northerly Byron Writers Festival Member Magazine Summer 2022
MAGGIE HAMILTON
BRYAN BROWN
LISA WALKER
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Contents Summer 2022
northerly northerly is the quarterly magazine of Byron Writers Festival. Byron Writers Festival is a non-profit member organisation presenting workshops and events year-round, including the annual Festival. Held on the land of the Arakwal Bumberbin People of the Byron Shire. We pay respect to the traditional owners of this land and acknowledge them as the original storytellers of this region.
Features 008 Blonde on blonde Lisa Walker introduces us to her new YA novel, Trouble is my Business. 010 From screen to page Read an extract from Bryan Brown’s debut novel, Sweet Jimmy. 012 Isolation epidemic A conversation with Maggie Hamilton, author of the acclaimed recent book When We Become Strangers. 014 Competition winners Read the winners of Byron Writers Festival writing competitions for young authors: The Susie Warrick Young Writers Award and The Jesse Blackadder Prize. 021 Narratives of trauma Local author Jarrah Dundler outlines his new project aiming to help communities recover from the 2019 bushfires. 024 The year in review Polly Jude surveys the cream of the crop for 2021 in YA fiction.
LOCATION/CONTACT P: 02 6685 5115 F: 02 6685 5166 E: info@byronwritersfestival.com W: byronwritersfestival.com PO Box 1846, Byron Bay NSW 2481 EDITOR Barnaby Smith, northerlyeditor@gmail.com CONTRIBUTORS Edith Barber, Jenny Bird, Jarrah Dundler, Leisa Hawkey, Polly Jude, Myo Yim, Luisa Santucci, Katinka Smit, Lisa Walker, Floyd Whitaker BYRON WRITERS FESTIVAL BOARD CHAIRPERSON Adam van Kempen VICE CHAIR Lynda Hawryluk TREASURER Cheryl Bourne SECRETARY Hilarie Dunn MEMBERS Daniel Browning, Marele Day, Lynda Dean, Grace Lucas-Pennington LIFE MEMBERS Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin, Gayle Cue, Robert Drewe, Jill Eddington, Russell Eldridge, Chris Hanley, John Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Irene O’Brien, Sarah Ma, Jennifer Regan, Cherrie Sheldrick, Brenda Shero, Heather Wearne MAIL OUT DATES Magazine is published in MARCH, JUNE, SEPTEMBER and DECEMBER PRINTING Summit Press ADVERTISING
Regulars
We welcome advertising by members and relevant organisations. A range of ad sizes are available. The ad booking deadline for each issue is the first week of the month prior. Email northerlyeditor@gmail.com
002 A note from the Festival
DISCLAIMER
003 News & Events Vale Colleen O’Brien, big year for memberships, podcasts and more. 006 Feature poet Two works from Katinka Smit. 020 Southern Cross University Showcase Poetry from Leisa Hawkey. 027 Workshops 028 Competitions
The Byron Writers Festival presents northerly in good faith and accepts no responsibility for any misinformation or problems arising from any misinformation. The views expressed by contributors and advertisers are not necessarily the views of the management committee or staff. We reserve the right to edit articles with regard to length. Copyright of the contributed articles is maintained by the named author and northerly. CONNECT WITH US Visit byronwritersfestival.com/members to find out more about becoming a member.
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northerly SUMMER 2022 | 01
Director’s note As 2021 draws to a close, we reflect on another tumultuous, disruptive year – its challenges and its capacity to instil deep and meaningful connections, to remind us all of the power and importance of human care and connection (even if by Zoom). Simple gestures and storytelling have helped make sense of the world around us, and books have provided inspiration, solace and companionship. This month we know many of you will be as sad as we are to farewell our colleague Sarah Ma, who after thirteen years with the Festival, has decided to explore new horizons. Sarah has been a stalwart member of the team, generously and efficiently filling many roles over those years. She has given heart and soul to help make Byron Writers Festival a much-loved fixture on the Festival circuit and we are exceedingly grateful for her legacy. We will miss Sarah’s daily presence, and wish our friend and colleague the happiness and joy she deserves for the next stage of her life. Meanwhile, our delightful and talented Festival Administrator for the last four years, Emily Brugman, will assume the role of Program Manager. As some of you know, Emily is also a Vogel short-listed author and her stunning novel The Islands will be published by Allen & Unwin in February 2022. We couldn’t be more proud of her! We are also delighted to welcome local creative Tom Wolff to the role of Festival Administrator. Tom grew up in Lennox and brings a strong connection to the local area and community as well as extensive experience with festival operations and event administration. In another milestone, highly respected local author and Festival Board member Marele Day will complete her twentieth, and final, Residential Mentorship (RM) in December 2021. In that time Marele has fostered some of the most impressive writing talent in the region, including the likes of the late Jesse Blackadder, Jessie Cole, Lisa Walker, Russell Eldridge, Miranda Riwoe, Jarrah Dundler, Emma Ashmere – the list goes on! We are fortunate indeed that the brilliant Sarah Armstrong, an RM alumnus herself, has agreed to take up the RM reins in 2022 and we look forward to welcoming her aboard. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Marele for her dedication and generosity in creating this program, which is both a proven pathway to publication and an experience that many have described as transformative. It has been a year that has changed our lives, and thankfully many of those changes and pivots have been positive. As was author Mary Hoang’s recent Sonic Meditation – it was a delight to share that journey with you. And there will be more in 2022… Meanwhile, we wish our members and friends happy holidays and happy reading!
Edwina Johnson Director, Byron Writers Festival
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NEWS
Festival bids Sarah farewell After thirteen years, our beloved Sarah Ma, operations manager for Byron Writers Festival, is leaving. If you’ve ever participated in a Byron Writers Festival workshop, attended the Festival itself, or an out-ofseason event, made enquiries regarding any of the services offered by the Festival, you would have had some contact – direct or indirect – with Sarah.
anything needs sourcing – from mugs to marquees. Sarah knows the best places to eat in the area, can organise a party or a dinner with aplomb, choose stylish office furniture and decor, get a leaking roof fixed. She is as comfortable liaising with international authors as she is with local tradies.
Initially a Festival volunteer, in 2008 Sarah became a fulltime employee. Her first job was overseeing Festival guests’ travel arrangements. Since then, and under several directors, Sarah has become the backbone of the organisation.
During the last seven years with Festival director Edwina Johnson, Sarah became more directly involved with Festival programming. A voracious and dedicated reader, she would take home to read books by almost all authors being considered for the Festival program each year.
Sarah has generosity, efficiency and flair by the bucket-load. Not only is she meticulous in her role as operations manager, but she is also the go-to person when
Byron Writers Festival has benefited enormously from Sarah’s unruffled calm, organisational skills, attention to detail and her prodigious memory that holds the Festival’s
history. She has risen to the task admirably in recent more difficult times. We will miss Sarah’s presence hugely, and wish our dear friend and colleague the happiness and joy she deserves for the next stage of her life.
Top left: Sarah on-site at Byron Writers Festival 2016 Photo: Anika Ebner Top right: Sarah with Uncle Jack Charles at Byron Writers Festival 2019 Photo: Jenny Templin
northerly SUMMER 2022 | 03
NEWS
Margin Notes News, events and announcements from Byron Writers Festival
Vale Colleen O’Brien
Summer listening
Our dear friend and long-time member of Byron Writers Festival, Colleen O’Brien, died on October 25, 2021 at her home in Lismore.
Our 2021 Festival podcast program continues to grow with a number of reimagined Festival conversations now available to stream for free. Guests include Meg Mason (Sorrow and Bliss), Matthew Evans (Soil), Sophie Hardcastle (Below Deck), Chris Raja (Into the Suburbs) and Pip Williams (The Dictionary of Lost Words) amongst others. A special thanks to our collaborating hosts Paul Barclay (ABC Radio National Big Ideas), Nicole Abadee (Books Books Books) and Ashley Hay (Griffith Review). For the full program head to byronwritersfestival.com/ digital, or search Byron Writers Festival in your podcasts app or on Spotify.
