northerly jul-aug 2017

northerly By ron Writers Festival Magazine

July-August 2017

· FESTIVAL EDITION · JOCK SERONG · MELISSA ASHLEY · STEVEN LANG · HEATHER TAYLOR JOHNSON MIRANDI RIWOE · NEWS & REVIEWS · FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS · COMPETITIONS

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CONTENTS

>> THIS ISSUE

JULAUG2017 002 Director’s note 003 Residential Mentorship

Carmel Morrison enjoys a week of writing as part of one of Byron Writers Festival's key initiatives

004 News

3

Storyboard momentum continues, ADFAS lectures and more

006 Members' Book Club

Russell Eldridge's Harry Mac proves a hit as July gathering approaches

007 Poem

'Out Back of the Church across the Road' by Heather Taylor Johnson

008 Gimme shelter

A collaboration between Byron Writers Festival and Byron Community Centre is set to raise awareness of homelessness in the region

9

009 Crime waves

Award-winning author and former Residential Mentorship participant Mirandi Riwoe interviewed

010 Crossing genres

Esteemed fiction writer Jock Serong discusses sport, Australian noir, the ocean and more

012 Flight lessons

How Melissa Ashley immersed herself in the life of Elizabeth Gould for her award-winning novel, The Birdman's Wife

10

014 Close to home

Steven Lang on how community action in Maleny inspired his new novel, Hinterland

016 SCU showcase Poetry by Alessandra Salisbury

017 Learning Curve

Laurel Cohn offers advice on structural editing ahead of a Festival workshop

018 What YA Reading?

12

Young-adult fiction reviews with Polly Jude

019 Smoking gun

A new column on crime fiction from local author Colleen O'Brien

021 Festival Workshops 022 Competitions 024 Writers’ group

14

northerly | 001

>>HELLO

Director’s Note It is hard to overstate the collective thrill in the Byron Writers Festival office when the final of many, many proofs of our annual program is completed and heads off to the printer, jam-packed with the promise of more than 130 writers and thinkers whose works are destined to inspire, educate, divert and sometimes even disturb.

The 2017 Festival conversations will bring to life the observation of respected philosopher A.C. Grayling (a regular Byron Bay visitor) whose insight into books and reading poignantly informs this year’s program: 'To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage, which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience Photo: Angela Kay and the fruits of many inquiries.'

This year there are 117 sessions at the main Festival site, where conversations will ebb and flow and spawn insights, memories and tales that inevitably carry far and wide. In addition, we have twenty further events taking place in Byron Bay and across the region. Highlights include David George Haskell talking about nature’s most magnificent networkers, trees; Richard Fidler in conversation at Byron Theatre; a celebration of the late humourist John Clarke at Elements of Byron; a Best of Insiders session with Barrie Cassidy and his cast at Byron Theatre and Jimmy Barnes in conversation at Lennox Head.

The Festival also heralds our annual Writing Workshops program, which this year offers a smorgasbord for existing and aspiring writers – details can be found at www.byronwritersfestival.com or inside this issue of northerly, which incidentally, features Festival authors Jock Serong, Melissa Ashley, Heather Taylor Johnson, Mirandi Riwoe, Steven Lang and Laurel Cohn, along with cover art from children's author and illustrator Sally Rippin.

The Byron Writers Festival Road Trip rides again too, heading west to the beautiful northern tableland towns of Casino, Glen Innes and Tenterfield. Students from this region will be upfront and present with some of this year’s renowned Festival authors and performers. The colourful Byron Writers Festival StoryBoard bus will transport three authors – spoken word artist Miles Merrill and novelists Sophie Green and Jennifer Down – to talk tall tales with young readers and aspiring writers further west.

The anticipation among the Byron Writers Festival team is building daily for what portends to be an amazing August celebration of our twenty-first anniversary. You are warmly invited to share many stimulating and nourishing moments with us at Australia’s largest regional writers’ festival.

For the first time in our history, our Early Bird tickets sold out in just three days, so please don’t delay in buying your Festival tickets – if you haven’t already!

See you in August,

Edwina Johnson Director, Byron Writers Festival

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northerly northerly is the bi-monthly magazine of Byron Writers Festival.

Byron Writers Festival is a non-profit member organisation presenting workshops and events year-round, including the annual Festival.

LOCATION/CONTACT Level 1 28 Jonson Street, Byron Bay P: 02 6685 5115 F: 02 6685 5166 E: info@byronwritersfestival.com W: www.byronwritersfestival.com POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 1846 Byron Bay NSW 2481 EDITOR: Barnaby Smith, northerlyeditor@gmail.com CONTRIBUTORS: Amie Browning, Laurel Cohn, Chris Francis, Polly Jude, Angela Kay, Vicki Lambert, Carmel Morrison, Colleen O'Brien, Sally Rippin, Paul Spooner, Alessandra Salisbury, Heather Taylor Johnson BYRON WRITERS FESTIVAL BOARD CHAIRPERSON Jennifer St George VICE CHAIRPERSON Adam van Kempen SECRETARY Russell Eldridge TREASURER Cheryl Bourne MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Kate Cameron, Marele Day, Lynda Dean, Lynda Hawryluk, Anneli Knight.

LIFE MEMBERS Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin, Gayle Cue, Robert Drewe, Jill Eddington, Chris Hanley, John Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Irene O’Brien, Jennifer Regan, Cherrie Sheldrick, Brenda Shero, Heather Wearne MAIL OUT DATES Magazines are sent in JANUARY, MARCH, MAY, JULY, SEPTEMBER and NOVEMBER MAGAZINE DESIGN Finola Renshaw at Kaboo Media PRINTER Quality Plus Printers Ballina 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 northerlyeditor@gmail.com DISCLAIMER 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 www.byronwritersfestival.com. Sign up for a membership. Stay updated and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. www.facebook.com/byronwritersfestival www.twitter.com/bbwritersfest

Cover image: From Polly and Buster: The Wayward Witch and the Feelings Monster, written and illustrated by Sally Rippin, published by Hardie Grant Egmont

Byron Writers Festival and northerly magazine acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land.

Emerging voices

>> RESIDENTIAL MENTORSHIP

Always one of the highlights on the calendar for Byron Writers Festival, this year's Residential Mentorship proved to be another success. Here Carmel Morrison, one of the four writers selected to participate in the 2017 program, tells the story of an idyllic five days of writing in May under the guidance of Marele Day

The 2017 Residential Mentorship writers. From left: Megan Wynne-Jones, Simon Webster, Carmel Morrison, Polly Jude.

When we moved into our house in Nimbin, having made the break from the madness of the city, I wasn’t a writer, I’d barely written at all since I was at school. My writing started not too long ago. Sitting on the balcony just sketching and thinking, in the mindless way that seems only to happen on Sunday afternoons, when I accidentally wrote myself on to the page. The words almost formed themselves, the prose was simple but honest and I kept going. With my dog sleeping at my feet I stayed put well past the time when the chill in the air and the failing light should have ushered me inside.

Over time a strange thing happened, the beauty of my newfound ‘hippy town’ and its generosity of spirit opened an equally lovely place inside me, somewhere I hadn’t really known existed before and I began to write from that place.

When the real world inevitably interfered it became harder and harder to allow myself the time and space it took to write again. That’s when I read about the Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship. I used their deadline to start writing the forty pages required. I did feel like a bit of a fraud sending in my application but reasoned that I had worked hard and if I wanted to make something of my writing then rejections were all part of it.

When I got the call to say I was accepted, I asked Siobhan from the Festival office if she was joking. In the weeks that followed I made progress with my writing.

I still had some misgivings, which were recognised on the first day of the week-long mentorship, in the

company of the truly inspiring Marele Day, and my three accomplished literary companions. I realised that I had little idea of what an apostrophe was let alone how to use one. But whilst I didn’t have much in the way of technical prowess, what I did have was ‘a voice’ and that made me feel proud. The remedy for my failings turned out to be a crash course in the beauty of the narrative arc, the importance of setting the scene, crafting great second drafts, ‘showing not telling’ and so many other trade secrets passed on by Marele.

As the mentorship progressed, we all grew closer, separated from the outside in a beautiful Yelgun hideaway; the daily visits from Marele ensured our world became a writerly one. I found myself discussing character and plot in my pyjamas with people that had only a couple of days before been strangers. I learned much from my companions. We all worked really hard but we also shared food and wine and laughter – lots of laughter. By the end of the residency we had all fashioned our manuscripts into a form that would have been unthinkable when we started. On the last day, we had lunch with some previous mentees both of whom went on to publish their manuscripts. Hearing about their journeys, I felt inspired to keep writing. At the end of the week I emerged with three new friends, armed with the wisdom of a great mentor and a piece of writing that I could be proud of.

I still don’t feel like I’m a ‘writer’ but I’m starting to believe I could be. northerly | 003

>> NEWS Local author Tristan Bancks works with children as part of Storyboard

StoryBoard volunteer and job call-out

StoryBoard, Byron Writers Festival's travelling creative writing program bringing leading authors and illustrators directly into schools throughout the Northern Rivers region, has gone from strength to strength in 2017. The initiative is now seeking volunteers to help out with this community-based project. If you enjoy working with children and have a passion for creative writing, joining the StoryBoard team could be for you.

Alternatively, maybe you are local who knows the Northern Rivers like the back of your hand? If you have a clean driving licence and are comfortable driving a Mercedes Benz Sprinter, the role of driver could be for you. StoryBoard is looking for a group of drivers willing to transport authors and volunteer tutors out to regional schools. Note this is a casual paid position.

To put your hand up for the voluntary role and the paid driver role, contact coralie@ byronwritersfestival.com or visit www. byronwritersfestival.com/services/storyboard

Vogel success for local The news came in just as the previous issue of northerly had been put to bed that Kyogle author and 2015 Residential Mentorship participant Jarrah Dundler had been shortlisted for The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award, the prestigious national prize for writers under the age of thirty-five, with his manuscript 004 | northerly

Tryst. Jarrah was named on a shortlist of six authors, with the winner announced at a ceremony in Sydney on April 26. Winning this year's Vogel was Marija Pericic for The Last Pages – she receives $20,000 and a publication deal with Allen & Unwin. Congratulations to Jarrah from northerly and Byron Writers Festival.

