs with accompanying captions. ‘As we scanned in the negatives we realised we had stumbled upon a surfing anthropological find; a dusty archive of images depicting some of the significant characters in the history of surfing. The surfers in the photographs have proven to be some of the most interesting and creative individuals in surfing’s culture. Most of these photos have never been seen before, said Tricia, as the colour slides and B& W negatives had been sitting in boxes for decades.’

and made contact with most of the surfers in the photos for their story. This led them to people in Peru, South Africa, the UK, the US, New Zealand and around Australia.

‘The images jogged many a memory,’ said Tricia. ‘We asked for comments, thoughts, and remembrances. There are still some unidentified people in the photographs. The book turned itself into a history project. The hunt continues, as Rusty has been reconnecting with the characters in the images and gathering stories sparked by these photographs.’

F

T

or the book they have more than doubled the number of photographs seen in the original exhibition

Photo: Cristina Smith

simpler time when there weren’t many people taking photographs. They are of a period remembered as pure and uncomplicated. Turning Point documents an incredibly fascinating era.

T

urning Point is available by emailing: rustym@iinet.net.au or phoning 6684 7390 or www.rustymillersurf.com

hese one off shots taken over forty years ago were of a

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 17

Kids’ pages Simon Higgins in The Writer’s Studio...

Simon Higgins is a locallybased Children’s and Young Adult author Where do you create?

Lots of different places! I like to use a laptop with a long life battery and work in ever-changing locations: on the veranda at home, out in the garden, when I’m on a plane, even when I’m overseas -which is usually somewhere in Asia – amid stimulating energy and sights.

I’ve had the honour of travelling, researching and either training or competing in martial arts in both China and Japan. Hence my last book, Moonshadow: The Twilight War, was about the world of the shinobi, or ninja, many of whom that we know about from history were teenagers. Being so interested in other cultures, I’ve had to learn to create on the move.

How important to you is the space in which you create?

When I first started writing professionally in 1998, a designated space was very important but, over the years, I have learned to take a certain head-space with me everywhere I go. Traditional martial arts has gradually taught me how to focus and concentrate, and how to either take everything around you in when you need to be alert, or to shut virtually everything out when necessary, which is ideal for writing.

Do you transform your space in any way for each project?

After studying my research material, notes, photographs and so on, I make myself comfortable in a chair, or kneel in the traditional Japanese seating pose called Seiza (back straight, legs folded, sitting on your heels on the floor) then set up my laptop on some stable surface so I can touch type quickly without it rocking. Then I get in the zone mentally, often with some slow breathing, and away I go.

How has the place that you write evolved or changed since you first began illustrating and writing books?

My writing locations have included hotels, aircraft, trains, railway stations, temple gardens, high-rise buildings in Chinese cities and, of course, my own rather large ‘back yard’. I am privileged to live in Northern New South Wales near the mountain named Wollumbin (‘the cloud catcher’) by its traditional owners, so I find that, weather permitting, outdoors is a beautiful and calming place to create. The photograph you see that includes a rainbow is actually a view from my veranda, taken during a coffee break from writing. I grew up in a city, and now, I feel deeply grateful to live among such beauty.

What time of day are you most creative?

I tend to write in long bursts that

18 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

can happen at any time of the day or evening. Mid afternoon and sometimes late at night I can really break into some fast streaks, getting a lot of stuff down quite quickly.

Do you have a morning ritual?

Roald Dahl was said to sharpen pencils. What settles your mind for illustrating and writing?

I often still my mind using martial art forms (or kata, as some call them) which are a kind of moving meditation, not unlike Tai Chi. I learned to use a samurai sword in Japan, and also to throw real ninja shuriken (iron circular throwing stars) so I could write the Tomodachi and Moonshadow books respectfully - and accurately. Doing an unarmed kung fu or sword form really readies my mind for work, but I hasten to add, I don’t play with shuriken in Australia. It’s legal in Japan, but not in Oz, so I didn’t try to bring any home with me. Besides, where I live, sudden attack by ninja seems unlikely. :) I have, however, been suddenly confronted, while writing, by brush turkeys, goannas, wallabies, two eagles, and the odd very long, scarily thick python. Lucky I love animals and know how to stay very still. :)

by Raph Atkins

It is now official. I AM DOOMED. Very doomed. As doomed as doomed can get. And it’s all the fault of my pet sausage dog, Morris. All. His. Fault.