Colleen was a Festival volunteer, and wrote reviews of crime fiction for northerly. A poet and novelist, she was selected for the Residential Mentorship 2016 for her atmospheric crime novel, River People, which gives voice to the marginalised. Her first, Mausoleum of Memories, began as a writing exercise in a workshop with me. Colleen’s spirit of adventure manifested in her teenage years when she hitchhiked from Sydney to Darwin. Later she found herself in Fiji in the middle of a coup, and in Egypt under army protection from rebels who had been killing tourists. Her commitment to social welfare saw her working as a domestic violence counsellor, and sex discrimination conciliator with the Human Rights Commission. She gave guest lectures on these issues at Griffith University. Colleen was a wise, compassionate woman with a big heart. Her work and life experience informed her writing and gave it great authenticity. Vale Colleen. We shall miss you. Marele Day Colleen O’Brien (top right, at left)) with Marele Day during the Residential Mentorship 2016.
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Member announcements We are delighted to share that 2021 was our biggest year yet for memberships and want to pass on our heartfelt thanks to all of you for your continued support. It was lovely to see many new and familiar faces on Zoom at our recent Sonic Meditation event with Mary Hoang, and we look forward to celebrating storytelling in all its forms with you in person next year. A reminder that our annual Membership Drive will be kicking off Monday January 31, and all new or renewing members throughout February will go into the draw for some fantastic prizes. Current 2021 memberships will expire on February 28, and we will be sending email newsletters with information about how to renew early next year. Also, to help us understand more about your experience as a member, we invite you to complete our 2021 Member Survey, which you can access online here: byronwritersfestival.typeform. com/membersurvey
Mentoring Scholarships recipients announced Congratulations to our members who have been awarded a mentorship session as part of the Byron Writers Festival Mentoring Scholarships program. The successful applicants were Eli Cook for his picture book, Tree; Penny Leonard for her memoir, A River of Souls; Chris Morgan for his novel, Guyra; and Diana Yee for her short story collection, Homecoming. Penny will work with Jim Hearn, Eli with Bronwyn Bancroft, Chris with Laurel Cohn and Diana Yee with Tony Birch. Gratitude to our judges, and a big thank you to Lynda and Christopher Dean for supporting this initiative.
NEWS
Cover story The artwork on the cover of this Summer issue of northerly is Set Up by Myo Yim. Myo is an illustrator based in the Northern Rivers, originally from Seoul, South Korea. Myo works across many mediums: 2D, 3D, digital and analogue, but pencil drawing is her favoured tool to navigate a rough world. Myo has vast experience as a commercial illustrator in the visual arts, children’s books, mainstream magazines and motion graphic industries. In 2019 she published her debut illustrated book, The Forest of The Night, in South Korea, which was nominated for the Little Hakka International Picture Book Award 2019. She also published her first children’s book in Australia, Rajah Street, in 2021. She also works with publishers Walker Books, Penguin and Hardie Grant.
LAUREL COHN Editing and Manuscript Development ~ Manuscript assessment ~ Editorial and publishing consultations ~ Mentoring/coaching ~ Structural and stylistic editing ~ Copy editing and proofreading Congratulations to Michelle Tom on the publication of her memoir Ten Thousand Aftershocks (HarperCollins). michellemtom.com
‘Thank you so much for your help with the early part of my manuscript. You gave me a solid plan of attack, a great deal to think about and enough positivity to keep my spirits up. I carried your report with me through the development process, and it was important not only for what was contained within it, but as evidence that someone other than me really understood what I was trying to achieve.’ Michelle Tom
www.laurelcohn.com.au info@laurelcohn.com.au 02 6680 3411
Southern Cross Uni alumnus wins writing award Dr James Page, a Southern Cross University alumnus and an Australian educationist, was recently announced as the winner of the Banjo Paterson Writing Award. Dr Page has been working with former Congolese refugee and now Australian citizen, Sagamba Muhira, to tell the story of his journey from war and devastating ethnic violence in the Congo, and his arrival in Australia as a refugee
with his sister in 2011. Their short story ‘Out of Africa’ was recently announced as the joint winner in the prestigious national Banjo Paterson Writing Awards, bringing them a step closer to their goal of publishing the book-length version of the winning story next year.
Abadee’s podcast partnership Writer, podcaster and regular moderator at Byron Writers Festival Nicole Abadee has recently launched a new podcast
collaboration between her own popular podcast, Books, Books, Books, and the journal Griffith Review. Each episode features a conversation between Abadee and Griffith Review editor Ashley Hay, discussing the latest edition of the journal. The podcasts can be listened to at nicoleabadee.com. au/griffith-review Books, Books, Books launched in April 2020 and features interviews with both Australian and international authors about their recent work. Episodes can be found at Abadee’s website as well as other homes of podcasts, such as Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify and others. In other news, local writer Peter Mitchell recently had poetry published in Mini-Mega Pack (US), the Sappho Touch 2021 Anthology and The Ekphrastic Review (CA). Congratulations to him.
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 northerly SUMMER 2022 | 05
POETRY
Feature Poet: Katinka Smit The Enchanting In a glade of trees hung with moss I sat myself there down, fresh and weary from the top of Fantham’s balding crown. The day dipped low, formed a mist; sunlight drops in dark’s fist. I heard a tree top twitter and then a tree hop flitter – too fast, too slight to make its presence found in sight – a tiny creature, fairy, its life aloft and wary skipped and stopped. Silence popped —
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POETRY
A Sailor’s Last On a shipwreck I was sailing and I had cause to rue our whaling as the void filled with clicks and squeaks and moans Deep tanking groans thrilled my insides reverberating cavities One of them swam up to me contemplated me with its tiny eye gargantuan body by my side so that as I sank I forgot to breathe and I forgot to die
Katinka Smit is a slow poet: poems arrive like seedlings (as do poets). She mentors young performance poets with Poets Out Loud, and was a finalist in the 2018 Nimbin Performance Poetry Cup. She believes poetry should be accessible. And magical.
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FEATURE
Deadly blondes and dead blondes: Writing female-centred crime In the wake of her latest YA novel, Trouble is my Business, local author Lisa Walker examines the entrenched gender stereotypes that once defined crime fiction – and how they can be dismantled. I borrowed the title of my new book Trouble is my Business from a Raymond Chandler short story collection. Writing in the 1930s, Chandler was the master of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. I love Chandler’s pared-back writing and the dark atmosphere of his novels. But I am thrilled that crime fiction has moved on from onedimensional depictions of women. 08 | SUMMER 2022 northerly
‘All blondes have their points,’ muses Private Investigator Philip Marlowe, in Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. Chandler goes on to forensically describe seven types of blondes: ‘the metallic ones who are as blond as a Zulu under the bleach’; the ‘small, cute blonde’; the ‘big statuesque blonde’; the blonde who ‘smells lovely and shimmers’; and so on. Chandler’s female
characters are either femme fatales or dead women – deadly blondes or dead blondes. This characterisation of women as either victims or villains is par for the course in noir crime novels. In the early days of crime fiction, being a detective was depicted as a hyper-masculine activity. As Chandler says, ‘A Hero, he is everything. He must be a complete
FEATURE
man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be the best man in the world and a good enough man for any world.’ Chandler’s Marlowe is a typical hardboiled crime fiction detective. He’s tough and unsentimental and has a good line in witty banter. He’s an honest detective in a dirty world, who’s driven by a quest for the truth. My protagonist, Olivia, is more screwball than hardboiled, but like Marlowe, she’s driven by a quest for truth. I’d like to think that she also does a good line in witty banter. Olivia does encounter several complicated blonds on the way to solving her case, but they are all of the male variety. There’s a hardcore surfer who argues with her in the surf, an acrobatic botany student who leaps over her head in a busking act at a Byron Bay market, and her irresistible ex-boss Rosco, who’s proving impossible to avoid. Add a charismatic cult leader to the mix and Olivia’s got a whole lot of trouble on her plate. Olivia owes more to Sue Grafton’s protagonist Kinsey Millhone, or Janet Evanovich’s mile-a-minute Stephanie Plum than she does to Philip Marlowe. When the first Kinsey Millhone book A is for Alibi came out in 1982, it paved the way for a deluge of female investigators who were just as hardboiled as their male counterparts. Like Kinsey Millhone, Olivia has little interest in fashion. Cargo pants and T-shirts take the place of Kinsey’s jeans and turtlenecks. She’s a get-on-withit type of girl – tough, smart, and ambitious: My outfit of crumpled cargos and a worn-out T-shirt is not lawyer-in-training material. I haven’t kept on top of my washing.