Ashley takes out ABA prize

Congratulations also to Byron Writers Festival 2017 author Melissa Ashley, whose novel The Birdman's Wife was recently named the winner of the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) Booksellers Choice Award. Ashley was selected from a shortlist of six books by the likes of Richard Fidler, Clementine Ford and Jane Harper. Be sure to hear Melissa at this year's Festival, and turn to page twelve of this issue of northerly to read her thoughts on writing The Birdman's Wife in an enlightening interview.

Double publishing success for Ashmere

Mullumbimby author Emma Ashmere’s short story ‘After the Storm’ was published in the latest Spineless Wonders microlit anthology Landmarks, and is also available to listen to via Soundcloud.

In addition, her short story ‘Lush Life’ has just been published in Press: 100 Love Letters, an anthology of women’s writing from across the Asia Pacific published

by Philippines University Press. Ashmere's debut novel was The Floating Garden (Spinifex Press, 2015), which was shortlisted for the 2016 MUBA prize.

>> NEWS General Dwight D. Eisenhower inspects looted art hidden in a salt mine in Germany. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Fetching costumes and Nazi art for ADFAS

The 2017 series of ADFAS lectures continues as winter draws in, with Monday 10 July hosting Kate Strasdin whose lecture will be titled The Real Downton Abbey: Clothing the Classes 1900-1930. The talk will examine how class has dominated dress over the course of centuries. Using examples of original dress from the period, magazine editorial and contemporary photographs, the importance of dress across the social classes, both upstairs and downstairs, will be discussed.

The lecture on Monday 21 August will be given by Shauna Isaac, and is titled Inside Stories: The Real Stories Behind Nazi Looted Art. It is believed that an astonishing twenty percent of Europe's art was looted by the Nazis, with this lecture looking at some of the most famous pieces that were subjected to this treatment including works by Van Gogh and Picasso.

Both lectures start at 6:30pm at the A&I Hall in Bangalow.

Doors open at 6pm, with guest welcome at $25 per person, including wine and a light supper.

Comedian devours Infinite Jest

An American comedian is taking consumption of literature to new lengths, by literally eating her copy of David Foster Wallace's 1,000page novel Infinite Jest at a rate of one page a day.

For more than a year, Jamie Loftus of Los Angeles has been munching her way through the book and documenting her exploits on social media. Her 'project' is a protest, of sorts, or more accurately a lampooning, of the fact that Infinite Jest for many people has achieved a mythical status among young white men. So far, Loftus has enjoyed Infinite Jest in a sandwich and dipped it in coffee, among other ways of consuming the 1996 book.

War veteran and author drops into Ballina

Ballina Library will host a talk by ninety-four yearold author Laurie Woods on Tuesday 11 July. Woods, author of the books Flying Into The Mouth of Hell and Halfway To Hell, is a Bomber Command war veteran who successfully flew thirty-five missions. At the library he will discuss his illustrious life, including training in Australia and England. The talk runs 2pm – 4pm.

QUOTAT ION CORNER

'Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardised codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognised function of protecting us against reality, that is, against the claim on our thinking attention that all events and facts make by virtue of their existence.'

— Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind (1978) northerly | 005

>> BOOK CLUB

Eldridge charms Members' Book Club The second Members' Book Club of 2017 welcomed local author and Byron Writers Festival secretary Russell Eldridge, who discussed his debut novel Harry Mac with Marele Day. Attendee Amie Browning reports on a poignant evening of literary debate.

I first heard of Harry Mac (2015) by Russell Eldridge at a Byron Writers Festival workshop last year. I was asked to read several first paragraphs from a selection of different books. Russell Eldridge’s first paragraph immediately had me wanting to know more about the suffocating smell of rhinoceroses.

So I was very excited to see in northerly that Harry Mac would be the next book under the spotlight at the Members’ Book Club in May. This was a perfect opportunity for me to meet and read more from Russell Eldridge, a founding member of Byron Writers Festival.

Harry Mac is the coming of age story of a young boy growing up in apartheid South Africa. When asked what is the book about, Russell spoke of loss: loss of childhood, loss of family and loss of a way of life. Harry Mac is also a book about secrets, as the group had discussed earlier with Marele Day, our facilitator for the evening.

What I found most interesting from this Members’ Book Club meeting was the thoughtful reflections provided by our local author. Russell migrated from South Africa to Australia in 1979 and he simply asked the question with us, ‘Was that smart? Or cowardly?’

It was clear to us around the table that this decision was one that perhaps at times still sits heavily with him. I could see as he spoke about South African society at the time that it was a society he found to be morally indefensible. I think there is still some level of personal conflict for him.

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Russell gave us a few tips on how to approach our own stories. He was very generous in answering our questions as we peppered them at him. How much background to put in? Is research important? What made you choose to have the child as the narrator? Do you get writer's block?

It was a fascinating conversation although all too brief, covering issues of politics and history in a South African context. I think we all appreciated your insights and perspective. I look forward to reading your next work.

Members' Book Club welcomes Laura Bloom The next edition of the Members' Book Club will discuss Laura Bloom's novel The Cleanskin on Thursday 13 July at the Byron Writers Festival office on Jonson Street, from 6pm to 7:15pm. This members-only free event is a book club with a difference, in that the author joins the forum for the second half of the evening. Discussion of Bloom's novel, which transplants The Troubles of Northern Ireland to Mullumbimby and surrounds, will be facilitated by Anneli Knight. Tickets are free to members but bookings are essential due to limited space. For further information visit www. byronwritersfestival.com/whats-on/bookclub

>>POEM

Out Back of the Church across the Road Heather Taylor Johnson

Cross-winded ride up the mid-north country, wheat like to crack with each wave of it, some so big the bike rocks, like when those road trains come I feel my knuckles and the strain on the skin of each dry finger, or when a dog barks, a car honks, a passenger celebrates my open options and feels freedom himself in yelling out the window: I brace, clench and tighten. Don’t want to fall off.

Spool thread hay bales and stone gutted cottages with cool concrete slabs come steady into view but the gentle hills come up fast so I push then coast, the click of the locusts in my front wheel sometimes hitting and bruising my cheek - what god said would kill us all. I remember the white ute passing me when I see it ten minutes down the road, pulled over to the side of one person’s nothing and someone else’s everything and he’s wanking in his ute with the seat leaned back.

That it could have been me in bike shorts and a fine sun on my arms a sleeping bag strapped to my bike’s back rack setting him off and onto his lap is a worry, so I say hello to the tiny town of Tarlee, a frazzled woman at three o’clock one beer well earned and a friendly point to the back of the church across the road.

I can set up tent with my eyes closed, cook gourmet lentils and rice with salt and half a stick of cinnamon, write about the land and how my body pumped it dry, especially on those headwind curves – and nobody will bother me out back of the church across the road except the evening wallabies, except the morning crows.

Heather Taylor Johnson is an American-Australian writer living in Adelaide. Her second novel is Jean Harley was Here (UQP 2017) and her fourth book of poetry is Meanwhile, the Oak (Five Islands Press, 2016). She is the editor of the anthology Shaping the Fractured Self: Poetry of Chronic Illness and Pain (UWAP, 2017). Heather will appear at Byron Writers Festival 2017 sessions Grief: Does It Never End? (4), Mixing It Up: Writing Across Forms (69) and Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Writing Process (106).

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>>BOOK LAUNCH

Street spirit: Festival to launch book of homelessness tales This year's Byron Writers Festival sees the launch of a book that marks a special collaboration between the Festival and Byron Community Centre. No Fixed Abode: Stories from the streets around Byron is a collection of personal accounts from the local homeless community as told to a team of volunteer journalists, and also features elegant black and white photo portraits from photographer Drew Rogers. The book aims to raise funds towards housing as well as awareness of the issue of homelessness in the region. northerly is pleased to publish the book's preface, written by Byron Community Centre manager and Byron Shire councillor, Paul Spooner.

I have often wondered what the story is behind the homeless guy sitting on Jonson Street. He writes cheeky slogans berating politicians on large pieces of torn cardboard.

What’s his story and what led him to be living rough on the streets of Byron Bay? What separates him from you and I? What journey led him to be sitting on a footpath outside the local chemist begging for a few coins from the people walking by?

No one dreams of growing up to become a homeless person.

Homelessness, according to those who study such things, is a mix of human tragedy and a consequence of government failures. People are homeless because of domestic violence, financial difficulties and an affordable housing crisis.

According to the ABS Census, on any given night in Australia one in 200 people are homeless. Over 100,000 folk are sleeping out, staying in supported accommodation, hanging out on a friend’s couch or attempting to make a makeshift dwelling their home. Twenty-five per cent of these people are Aboriginal Australians.

This is not a picture most people have of a wealthy, first world nation like Australia. This is not a picture most people expect to come across in the Byron Bay region, a mecca of environmental activism, alternative culture and increasingly a playground for the rich and famous.

Twenty per cent of rough sleepers in NSW are to be found on the North Coast.

Whatever happened to the idea of a 'fair go'? Where are the services and accommodation options for those doing it hard?

The changing nature of homeless support in the Byron Bay region is no better demonstrated than with the closure of the Fletcher Street Cottage. Established in 2010 as a day house for the homeless, this was a partnership between Byron Community Centre, The Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul and Byron Shire Council. It serviced the daily needs of around seventy homeless people – a shower, a wash, a bite to eat and a cup of tea. After five years it closed its doors due to a lack of available funding. It has now been turned into a surf shop.

Figures do not reveal the pain, the suffering or the hardship experienced by those doing it tough. Many people living on the streets suffer a mental health condition or a substance abuse issue – sometimes both at the same time.

Is it these personal matters that led them to being on the streets? Or are these personal traits the result of living a tough and harsh existence? The truth is uncertain. To me it’s a classic ‘chicken and egg’ scenario. One thing I do know is this: life is not easy for those who are destitute.

Homeless people face many complex issues, such as the risk of personal harm, chronic health problems, social isolation, suicide, and increasingly, palliative care. Yes, there are elderly homeless as well as disabled, migrant and the young.

Homelessness does not discriminate.