I stood out the front of the class holding Morris for Show and Tell.

His shiny collar glinted in the annoying, blinking, fluorescent classroom light. A silver triangle dangled from the collar. His name was engraved on it in fancy writing. All eyes were staring at me. Even the class pet ‘Psycho’ the goldfish, who swam around in a bowl and drank his own wee was looking at me. Psycho is evil but that’s another story. I tried to look into his eyes to intimidate him. But it’s hard to look at both of his eyes, because goldfish have eyes on both sides of their heads.

So I ended up looking like a fruit cake, holding a fat, brown sausage dog, trying to intimidate a fish.

‘Raph would like to show you Snot Bags, his rotten little dog …’

Miss Brandy said to the class. ‘So you’d better listen!’

Miss Brandy is, unfortunately, our teacher. She is a rude, short, angry, annoying, lazy, greenhaired woman of a colossal size!!

On a good day she looks like ‘Abomination’ from ‘The Incredible Hulk’. She tried having liposuction a few years back, but when the doctor tried to shove the fat sucker-uperer inside her, it rebounded off her enormous belly and clamped to the doctors face, literally sucking the brains out of him.

‘Any questions?’ I asked the class after I’d finished my presentation. A few hands went up.

‘Theo,’ I said pointing to him.

‘What’s your question?’

‘What does his poo look like?’ asked Theo.

‘Um…’ I muttered as I thought.

‘Does he smell dog butts? Does he roll in dead cane toads? Does he eat dog poo? Does he drink out of the toilet? Because I do all of those things!!’ grinned Theo.

I looked away from Theo and decided to give someone else a chance. Before I could, Miss Brandy snapped; ‘Everyone outside! We’re going to the hall for a special assembly.’

We walked outside obediently.

Morris struggled in my arms. I tried to hold him still but he slipped free and ran across the playground. I started to run after him but Miss Brandy grabbed me by the collar and yanked me back into lines.

‘And where do you think you’re going, Raph?’ she asked with a big evil grin on her face.

‘To go ge-‘ I began.

‘RHETORICAL QUESTION!!’ she screeched, her face centimetres from mine as projectiles of spit flew at my face.

This is an extract from Out at SEA writing camp.

To read the full story please go to this link: http://www.tristanbancks. com/2012/10/morris-story-byraph-atkins.html

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 19

SEX, LIES & BONSAI – Fifty Shades of Lennox Head?

A

uthors, like mothers, are probably not supposed to have favourites, but my second novel, Sex, Lies and Bonsai, does have a special place in my heart. The story is set in Darling Head, a thinly fictionalised version of my hometown, Lennox Head.

Dumped by text message, the protagonist, Edie, flees Sydney and washes up back in her childhood home. Like Lennox, Darling Head is a serious surf town and Edie’s father, a former Australian surf champion, is the local celebrity. Edie, however, hasn’t been in the sea since she was twelve.

The inspiration for Edie’s story came from a few different places.

One of these was seeing the way that surfing was so much a part of life in Lennox Head, I wondered what it would be like to be an outsider – a girl who is scared of the water. While I am a keen surfer, my kids are fairly apathetic about it. In a town with such a strong surfing culture, whether you do or don’t surf becomes an important part of who you are.

Edie gets a part-time job drawing crab larvae at the local university and, in an effort to supplement her income, also takes up erotic writing. Way back when I was studying zoology at the University of Queensland I actually had a job drawing crab larvae for one of the

by Lisa Walker professors. It is intricate and quite boring work and unfortunately I didn’t have Edie’s boss in short shorts to help take my mind off things.

Edie’s feelings of anxiety about being outed as an erotic writer in her home town stem in part from my own nervousness about having my first novel Liar Bird come out. I imagined everyone I knew poring through its pages, trying to recognise the characters.

And I’m sorry, but they were all made up. Really! But now of course Edie’s worries about exposure are my worries too – such is small town life. I did have a lot of fun writing the tonguein-cheek erotica though. You can see a little preview of these on my book trailer at www.lisawalker. com.au Erotica aside, I think the main reason I am so fond of Sex, Lies and Bonsai is that it is a story about finding someone who accepts you for what you are. Edie has spent most of her life trying to hide what she sees as her peculiarities. I wanted to see what would happen if she was brave enough to let all that rich inner life come out. As writers, I’m sure we all know the terror that comes with exposing an intimate part of ourselves to the cruel light of day.