normcore. I’d had to consult Google. It turned out the normcore fashion trend focuses on looking nondescript. Khaki cargo pants are in, colourful dresses are out. Designer purses are out, backpacks are in. It was me to a T. ‘Why yes, I am into normcore, thank you for asking,’ I’d replied. It was a revelation. I wasn’t fashion-challenged, as I’d thought. No, I was at the forefront of a cutting-edge trend. Writing a female detective is not just a matter of changing genders. A woman’s experience in the workplace is different. Male PIs mostly seem to have no commitments whatsoever beyond their crime-solving duties. Sherlock Holmes is an unmarried loner, as is Philip Marlowe. Like many female sleuths, however, Olivia is handicapped by her family situation. Her parents have abandoned her to volunteer in a Nepali monastery, her seven-year-old little sister is delightful but demanding, and her grandmother is more interested in playing ukulele than helping with childcare. Olivia has to negotiate hard just to get down to Byron Bay and investigate: After Jacq goes to bed, I try to figure out a way to ask Nan to look after her for the weekend, so I can go to Byron. Nan’s weekends are usually booked solid with social events, so it’s a big ask.
‘Why don’t you let me set you up with someone? My friend Maureen’s grandson …’ ‘No. No way. Forget it.’ Nan’s tried to palm off the sociopath grandchildren of her friends on me before. I have no wish to spend another evening listening to a greasy-haired boy explain World of Warcraft. Suddenly I have a brainwave. ‘Actually, a nice boy asked me out to dinner in Byron Bay this weekend. It’s a shame I can’t go …’ It works like magic. Nan agrees to look after Jacq for the weekend. Not only does Olivia need to look after her little sister, she also has to pass first-year law, and somehow persuade her parents to come back from Nepal. She is far too busy holding it all together to smell lovely and shimmer like a Chandler blonde.
‘I’ve seen you on that dating app. Have you met a nice boy yet?’ Nan asks as we do the dishes. ‘No.’ My chances of meeting a nice boy on Bumble are nonexistent, since I never swipe right.
Trouble is my Business is published by Wakefield Press.
The first week of uni, Sophie had asked me if I was into northerly SUMMER 2022 | 09
READ
Extract: Sweet Jimmy by Bryan Brown The debut book from beloved Australian actor Bryan Brown, Sweet Jimmy, represents a startling new voice in Australian crime fiction. Here we present an extract in lieu of Brown’s appearance at the cancelled 2021 Byron Writers Festival. Boys will be killers. It was a gentle knock. Agnes had been waiting for it. Hoping he would be on time. Such a lovely fella she thought. That’s why the kettle was on, with a freshly baked sponge cake on the table. ‘Feed the man meat’ was a silly expression. Where did it come from?
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Who knew? Should be ‘Feed the man cake’.
third was an older cousin, Phil. By five years.
He’d have time for that before he began.
They were Eastern Suburbs boys. Coogee.
Agnes beamed as she opened the door to him: ‘So punctual.’
It was the midseventies and, even though The Beatles had elbowed The Beach Boys off the charts, the beach was still the place to be.
He smiled. ‘Come on through. Got a surprise for you,’ she said. He had one for her too. There were three of them. Two were brothers, Johnny and Jimmy. The
But not for Johnny, Jimmy and Phil. They didn’t surf. They thieved.
READ
Phil started when he was fifteen. He’d wander into Surf, Dive and Ski or David Jones, try on a jacket and wander out. No one was on to him and he had a new jacket, which he sometimes offloaded to a schoolmate for a few bucks.
he’d lost it or something. Always got away with it. Chicks loved him too. In the back row of the picture theatre, kissin some chick while the movie played.
Found this empty house and was filling a duffel bag when a bloke walked in.
Then, after a while, he got requests. Made a fair bit of dough.
It was an adventure hanging out with Phil. And then Phil got a licence, even though he didn’t have a car; not one he owned. But it wasn’t hard to knock one off though. Phil knew how and he showed Jimmy and Johnny.
Then he bashed the bloke with the halffilled duffel with clocks and radios and CDs and videos.
By the time Johnny and Jimmy were in their teens, they were on Team Phil. That’s what Phil called it. Jeans and Tshirts. Socks and undies. Whatever. Phil knew how to get rid of it. And the boys had pocket money. Plenty of it. Then they graduated. Break and enters. Not much break though. Around the beaches it didn’t need to be. No one locked their doors. Knock. Knock. ‘Hey, Tony!’ If the door was answered, they were told ‘No Tony lives here.’ ‘Stupid bugger’s given us the wrong address. Sorry missus.’ On to the house a few doors up. Same play: ‘Hey, Tony!’ If no one answers, slip round the back and try the back door. Usually unlocked. If not, on to another. No breaking down doors. No need. So now it was TVs, radios, jewellery. You name it. Eventually everything sold. Phil came from a family of nine. His father and Jimmy and Johnny’s dad were brothers. Jimmy and Johnny were a year apart and always hung out at Phil’s. More fun in a house full of kids, with them having no brothers or sisters. Phil was a dare devil. The two boys gravitated to him. He never bought a train or bus ticket. Bullshitted
They’d go on rides to Newcastle or Wollongong, and they’d do a couple houses. ‘Hey, Tony!’ Same plan. Leave the car there and nick a new one to get home. Never got caught. When Phil was twenty, he and the boys knocked off ten surfboards. The silly owners had stashed them under a fella’s place who lived right on the beach. Easier than carting them home. And anyway, who’d knock them off? Phil, that’s who. He knew the owners—blokes he’d sold gear to. He swore to them it wasn’t him, but said he’d try to find out who the thieving bastards were. He sold them to some wouldbe surfers from the Western Suburbs. They surfed Cronulla, so no way the boards’d be seen around Coogee. Phil got the boys jobs. Concreting, like he did. Hard work, shovelling concrete. Still, he had to explain his money away somehow, cos the only other skill he had was thieving. But it wasn’t the thieving put him inside. It was the aggravated assault. He was cleaning out a house behind the Coogee Bay Hotel one arvo. The two boys were working, but he’d pulled a sickie. Nicked a car.
‘What the fuck are you doin?’ ‘Robbin ya,’ said Phil.
The bloke went down. But Phil was shat off that he’d been interrupted and kept on bashing the bloke. Then the bloke’s two mates came in and bashed the shit out of Phil and rang the cops. About twelve months into his jail time, Phil was called into the superintendent’s office. ‘We’re putting you in the garden, mate. You shovelled concrete, so now you can shovel dirt.’ Phil didn’t mind. In fact, it gave him a new lease on life. Stopped him thinking and started him reading. About flowers. All sorts. Especially flowers that liked full sun, because that’s what they were going to get at the jail. Marigolds and snapdragons. Geraniums and zinnias. Cornflowers and sunflowers. And bugger me dead. Phil had a green thumb. The garden sprouted colours. Orange, white, purple, red, pink, blue and yellow. Sunflowers were definitely his favourite. And boy, could they grow. He had some over twelve feet high. And they were the best yellow. It was like looking at the sun.
This is an edited extract from Sweet Jimmy by Bryan Brown, published by Allen & Unwin.
northerly SUMMER 2022 | 11
INTERVIEW
Liminal space: An interview with Maggie Hamilton Maggie Hamilton’s latest book When We Become Strangers has come at a time when the questions it poses are at a critical juncture, due to COVID-19 and the state of culture in 2021. Maggie was due to appear at the cancelled 2021 Byron Writers Festival; here she discusses her new work and looks back on her career.
Can you give an overview of how the initial idea for When We Become Strangers took root in your mind, and the questions you were trying to answer? I wanted to get to the heart of what I saw as a growing sense of estrangement. People talking and judging more, listening less. An intolerance of difference. Our young reporting a growing, biting loneliness. Escalating competition amongst friends. The deadening impact of influencers. Overly curated lives, that leave little room for spontaneity, creativity, fresh ideas. The unkindness, if not downright cruelty, of much of reality TV, encouraging us to judge others as winners or losers, rather than as individuals, each with a contribution, a story to tell.
