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News & Events
Margin Notes
News, events and announcements from Byron Writers Festival
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Update on 2021 Festival programming Since announcing the cancellation of 2021 Byron Writers Festival, messages of love, support, understanding and encouragement have flooded in from across the country. Our spirit is bolstered by the realisation that the Byron Writers Festival is so deeply valued by our Festival family and the wider community. Rest assured, we will be back in2022!
In the meantime, the Festival will be curating a small selection of would-be 2021 Festival conversations as podcasts over the coming months. Some Festival workshops are moving online, (see the workshops page), plus, stay tuned for rescheduled live events throughout the region later in the year, pending restrictions. Rescheduled events will be updated at byronwritersfestival. com/whats-on, and 2021 Festival sessions released as podcasts will be available via byronwritersfestival.com/digital
StoryBoard’s new bus hits the road
After six years and up to 200,000 kilometres clocked up travelling far and wide to schools, regional libraries and community festivals in the Northern Rivers, StoryBoard’s colourful Mercedes bus was finally retired in early 2021. Jesse Blackadder’s dream of running a creative literacy program for young people in the region came to fruition in 2015 with the launching of StoryBoard. At the time of her passing in 2020, an exceptional author and illustrator team had reached over 25,000 young people from as far west as Kyogle to Kempsey in the south and Tweed Heads in thenorth.
To carry on Jesse’s inspiring legacy of providing regional young people with opportunities to enhance their creativity and freedom of expression, a new StoryBoard bus was purchased in February 2021 (pictured left). Artwork for the bus was created by artist Justine Wallace using elements of the old bus and introducing new illustrations to create a fun and fresh look. In honour of Jesse, one illustration features a ‘young’ Jesse surfing alongside a huge whale on a paper plane. We are looking forward to many more joyous adventures in the StoryBoard bus. Thanks to the NSW Government for supporting StoryBoard and the purchase of thebus.
Jonathan Franzen: Crossroads digital event In his first Australian event celebrating the release of his highlyanticipated new work Crossroads, the singular Jonathan Franzen (pictured below) will discuss family, America, and where the modern novel must go from here with ABC
Cover story The cover for the Spring issue of northerly features artwork by Sydneybased painter Jacqueline Hennessey, who is represented by Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane. This work is entitled This is not a love song I, 2020, oil on linen, photography by Mim Sterling. Referencing photographic images of her own body, Hennessy makes paintings that point toward the experience of self as an essence, or state of flux, arising in the gap ‘betwixt and between’ the opposed dualisms of visible and invisible, form and formless, matter and spirit, whole and fragment, and ultimately, life and death. By setting up a dialogue between painting and photography, Hennessy questions painting’s capacity to transform photographic self-imagery in such a way that it conveys a more complex and enigmatic representation of the phenomena of being in the world as a female self. To see more of her work, go to jacquelinehennessy.com
Radio National’s Sarah Kanowski. This exclusive conversation will be available to view online and on-demand for one week only, from 7.30pm, Tuesday 5 October until 7.30pm, Tuesday 12 October. Presented in partnership with The Wheeler Centre and Newcastle Writers Festival.
For details and to book, head to byronwritersfestival.com/whats-on
2021 Residential Mentorship recipients Congratulations to the recipients of the 2021 Residential Mentorship: Lee Adendorff for Glow Fly, Vivienne Pearson for Dawn of the Ending, John Stevens for Cochsure and Paul Thomas for The Beacon.
In September, these four writers will come together at a glorious hinterland location to develop and refine their manuscripts under the guidance of Lambs of God author Marele Day. Thanks to all those who submitted. Many of your manuscripts showed tremendous promise, so please, keep writing and honing your work!