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Byron Community Centre is a local not-for-profit social enterprise involved with assisting people who are in need.

It runs the local theatre, manages the local markets and provides the space for meals and support services to be offered to those in need, including folk without a home.

In 2016 the Community Centre held what was called a ‘Community Connect Day’. Its doors were flung opened to those in need. It put on a meal prepared by volunteers and distributed clothing donated by local retailers, while two local hairdressers offered free haircuts. Musicians played in the courtyard and in the Centre’s foyer local photographer Drew Rogers displayed a collection of captivating portraits of those living rough in the Byron Bay region.

Drew’s photos touched people’s imaginations. He was able to capture each person’s uniqueness and humanity.

The exhibition was a collection that was both powerful and intriguing. It posed many questions to the viewer.

Who were these people? Why were they living rough around Byron Bay? What was their day-to-day life like?

The photos were the catalyst for a number of conversations that produced a creative collaboration between Byron Community Centre and Byron Writers Festival. A collaboration that led to the telling of the stories found in the pages of this book.

A small group of dedicated writers from the local region volunteered to write the stories. They spent many hours listening to those who accessed services like the community breakfasts or hot showers.

Each story is written in the hope it may shed some light on the questions posed by the photos. It’s an attempt to pull back the curtain on what it’s like to live rough in the Byron Bay region – to bring a sense of humanity to an intractable social issue.

Social action requires both understanding and hope.

There is hope for those who need support. But as governments decrease the funds available for the services that form a social safety net, we as a community need to do more. We need to step in where governments have abandoned those in need. It’s the right thing to do. It’s what living in a civilised society demands us to do.

Any profits from the sale of this book will go towards the Byron Bay Community Benefit Fund, a local fund established to assist people in need in the Byron Bay community. Tax-deductible donations to the fund may be made at www.byroncentre.com.au So the next time you pass a homeless person on the street don’t dismiss them. He or she is a part of our community and needs to be respected and assisted.

Who knows? One day their story may become yours.

No Fixed Abode: Stories from the streets around Byron will be launched

by Dr. Gregory Smith at 4.15pm on Saturday 5 August as part of Byron Writers Festival.

>> INTERVIEW

A bit of blood: Mirandi Riwoe and her double writing life

Photo: Red Boots Photographic

Mirandi Riwoe has come a long way since she participated in the Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship in 2013. Writing as M.J. Tjia, her crime novel She be Damned with its lead character Heloise Chancey is published in 2017, while her novella The Fish Girl was the joint-winner of the Seizure Viva La Novella prize this year. She also holds a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies from QUT, and spoke to northerly ahead of her appearance at Byron Writers Festival 2017.

What are your major projects as we approach your appearance at Byron Writers Festival?

I’m in the process of redrafting my second Heloise Chancey novel. I will also continue the research necessary for a novel I would like to write that features women and Chinese people in the Australian Gold Rush period.

In what ways did your participation in the Residential Mentorship of 2013 impact both your writing and your career?

First of all, being selected for the residency was a nice little affirmation that I might be on the right track with my writing. I benefitted greatly from the feedback I received from both Marele and the other mentees. For example, one of the others asked me if I really had to describe so much furniture (ha), and I also remember Marele saying she thought a bit of blood should feature right upfront in crime writing. Career-wise, the residency introduced me to a network of writers and a prominent publisher, and immersed me in a friendly, supportive relationship with the wonderful people of Byron Writers Festival.

You have had success with competitions. Has that proven to be a fruitful avenue for coming to publishers' attention, perhaps more than the traditional publisher submission? Do you ever write according to what you think will do well in a competition?

I think competitions are a great way to come to a publisher’s attention. When I was shortlisted for the Luke Bitmead (UK) bursary with Legend Press, I came into contact with their commissioning editor, so I could then offer her my newest work, She be Damned. Having listings or work published in journals also shows prospective publishers that you have some success with writing and that you take writing seriously. Just lately I read a piece by a prominent literary agent in the US, who said that most of the time he only continues reading a writer’s submission if the writer’s cover letter includes a list of work that has appeared in journals with which he is familiar.

Certainly, before submitting your work, I think you need to be aware of what type of short story might appeal to certain journals or judges, and you should be familiar with what type of book certain publishers release. Read, read, read in the area you want to be published in.

How did you come to write about crime in nineteenth century London for She be Damned, and what inspired you to include an Asian element?

Actually, I was trying to think of a good pitch for the Byron Writers Festival Pitch Perfect when I first had a glimmer of Heloise. I chose nineteenth century London because it has a strong heritage in crime fiction.

Although the novel is historical, though, I wanted to

explore contemporary themes to do with sexuality via the character of Heloise, who is a courtesan. Also, as a female writer of crime fiction and an author of Eurasian heritage, I was especially interested in re-imagining the life of an Asian immigrant in Victorian London. With my crime novel, I hoped to challenge enduring depictions of the ‘sinister Asian’ and courtesan.

The Fish Girl, your novella, was joint-winner of the Seizure Viva La Novella competition. Does writing this form come easily to you?

The Fish Girl originally started out as a short story that I wrote in reaction to Somerset Maugham’s The Four Dutchmen. The protagonist of my story, who I named ‘the Malay girl’ at the time (as she is referred to in the original story), remained in the back of my mind, and over time I felt I wanted to delve into her story in more detail. Genre writing, or novel writing, generally comes with a word count expectation. What I enjoyed about writing The Fish Girl was that it could remain concise but did not have to meet a required word length either.

What was the thinking behind using the pen name M.J. Tjia for the Heloise Chancey crime novels and reverting to your real name for the novella?

Tjia is my father’s Chinese name, but over the years, in Indonesia, he was expected to take on an Indonesian name, which he (and I) still use – Riwoe. I feel equally drawn to each name, but the publisher and I felt that M. J. Tjia was good for a crime novel. Also, I have short stories and, now, the novella under the name Riwoe and these works are not crime fiction. I think it’s preferable to separate my writing in this way, as I know, as a reader, it can be frustrating to pick up a book by an author expecting one thing (a particular genre, series, style) and it is something very different.

Finally, what books have had a major impact on you in the past year?

I absolutely loved Eka Kurniawan’s Beauty is a Wound, A. S. Patric’s Black Rock White City and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. Gorgeous writing and such moving stories. Crime fiction-wise, I’ve newly been introduced to S. J. Bolton novels, such as Now You See Me. She’s really a master in plot twists and mystery! I also really enjoyed Emma Viskic’s Resurrection Bay. But mostly, throughout the last year, I’ve been reading work by writers such as Julie Koh, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Isabelle Li, Ellen van Neerven, Alice Pung and Hoa Pham in order to study and appreciate the craft of writing about self and place.

Mirandi Riwoe appears at Byron Writers Festival 2017 sessions Crime Fiction: Not Just A Genre (16) and Short Stories Big Impact (66).

northerly | 009

>> INTERVIEW

Drama! Conflict!

Hail! Jock Serong's sophisticated noir Jock Serong's debut novel Quota won him the prestigious Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel in 2015, while his new novel On The Java Ridge, his third, is a literary thriller with a political edge, dealing with asylum seekers and the goings-on of federal government. Based in Victoria, Serong was also editor of the much-admired and now sadly defunct magazine Great Ocean.

He spoke to northerly about his life and work as he gears up for Byron Writers Festival.

Your fiction has included both cricket and surfing. Why do you think sport in Australian fiction is a relatively under-utilised theme? Why is there no great Australian sports novel?

I’m not sure that sport is so much under-utilised in Australian fiction, as relegated to a supporting role. I think what tends to happen is that it becomes part of the wallpaper in stories about Australians – it’s there in so many novels, from Jasper Jones to Breath, and of course Williamson skewered footy perfectly in The Club. But for the most part it’s like a variant on describing landscape: an aspect of a character’s youth, an early test of their resolve, or a setting for the townsfolk to come together and yell at something.

Are you comfortable with your work being labelled as 'crime fiction'?

Not always. I should start by saying that if that’s how readers discover my work, then good – as a writer of course you’re happy to have your work discussed and maybe tested against the definitions of genre. But the words 'crime fiction' to me imply certain tropes that I’m not interested in: the recovering alcoholic detective living in a one-room bedsit in Hornsby nursing a grudge against his possibly-corrupt boss and hoping to get laid despite his trauma-induced halitosis.

But there’s some unavoidables: all three of my novels have acts of violence and deaths. Quota and The Rules of Backyard Cricket have police characters (albeit minor). So I guess I have to own it.

Where I think the boundaries will be tested is with my new novel, On the Java Ridge. Here I’m talking about crimes committed by a government and by a corporation.

The consequences of those crimes are more widespread and devastating than your lurking serial killer set-up. But I doubt anyone will call it crime fiction.

On the upside, I get to talk at crime-writer events and they’re always the ones where people swear a lot and throw their food. You can’t beat a crime-writers’ gig.

Your work has also been described as 'Australian noir'.

What elements in a work qualify it as such do you think?

Leigh Redhead, who’s doing a PhD on the subject, has this working definition that goes: 'things start off badly, then they completely turn to shit'.

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To me, ‘Australian noir’ is shorthand for a distinctive voice that’s coming from our writers, and yes, particularly in crime. Wake in Fright is the forerunner of all of it – the distillation from landscape of a gothic element: bleak and nihilistic and breaking free of all the crime-writing stereotypes we inherited from Chandler and Leonard.

Take P.M. Newton and her stories like Beams Falling – what’s really exciting is how much room there is in this vague descriptor ‘Australian noir’ to look at ethnicity, colonialism and our slumbering guilt; the idea that our collective affluence - our 'luck' – is in fact based on an epidemic of selfishness. Every time I see a fucking numbat looking gorgeous in hi-vis on a property development reality show I wonder if there’s not a great, yawning horror beneath our society that we’re only beginning to explore.

What common themes do you identify as threading through all three of your novels?

I’ve tried to figure this out and it’s surprisingly difficult.

You take an idea and you run with it, and sometimes when you look back you can find links, or strange repetitions (people spilling beer on their shoes, absent fathers) but often it’s just me, the writer, chasing that idea down its burrow.