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How has your writing life been affected by COVID-19? I love liminal space. It’s where I get my best ideas – where I’m most able to sift through possibilities. So, lockdown, for me, was the ultimate liminal space. That said, I know how hard lockdown has been for many. Writing for me, even on days when the words don’t flow, is the chance to deep dive into my own private world. When I can do this, I’m more able to engage with others, even if only on Zoom right now. Connection is essential – it feeds our thoughts, our heart, our soul. Can you comment on the potential role of literature and the arts in combatting loneliness? Loneliness, I feel, is a lack of connection to ourselves as well as others. The arts, including books,
lift us out of this space. They offer us the chance to immerse ourselves in ‘otherness’ – in worlds that are sometimes similar, sometimes very different from our own. These experiences build insight, and with insight, hopefully, we can create powerful bridges to the world around us. The arts, at their best, stretch us, help broaden our view, embrace difference and grow our humanity. They feed our curiosity, our passion for living, for exploring, celebrating and understanding the other in all its manifestations. Writing itself can be a lonely activity and existence. How can writers maintain connection with others to ward off isolation and loneliness? Writing is about the subtleties of seeing and hearing, about making sense of our world. I love the quiet
INTERVIEW
joy of working with my hands – tending my balcony garden, trying a new recipe, knitting a little – these moments lift me out of my head and any funk I’m in. They feed something deep inside. Outside COVID restrictions, Derek and I like to gather neighbours of all ages and stages together for a casual meal – everyone arrives with a dish and something to tell. Or we head off with friends to a migrant part of Sydney, to sample a humble mum and dad restaurant – with formica tables, wonderful food and stories. I’m also passionate about nature – even if it’s only time out in a city park – when we deepen our connection with nature, we reconnect with life at a profound level, and any sense of separation dissolves. It’s been over ten years since your influential books, What’s Happening to Our Boys and What’s Happening to Our Girls? In that time, what key observations have you made that would be important if you were writing the book now? We still see boys as problematic, which is sad. We need to tap more powerfully into what boys need – to offer them ways to be useful, to count. One rural community had some adolescent boys constantly in trouble. Everyone despaired, until a tradie suggested they work with these boys to restore a derelict heritage home. This experience changed the boys’ lives. While learning valuable skills, they were surrounded by good, solid men, and doing something tangible to make a difference. Too many of our kids are immersed in shallow stories – in sitcoms, on social media and elsewhere. This banal fare has ramped up in recent years.
We have a whole generation who have grown up on their devices, spending their days holed up in their bedrooms, and now reporting real loneliness. With poor social skills to fall back on, they struggle with leaving home and unstructured study, and find workplace cultures hard to navigate.
aspirations. Every sentence must speak to these qualities.
Looking back, can you tell us a little about the mission and ethos of the Inspired Living imprint you oversaw for Allen & Unwin? Do you think the gap that imprint filled is being served today?
Our language must be effortless. Frequently, non-fiction writers fall back on jargon or pet phrases, making their text hard work and/or mind-numbingly repetitive.
Inspired Living was a joy to work on, focusing in on popular psychology, spirituality, and complementary health titles. Smaller publishing houses are now coming to the fore, and mainstream publishers will also pick up occasional titles in these areas. Self-publishing is flourishing. However, I wouldn’t advise writers down this route, unless they have a ready market for their book, and are prepared to put in the work publicising and marketing their book near and far. There are new models such as Write With Me, where Jane Turner edits and lays out a manuscript, preps writers for talks and media, provides print-on-demand and ebook options, then sets the author up with online portals where their self-published works can be bought worldwide.
Frequently writers want to impart everything they know – leaving readers drowning in information. Or they’re so passionate, they tell readers what to think, rather than creating a landscape of discovery.
Finally, what writing projects are you working on at the moment? My new book – What Happens to Us, Our Kids, When We Fail to Grow Up – looks to the future. It examines the complexities of juvenile behaviour across all age groups –where these behaviours originate, and what happens to us and emerging generations, when we have a toxic relationship to happiness and success, when we’re careless in our relationships, with the truth, with the underprivileged, with our resources, preferring to let others do the heavy lifting, rather than engage with key issues of the day. It will be published by Affirm next year. BS
You recently gave a Zoom workshop for Byron Writers Festival on non-fiction writing. Can you give a summary of the key points from that? It’s not enough to have something to write about – be it a cutting-edge issue, memoir, an inspirational offering or expert help. We must understand the minds and hearts of our readers – their anxieties and
When We Become Strangers is published by Murdoch Books.
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Jesse Blackadder
Young writer awards: The winners This year, Byron Writers Festival hosted two writing competitions, The Susie Warrick Young Writers Award and The Jesse Blackadder Prize. These competitions celebrate the art of the short story, encouraging aspiring young writers in years 5-12 who reside within the Byron Writers Festival footprint to pursue and explore their talents. Students were asked to write a short story on any theme from 500 to 1000 words, depending on the age category. Overall, we received over 130 submissions and were taken aback by the creativity, originality and talent of the young writers in our region. Judging was difficult with many competitive submissions. Those who submitted deserve to be very proud of themselves! It is with great pleasure that we share the first-place stories with you on the following pages. Runner-up stories can be found at the Byron Writers Festival blog.
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Susie Warrick Young Writers Award Susie Warrick was a much-loved staff member at the Northern Rivers Writers Centre (now Byron Writers Festival). This award celebrates the art of the short story and supports emerging young writers in furthering their career with a $500 cash prize for first place per category. Prize Category 1 (year 10-12) First place: ‘Nipotino’ by Luisa Santucci Runner up: ‘I Do Not Know Which to Prefer’ by Saoirse Chu Prize Category 2 (year 7-9) First place: ‘The Hunter’ by Floyd Whitaker Runner-up: ‘The Alley’ by Elise Nikkinen
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Nipotino By Luisa Santucci
The front door is made of strong straight grained chestnut lumber and carries the characters ‘1726 FC’ etched deep into the gray stone lintel. Nipotino is only small. Too small to read and write. He wouldn’t know until decades later that ‘FC’ betokened Franco Croce, his grandfather and brothers’ name. Nonna kisses each cheek, she talks loud and fast, her harsh dialectal cadence, breathes hot into Nipotino’s cold ears. Someone is sick. That’s why they’ve come. From home on their farm, onto the plane, onto the bus, to arrive here. This is the first time they have met. The first of only three. Thirty-two years later, Nipotino will have a new born daughter and it will be her first time meeting Nonna. The only time. Later, Nipotino is gifted a bright tangerine tricycle. He has never ridden one before. Drunk with glee, he pedals through every room in the house and at the ankles of every zio and zia he can find. Nonno is sick. He lays in bed all day, in a room upstairs. Nipotino lies by his side. Listening. Talking. Being told stories: of a greedy piglet who refused to listen to his mother and ate so much salami that he grew as fat as his shed; of a chicken who laid golden eggs; of the family who hid their sheep in the roof to avoid town taxes. Sometimes Nipotino climbs down from the bed to ride around in circles. Nonno laughs weakly at him as he grumbles softly like the engine of a mopehead, tracing an invisible road, swerving from invisible pedestrians. When Nonna climbs the stairs bringing with her the sweet aromas from the kitchen, she berates Nipotino cruelly for riding inside. Her rough scratchy hands hoist him up off the tricycle by his arms and onto the icy terrazzo floor. Her firm footsteps mask Nipotino’s complaints, as she lugs the tricycle downstairs, away from Nonno’s gentle reassurances that there was no harm done. Across the cobblestone kitchen floor, past the table where women bicker noisily whilst making yolk-yellow pasta,
and out the narrow back door, Nonna marches far into the yard, gleaming tricycle in hand. Nipotino cries angrily trailing behind, his scrunched little fists beating against the back of her legs. Abruptly she stops outside the cellar door and Nipotino tumbles into her, leaving a sodden tear stamp on her dark handwoven cotton dress. Furious, Nonna drops the tricycle to the ground. Clunk. She wrenches the iron latch upwards, and the door swings silently open. Inside, prosciuttos hang claret and curing from the roof, apples rest red and saccharine on shelves next to bottled tomatoes and sweet fermenting wine. Trembling with anger Nipotino shoves Nonna from behind and she stumbles into the cellar. He slams shut the heavy timber door and lets the latch fall. Silence. Then the terrifying thumping from within begins, rattling the door in its hinges. Hastily Nipotino mounts his tangerine tricycle and pedals away. Later that day, when Mama can’t find Nonna, Nipotino says he will help look and rides ahead of her calling out for Nonna. Soon the whole family is searching for Nonna. When finally she is found, her incensed barking can be heard from anywhere in the house and makes Nipotino quiver like a bug tangled in the delicate filaments of a spider's web. Nipotino pedals arduously through the hall, out the open front door and down the cobblestones of the quant main street. His chest pounding knowing the beating he’s bound to get from more than just Nonna. Glancing over his shoulder he sees a raging Nonna chasing after him and he wonders how someone so old can run so fast. Helplessly, knowing he’ll be punished, he lowers his head, squints his eyes and flies down the street, a smile plastered to his face.