As the tagline says - this is a story about coming out of your shell.

20 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

An extract from Sex, Lies and

Bonsai Chapter One: There are no accidents whatsoever in the universe. (Sigmund Freud) I always knew Daniel would find me out one day. That’s why his text message, although it was a shock, wasn’t really a surprise.

E, I can’t stand it anymore, his message said. Daniel never uses abbreviations when texting. Apart from my name. I wonder why that is.

It wasn’t defined. I knew what he meant though. It was the gap between the image of myself I’d sold him on and the reality. He’d fallen for the advertisement, but hadn’t read the fine print. Now he wanted to return me like a defective product.

It was my deficiencies - my social awkwardness, lack of interest in being a domestic goddess and laziness, for starters. Then there was the way I drifted off when he explained the finer points of his job to me and hid in a corner at his important work functions.

It was the way I couldn’t understand the effect of nitrates on river systems, how I stuck my fingers in my ears and hummed when he tried to explain this to me and how I never gave the right answer when he asked what he’d been saying.

It was me.

Another one word text came through shortly after the first. Sorry.

I’d contemplated that word with all its meanings and decided to take it at face value. Daniel was nothing if not politically correct and if he said sorry,

then he meant it. But if he was sorry, I was sorrier.

Daniel and I were together for twelve months and twenty days. I’ve spent most of the last six weeks wondering how I can fix it so that Daniel will love me again.

I swerve to avoid a large fish head someone has left on the sand. Its eyes are dull and glassy, its skeleton bare. It has been six weeks since Daniel dumped me, but I still feel no less gutted than that fish. A cold wind is whipping up the waves; it’s time to head home. My feet drag as I make my way back up the beach. My shoulder bag bumps against my hip and I can feel the sharp edges of my new purchase inside.

Daniel and I met at a poetry reading organised by the local writers’ centre.

This unlikely intersection of Daniel’s interests and mine occurred in Gleebooks in Sydney. I say unlikely, because Daniel isn’t into poetry.

Daniel is into environmental law.

Our meeting was doubly unlikely because I had never planned to read my work aloud at all. On such strange chances lives do turn...

The night started predictably enough. A middle-aged woman with fire engine red hair emoted about her secret lover. She counted off the syllables with hand movements that made me dizzy. An earnest young man delivered a ringing testament to vegetarianism – No meat/It’s sweet. A dreadlocked student rapped about being oppressed. It was hard to see how he was – he was wearing ninety dollar Vans on his feet - but you had to keep an open mind.

I had been to open mic events before. I liked to sit in a dark corner and listen. Poets are used to people like me; they left me alone. Though I never performed, I always brought a poem and told myself maybe next time as I left. I knew I never would.

On this night, the featured poet, a scary woman with asymmetrical

black hair and elbow-high vinyl gloves, was launching her first collection – Dark Hymns from the Street. Cheap plonk flowed like the Parramatta River in flood. Alcohol contributed to the ensuing events, but it was not solely to blame. A lucky door prize was on offer – the winner would receive one hour of tattooing from the local tattoo shop.

Tattoos have become so run of the mill lately. For most people that is.

Not for me.

However, after three glasses of wine, it seemed possible that a tattoo might be just what I needed. After four glasses of wine, as it turned out, it was very easy to make a simple mistake regarding the correct hat in which to place your name for the lucky door prize.

I was thinking about what sort of tattoo I wanted when they called my name - perhaps a small line of poetry in a hidden location? The Tay Bridge Disaster – the worst poem in history - sprung to mind. The stronger we our houses do build/The less chance we have of being killed.

So true. I ran up to the stage; hand out, ready for the voucher. When the MC passed me the mic and asked me to read my poem, I was too bemused and terrorised to resist. Coughing, I pulled my crumpled paper from my jeans. Luckily, I’d already written an introduction.

‘My poem, Three Deer and a Sheep, is a thrilling epic in rhyming couplets about a New Zealand hunter who woos a single mother by making sausages to his special recipe...’ The mic squealed and I blinked like a spot-lit deer.

It was at this point that Daniel just happened to wander in, looking for the latest book on climate change.

I read my poem as if it was a shopping list – later, my understated delivery was much praised; Leonard Cohen may have been mentioned.

Three Deer and a Sheep was a smash hit - a sensation. The poets clapped and cheered and yelled for more.