I guess all three of my novels so far have been searches for empathy. In Quota, Charlie goes to the town of Dauphin expecting people to understand him. They don’t: he reacts badly, then slowly begins to figure the town out.

In Backyard Cricket, the reader is asked to empathise with someone – Darren – who from the outside is appalling, but who might be more like the rest of us than we think. And in Java Ridge, I’m asking whether we would feel differently about asylum seekers if we lived the journey with them.

Equally, (and just to be difficult) I’m asking whether it’s possible to empathise with a Minister for Immigration who’s tasked with carrying out a brutal policy.

How has your writing style and use of language been affected by your background as a lawyer?

I think most lawyers use language sparsely and with control. Good lawyers aren’t prone to hyperbole and clusters of shouty adverbs, because imprecision is death in that game. That said, much of the restraint and the unsaid words are the work of my editor, Mandy Brett. She pulls me into line, I bellyache and comply, and she always ends up being right.

>> INTERVIEW

One other interesting echo of legal practice is that it exposed me to the ways people talk, and act, when they’re under extreme pressure. In the witness box, or trying to put words to things that break their hearts, people reach for another part of their intellect, like untested strength.

How did the idea germinate and develop for On The Java Ridge?

As a surfer, I became interested in the idea that the boat charters that carry Australian surfers through the Indonesian archipelago use very similar routes in some areas to those taken by asylum seeker boats. I wondered what would happen if two such boats ever met at sea: Australian surfers on a luxury trip and asylum seekers in peril. And then I wondered what would happen if that occurred in the week before a federal election, with the government busy crowing about its newest hardline stance against boat arrivals. So I borrowed from events like the Flying Fish Cove disaster, the Tampa and the 'Children Overboard' scandal, in order to examine why we feel so relaxed about demonising the people in the boat. If you pull the focus in and make them feel less remote, make them feel like families you might know, children you might see in the street, it becomes harder to dismiss asylum seekers as collateral damage in some other argument.

I didn’t just want a polemic, though. I wanted a sense of hurtling towards some catastrophe, the reader unable to let go. So I built all sorts of other elements into it.

As the story developed, I looked into how a traditional Indonesian fishing boat works, and how you would sabotage one. I looked into trauma surgery, and how much a surgeon could be expected to accomplish with very few drugs and implements. And I researched daily life in a minister’s office, conditions in Afghanistan… this book was pretty heavy on research.

You live on Victoria's southwest coast. How does your local landscape affect your writing, it at all?

The landscape for me is really the seascape. I’m scheduled by the weather. If the wind’s right and the sun’s shining, I’m useless. But the good thing about being down here is it’s stormy most of the time, and there’s something very productive about Antarctic weather if you’re a writer.

Drama! Conflict! Hail! One day I’d love to plot a graph of the weather versus the number of words I churn out.

Massive question, but what challenges and obligations are authors faced with in Australia today when depicting Australian masculinity?

That is a massive question. The main challenge is the one that applies to all good writing – don’t settle for awful clichés. Men are complex; women are complex – there’s an obligation to write rounded characters who behave in unexpected ways. The other thing I think is that you can write about men while still saying worthwhile things about gender. In Backyard Cricket I plotted Darren’s life so that each of his major mistakes related in some way to a woman: to his mother, his girlfriend, his niece, the girl he met in the nightclub. There’s a wealth of great writing going on in this country, by and about women. Charlotte Wood, Clare Wright, Jane Harper, Emma Viskic, to name just the spines I can see in the pile next to me. It’s interesting territory to explore: good literature is built around people’s failings – failings are invariably more interesting than successes. And misogyny, insensitivity, selfishness: these are repetitive kinds of human failing that are worth discussing.

You are also a surf journalist, with surf writing perhaps one of the most interesting and burgeoning areas of writing in Australia at the moment. Which surf writers have meant a lot to you over the years?

There’s a small group who’ve forged the path for every Australian surf journo ever since I can remember: Tim Baker, Nick Carroll, Phil Jarratt and Sean Doherty. Those four led by example in taking magazine feature writing into biographies and large-format books. And they examined the industry and its central characters in a way that transcended the old puff-pieces and was genuinely critical. And then there’s Australian writers who have brought surfing into fiction in an authentic way, like Fiona Capp, Malcolm Knox and of course Winton.

What’s less visible to the reading public is how important the editors are: they hold the responsibility for shaping how surfing portrays itself. Are we going to run more bikini chicks, or are we going to examine, like Lauren Hill does, the unique contributions women make to the sport? The opportunity to have that discussion comes down to an editor somewhere.

What major things about the magazine publishing industry in Australia did you learn whilst editing Great Ocean?

I got inspired by it, and I got beaten to a pulp by it, so I don’t know if I’m the guy to ask. Firstly, it was clear that the internet has taken care of trash. It can do trash better than print ever could, which is why titles like Zoo, Ralph and their ilk are dying like flies. And good riddance.

But it is not true to say that print is dead: there remains an enthusiastic readership for quality print journalism that goes deep and fires the imagination and feels good in the hands and even, even, looks grand on a coffee table. (Why are people so coy about admitting they love the physical aesthetics of print?)

We learned that there is so much wonderful writing talent out there in Australia, just looking for a home. I wondered at first where the stories would come from.

Well, they just flooded into the inbox and the challenge was to read them all. Some of them were so bloody good, and they came from people with day jobs who just wrote in the dark at night because it made them feel alive.

The difficulty for us was that people loved the mag when they read it, but putting it in their hands was a nightmare. Freight, selling ads and getting into stores was time-consuming and expensive. The market for any good start–up magazine in this country is small, and if you want to go overseas there are economic barriers.

There were corners we could have cut: paying people properly, using quality stock and printing locally. We chose not to cut them, so at least we died on our feet.

As well as the imminent publication of the new novel, what other projects do you have on the horizon?

The novel after that one. I’m working on a historical novel about Bass Strait, as part of my PhD, and it’s a further leap into the arcane world of research. I think there’s a tendency in all of us, if something works the first time, to make it harder and see if it’ll work again. You could call it ambition but it’s really a kind of perversity.

So this novel, my fourth, feels more difficult than the first one. Is that how it’s supposed to work?

Jock Serong will appear at Byron Writers Festival sessions Crime Fiction: Not Just A Genre (16), Jock Serong in Conversation with Chris Hanley (20) and Negotiating a Violent World (113).

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>> INTERVIEW

Photo: Vicki Lambert

On extended wings: Melissa Ashley's bird life The debut novel from Melissa Ashley, The Birdman's Wife, tells the remarkable story of Elizabeth Gould, wife of the famous nineteenth-century ornithologist John Gould. The novel brings a new voice to a woman who made a huge but somewhat unheralded contribution to her husband's work, juggling her role as an artist alongside being a wife and absent mother in the alien surrounds of colonial Australia. Brisbane-based Ashley also teaches at the University of Queensland, and will travel down the highway for Byron Writers Festival this August.

Can you describe for us how and when you were first drawn to Elizabeth Gould and what initially fascinated you about her?

I’ve been an avid birdwatcher, with my partner, for many years. A while ago, he rescued a ringneck parrot, and we contacted a friend who rescues birds, for a book about how to look after it. She loaned me a biography about John Gould, written by Isabella Tree, John Gould: The Birdman, and it was within its pages that I first learned about Elizabeth Gould.

Around the time I became really interested in birdwatching, I also fell in love with antique bird illustrations, particularly some of the ones made by amateur artists who travelled to Australia on the First Fleet. This all coalesced into my interest in Elizabeth Gould. I love stories about women’s lost histories, and for me as a writer, she ticked all the boxes. I began looking into her life and the more I discovered about her, the more I wanted to know. I also figured that if she fascinated me so much as a reader, that other readers would warm to her extraordinary story as well.

The Birdman's Wife obviously required a great deal, and various methods, of research. What were some of the most rewarding discoveries or experiences you had whilst conducting research for the novel?

I had the most incredible experiences researching Elizabeth Gould’s life for my PhD, for the novel started out as a PhD project. I became a volunteer taxidermist at the Queensland Museum for a year. All of the taxidermy – preparing the scientific skins to be stored in drawers for their collections – is undertaken by a group of dedicated and very entertaining volunteers who meet on Wednesdays. I came along, and would sit at a long workbench to work on a thawed specimen, a barn owl, a shearwater, a kite. They told fascinating stories while they skinned and stuffed and stitched the specimens, and the experience gave me confidence to write about birds’ physicality, their feathers, beaks, wings, colours, habits and so forth.

I think the most fascinating and fruitful experience came from this wonderful group of people. One morning during morning tea, a long-time volunteer took me aside and told me that a member of her book club was in fact married to a descendant of Elizabeth Gould and lived in my Brisbane 012 | northerly

home town. He and his wife invited me to their home, opening their private treasures: crockery, a seal for waxed envelopes, illustrations, photographs, and research. They were extremely supportive of my project of bringing Elizabeth Gould’s story to light, figuring, like me, that John Gould had hogged the limelight for long enough.

Did you ever feel you were becoming too immersed in Elizabeth Gould's world and have to step back from the project a little to gain perspective?

Only in so far as I found myself surrounded, at certain points in my research, which took four years, by too many dry books and articles. This led me to take field trips to places the Goulds had visited during their stay in Australia – Hobart and the Upper Hunter Valley – and to travel to the US, where I got to handle original manuscripts made by Elizabeth Gould.

I suppose that I also had to let go of the record in order to find Elizabeth’s voice, her character in the novel, which meant filling in some of the many gaps in the historical record with my fictional interpretation of her responses to challenges like travelling to Australia aboard a ship for four months, leaving her three young children in the care of her mother in England for two years in order to join John Gould on his expedition to Australia, and coping with the loss of two children. This took many layers and drafts of writing as I had hoped to not only convey Elizabeth as an authentic 1830s character, but I also wished that contemporary readers related to her and developed sympathy for her.

To what degree did you permit yourself 'artistic licence' with retelling the story of Elizabeth Gould?

As I say, the necessary tasks of imagining her emotional, interior world. But also, I made up, for example, the scene in the chapter about Charles Darwin. I have no idea what she thought of him as a person and a scientist, however, I drew upon the character I had developed for her, and also my research into Charles Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle, and his work with the Goulds.