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Young writer awards: The winners The Hunter By Floyd Whitaker
Is it really seven o’clock already? Slowly opening my eyes, I look around my dark bedroom. The sun won't be up for hours. I smile at the Starbucks girl when ordering my coffee, she always gives me a little extra. I sit down in a booth, in the corner, facing the window. I watch the cars hover by, generating low buzzes that subtly rattle the cafe. Rain begins to fall from the sky onto the street as the girl delivers me my beverage. She's drawn my name with a heart next to it. I check my phone, the numbers at the top tell me I have 20 minutes left until I need to clock in. I get up to leave and smile at the girl as I walk out the door. Newspapers and magazines litter the city streets, signs advertising the 2042 Superbowl hang askew from street lamps and bus stops. It's always raining in the city, something to do with the pollution, the scientists say. The buildings grow taller as I round a bend and start along 33rd street. I cross the road and enter the building. I step into the elevator and press the button for the 56th floor. The elevator launches up and reaches the floor in seconds. ‘We’ve found one,’ says my boss, as I walk into his office. ‘What, really?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I thought we found the last of them years ago?’ ‘We missed one.’ I move my head up and down to show that I understand the situation as he gives me orders. My job consists of tracking down and exterminating the last of the androids – artificial humans used for manual
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labour, who decided that they didn't want to work anymore. In 2039 they went awol, developed their own ideas and opinions. When they tried to overthrow the congress, that was when we knew that they had to be stopped. Our goal is to find them and deactivate them, by any means necessary. We are known as ‘Hunters’. The company issued patrol cruiser hovers out of the underground lot and onto the street. The android’s address appears on the display and I floor it down the quiet streets. The screen tells me they won't be home for hours. I pull up at a dilapidated highrise apartment building, five districts across the city. The whole thing seems awfully still, too still. I wait in the cruiser. A taxi pulls over, a hooded girl in a rain jacket steps out. She pays the driver and makes a beeline for the building. My radar scanner reads that she's an android, and she matches the description issued. I grab my trench coat, open the cruiser door and walk behind her as it begins to snow, trying not to look obvious. I enter the building as the elevator door shuts and I hear the motors grind as it launches up. I enter the second elevator and exit onto her floor, just in time to see her enter the apartment. With my hand on my holster I bang on the door with my fist five times. I hear the metal chain rattle and come loose and then the electronic lock rotates open. She opens the door ajar. In awe I drop my firearm onto the ground and pull the door shut. I let out a long deep sigh and bury my face in my hands. ‘No, no, no. Why her?’ I whisper. She opens the door again and looks at me. ‘Hi?’ she says. I say nothing. A car goes by in the distance followed by
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the low rumble of thunder. ‘Come in, come in,’ she says and I follow her inside. I sit down on a couch as she brings me a coffee. ‘So what brings you here?’ She asks. I fake a smile. ‘Well…’ I start. ‘Well I thought I might as well drop by while I happened to be in the area.’ ‘How did you get my address, more importantly,’ she says sheepishly. I gulp as she puts her hand behind her back as if to retrieve something. ‘You’re a Hunter, aren’t you,’ she says. I say nothing. Her arm snaps forward revealing a six-shooter and fires a bullet towards me. I jump backwards and fall into a heap behind the couch. Bullets fly past me. They stop after six shots. She wasn't counting her bullets. I leap up from behind the couch and send two shots into her face. Feathers and smoke fill the air as the android falls to the ground. I mark something on my wrist display and stare down at the Starbucks girl. Her fingers twitch in small spasms as her systems shut down. Starbucks tastes different after yesterday. Maybe it was the lack of friendliness from the staff, or maybe it was the smaller portion of coffee. Despite my thoughts, deep down I know what was done had to be done.
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Young writer awards: The winners The Jesse Blackadder Prize The Jesse Blackadder Prize was created in 2020 in memory of Jesse Blackadder (pictured), cherished Board member, author and founder of Byron Writers Festival’s StoryBoard program. This prize celebrates creativity and imagination in Stage 3 writers with a $300 cash prize for first place. Prize Category (year 5-6) First place: ‘Allegro Presto’ by Edith Barber Runner up: ‘The Thief’ by Caleb Scherrer
Allegro Presto By Edith Barber Sitting solemnly in his chair, he slowly butters his toast, hands shaking, barely able to hold the knife securely. Dappled morning light shines down on his kitchen table revealing the neatly arranged condiments and the blue plastic table cover, largely untouched. On the right side of the circular table stands a singular oak chair. Also upon the table is one lace placemat which holds his cutlery, old and antique. The sparse belongings of the kitchen all have a place, tucked away neatly and organised in drawers, not a dish in sight. After he finishes his toast, he slowly hoists himself up, a prolonged action, completely reliant on his walking frame, before shuffling to the sink and hand washing his plate with great effort. He picks the crumbs off one by one, and slowly rubs a cloth along the rim of the plate till it shines. A pungent smell emerges from his teapot, like lavender and garden clippings. He pours the tea into a china cup and sips it slowly, still standing at the sink, looking through the lace curtains out into the yard. There is a quiet hum from the refrigerator, as he finishes his tea.
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The chime of the grandfather clock echoes down the hallway, past hanging framed photos of distant memories. The grand chimes strike nine times and fill every room in the house. The lounge room with nothing but an ancient television and a Lazyboy armchair, where he sits in silence and despondency every day. The formal dining room where the cabinet filled with precious crockery from Maude is left untouched, unblemished and unused since she left. The smell of mould and mothballs reek through the house and he was simply relieved no one came to stay. It had been that way forever. He readjusts his immaculately made bed in his antediluvian room. There are no cushions or fancy decorations, just a bed, a cupboard, and singular hanging pendant, its tired blue shade a reminder of the past. In due course, he makes his way steadily to the front door, before staring out through the screen to the letterbox. “It could do with a lick of paint,” he thinks to himself, though when was the last time he was caught painting? Maude would be mad with this. With nothing
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else to do, he trots to his armchair and lowers himself down with a sigh. The day slips past, as he sits despondently. A regular, reliable ticking comes from the grandfather clock and it chimes every so often. Resting in his armchair, the old man hopelessly stares through the window, or across his familiar room, wherever he looks, he only sees blue. Shadows lengthen and haunt his room, making it seem obsolete. Blue hues dance across his room and fall in heavy shadows across the drab carpet. He sits glumly in his armchair and slowly nods off. Blue. Blue is all he sees. It’s even in his dreams. It’s all he’s seen since forever. He is awoken by a noise... a saxophone it seems. The sweet tune reverberates into a crescendo before adjusting the volume to mezzo forte. The mellifluous piece, an unusual intruder, echoes through his house like the grandfather clock. The saxophone plays ‘Careless Whisper’ sparking a memory. It carries the tune so well and persecutes it with passion.
Suddenly, colour seeps into his world and he notices the simple dazzling vibrancy in his front yard as he sways in time to the music. The mauve hydrangeas which Maude planted long ago: he observes they are fully bloomed and bright. The late afternoon sun tinges the sky a brilliant pink and small patches of sunlight glint off surrounding windows. The oncoming twilight creates an excitement in the air which seems to come alive with insects and encircle the old man, still on his front path, swaying. The late afternoon sky now turns a shade of vermillion before allowing the stars to shine luminously. He notices it all while swaying to the music. Neighbours’ faces appear at windows or front doors, also intrigued by this soothing melody. Splendid colour leaks into his once blue world, as the music continues. His grin widens.