The featured poet looked distinctly

pissed off – no one had cheered for her. I felt like Mick Jagger. One more glass of wine and I definitely would have crowd surfed. One less, and I never would have read at all. The whims of fate...

Soon after, when I was naked in Daniel’s arms (I never have been good at playing hard to get) he told me he was entranced from the first line.

I have never understood what it was about It rains a lot in Glenorchy that captured his interest, but I’m that grateful it did. Even now. When I’m feeling low, which is quite often, I think Three Deer and a Sheep was almost certainly the zenith of my performance poetry career.

Sex, Lies and Bonsai is released on January 1st by HarperCollins.

Sex, Lies and Bonsai will be launched

by Jesse Blackadder at the Writers’ Centre Christmas Party on Thursday 13 December. I hope you can join me. And seeing as it’s Christmas, there will be a giveaway! RSVP to info@nrwc.org.au by 10 December to go into the draw for a signed copy, presented on the night.

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 21

WORKSHOP

Your Life & Other Stuff You Made Up with Tristan Bancks for ages 8 -12 How can you use all the odd, boring, funny stuff that happens to you and turn it into excellent stories? Author Tristan Bancks used bits from his life to inspire his short story collection My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up. Like the time his sister made him eat Vegemite off her toe and the time he had his appendix removed just to get out of school detention. Learn how to mine your own life for cool, weird, funny stories that your friends and teachers will love.

Learning Outcomes • Freewriting techniques • Drafting • Rewriting • Ability to source story ideas from personal experiences.

• Comedy-writing techniques.

• An understanding of how fact and fiction merge to create fictional stories.

• The importance of detail in writing fiction and how we find these details.

• How to ensure that your idea fits the short story form.

Tristan Bancks tells stories for the page and screen. His background is in acting and filmmaking. His books include Galactic Adventures First Kids in Space, My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up (Currently working on the sequel!), Mac Slater Coolhunter (Australia & US) and the Nit Boy series.

Tristan loves telling fast-moving stories for young people and inspiring others to create. Check out Story Scrapbook, his free multimedia story brainstorming app at www.tristanbancks.com When: Friday 18 January, 10am - 3pm Where: NRWC Office, Level 1- 28 Jonson St, Byron Bay Cost: $40 memb / $50 non-members Please call 02 6685 5115 to book

22 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

MEMBERS NEWS

Congratulations to...

Danielle de Valera’s novel, Some Kind of Romantic which was shortlisted last year for the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award has just been short-listed in the UK for the Impress Books New Writer Award. Winner to be announced in mid-November.

Anneli Knight has submitted her PhD in creative writing, and with it completed her novel set in a remote community in the Kimberley.

Emma Mactaggart’s book, Child Writes - Creating a Children’s Picture Book is Child’s Play, has won a gold (Best Adult Non-Fiction eBook) at the IPPY’s – Independent Publishers Awards and will be ditributed by the Australian Book Group.

Book Club We have a member looking to join a book club in the Ballina/Byron area.

If you have a space in yours or are thinking of starting a club please email: info@nrwc.org.au

EVENTS

Griffith REVIEW Annual Fiction Edition Launch.

14 November 2012 Griffith REVIEW will launch their Annual Fiction Edition at Avid Reader Bookshop on Wednesday 14 November at 6.00 for 6.30 pm to RSVP phone Avid Reader on 07 3846 3422 or book online at avidreader.com.au

I Have a Script, What Do I Do Now? 17 and 18 November Lismore TAFE Screenworks has partnered with Metro Screen to bring you this 2 day intensive on how to get a short film made. The course includes how to: • put together an application for funding • schedule • budget • negotiate deal memos • storyboard • festival strategies • and much more....

Limited spaces available For bookings or more information visit Screenworks website or call 02 6687 1599 Cost $110/$80 NRWC or Screenworks members

Wild Honey Does Lismore 24 November Art, Poetry and Music —a cultural afternoon at the Lismore Art Gallery to benefit Lock the Gate and stop coal seam gas!

Hear Dangerously Poetic poets read from their 10th publication, Wild Honey, Poetry from Byron Bay and Beyond. The theme for Wild Honey is nature and our relationship with her.

Original songstress, pianist and trumpet player, Mish will perform.

Her award winning songs are passionate and poetic. Likened to Nora Jones and Eva Cassidy in her musical

style, Mish has the ability to connect to the hearts of people across generations.