A big congratulations to our winners, runners-up and everyone who submitted their stories to our annual Student Writing Prizes. Overall, we received over 130 submissions across all three categories of the Susie Warrick Young Writers Award and the Jesse Blackadder Prize, and were overwhelmed with the quality, creativity and originality of the submissions. We feel very lucky to live in a region with such creative youngtalent. Susie Warrick Young Writers Award Category 1 (Years 10-12) first place went to ‘Nipotino’ by Luisa Santucci, with ‘I Do Not Know Which to Prefer’ by Saoirse Chu snagging runner-up. Category 2 (Years 7-9) winner was ‘The Hunter’ by Floyd Whitaker, with ‘The Alley’ by Elise Nikkinen coming in runner-up. The Jesse Blackadder Prize (Years 5-6) first place went to ‘Allegro Presto’ by Edith Barber, and runnerup went to ‘The Thief’ by Caleb Scherrer. The winning stories will be published in the next edition of northerly magazine and runner-up stories will be published online on the Byron Writers Festivalblog. Thanks to The Book Room and Pukka Herbs
Sending a big shout out to The Book Room Collective and Pukka Herbs for their support over (what would have been) Festival weekend. Our official bookseller donated ten per cent of all in-store and online sales to Byron Writers Festival, and Pukka Herbs sprinkled some Festival magic around by providing a Pukka tea gift with every purchase at The Book Room. Many thanks to John and Karen from The Book Room for their generous donation and to Pukka Herbs for providing the tea to enjoy with those new books!
Digital Schools Program reaches students throughout the Northern Rivers
For the second year running, Byron Writers Festival has curated a free on-demand Festival program for Northern Rivers schools. The aim of the program is to give primary and secondary schools who cannot attend the live Festival due to economic or geographical constraints the chance to engage with acclaimed authors. Following
cancellation of the Festival this year, it provided a way for local schools to bring authors directly to their classrooms. The uptake was considerable, with more than 150 class groups engaging with the program, which launched on 23 August. The stellar program featured four primary schools authors, Davina Bell, Gavin Aung Than, Amie Kaufman and Oliver Phommavanh; and four secondary schools authors, Randa AbdelFattah (pictured at bottom left), Eddie Jaku, Will Kostakis and Nevo Zisin.
The program is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and Southern CrossUniversity.
Faber Writing Academy
Faber Writing Academy is the writing school inside Australia’s leading independent publisher Allen & Unwin.
Our courses are devised and run by leading figures in contemporary publishing, including award-winning authors, publishers and literary agents.
And, now many of our courses are available online and accessible to students across the country.
TO FIND OUT WHAT WE HAVE TO OFFER:
Subscribe to our newsletter: www.faberwritingacademy.com.au
Call us: (02) 8425 0171
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JAMES BRADLEY Writing Environmental Crisis
JANE GODWIN Getting Published as a Writer for Children
ANGELA MEYER Editing Skills for Creative Writers
Member success
Congratulations to Byron Writers Festival member and Yamba-based author Julie Campbell, who has recently published her memoir The Butcherbird Sings, a story about love, devotion and hope in the face of neurodegenerativedisease. In other local news, students at Southern Cross University in Lismore have recently launched a new literary magazine, Flunk. Now on its third issue, the journal features the writing, art and media of Southern Cross University students, and is edited by Snowy Frankland. For more information visit flunkmagazine.com Finally, local author and occasional northerly contributor Emma Ashmere was recently longlisted for the 2021 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award with her story The Missing, while northerly editor Barnaby Smith was recently shortlisted for the UK’s Erbacce Prize for Poetry. Writers call-out
The magazine you currently hold in your hands, northerly (the official publication of Byron Writers Festival), is seeking anyone in the local community keen to contribute book reviews, literary essays, opinion pieces or author interviews. Experience not necessary, just a strong interest in books and literary culture and an ability to string a nice sentence together. And if you are a member of Byron Writers Festival and have some exciting news, be it success in a competition, acceptance to a prestigious journal, a book deal or similar, we’re keen to hear about it to sing your praises in these pages. Whether you are interested in writing for northerly or just want to share some news, email northerlyeditor@gmail.com
LAUREL COHN
Editing and Manuscript Development
~ Manuscript assessment ~ Editorial and publishing consultations ~ Mentoring/coaching ~ Structural and stylistic editing ~ Copy editing and proofreading
Congratulations to performer, teacher and recording artist Greg Sheehan on the publication of his book The Rhythm Diaries. gregsheehan.com.au ‘When I first began the process of writing my book Laurel got me on the path. Her guidance was clear, precise, wellinformed and was generously offered to me. I learnt so much from her about the very broad areas of writing, editing and publishing. A thousand questions asked by me and a thousand answers given! She has a great eye, mind and heart.