Another funny example of artistic licence is the scene towards the end of the book where the Zoological Society put on a grand dinner for the Goulds, including fake fossils, taxidermied specimens, egg-and birdthemed foods and so forth. This idea was inspired by a

>> INTERVIEW

sentence in a memoir written by John Gould’s daughter, (unpublished), in which she recalls him speaking of a dinner he took part in inside the skeleton of an Iguanodon. I was so spellbound by this detail, my imagination took flight. However, I discovered that the dinner took place several years after Elizabeth Gould’s death and had to adapt the idea into what became the chapter in the book.

The title of the book is intriguing, as it identifies Elizabeth Gould as the very thing (the wife of John Gould) that the novel challenges and subverts. How did you arrive at this title and what was your intention with it?

I think this is a brilliant question. It took me forever to come up with a title for the novel. My supervisor was the person who suggested it. It works on many levels, I believe, and is even a little frustrating, possibly in the best way, as to what it suggests. John Gould wanted ‘here lies the birdman’ or words to that effect written on his gravestone. Several biographies are titled in such a manner, it was what he liked to be known as, so, it fits, in terms of identifying John Gould in a historically specific manner for the fans out there.

The ‘wife’ part of the title works on a few levels, I think. It’s a real catchphrase in publishing at the moment, but also, one of the most frustrating aspects, which drew me through my research, and made me determined to tell my version of the story, was the fact that Elizabeth Gould was referred to over and over again by researchers after her death as John Gould’s wife and his assistant, rather than as an artist in her own right. I wished to take her out from the shadow of John Gould, but, because she is so little known, it was difficult to talk about her without reference to him. Hence, she is ‘The Birdman’s Wife’ and hopefully for the reader, oh so much more!

How is the experience of writing your next novel proving to be different to how you approached The Birdman's Wife?

I have learned one huge lesson, and that is that if you are going to work as an author, you don’t have the luxury of years to devote to researching every little tangent and fork in the road of uncovering your subject’s story. You have to make choices about what to dedicate your precious research time to. So, this time around, researching and writing my current novel, I’m aware of time pressure, and the limitations of the archives I’m using. I have to rely a little more – my current book is set in 1699, and the record is far more shadowy – on my imagination. Which is a very good thing and much fun.

Inga Simpson launched The Birdman's Wife last year – how has an association with her, and her work, had a positive impact on your work?

I first met Inga through a colleague at the University of Queensland. Inga was an early reader of The Birdman’s Wife and very kindly read two full drafts at two different stages. She told me she thought my manuscript was ready to submit to an agent or publisher, and I took her advice.

We connected over our love for birds, landscape, space and place in Australia, which are very much on-going themes in Inga’s writing. I am now moving more into history, and away from Australia (France, and fairy tales), but our great connection remains. I am a huge fan of her work, both fiction and nonfiction.

How has the genre of 'historical fiction' changed over time, particularly among Australian authors?

I’m not really sure. This is a big question. I think it is an enormous and very popular category that stretches across popular and literary genres. There is so much scope now, for writers, in terms of doing a lot of research online, with archives free and digitised, that I think the work of writing can be enriched in ways that took a lot longer in the past. I think Australian literary historical fiction has moved away somewhat from colonial stories that we are familiar with to take up more specific stories of women, Indigenous people, migrants, and other groups who maybe haven’t had the voice in the past.

This is a natural progression, and it’s a sign of a very healthy writing and reading environment. It’s exciting for everyone. Rich and very rewarding. For me, women’s hidden stories will probably become a theme from which I approach new stories to uncover. I find this area fascinating, and I think readers are really into these narratives also. A bit of a zeitgeist moment.

What works of historical fiction (or otherwise) were particularly inspiring as you approached writing The Birdman's Wife?

Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures about Anne Manning, a discoverer of dinosaur fossils in Lyme Regis, where, coincidentally, John Gould was born. A.S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, about Darwinism, Patrick White’s Voss, which features the character Palfreyman, based on John Gilbert, an important Australian collector who was brought out to Australia with John and Elizabeth Gould as an expert during their expedition to Australia. And many more!

You published a collection of poems in 2003 – is this something you will return to? Are you still writing poetry?

I haven’t written a poem for many, many years. I’m open to the experience, but it hasn’t occurred yet. That said, I still teach poetry workshops, read poetry and am passionate about the genre. Looking back, I think learning to engage with the natural world, to intensely observe an object or landscape, which poetry taught me, has left lasting, and hopefully good, marks on my fiction writing.

Finally, what are some of your favourite Australian birds?

The superb fairy-wren, naturally. The superb lyrebird and the satin bowerbird are also big favourites.

Melissa Ashley will appear at Byron Writers Festival sessions Women in Science (83) and Historical Fiction (108)

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>> INTERVIEW

Photo: Chris Francis

People and places: Steven Lang's small-town drama Steven Lang's third novel Hinterland (2017) is a sharp exploration of how conflicts over environmental issues can destroy the harmony of small communities. It is a theme he also addressed in his debut novel, An Accidental Terrorist (2005), with the acclaimed 88 Lines About 44 Women (2009) rounding out his fiction output to date.

Based in Maleny, Queensland, he is also co-director of the extended writers festival Outspoken, which has seen Lang conduct a number of live interviews with some of literature's most illustrious names.

He will find himself among such company once more at this year's Byron Writers Festival.

In what ways did your participation in environmental causes and projects in Maleny inspire the writing of Hinterland?

My involvement with environmental campaigns in Maleny was critical to the development of this novel, although, I’d have to say, I didn’t know it at the time. For several years I campaigned, along with several others, on a project we thought fairly self-evidently beneficial to the environment and the wider community – in this case the planting of a riparian corridor and building a pathway on a pretty debased stretch of old dairy property which had come into public ownership.

The main watercourse through the district is the Obi Obi Creek and just downstream from the town there was over two kilometres of the creek without any vegetation on its banks. We managed to arrange substantial federal funding for a forty-metre-wide wildlife corridor along the entire length but found ourselves unable to use the money because other people had decided a better use for this land would be a golf course and polo fields and these people seemed to have the ear of our local council.

What interested me as a novelist wasn’t the details of the battle that ensued but the way the town fractured over the issue – which was by no means always along predictable lines – and how vicious the fight became. Don’t get me wrong, there was no violence, but there was slander and underhandedness and malfeasance on a fairly grand scale, about something which was, you’d have thought, pretty small in the grand scheme of things. It got me thinking about other situations of conflict around the world and how quickly things get out of hand; how, if you throw in a legacy of generational hatred, it is possible for violence to break out between people who know each other quite well.

I’ve been in Australia for forty-seven years and for most of that time I’ve lived in and around country towns and I’ve seen the way in which these communities tend to fragment into different social groupings. I wanted to write about how this fragmentation plays out when external threats impinge on the community and I guess, because of my personal experience, I chose an environmental issue as the ‘inciting incident’. But I think it’s important to say this isn’t an ‘environmental novel’, it’s a novel about individuals who live in a small town. I don’t 014 | northerly

think there’s a town anywhere in Australia that isn’t faced with some sort of environmental battle.

Can you identify the key ways in which Hinterland differs from An Accidental Terrorist in its treatment of environmentalism and its surrounding political debate?

I was writing about a very different situation in An Accidental Terrorist. It was set in the 1980s in a remote community on the Far South Coast of New South Wales. I was interested in talking about the attitudes of the people who went off to live in such places – I had some experience of doing this myself – and the story built from there.

One of the things I tend to do in my novels is to explore roads that weren’t taken. The community I lived in back of Eden was in an area which was threatened by (and then later clear-felled for) wood chipping. The people I lived amongst, myself included, didn’t do a lot about it, although we talked a fair bit about things we might do. What the novel does is explore some of those possibilities and what might have happened if we had acted out our fantasies.

I don’t think of myself as an environmental writer. I am someone, however, for whom place is very important.

Once upon a time people lived in one place all their lives and how they treated the land where they lived had a direct impact on their capacity to survive. Nowadays that’s all gone. We regard where we live as real estate. We might become attached to a particular place but along with that attachment there is, also, a monetary element, a resale value, as if the actual land has no importance to us at all.

Even if we don’t think like that ourselves our whole society promotes this idea. I don’t subscribe to this view. I think place is extremely important. I think there are places for us and places not for us and I think, by listening carefully, we can determine which is which and that when we find somewhere to live we need to nurture it so that we can be nurtured by it.

What are some of the key works in Australian fiction for you that deal with environmental questions, climate change and so on?

I’m not sure there are so many books that do address these issues, or at least I haven’t read them. I was very taken by Tim Winton’s Eyrie – at least by the first few

>> INTERVIEW

hundred pages – because I thought his depiction of someone burned out by environmental campaigning was so extraordinarily astute.

It’s very hard fighting for the preservation of bits of our country – for all sorts of reasons – one of which has to be the way that sooner or later in any environmental battle you are obliged to put aside your own emotional connection with a piece of landscape, be it a forest, or a section of ocean or a damaged creek bank, and find a way to argue about its value in other people’s terms, in respect to its economic or social or business value, its community amenity – you have to learn to speak about it in bureaucratic terms – so that eventually you forget about or lose why it was that you engaged in the fight in the first place. Then, having sold your own deeply felt connection with the place for some trite urban planner’s language, you lose the battle anyway. Because here’s the thing: in fighting for the protection of the environment you lose more than you win. It’s the nature of the beast.

And when you do lose you have to try and pick yourself up and rediscover the connection which inspired you so that you can get back up and fight again.

You were born and grew up in Scotland. How does your childhood and adolescence, and any divided sense of 'belonging', make its way into your fiction?

I was born in Scotland in 1951, which was not just geographically as far away from Australia as it is possible to get, it was also very different from today’s Australia culturally and socially. My father was a leather tanner, as his father and his father before him and, as the only son, I was expected to join the firm. From fairly early on, however, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I guess my parents thought that a boarding school education would put paid to these fantasies but if anything the isolation I experienced during those eight years encouraged the ambition rather than diminished it. As soon as I could leave Scotland I did, setting off to hitchhike around the world, starting in the USA and Canada. A year or so later I ended up in Australia where, to my genuine surprise, I found myself amongst like-minded people for the first time in my life.