Saturday 24 November, 12pm - 2pm at Lismore Art Gallery, 131 Molesworth Street, Lismore.

CDs & Books will be available at special Christmas discount. Gold coin donation for Lock the Gate Alliance.

All are welcome.

Sex, Lies & Bonsai Lisa Walker’s new novel Sex, Lies and Bonsai will be launched by Jesse Blackadder at the Writers’ Centre Christmas Party on Thursday 13 December. And seeing as it’s Christmas, there will be a giveaway! RSVP to info@nrwc.org.au by 7 December to go into the draw for a signed copy, presented on the night.

EVENTS

Adult $10, Concession $5 Northern Rivers FABC branch members $5 RSVP To ensure that you have a seat.

Please call Mary Ryan’s Bookshop on 02 6685 8183

“What Happens Next?”

The screenwriters’ journey 20 -22 February 2013 Mornington Peninsula, Victoria The National Screenwriters Conference has just announced an amazing line-up for 2013! Discounted Earlybird Registrations are now open, with limited places available to Masterclasses (including Paul Abbott, creator of Shameless) and Micro-Mentorship sessions. It only comes around once every two years, so check out the latest news and get in quick: www.awg.com.au/nsc

NRWC Christmas Party Thursday 13 December, from 5.30pm at Level 1, 28 Jonson St, Byron Bay. Please RSVP to info@nrwc.org.au or call 02 6685 5115.

Please note this is a members only event.

Julian Assange: The Most Dangerous Man in the World launch 16 December, 2pm Northern Rivers Friends of the ABC and Mary Ryan’s Bookshop invite you to a Book Launch of Andrew Fowler’s book.

Andrew will discuss his book with the ABC’s Kerry O’Brien at Mary Ryan’s Bookshop 21-­‐25 Fletcher Street, Byron Bay Admission by Donation

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 23

Opportunities VARUNA Varuna’s unique Publisher Fellowship Program is Australia’s most dynamic literary partnership, opening important doors for writers of novels, short stories, poetry and non-fiction in a creative, collaborative process that delivers finely honed manuscripts to leading publishers. The Publisher Fellowship Program offers 14 selected writers private writing time, a literary mentor, and a date with a publisher.

To find out more about this exciting program go to: http://varuna.com.au/ Closing date: 30 November PLATFORM TRIAL - drabbl.es drabbl.es allows users to write 100 word creative stories and participate in storytelling challenges. We are looking for feedback/Improvements.

A digital invite to the exclusive trial http://drabbles.lnkproductions.org/ invite/ Closing date: 31 January 2013 BTYESTORIES We invite you to click on www. bytestories.com to view a new story-sharing site. Made in Australia, this site was launched in September 2012 and has already attracted writers from over 35 countries. It is devoted to short (1500 characters / 300 words limit) stories based on real life experiences. Whether you want to practice your non-fiction writing or simply want to share something entertaining/profound with your friends, please go to: www.bytestories.com RIGHT NOW CREATIVE CALLOUT Right Now is a human rights media organisation. We are looking for creative submissions or pitches that have human rights themes to be published on our website.

Submissions can be fiction, poetry, memoir, creative non-fiction, Graphic story telling or whatever your imagination dictates!

Creativity can be a powerful tool of expression and transformation and Right Now wants to harness creativity to get people talking more about human rights in Australia.

For more information visit our site http://rightnow.org.au/about/ contribute/ To pitch or submit written work please email submissions@ rightnow.org.au To pitch or submit images of artwork or multimedia, including film and sound please email oliver@rightnow.org.au DARKER TIMES Darker Times Fiction is a monthly short story competition for stories of 3,000 words and less in the horror genre or on the subject of ‘darker times’.

All of the information can be found on the website - www.darkertimes. co.uk . It’s open to UK and international writers and ends on the last day of each month.

THE STRINGYBARK HUMOROUS SHORT FICTION AWARD 2012 What’s funny? You tell us! The Stringybark Humorous Short Fiction Award is presented to the writer whose story entertains our judges the most. That means anything goes — satire, slapstick, farce, comedy, murder mysteries, love stories, adventure tales, erotica, character sketches, outback yarns or whatever and wherever your fancy takes you — just make us laugh, smile, guffaw or giggle in 1500 words or fewer. The story must have a link (no matter how tenuous) to Australia. The competition is open to anyone over the age of 16 and living on planet earth.