Fully intrigued now, he gets up and walks to the front door: an effort. He follows the splendid sound. Carefully and methodically he makes his way down the front steps of his little house. He can’t remember the last time he ventured far. He continues to follow the tune, the one that enticed him to wander outside. It’s magical. Absolutely magical. His new neighbour, the one he has been observing from his kitchen window, is standing on her doorstep, playing music for him! She gives a little wave in between the notes. He is gripped by a smile. It spreads slowly across his face and he cups his hands into a wary clap or is it a wave in return? He sways uneasily on his legs to the music, abandoning his walker.
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SCU
A showcase of SCU student work, compiled by Dr Emma Doolan
Dimensions
Departure
Leisa Hawkey
Like the tiny bird who swallows a stone, struggling alone in a sea of sparklers, dipping into a silent space. Your fight from this world to the next so divine a weight, white-fisted clouds dab at the ocean’s eye.
Google Earth flew me back to my old neighbourhood. Where the past, seemed so safe from the sky. Where my simple life complicated. Where the backyard pool is no more, and the blue roof is stained brown. When you left that night my heart shook. My tiny world split. Roaring silently into before and after. Everything became about that moment. In the cul-de-sac, that dead end, that night you flew away.
Leisa Hawkey is a second-year Bachelor of Arts student majoring in Creative Writing. Originally from Brisbane, Leisa moved to the Northern Rivers in 1991 and now housesits fulltime with her twelve-year-old Labrador, Reg. In between yoga and beach walks, Leisa spends her time studying and writing creative nonfiction and poetry.
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FEATURE
My fire story Local author Jarrah Dundler reflects upon his new project helping communities come to terms with the trauma of the 2019 bushfires.
It was November 2019, smoke from bushfires burning across the Northern Rivers blanketed our town, and I was on the phone talking to my partner about socks. ‘Socks? What socks?’ ‘The random ones,’ she almost shouted. ‘Under the laundry sink. Fill them with sand. If a fire starts on Fairymount chuck them in the downpipes and fill the gutters with water from the hose.’ I got to it, not 100 per cent sure if I was doing the right thing. We’d lived in Kyogle half our lives but had never faced the threat of bushfires before. I don’t know how real the threat was, but with all that smoke and the bush behind our house so brown and dry, it looked like a tiny spark would make the whole thing go ka-boom, it certainly felt real. Thankfully, the fires didn’t come to us on that day, or at all during Black Summer. Now, almost two years on from what feels like my ‘fire story’, I’ve just begun working on a project with Kyogle Family Support Services putting together a book on the experiences of people who were impacted by those fires. Firefighters who faced unprecedented conditions. People who lost their homes. Volunteers who looked after injured wildlife. Over the last two years, professionally, I’ve worn two hats. One, my writing hat, and the other, my community services hat, holding part-time jobs in mental health, disability, drug harm-min, and emergency services. And as I started off on this project, I slapped on my writing hat and started reading up on the fires, taking notes, talking to people, and lining up interviews. An idea of the final product, the book, started shaping in my mind. A weave of interviews, stats and facts and figures. Not so much academic, but weighty. But, every now and then a question would arise. How could I make sure people involved were supported through the process, that it didn’t re-traumatise them? Could being involved be of actual benefit to people and their recovery? Whose story was this anyway? Searching for answers to these questions lead me to discover and learn about a growing practice called creative recovery, where arts are used to help people
come to terms with natural disasters. To help people make sense of what they’ve been through, provide a catalyst for conversations to occur, and maybe even reframe stories and see them through a different light. I read up about projects happening all over the country, and connected with artists and community workers delivering creative recovery projects across the Northern Rivers. A songwriting workshop for isolated men impacted by the fires. The Lismore Floods Stories project, where participants chucked on a raincoat and gumboots and walked around town with an iPod listening to people’s stories of the 2017 flood. A poetry evening, part of the Rappville Creative project, where locals orated the anecdotes and stories of towns’ rich history, while a bush poet scribbled down notes to weave into a community poem. What all these projects had in common, and for other successful projects I read about from around the country, was the emphasis placed on process. It was viewed equal to, if not more important than, the final product: the exhibition, the book, or the song. The projects all provided opportunities for genuine engagement with people, for people to come together to share their experiences, to heal, to connect. Now, when I’m thinking about the project, I’m thinking more about the process of getting there. Of community storytelling events, writing workshops, call-outs for submissions of photos and writing from community members. And when I picture the end product, the book, it’s more scrapbook, a collation of all these things from community members. And so, as I venture out in this next phase of these projects, I know more often than not, I’m going to be wearing my community services hat, and leaving my writing hat at the door.
This article was originally published by Arts Northern Rivers at artsnorthernrivers.com.au
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REVIEW
Shaky foundations Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement By Henry Reynolds Review by Jenny Bird
Henry Reynolds turned eighty-three this year. An elder statesman of what critics call the ‘black armband’ view of Australian history, his unapologetic response has been ‘better a black armband than a white blindfold’. Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement was released in early 2021, Reynolds’ seventeenth book on the history of Australia’s frontier wars, race relations and sovereignty. Despite being thoroughly reviewed at the time, in the ensuing months it has not garnered the level of public attention and debate that, say, Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu has. Yet its subject – the legal (or not) foundations of colonised Australia, and the opportunity that the Uluru Statement from the Heart offers for reconciliation – could not be more important. It underpins the wounds and dilemmas that Australia still faces as a nation. Truth-Telling reads as a book that Reynolds has been writing towards for forty years – a book that strikes at the very heart of the legal and moral foundations of colonised Australia. It’s not a pretty story, and it makes for uncomfortable reading, but it is revelatory and compelling. It rips off another blindfold and deserves to be kept alive in our public discourse. The core questions that Reynolds asks us to consider in Truth Telling are these: did Britain ever actually gain sovereignty over Australia? If they did, how and when did it happen, and when did First Nations peoples lose it? Did they lose it? Did the British see First Nations people as subjects of the British Crown or were they enemies of the state? In their eyes, were the frontier wars legitimate wars or extrajudicial massacres? What are some of the modern-day consequences and challenges that result? What role can the Uluru 22 | SUMMER 2022 northerly
Statement with its claims for Voice, Truth and Treaty play in reconciling our past? Critics of Reynolds claim that he applies modern-day legal and moral standards to judge events of the past, and that this is unfair. Truth-Telling is a purposeful response to that criticism. It is a detailed analysis of the legal, political and philosophical thinking in 17th-19th century Europe and Britain. It shows how European colonial empires defined sovereignty, and the ‘just and proper’ terms for its transfer under colonial expansion. He locates the colonisation of Australia within the legal and moral norms of the time and compares what happened here with what happened in other colonies like New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America. Reynolds says, quite simply, that ‘the British messed up the colonisation of Australia’. He leaves the question of whether there is any such thing as a ‘good’ way to colonise an inhabited country for others to debate, and has been criticised for it. In the first half of Truth-Telling he lays out the evidence that the manner in which Australia was colonised was an exception and contravened eighteenth-century international law, the moral codes of the time, and colonisation practices in other parts of the world. What happened here did not go unnoticed by the humanitarian and the antislavery abolitionist movement of the early nineteenth century. Philosopher, jurist and social reformer Jeremy Bentham warned the British government about Australia: ‘because there were no treaties there is a fundamental flaw that will never go away.’ Yet the British government’s nothing-to-see-here response
REVIEW
created a legal and moral vacuum around the question of sovereignty. Reynolds reminds us that history is made in small moments and so often swings on the character and foibles of particular individuals. He takes us back to London in 1785 when Joseph Banks, the botanist and aristocrat who had sailed with Cook along the east coast of Australia in 1770, gave evidence to the Commons Committee on Transportation. Britain had lost the American War of Independence just two years earlier and needed to find new territory for their penal colonies. Banks, who could only make short coastal botanical field trips on foot from the Endeavour, ‘took the liberty to conjecture’ that the inland of Australia was uninhabited. In his opinion, without having seen it, it could not sustain life. Reynolds describes this as a ‘truly portentous assumption’, upon which the British government proceeded to draw up its instructions for Arthur Phillip to claim the whole eastern half of the continent in the name of the British Crown. Then, from the moment that the First Fleet arrived and for the next 50-70 years, the Colonial Office ignored every report to the contrary that arrived from the colony. There were people – both on the coast and inland. They had distinct territories which they fought to defend. They spoke many different languages and had clear lines of authority, governance and social organisation. But the shaky foundations upon which Australia sits were laid, and all its tragic consequences unfurled. In Part Two of Truth-Telling Reynolds pulls his lens back to the present to a set of issues that are direct consequences of the history laid out in Part One. He tackles the Australia Day debate that grows and divides
every year and will not go away. He asks the question, ‘was the colonisation of Australia a settlement, a conquest or something else?’ For colonisers there are only two courses of action through which to establish sovereignty – conquest through warfare (to which the laws of war apply) or treaty-making with the nations that were being colonised. In Australia neither happened. He asks why we are unable to memorialise and commemorate the heroism and loss of life of the frontier wars as we do for the ANZACs. He highlights the particularly brutal story of Queensland and asks how it is that someone like Samuel Walker Griffith, whose decades of political life in Queensland spanned the worst crimes of its frontier history, could have an electorate, a suburb, a university and a respected journal named after him. He asks the same questions about the legacies of Sir John Forrest in Western Australia and Sir John Downer in South Australia. And he explains how and why the landmark Mabo decision focused necessarily on land, not sovereignty. Reynolds considers The Uluru Statement from the Heart to be the most important constitutional statement of our time, an ‘eloquent and thoroughly memorable document – an offer to white Australia to come to terms with the past.’ Whilst slow progress is currently being made on a voice to parliament, and the Victorian government has established the first truth-telling process in the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission, on the deepest question of sovereignty there is a great silence. Reynolds believes that despite its casual dismissal by the federal government, ‘we haven’t heard the end’ of The Uluru Statement from the Heart. NewSouth / 288pp / RRP $34.99
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FEATURE
Cream of the crop: 2021 YA fiction in review In a year of lockdowns, deep cleans and social distancing, you can be forgiven for missing some of the great Aussie fiction for young people that has been published. Local writer and young-adult fiction lover, Polly Jude, takes us through some of her favourite YA novels of 2021.