All this is to say that I have had an ambivalent relationship with my birth country. My family remained there so I have travelled back and forth many times over the last nearly fifty years but it wasn’t until about ten years ago that something in my attitude changed. I was with my wife, Tyyni, driving along the coast of Ardnamurchan, in the Highlands, on a miserable winter’s day and we pulled onto the edge of the loch to get away from the logging trucks on the single-bitumen road. The cloud was down on the hills and the rain was smattering the windscreen.

We decided to stay where we were and eat our lunch in the car and while we were sitting there the sun came out. The clouds parted and the winter light caught the water and lit up the Caledonian pines on the headland, it unveiled the dark hills of Morvern opposite and I got out of the car and stood in this blast of wind coming off the Atlantic and thought, for the first time in my adult life, 'I could live here'.

Of course, for a hundred reasons I couldn’t but it came to me that I might write a novel about a man who was standing there like me who could. This turned into 88 Lines About 44 Women, and in the writing of that novel about this fictional man I rediscovered in myself a deep and abiding love for that country and for a sense of myself in it. We do seem to have something in our DNA which is attached to the place we were born. It’s not really so surprising that this should be so, but it nevertheless always astonishes me how alive I feel on the top of some

Scottish mountain. I have made Australia my home but some part of me still belongs in that land, particularly in the Highlands, in the wild places.

You have said previously one of your favourite authors is Saul Bellow. What aspects of his writing are so appealing to you?

Bellow has a limitless capacity for noticing the important detail and an extraordinary facility for putting what he’s seen into words using metaphor and simile. The man is always looking, seeing without prejudice. I never look at anything without great swathes of conditioning between me and whatever I’m seeing. I think it was Richard Powers who said that if you look at something and think you know it, then look harder.

I think that English literature went through some massive changes during the last century and one of the great levers of that change was Hemingway with his dismissal of the need for long convoluted descriptions to set up scenes, his disparagement of the adjective in favour of the verb and I love him for it. For Whom the Bell Tolls is, I think, one of the great novels, but Bellow comes along in the early 1950s as a kind of antidote to him, pouring words out onto the page like a summer fire hydrant, three, four, five adjectives before a noun because there simply isn’t enough room to incorporate what a thing is in just one or two words.

Can you just describe some of the most memorable interviews you have undertaken with Outspoken over the years?

I’ve been doing interviews for Outspoken for about seven years now, which means I’ve interviewed approximately fifty writers of fiction, philosophy, history, including Pulitzer and Booker Prize winners. I think, to be honest, I’m still learning how to do it. Live interviewing is often a bit more edgy than it appears. It is, of course, primarily about listening, but it’s also about being prepared to throw away all your expectations of where the interview will go, to trust your interviewee.

During the time we’ve been doing Outspoken we’ve had some remarkable speakers. Earlier this year we had the philosopher A.C. Grayling, who was surprisingly funny but could also become, in a few words, very profound. I guess for me the point of greatest interest was when he veered off-track. Authors promoting books often have a series of anecdotes lined up in their heads ready to trot out to audiences. They’ve said what they’re going to say many times, they know which jokes work and they use them when they get the chance. Anthony had been promoting The Age of Genius for over a year when he came to us, so, while it was fascinating, it was clear he knew where he was going but then, suddenly, he went off onto a wonderful diversion into the nature of knowledge, what it is the ancients were looking for with their research into alchemy etc. The man’s extraordinary intelligence was, all at once, beaming out into the audience as he tied together Greek philosophers, Newton, particle physics and the grand theory of everything into some sort of coherent whole. Just meeting someone who can carry so many different ideas in his mind at one time is deeply humbling.

Steven Lang will appear at Byron Writers Festival sessions Kim Scott in Conversation with Steven Lang (26), Stories From Nature's Great Connectors (96) and Men of Fiction (102).

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>> SCU

A showcase of SCU student work, compiled by Dr. Lynda Hawryluk Hummus and Herbs Alessandra Salisbury

Born in Lebanon, Grandpa sang only the chorus of an Arabic song.

Born in Italy, Nana spoke a dialect from Sicily no one understood.

Birth countries left behind, identities lost in the sea.

Big ship sailed the Atlantic, in the direction of the east coast of Brazil.

Born fifty years later in a house full of sound and smells, I learnt laughter, spoken feelings Mum and Dad danced the samba well!

Italian hot sauces burnt my tongue, chick peas and garlic made my taste.

My family taught me to cook, to eat To travel, to love, and not to miss!

Australia has me now, Baggage bursting three cultures inside.

In a land of so many immigrants, Italians and Lebanese sure easy to find.

Home can be anywhere on Earth, as long as it has hummus and herbs!

Alessandra Salisbury is a Brazilian journalist and actress. She has just completed an Associate Degree of Creative Writing at SCU. She has also published her first kids' book, Naughty Nana, which is on sale through Amazon. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the American literary magazines Anti-Heroin Chic, The Borfski Press and BlogNostics.

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The importance of the structural edit

>> LEARNING CURVE

Ahead of a workshop as part of this year's Byron Writers Festival, Laurel Cohn offers a guide to what exactly is meant by structural editing, and why it can make all the difference to your manuscript.

There is something about it that almost demands capitalisation: The Structural Edit. Once you’ve got a complete manuscript, that’s what you do, isn’t it?

Everyone does, right? The simple answer is yes, but although most writers understand the structural edit is a critical part of the manuscript development process, they don’t necessarily know exactly what it is or how to go about it, let alone how to survive it.

What it is Structural editing involves looking at the story as a whole and considering aspects such as story arc, expression of themes, character development, point of view, backstory, voice and pacing. These are elements that most writers have given considerable thought to as they are writing. However, it is an understanding of how all these aspects are working together to deliver the author’s intent – or not – that lies at the heart of the process. In other words, the structural edit concerns recognising what is working well in the manuscript and what isn’t.

Sounds simple, but as writers who have grappled with numerous drafts over numerous years know, it’s no easy thing to be able to step back from your work.

How to do it One of the keys to recognising the strengths and weaknesses of your own work is to be able to read it with ‘fresh eyes’. Most writers are intricately entwined with their work; it is so much a part of them, the manifestation of their creative urge, that gaining distance feels impossible. While physically and mentally putting the work aside for a number of weeks or months is the best plan, it is not only time that helps create distance, it is perspective.

It is important to shift the way you read your work – to see it 'whole against a wide sky', to borrow from Rainer Maria Rilke – so that not only can you delight in the sections that crackle with energy and insight, but you can see the wrinkles in the narrative that may trip a reader up, hear the rhythm that goes on for a beat or five too long, and feel the slowing of the pace in scenes that don’t progress the storyline. You can cultivate this perspective a number of ways: through critical

reading – paying attention to how other writers make their stories work; through diagnosing the strength of vital story elements – such as the underlying theme, the central event and the major dramatic question; and through the simple hard yakka of detailed scene outlines – getting clear on what you actually have on the page, not just what you think you have.

Bear in mind that editing your work, just like writing it, is a craft that requires specific skills, patience, commitment and practice. If you allow yourself the time to understand this part of the process and to develop your structural editing abilities, you will become a better writer.

How to survive it While tips, tools and strategies can help you understand what you need to do to carry out a structural edit, it can be trickier to traverse the sometimes-challenging inner terrain that underlies critical engagement with your own work. What, if through the process, you come to realise the whole second half of the book needs rewriting? Or that a new character is needed to bring to fruition one of the subplots? Or that you need to rethink what the book is actually about? Do these things mean you’re a failure as a writer? Not at all. All these things may happen, and have happened to writers I know. They have slumped, screamed, moaned and wanted to chuck it all in at various times. But after venting frustration, a few deep breaths, a few good nights’ sleep (and a few glasses of red wine) all got on with the task at hand. Understanding the separation between the self and the work allowed a renewed commitment to not just creating the best story they could, but to their development as a writer. The results have been stronger manuscripts, as well as a deepening appreciation of the creative process and the gems to be discovered within it.

Take a deep breath and give it a go!

Laurel Cohn is an editor and mentor passionate about communication and the power of narrative to engage, inspire and challenge. She is a popular workshop presenter and is running a workshop on The Structural Edit as part of Byron Writers Festival on Monday 31 July. www.laurelcohn.com.au

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>> BOOK REVIEW

What YA Reading?

Reviews by Polly Jude

LISETTE'S PARIS NOTEBOOK

MR ROMANOV'S GARDEN IN THE SKY

BY CATHERINE BATESON

BY ROBERT NEWTON

This one is definitely for the girlie romantics out there! When eighteen-year-old Lisette arrives in Paris for three months of her gap year she has no idea why she is really there or what she wants to do with the rest of her life. She’s hoping to find the answers she seeks as she wanders along the Seine.

She’s following her mother’s dream by visiting the city of love, where she falls in love with the haute couture and Chanel. Her mysterious, clairvoyant landlady, Madame Christophe, offers her rent, French lessons and plenty of life advice.

At French lessons Lisette meets the dangerously cute German artist who doesn't tell the truth, Anders, and the equally cute antiques dealer, Hugo, and finds that her three-month stay in Paris might lead to a whole new future.

Anyone who has spent any time in Paris will enjoy the setting of this story. The essence and the romance of the city are perfectly captured here as Lisette explores the cobbled streets. Catherine Bateson’s love of Paris oozes off the page.

Lexie is growing up in the commission. Her life of poverty is as bad as you can possibly imagine: drugaddict mother, bullies, no money and social services sniffing around. Since her father died, Lexie’s life has been turned upside down.

When Lexie witnesses a shocking act of cruelty, she knows she needs to get out before it’s too late. She finds an unlikely friend in a troubled old man, the Creeper, who turns out to be a whole lot more than she expects.

The Creeper, Lexie and her bestie, Davey, head off on an epic road trip that changes everything.

Mr Romanov’s Garden in the Sky is a nicely written book that offers readers a heartfelt and compelling story. It will appeal to YA readers who like their stories fast and interesting with characters they’ll fall in love with. Robert Newton has written a lovely coming of age story.