There is a total of $770 worth of prizes in cash and books available plus publication for place-getters and highly commended authors.

There is an entry fee of $9.95 http://www.stringybarkstories.net Closing date: 24 November

24 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

Competitions THE NATIONAL SENIORS LITERARY PRIZE The National Seniors Literary Prize is open for novel-length works of fiction themed on the concept of change. First prize includes $2000 and digital publication with Random House Australia.

Closing date: 30 November.

THE 2013 BLACKENED BILLY VERSE COMPETITION ATTENTION WRITERS OF BUSH VERSE! Busybird Publishing is looking for submissions of poetry and memoir/ biography for an anthology of experiences with prostate cancer.

The anthology will be published November 2013. Please see website for guidelines.

We now have great news for you. The Australian Bush Poets Association have decided to sponsor the competition, which means even greater cash prizes for our winners.

First prize is now $600 plus the famous BLACKENED BILLY TROPHY. Second prize is $300 and third $200.

Entry forms are now available.

Write to Jan Morris PO Box 3001, West Tamworth NSW 2340 or email janmorris33@bigpond.com The winners will be announced at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January 2013.

Closing date: 30 November 2012 THE ANNUAL MARGARET RIVER SHORT STORY COMPETITION We are seeking submissions on any topic. The required word limit is between 1200-3000 words. We look forward to receiving your submissions. For entry forms and conditions please visit: http://www.margaretriverpress. com/submissions/margaret-rivershort-story-writing-competition/ Closing date: 30 November 2012

Competitions

PROSE AND POETRY PRIZES 2012 FROM THE NEW WRITER MAGAZINE Now in 16th year, one of the major annual international competitions for short stories, microfiction, single poems, poetry collections, essays and articles; offers cash prizes as well as publication for the prizewinning writers in The Collection, special edition of The New Writer magazine each July.

Further information on the Prose & Poetry Prizes including guidelines, prize money and entry fees at: http://www.thenewwriter.com/ prizes.htm Closing date: 30 November 2012 PETER PORTER POETRY PRIZE Entry to the ninth annual Australian Book Review Poetry Prize – named the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, in memory of the late Australian poet – is now open.

The Peter Porter Poetry Prize is one of Australia’s most lucrative and respected awards for poetry, and guarantees winners wide exposure through publication in ABR. Judges: David McCooey and Bronwyn Lea First prize: $4000 Shortlisted poems: $400 https://www.australianbookreview. com.au/prizes/peter-porter-poetryprize Closing date: 30 November 2012 SPINELESS WONDERS 2012 2012 Prose Poetry & Microfiction Competition Theme: Australian icons Length: maximum 800 words Entry fee: $7.00 Judge, Carol Jenkins, is looking for small, clever pieces that take a sideways shove at the old, new and the yet-to-be-discovered Australian icons. ‘I’m looking for that leap of imagination and for de-clicheisation. Those pieces that take a selfcritical look at Australian life.’ Prize money for the winner ($300) and two runners up ($100). Finalists and

Competitions

longlisted entrants will be invited to be included in the Spineless Wonders Australian icon anthology, edited by Julie Chevalier and Linda Godfrey. More details go to: http://shortaustralianstories.com. au/submissions/ Closing date: 30 November 2012 2013 NITA KIBBLE LITERARY AWARDS On behalf of Mr Bryan Small and Perpetual, the Trustees of the Nita B Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers, we invite you to nominate eligible works for the following: The Kibble Literary Award for established authors - $30,000 The Dobbie Literary Award for a first published work - $5,000 For an online application form go to: http://www.perpetual.com.au/ kibble/ Closing date: 7 December CALIBRE PRIZE FOR AN OUTSTANDING ESSAY 2013 Australian Book Review seeks entries for the seventh Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay, the nation’s premier award for an original essay and one of the world’s most lucrative essay competitions.

The Calibre Prize is intended to generate brilliant new essays and to foster new insights into culture, society, and the human condition.

We welcome essays from leading authors and commentators, but also from emerging writers. All nonfiction subjects are eligible.

First prize: $5000 for details go to: https://www.australianbookreview. com.au/prizes/calibre-prize Closing date: 10 December 2012 WILDCARE TASMANIA International Nature Writing Prize 2013 tenth anniversary An international literary prose competition in the genre of nature writing, open to entries in both fiction and nonfiction with a first

prize of $A5000 and a wilderness residency in Tasmania.