100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze
Low Expectations by Stuart Everly-Wilson
by Gabrielle Williams Xander is devastated when he finds out his Nanna (his best friend) has Stage 4 cancer. She only has a few months to live. Xander’s frustrated. There’s nothing he can do to save her. Then his Nanna makes him write a list. Xander’s list of 100 remarkable feats drives him to make new friends, get the courage to ask out Ally Collins, to take chances and to find a new way forward. Xander’s quest to achieve all the feats on his list coincides with the disappearance of local schoolboy, Sean Emerson. When Xander sets out to find Sean in the national park where he’s thought to be hiding, Xander has no idea how their lives will be changed forever. 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze is a beautifully written, hopeful story about compassion, acceptance and survival. With his unique narrative style, Comber has given Xander a loveable voice that will melt your heart. This coming of age, pay-it-forward rom-com is going to be a crowd-pleaser. Mums will love it, young adults (especially girls) will love it and if you can read this without crying happy and/or sad tears, you should see a doctor! Harper Collins / 304pp / RRP $19.99
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Fifteen-year-old Devon Destri is a young man in hiding. Devon’s let the whole world think he can’t talk, that he’s ‘hard of speaking’ and that his cerebral palsy makes him stupid. But Devon is smarter than they all know. Set in gritty industrial Western Sydney in 1975, Low Expectations covers a tough year for Devon and for fashion. He loves David Bowie and it’s yet another thing that separates him from the conservative, workingclass world he lives in. Devon’s nearly at the end of high school and a lifetime of secrets are about to catch up with him and his mum. While not strictly marketed as YA, this one will appeal to the adults who can’t get enough YA fiction. It is fastpaced, funny and so clever it hurts. Low Expectations explores a number of confronting issues including rape and sexual abuse, domestic violence, bullying, living with disability and sexuality. Devon is on a hero’s journey to save himself and his best friend, Big Tammy. Their story is one of overcoming adversity and defying the odds. Devon is the YA hero we needed in 2021. Text Publishing / 320pp / RRP $32.99
FEATURE
Dark Rise
The Break
by C.S. Pacat
by Phillip Gwynne
Sixteen-year-old dock boy, Will, has been on the run and in hiding since his mother was murdered. As Will stumbles into an unknown world of old magic, the wars between the Light and the Dark, and the Stewards set to save the secrets and protect the future, he begins to learn about the old magic and the secrets his mother died trying to protect.
Growing up on the gorgeous and iconic Bali surf scene, Taj’s life was every surfer’s dream. Until the day, ten years ago, when his father was arrested for trying to smuggle drugs into Bali. Since then, with his dad on death row, Taj’s life has been on hold.
His epic adventure takes Will from the grimy London docks to live with the Stewards in their mysterious old world. Not only does Will have to work out how to unlock his magic before the Dark King’s return, he’s trying to work out what it has to do with his mother and why she died trying to protect him. Fast-paced and gripping, Dark Rise will have you hooked from the opening pages. The worst part is going to be the long wait for the second book in the trilogy. Dark Rise will appeal to any young readers who have enjoyed C.S. Pacat’s other work. It has the same fast action her fans have come to know and love. The quick pace will appeal to both male and female readers. Allen and Unwin / 464pp/ RRP $19.99
But when the date for his father’s execution is set, they’ve run out of options. Taj is unable to accept this fate and instead, comes up with a daring plan to break his father out of Bali’s infamous Kerobokan Prison. The plan looks like it might even work, until mother nature steps in and all flights in and out of Bali are cancelled when a volcano erupts. Taj and his father are on the run. The deadly chase across Indonesia reveals dark secrets about his family, his girlfriend and the kick-arse chick he’s falling for. The Break is a fast-paced action read that will hook even the most reluctant YA reader. Phillip Gwynne has received critical acclaim for his previous works, Deadly Unna? and Nukkin Ya. The Break will appeal to readers with a short attention span. This is a whirlwind ride, so buckle up and hold on! Penguin / 384pp / RRP $19.99
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FEATURE
Social Queue by Kay Kerr
Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna Teen relationships can be, well, complicated. That’s certainly the case for Rosa and her best friend, Asheeka. Frustrated by the roles they’ve somehow found themselves playing in their own lives, the mates make a rash decision after a nude is leaked online. They take Asheeka’s boyfriend’s car for a ride. But when the joke stops being funny, they keep driving. Their road trip across NSW sees them learning more about themselves and each other. Rosa and Asheeka are forced to face the realities of their choices, to explore the social issues facing young women and what pushed them to go on the run in the first place. When Asheeka disappears, Rosa is the only one to face the music. Now in juvenile detention, Rosa is asked to write down her story and she paints a very different picture to the version of events presented in court. The characters are real, gritty and they make terrible mistakes, just like the rest of us. The frustratingly powerless position of young women in the modern world is heartbreaking. Rosa’s Thelma and Louise moment offers hope for a better life and reminds us of the enduring power of the sisterhood. Female YA readers and their mums will enjoy this one. Pan Macmillan / 304pp / RRP $18.99
Zoe Kelly is embracing a whole new stage in life. She’s just finished high school and while her best mate is enjoying a gap year overseas, Zoe is starting uni and has an internship at Bubble, one of Brisbane’s most successful online media companies. Her first writing assignment leads her right back to high school and the traumas that went with years of bullying. But the assignment leaves Zoe wondering if she might have been missing the signs all along. Years of miscommunication, misreads and misunderstanding are now catching up with her and she’s taking a closer look at the boys from her past. What follows are a series of terrible dates, and some sweet ones. Zoe explores her own sexuality and spoiler alert, finds love in unexpected places. It’s a romcom with a unique and engaging voice that is easily relatable, because let’s face it, reading the signs of love can be a minefield at the best of times. This novel is about an autistic teen trying to decipher confusing love rituals. Social Queue offers a valuable insight into the lives of those on the spectrum. It’s funny and heart-warming and will appeal to readers who enjoyed Kerr’s first novel, Please Don’t Hug Me. Penguin / 352pp / RRP $19.99
Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden Luca has trained his whole life and is ready to audition for the Australian Ballet, when one missed step sees his life thrown into chaos. He loses his scholarship at his fancy school and is sent to public school where there’s a whole different set of rules and without ballet, he doesn’t even know who he is anymore. The broken foot leads him to an occupational therapist where he finds a beautiful stranger waiting for him. Jordan is the rowing captain and hero. Everyone says he’s straight, but Luca’s not so sure. Anything But Fine is about love, loss, friendship and picking up the pieces. When all seems lost, Luca finds the true grit required to make a name for himself. It explores social issues including bullying, sexuality, homophobia and overcoming adversity with care and empathy. Penguin / 352pp / RRP $19.99
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WORKSHOPS
ART MAKER
Elements of a Story
Year of the Memoir
with Tristan Bancks
with Chris Raja
with Alan Close
TUES 11 JAN
WED 16 & 23 FEB
12 X WEDNESDAYS
9.30am – 12.30pm Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre $35 Suitable for children and young people 8-13 years Join children's author Tristan Bancks for a creative writing workshop inspired by Michael Candy’s artwork Little Sunfish on display at Tweed Regional Gallery from 10 December as part of the Experimenta Life Forms: International Triennial of Media Art.