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Penguin / 224pp / RRP $17.99

Written in blood: Contemporary crime fiction

>> WRITTEN IN BLOOD

In a new column, local author Colleen O'Brien will report and reflect on issues and themes that are driving crime writing both in Australia and overseas.

Here, she introduces the series with a selection of personal favourites from the genre.

Do you love crime as much as I do? The thrill of the chase, the adrenalin, the shady characters and their horrible deeds, the dogged, but tortured investigator hot on the trail.

Just to be clear – I love writing and reading crime – not actually committing it.

Not only can I vicariously live the ups and downs of the criminal or the detective, I find humour, pathos, politics, life and love in the pages of crime fiction. And it pays. If I’m any good at writing in my chosen genre (or did it choose me?) I can make much more money than most criminals ever make by nefarious means. Sean Cotcher, of Hachette Australia, says, 'It is the second-largest fiction genre behind general/literary fiction, which was worth $145 million in 2009.'

I’m not a great one for the blockbuster authors like Lee Child, James Patterson or Stieg Larsson.

Maybe it’s a girl thing, but they are too macho and unrealistic for me. Of the many Australian crime writers, I like Shane Maloney’s Murray Whelan series in which a fairly ordinary single father and political hack tackles crime and politics with humour and mayhem. Garry Disher’s Challis and Destry series, set in regional Australia, has a rich ensemble cast of characters. I prefer this to his Wyatt series as they are more realistic and the complex characters are developed over a number of books. Katherine Howell’s Marconi & Garland series is great, not just because the main characters are women but also because, again, they develop from book to book. I’m in the middle of reading Alan Carter’s Prime Cut. At first I thought ‘ho hum’ but as I read on the plot

changed from the simple ‘burnt-out cop chasing a serial killer’ to three intertwined plots and characters who I can see are complex and will become more so in future novels.

I want to see more Australian crime novels that aren’t detective or private investigator stories and focus on the psychology and motivation of criminals and their victims. Peter Temple’s novels do this even though the focus is still on an ex-cop, and it's still great crime writing with all its grit and gore. Although I’m sure most people don’t think of Thomas Keneally’s Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith as a crime novel, I think it is. And it has the component I like – the psychology of the hunter and hunted.

The Americans have done it well with Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The Brits are also great at getting inside the minds of victims and perpetrators, with leading authors being Ruth Rendell, Mo Hayder and Val McDermid.

This will be a (semi-) regular column in which I talk about writing crime fiction. I will share with you advice, recommended readings, book reviews and essential background information. Hopefully it will also be of interest to readers.

Colleen O’Brien is a novelist and poet. She participated in Byron Writers Festival's Residential Mentorship for her crime novel, River People, in 2016. She has also written an unpublished crime novel set in 1950s New York, Mausoleum of Memories. She started writing full time six years ago and has been in a writing group for most of that time.

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Byron Writers Festival Workshops Monday 31 July Laurel Cohn The Structural Edit: What it is, how to do it and how to survive it Structural editing involves recognising what is working well in your manuscript and what needs further attention.

This workshop offers practical strategies and tools to guide writers through the process. Requires writers to have a complete draft of their manuscript.

10am - 4pm Lone Goat Gallery $120 / $100 Members or students

Tuesday 01 August Lisa Brockwell Poetry: Deeper reading for better writing In this workshop we will read a selection of great poems and see what makes them tick. For all skill levels, from published poets to those just starting out.

10am - 4pm Lone Goat Gallery $120 / $100 Members or students

Laura Bloom The Heroes Journey In this one-day workshop we will explore techniques to ensure your characters and plot work together to create a satisfying story on all levels: of story, plot, theme and character.

10am - 4pm Byron Community College, Room 1 $120 / $100 Members or students

Alan Close Life Writing Workshop Everybody has a story to tell. We might have a deep need to heal and ‘set the story straight’ or simply want to put our story on paper for family and friends. Bring a current project – or start today!

10am - 4pm Byron Community College, Room 2 $120 / $100 Members or students

Wednesday 02 August Annette Barlow Faber Writing Academy A one-day course offering aspiring writers the opportunity to find out what really goes on inside a publishing house, how publishers make their choices and how to improve one’s chances of publication. The program will include sessions on sure-fire proposals, editing your first page, opening chapters, how to write a great covering letter and some of the reasons a manuscript may be rejected.

10am - 4pm Lone Goat Gallery $120 / $100 Members or students

Laura Bloom Archetypes and character: Using the power of archetypes to bring life to your characters This half-day workshop explores how to identify the archetypes in your work and life experience, and create specific, believable characters that fulfil their narrative potential.

9.30am - 12.30pm Byron Community College, Room 1 $65 / $55 Members or students

Hilton Koppe Finding Your Write Direction If you are considering attending one of this year’s preFestival workshops, but can’t decide which one, this may be the one for you. Participants will be offered a range of fun short writing exercises and can expect to leave feeling rejuvenated, refreshed and ready to write.

9.30am - 12.30pm Byron Community College, Room 2 $65 / $55 Members or students

Hilary Badger Writing for Children You want to write a children's book. So, where to next? In this workshop, learn how to generate ideas and the basics of how to craft them into stories. From the unique perspective of an advertising writer who is also a published author, we'll also consider how to write a book that sells.

1.30pm - 4.30pm Byron Community College, Room 1 $65 / $55 Members or students

Michael Robotham Character and Conflict Award-winning author Michael Robotham reveals how to create compelling crime stories for readers desperate to know what happens next, while covering their eyes, fearing what they might discover.

1.30am - 4.30pm Byron Community College, Room 2 $65 / $55 Members or students 020 | northerly

Thursday 03 August Books to Screen In this workshop for authors and screen content creators, a screen producer, a literary agent and two broadcasters will explain what they look for in choosing books to adapt for screen, and industry specialists will help participants create screen pitches for their work.

8.30am - 4.30pm Lone Goat Gallery $115 / $95 Members or students (places are limited)

Roanna Gonsalves Short Story How do you inject your short story with an extra burst of freshness? Get your hands dirty in this workshop that will help you craft an engaging story using the techniques of writers from many storytelling cultures.

Venue addresses Lone Goat Gallery 28 Lawson Street Byron Bay Byron Community College East Point Arcade (opposite Woolworths) Jonson Street, Byron Bay

Buy tickets To sign up for Byron Writers Festival workshops visit www.byronwritersfestival.com

10am - 4pm Byron Community College, Room 2 $120 / $100 Members or students

Venkat Shyam The A to Z of Gond Art As an indigenous artist tracing his roots to the cave art and bounteous nature of Central India, Venkat will demonstrate how this ancient art has moved from the sacred and ritual realms to court a new, secular public.

10am - 4pm Byron School of Arts, 112 Dalley St, Mullum $140 / $120 Members or students

Vayu Naidu The Science and Soul of Storytelling: Performance narrative Dr.Vayu Naidu gets you to grapple with folk tales and epics to unlock your twenty-first century voice. RASA is a technique honed for writers and performers seeking to be effective communicators and artists. Bring a story to life!

9.30am - 12.30pm Byron Community College, Room 1 $65 / $55 Members or students

Jock Serong Writing a Novel: Start to Finish You've been carrying around this brilliant idea for years: now build it into a novel. Making a work of long fiction requires a unique blend of planning, discipline and inspiration. It's time to make it happen – learn the techniques and share your thoughts.

1.30am - 4.30pm Byron Community College, Room 1 $65 / $55 Members or students

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Competitions

SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS NSW Inc. 2017 WRITING COMPETITIONS

The Society of Women Writers NSW will be running three writing competitions in 2017, open to both members and non-members.

The competitions are: National Poetry (deadline 12 June), National Short Story (10 July) and National Non-Fiction (7 August). There is an open theme, with winners announced on 8 November. There is an entry fee of $25 for members and $35 for non-members, and prize money of $500 on offer for first prize. For full details go to www. womenwritersnsw.org/competitions

THE POST OFFICE HOTEL BRONZE SPUR AWARD 2017

This competition invites original bush verse of up to 100 lines, on the theme of rural Australia: its people, way of life, animals and values. All poems must be written in traditional bush verse 'in the tradition of the old masters'. Entry fee is $5, with a further $5 payable for a poem critique. First prize wins $300 and a handcrafted bronze spur. Deadline for entries is 12 July, for further information visit www.abpa.org.au/Files/event_2017_ BronzeSpurEntryForm.pdf

BETTY OLLE POETRY AWARD

The Betty Olle Poetry Award is awarded for traditional Australian bush poetry (with rhyme, rhythm and metre). There is an entry fee of $10 with a maximum of two poems. Entry is free for the junior section. The winner receives $500 with second prize taking $200; the winning junior poet wins $100. The closing date is August 15, with further details about the competition available at www.abpa.org.au/events.html 022 | northerly

ELYNE MITCHELL WRITING AWARDS

The theme of this competition is ‘Local stories, people, places and events' and is open to writers of both fiction and non-fiction.

Entries should not be more than 2,500 words in length, while there is an entry fee of $15. First prize takes $1,000, while there is a special $500 prize for entrants local to Towang, Tumbarumba and Indigo Shires in Victoria. Closing date is 24 August. www.elynemitchell.com. au/2017-competition

IPSWICH POETRY FEAST COMPETITION

A key component of the annual Ipswich Poetry Feast, now in its fifteenth year, will be its international poetry competition, which invites poets of all ages to compete for over $7,500 in prize money. A host of categories are available, from ages five up, as well as categories for bush poetry and local poets. Some, though not all, categories have entry fees. Closing date for all entries is 28 July, for complete details of this extensive competition go to www.ipswichpoetryfeast.com.au/ categories.htm

CHILD WRITES COMPETITION

The Child Writes Competition is open to Australian primary school-aged children. The winning writer will be paired with an illustrator to be mentored through a program that will result in a published book through Boogie Books. Submissions should be stories of no more than 800 words, and there is a fee of $10 per entry.

There is no deadline, with entries closing when 500 entries have been received. www.childwrites.com.au/ CHILDWRITES-Competition.html

PATRICK WHITE YOUNG INDIGENOUS WRITERS AWARD

These awards have been designed to encourage Indigenous Australians from kindergarten to year 12, studying in NSW, to put their reading, writing and creative skills into action. There are three themes to write to: ‘The Wild’, ‘Then I heard the loudest noise…’ and ‘What Now’.