The Prize will be awarded in March 2013 and presented during the Tasmanian Writers’ Festival, March 21–24, 2013. The place and date of the announcement of the Prize will be advertised in advance on the Tasmanian Writers Centre website: www.tasmanianwriters.org and on the WILDCARE for conditions and an entry form go to their website: www.wildcaretas.org.au Closing date: 31 January 2013 DEBUT DAGGER COMPETITION This is an opportunity for aspiring crime writers to have their work read by professionals, potentially catching the interest of editors and agents. While there is no guarantee of publication, the track record of the competition is positive. The competition is open to anyone who has not had a novel published commercially. Entrants should submit the opening of their novel, up to 3000 words, and the synopsis of the remainder. http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/ debut/index.html Closing date: 2 February THE TEXT PRIZE Text is searching for talented writers of young adult and children’s books.

Every year the Text prize attracts hundreds of great manuscripts from across Australia and NZ. One lucky winner receives a Text Publishing contract worth $10,000. Why not apply yourself, and send us that novel you’ve been meaning to finish?

Submissions open: 4 March 2013 The Text Prize is open to published and unpublished Australian and New Zealand writers of all ages.

For more information go to: http://textpublishing.com.au/abouttext/the-text-prize Closing date: 29 March 2013

northerly magazine | november – december 2012- 25

WRITERS’ GROUPS

Ballina/Byron U3A Creative Writing Contact ph. Jan 0404 007 586. Meets at 12.00pm every second Wednesday, Fripp Oval Ballina.

Bangalow Writers Group Contact Simone Hogan on 6629 1838 (email Simone; coolingsolutions@westnet.com.au) or James Hudson on 6628 5061. Meets 9.45am- 12.00pm, first Thursday of the month, Scout Hall, Bangalow.

Bellingen Writers Group Contact David Breaden (president) on 02 6699 3888 or email davidmb@wirefree.net.au Meets at Bellingen Golf Club on the fourth Monday of the month at 2.00pm. All welcome Baywrite Theatre Inc. Contact Udo Moerig on 02 6680 9698 or go to www. baywrite.com. Reading and comment on new scripts 1st Saturday each month.

Workshopping of selected scripts 4th Tuesday each month.

Casino Writers Group Contact Brian Costin 02 6624 2636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com, meets 3rd Thursday of the month 4pm at the Casino Library Cloudcatchers Contact Quendryth Young on 02 6628 3753 or email quendrythyoung@bigpond.com. For haiku enthusiasts, a ginko (haiku walk) is undertaken according to group agreement.

Coffs Harbour Writers Group Contact Lorraine Mouafi on 02 6653 3256 or email lmprojec@tpg.com.au. Meets 1st and 3rd Thursday of month, 10.00am– 12.00noon.

Cru3a River Poets Contact Pauline Powell 02 6645 8715.

Meets every Thursday at 10.30am, venue varies, mainly in Yamba. Email kitesway@westnet.com.au.

Dangerously Poetic writing circle. Meets second Wednesday of every month 1.00pm-3.00pm, at The Wheel of Life in Brunswick Heads (behind the Anglican Church on Fingal Street). Contact Laura – 6680 1967 or visit www. dangerouslypoetic.com Dorrigo Writers Group Contact Iris Curteis on 6657 5274, email an_lomall@bigpond.com or Nell Hunter on 6657 4089.

Meet every second Wednesday from 12.00pm - 4.00 pm Dunoon Writers Group Writers on the Block Contact Helga on 02 6620 2994 (w) or email: /heg.j@telstra.com/. Meets 2nd Tuesday of month, 6.30pm–8pm, at the Dunoon Sports Club.

Federal Writers Group Contact Vicki Peterson on 02 6684 0093 or email ganden1@gmail.com. Meets 3rd Saturday of month in Federal.

FAW Port Macquarie–Hastings Regional Contact Bill Turner (President) on 02 6584 5342 or email wjturner@aapt.net.au. Meets 1pm on last Saturday of month, Historic Museum, Clarence Street, Port Macquarie.

Gold Coast Writers Association Contact 0431 443 385 or email info@goldcoastwriters.org.au. Meets 3rd Saturday of month, 1.30pm for a 2.00pm start, at Fradgley Hall, Burleigh Heads Library, Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads, Qld. Kempsey Writers Group Contact Carma Eckersley on 02 6562 5227. Meets 1st Sunday of month at the Railway Hotel.