1PM – 3PM Online via Zoom $120 / $100 Members & Students How do you write a book? In this workshop, Christopher Raja draws upon his experiences as a teacher, playwright, novelist and memoirist to help others develop as attentive and empathetic writers and readers. Chris will lead participants through the key elements of a story, from setting and character development, to first lines, plot summary, genre and re-drafting.
TERM 1: 2, 9, 16 & 23 MAR TERM 2: 1, 8, 15 & 22 JUN TERM 3: 7, 14, 21 & 28 SEPT 6pm – 8pm Hybrid format: in-person at the Byron Writers Festival office with remote attendance option available $1050 / $950 Members & Students Join author Alan Close for three terms of writing classes spread over the year. During each term, the small group will meet for four two-hour workshops, with short YouTube lectures uploaded between sessions. Alan Close has been writing for over forty years, during which time he has published fiction, poetry, short stories and creative non-fiction.
Writing for the Screen
Writing Picture Books
with Benjamin Gilmour
with Zanni Louise
SAT 12 MAR
SAT 2 APR
10.00AM — 4.00PM Byron Writers Festival office $120/100 Members & Students Writer/director Benjamin Gilmour, whose script for his feature film Jirga won the 2019 NSW Premier’s Prize for Scriptwriting, hosts a workshop on the art of screenwriting. Participants will explore the growing of ideas, the importance of story, character development and structure. This workshop will provide skills required to work towards the first draft of a screenplay.
10.00AM — 4.00PM Byron Writers Festival office $120/100 Members & Students In this fun one-day workshop, Zanni introduces you to the magical world of picture books. Develop characters, a storyline and explore literary and editing techniques. Also learn how to get published. Based in Alstonville, Zanni Louise is author of over twenty-five books for kids including bestselling picture books, Human-Kind and Errol.
For workshop details and to register visit byronwritersfestival.com/ whats-on northerly SUMMER 2022 | 27
COMPETITIONS
Competitions COPYRIGHT AGENCY FIRST NATIONS FELLOWSHIPS
THE KEMBLA FLAME WRITTEN BUSH POETRY COMPETITION
FLASH 500 SHORT STORY COMPETITION
Closing date: 15 December Five fellowships, including accommodation, all meals, travel expenses and manuscript consultations, are awarded to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers from anywhere in Australia. This fellowship program is open to writers of all genres and submissions in language are welcomed. Residency will take place in June 2022. More details: varuna.com.au/ fellowships/firstnations
Closing date:24 December Entries of bush poetry with consistent rhyme and meter are invited to this competition, which offers $300 prize money or the winner of the Open section. There are also Novice and Junior categories, offering prize money of $100 each. Subject of poems must be an Australian theme of some kind. Entry fee is $6 per poem or three for $10. More details: abpa.org.au/events/
Closing date: 28 February This British competition is seeking entries of short stories between 1,000 and 3,000 words in length. The competition is on an open theme and accepts stories written for or by children. There is an entry fee of £7 per story with discounted rates for multiple entries. First prize wins £500. Entrants have the option of a critique at $25 per story. More details: flash500.com/short-stories/
DJILLONG SHORT STORY COMPETITION
THE MOTH POETRY PRIZE Closing date: 31 December One of the most prestigious prizes in the world for a single unpublished poem, The Moth Poetry Prize is open to anyone over the age of sixteen. The winner takes €6,000 and entry fee is €15 per poem. The judge this year is British-Somali poet Warsan Shire. Poems can be of any length and on any subject. More details: themothmagazine.com/ a1-page.asp?ID=8466&page=18
MINDS SHINE BRIGHT WRITING COMPETITION
Closing date: 15 December Organised by Geelong Writers, this competition invites entries of short stories of between 3,000 and 5,000 words on an open theme. First prize wins $1,000, second prize $400 and third prize $200, and there is an entry fee of $20 per story. Winners announced in February. More details: geelongwriters.org.au/ competitions/
HAWKEYE PUBLISHING MANUSCRIPT DEVELOPMENT PRIZE 2022 Closing date: 17 December Manuscripts of up to 80,000 words are invited for a prize that offers the possibility of publication along with structural editing, author coaching and line editing. Open to writers of adult fiction and YA fiction. Applicants must be 18 or over, and there is an entry fee of $45. More details: hawkeyebooks.com. au/writing-competitions/hawkeyepublishing-manuscript-developmentpublication-prize-2020/
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AMSTERDAM OPEN BOOK PRIZE Closing date: 31 December Open to writers across the globe, Amsterdam Open Book Prize is seeking book manuscripts of chapbook length or full-length, in poetry, fiction, short fiction, non-fiction or more. Entries should be between twenty-five and eighty pages. A number of options for paying entry fees are available. More details: versaljournal.org
MOGFORD PRIZE FOR FOOD AND DRINK WRITING Closing date: 12 January A UK-based competition, the Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing seeks short stories of up to 2,500 words on a theme of food and drink. The winning story earns its author £10,000; judges are Michael Morpurgo and Andi Oliver. Entry fee is £15, and entrants must be aged over 18. More details: mogfordprize.co.uk
Closing date: 28 February This competition invites entries for four categories: short stories, flash fiction, poetry and script writing. An overall winner wins $1,000, with the winner of each category winning $500, and there are also publication opportunities. Authors must write to a theme of ‘confidence’. An entry fee of $5 per piece applies. See website for word limits in each category. More details: mindsshinebright.com
2022 HEROINES ANTHOLOGY/ JOYCE PARKES WOMEN'S WRITING PRIZE Closing date: 28 February The 2022 Heroines Women’s Anthology/ Joyce Parkes Women’s Writing Prize is seeking submissions of short fiction and poetry. The anthology is a collection of stories and poems written by women about women. First prize for both categories wins $1,000. Submission fee per piece is $15. More details: theneoperennialpress.com
Listen now
A WEEKLY PODCAST FROM THE PUBLISHER OF THE MONTHLY AND THE SATURDAY PAPER
Advertise with us! SUPPORT NORTHERLY northerly is the official magazine of Byron Writers Festival. Published quarterly in March, June, September and December, it is widely distributed to members, community organisations, libraries, universities, schools, festivals, publishers and bookshops throughout the Northern Rivers and beyond. Designed to be picked up, put down, passed around, dog-eared and scribbled on, northerly reaches a highly engaged readership of discerning arts enthusiasts. Deals and discounts available. To discuss your advertising needs, contact us on (02) 6685 5115 or email northerlyeditor@gmail.com
2022 Membership Drive
Love the arts?
A Byron Writers Festival membership directly contributes to our regional arts community, making it possible for us to deliver a diverse, year-round program that supports Australian writers and creatives. Join or renew throughout February for your chance to win incredible prizes!
All 2021 memberships expire on 28 February 2022 For details and to join visit byronwritersfestival.com/ members