There is also a group competition, in which Aboriginal students working together with classmates can develop a shared poem, story or play. The deadline for entries is 22 September, with a major prize and two encouragement awards on offer for each school year. For more information visit www.aec.org.au/ wordpress/patrick-white-award

HEYWIRE COMPETITION

The Heywire Competition is for Australian residents aged between sixteen and twenty-two who do not live in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth or Sydney.

Submissions must be true stories of you and/or your community.

Entries are not limited to text, with photo, audio and video categories also available. Text entries should be approximately 1,000 words, while there is no entry fee. The prize is the opportunity for your story to be produced by the ABC and an all-expenses paid trip to the Heywire Youth Issues Forum in Canberra.

Entries close 16 September and for more information visit www.abc.net. au/heywire/competition

THE STRINGYBARK DOG EAT DOG SHORT STORY AWARD 2017 This competition is looking for stories that have as their title a cliché and include one reference to that cliché somewhere in the story. However, stories should NOT contain many clichés. Stringybark,

based in ACT, hates clichĂŠs with a passion but reckons clichĂŠs can inspire some ripper short stories.

Stringybark invites you to write a short story of up to 1,500 words that addresses this theme. The prize value for this competition is over $1,000 in cash and books. International entries most welcome. Closing date for entries is 16 July. Details at: www.stringybarkstories.net

competition invites short story entries of up to 3,000 words. First prize takes $7,500, while there is a special section for secondary school students where the winner takes $1,500. Deadline for entries is 25 August, for more details email info@anngarmsgifts.com.au

POETRY PRIZE 2017

Opening on 1 August, this competition is seeking entries that are based on real life and experiences. Pieces should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length. The winner will receive $500, with the runner-up taking $125. There is an entry fee of $20 and a deadline for entries of 30 September. For further information visit www.fieldofwords.com.au/ memoir-submissions

Also organised by the Society of Women Writers, Tasmania Inc, the Robyn Mathison Annual Poetry Prize accepts poetry of up to forty lines, also on the theme of 'Journeys.

First prize takes $200, with entries ($10 each) closing on 31 August.

For entry details go to www.swwtas. org/249437483

ALBURYCITY SHORT STORY AWARD

The theme for this year's AlburyCity Short Story Award is 'Shadows', and invited entries of up to 3,000 words.

There is an entry fee of $10 and prize money on offer of $1,000 for first prize. This year's will be none other than Bruce Pascoe, with deadline for entries being 26 July. The winner will be announced on 14 September, for more information and to enter log on to www.writearoundthemurray.org. au/competitions/short-story-award

THE ESU-ROLY SUSSEX SHORT STORY AWARD 2017

The English Speaking Union, QLD has partnered with Professor Roly Sussex for this competition.

Professor Sussex is an Emeritus Professor of Applied Language Studies at the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland and is a former chairman of the State Library of Queensland. This

FIELD OF WORDS MEMOIR COMPETITION

JOYCE PARKES WOMEN WRITERS' PRIZE

Organised by the Australian Irish Heritage Association, the Joyce Parkes Women Writers' Prize is designed to promote and encourage women writers in Australia. Entries should be pieces of prose, either fiction or non-fiction, of between 1,000 and 2,000 words on the theme of 'Freedom'. Prize money comes to $500, and there is an entry fee of $10. Deadline for entries is 31 August, with more information available at www.irishheritage.net

MARGOT MANCHESTER MEMORIAL SHORT STORY AWARD Organised by the Society of Women Writers, Tasmania Inc., this competition invites short stories of between 1,200 and 1,500 according to the theme of 'Journeys'. There is a fee of $10 per entry (up to two entries allowed), with a first prize of $200. Second prize takes $50.

Entries close on 31 August, for more information go to www.swwtas. org/249437497

ROBYN MATHISON ANNUAL Also organised by the Society of Women Writers, Tasmania Inc, the Robyn Mathison Annual Poetry Prize accepts poetry of up to forty lines, also on the theme of 'Journeys.

First prize takes $200, with entries ($10 each) closing on 31 August.

For entry details go to www.swwtas. org/249437483

KSP SHORT FICTION COMPETITION

This competition features an Adult section and a Youth (ages ten to eighteen) section. Stories are on an open theme with word limits of 2,500 (Adult) and 2,000 (Youth).

To enter the Youth section is free, while an Adult entry is $10 for one story, ranging to $20 for three stories. Adult first prize takes $300 and Youth $100, with a deadline for entries of 1 September. For full details visit www.kspwriterscentre. com/short-fiction-competition

LANE COVE LITERARY AWARDS

The Lane Cove Literary Awards offer prizes for short stories, memoir and poetry, with prize money ranging between $1,500 and $2,000. Any Australian writer over the age of sixteen is invited to enter, with special youth and senior prizes on offer. Short stories should not exceed 3,000 words, memoir 2,000 words and poetry fifty lines. There is no entry fee, with a closing date of August 23. For further information visit www.lanecove.nsw. gov.au/Community/Library/Pages/ LaneCoveLiteraryAward.aspx

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>> WRITERS’ GROUPS

>> Alstonville Plateau Writers Group

Meets second Friday of each month, 10am - 12pm. All genres welcome, contact Kerry on 66285662 or email alstonvilleplateauwriters@outlook.com

>> Ballina/Byron U3A Creative Writing

Meets every second Wednesday at 12pm, Fripp Oval, Ballina. Contact Ann Neal on 02 6681 6612.

>> Bangalow Writers Group

Meets Thursdays at 9:15am at Bangalow Scout Hall.

Contact Simone on 0407749288

>> Bellingen Writers Group

Meets at Bellingen Golf Club on the fourth Monday of the month at 2pm. All welcome, contact Joanne on 6655 9246 or email jothirsk@restnet.com.au

>> Byron Bay Memoir and Fiction Writing Group

>> Dunoon Writers Group

Writers on the Block. Meets second Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm – 8:30pm at Dunoon Sports Club.

Contact Helga on 66202994 (W), 0401405178 (M) or email heg.j@telstra.com

>> FAW Port Macquarie-Hastings Regional

Meets 1pm on last Saturday of each month, Maritime Museum, Port Macquarie. Contact Joie on 65843520 or email Bessie on befrank@tsn.cc

>> Gold Coast Writers Association

Meets third Saturday of each month, 1:30pm for 2pm start, at Fradgley Hall, Burleigh Heads Library, Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads. Contact 0431443385 or email info@goldcoast-writers.org.au

>> Kyogle Writers

Meets monthly at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay. Contact Diana on 0420 282 938 or diana.burstall@gmail.com

Meets first Tuesday of each month, 10:30am at Kyogle Bowling Club. Contact Brian on 66242636 or email briancostin129@hotmail.com

>> Casino Writers Group

>> Lismore Writers Group

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

>> Cloudcatchers

For Haiku enthusiasts. A ginko (haiku walk) is undertaken according to group agreement. Contact Quendryth on 66533256 or email quendrythyoung@ bigpond.com

>> Coffs Harbour Writers Group

Meets second Tuesday of the month from 7:30pm to 9:30pm at Communities Hub Art Space on Keen Street.

Cost is $5 for Hub members, $7.50 for non-members.

For more details phone 0410832362.

>> Middle Grade / Young Adult Fiction Writers’ Group

Meets monthly at 2pm on Sundays in Bangalow. Contact Carolyn Bishop at carolyncbishop@gmail.com or 0431161104

Meets 1st Wednesday of the month 10.30am to 12.30pm. Contact Lorraine Penn on 66533256 or 0404163136, email: lmproject@bigpond.com. www.coffsharbourwriters.com

>> Nambucca Valley Writers Group

>> Coffs Harbour Memoir Writers Group

>> Taree-Manning River Scribblers

Share your memoir writing for critique. Monthly meetings, contact 0409824803 or email costalmermaid@ gmail.com

>> Cru3a River Poets

Meets every Thursday at 10:30am, venue varies, mainly in Yamba. Contact Pauline on 66458715 or email kitesway@westnet.com.au

>> Dangerously Poetic Writing Circle

Meets second Wednesday of each month, 2pm-4pm at Brunswick Valley Community Centre. Contact Laura on 66801976 or visit www.dangerouslypoetic.com

>> Dorrigo Writers Group

Meets every second Wednesday from 10am-2pm.

Contact Iris on 66575274 or email an_lomall@bigpond. com or contact Nell on 66574089

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Meets fourth Saturday of each month, 1:30pm, Nambucca. Contact 65689648 or nambuccawriters@ gmail.com Meets second Wednesday of the month, 9am-11:30am, Taree. Call first to check venue. Contact Bob Winston on 65532829 or email rrw1939@hotmail.com

>> Tweed Poets and Writers

Meets weekly at the Coolangatta Senior Citizens Centre on Tuesdays from 1:30 to 3:30pm, NSW time.

Poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers are all welcome. Phone Lorraine 0755248035 or Pauline 0755245062.

>> WordsFlow Writing

Group meets Fridays during school term, 12:30pm-3pm, Pottsville Beach Neighbourhood Centre, 12a Elizabeth St, Pottsville Beach. Contact Cheryl on 0412455707 or visit www.wordsflowwriters.blogspot.com

WIN

THE ULTIMATE BOOK LOVERS WEEKEND AWAY

TO THE BYRON WRITERS FESTIVAL 2018 In 6 words or less, create a book title that best describes the life you most want to live.

YOUR PRIZE INCLUDES

COMPETITION CLOSES 11 SEPTEMBER 2017

• $500 Webjet voucher • 2 nights’ accommodation in Byron Bay • a double 3-day pass to 2018 Byron Writers Festival • Plus you get a double pass to opening night and a pack of 10 signed books from the festival authors.

HOW TO ENTER

Simply head over Feros Care website to submit your post. Enter as many times as you like! www.feroscare.com.au/yournextchapter * Terms & conditions apply: www.feroscare.com.au/yournextchapter

Ful lP

Where Stories Take You 4 – 6 August 2017

now sale on

t i c m ket a r g s ro

Details & tickets: byronwritersfestival.com