Kyogle Writers Group Contact Brian Costin 02 6624 2636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com, meets 1st Tuesday of the month 10:30am at the Kyogle Bowling Club.

Lower Clarence Arts & Crafts Ferry Park Writers Group Contact Di Wood on 02 6645 8969 or email diwood43@bigpond.com. Meets 1st Thursday of month,10.00am–12.00pm.

Memoir Writing Group Contact Diana Burstall on 02 6685 5387 or email diana. burstall@gmail.com. Meets every month at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay. Mullum Writing Group Contact Lisa MacKenzie on 02 6684 4387 ah or email llatmac28@gmail.com. Meets fortnightly on Tuesdays, 7.30pm.

Nambucca Valley Writers Group Contact 02 6568 9648, or email nvwg@live. com.au. Meets 4th Saturday of month, 1.30pm, Nambucca.

Poets and Writers on the Tweed Meet weekly in the Tweed Heads Library, Tuesdays 1.30pm to 3.00pm. Poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers all welcome. Fun group meets for discussion, support and constructive criticism.

Free membership. Phone Lorraine 07 55909395 or Ken 02 66742898.

Richmond–Tweed Family History Society Contact Frank Harvey on 02 6686 3257. Meets 1st Saturday of month (excl. January), 2pm at the Players Theatre, Swift St, Ballina.

Taree–Manning River Scribblers Contact Bob Winston on 02 6553 2829 or email rrw1939@hotmail.com. Meets 2nd Wednesday of month, 9.00am– 11.30am in Taree. Call first to check venue.

WordsFlow Writing Group Contact Rosemary Nissen-Wade 02 6676 0874, Pam Moore 02 6676 1417. Meets Fridays in school term, 1.00pm–3.30 pm, Pottsville Beach Neighbourhood Centre, 12a Elizabeth St, Pottsville Beach. Visit http:// wordsflowwriters.blogspot.com/ 26 - northerly magazine | november - december 2012

NORTHERN RIVERS WRITERS’ CENTRE 2012 MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNTS

Let your

mind

BOOK WAREHOUSE 107-109 Keen Street Lismore 02 6621 4204 BOOK WAREHOUSE Shop 41 Lismore Square Lismore 02 6622 2688 BOOK WAREHOUSE 26 Harbour Drive Coffs Harbour 02 6651 9077 BOOK WAREHOUSE Shop 6 Ballina Fair Ballina 02 6686 0917 BOOK WAREHOUSE 70 Prince Street Grafton 02 6642 6355 BOOK WAREHOUSE Settlement City Port Macquarie 02 6584 9788 BOOK WAREHOUSE Yamba Fair, Treelands Drive Yamba 02 6646 8662 BYRON BAY LONGBOARDS 1/89 Jonson Street Byron Bay 02 6685 5244 CLIX COMPUTER CENTRE 3/3 Marvel Street Byron Bay 02 6680 9166 COLLINS BOOK SELLERS Unit 3. 9 Lawson Street Byron Bay 02 6685 7820 CO-OP BOOKSHOP Southern Cross University Lismore 02 6621 4484 CO-OP BOOKSHOP Coffs Harbour Education Campus, Hogbin Drive Coffs Harbour 02 6659 3225 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 HUMBLE PIES Pacific Highway Billinudgel 02 6680 1082 KEEN STREET COMMUNICATIONS www.keenstreet.com.au 50 Bulmers Rd Hogarth Range 02 6664 7361 MARY RYAN’S BOOKSTORE Shop 5, 21 -25 Fletcher Street Byron Bay 02 6685 8183 NORPA www.norpa.org.au PO Box 225 Lismore 02 6621 5600 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

wander

Le

w

Collins Booksellers mind Let your wan Let your wander... your r... mind Let Let youryourmind min Let wander... mind mind wander... et your mi Let wander... your Let mind your wander... mind yo mind your wander...mind your wander. wander...wander...

Shop 3, 9 Lawson Street, Byron Bay Ph: 02 6685 7820

Collins Booksellers is the official supplier of the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival.

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

THINK PRINT = THINK QUALITY

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NEW ECO OPTION - Enjoy all the usual NRWC member benefits, but opt to receive your copy of northerly electronically (rather than a print copy) and help care for the planet.

Tick this box for the ECO OPTION and we’ll take a further $10 off your Early Bird Membership Rate

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