OOTA Newsletter February 4, 2014 LITERARY NEWS
Helen Hagemann returns for 2014 with a new series of novel writing at the Fremantle Arts Centre each Friday fortnight, commencing 7th February. Beginners and developing writers catered for. The class will focus on writing chapters, (& stand-alone work suitable for the short story), and will also read chapters from the best authors/ new authors, not only from Australia, but from all over the globe incl. Kate Grenville, Patrick White, Helen Garner, David Malouf, Virginia Woolf, Don DeLillo, Larry Brown, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Sonya Hartnett, and Donna Tartt to name just a few. 7th February class will read from Oscar & Lucinda a prize winning novel by Peter Carey. Apart from the usual 2-3 writing exercises, these workshops will introduce a quiz, i.e. a type of "Writing QI" (winners receiving prizes!) to get the writer thinking and learning about important aspects of the presented text. Classes are also individually designed for casual attendance. All welcome!
Last Minute Reminder Submissions to Australian Love Stories 2014 are closing on February 28. The publishers would like to remind our members one more time that there’s still time to submit. For more information see our submission guidelines. Many Thanks from the team at Inkerman & Blunt.
OOTA NEWS In conjunction with the KSP, PCWC and The Fellowship of Australian Writers WA, OOTA will be represented at the Perth Writers Festival. We will have a table in the Writers' Week for two full days, Friday Feb 22 and Sat Feb 23. The table will showcase members’ books and WA writers generally, news of events, prize-winners, prizes; it will offer an outline of the year's program, brochures, flyers, etc. OOTA members might like to design a flyer for their books or upcoming events. FAWWA will have a laptop on hand ready to direct interested people to your websites. FRIDAY & SATURDAY TIMES
9.00 am-11.00 am 11.00 am -1.00pm 1.00pm-3.00pm 3.00pm-5.00pm If you can assist the committee in any way, volunteering your time for 2 hours we’d love to hear from you. Email ootawriters@gmail.com
Write with the Society of Women Writers The Society of Women Writers WA has finalised an exciting range of workshops as well as a boot camp and Marathon Writing Competition. The year kicks off with a 'Plotting Your Novel' workshop presented by John Harman from 12:30-2:30pm on 18 February. All events take place at Citiplace, Perth Railway Station concourse, and visitors are welcome. The Society aims to encourage women writers, offering a central meeting place for information, support and fellowship, and a communication base for country members and isolated writers. For more information and to view the full calendar of events, click here.
2014 Ekphrasis Poetry Award Entries open Monday 3 February. To be placed on a list to receive notification when the artworks are on display please email artsinfo@nillumbik.vic.gov.au or phone 03 9433 3359. The Award is open to poets residing anywhere in Australia. Poems must be up to twelve lines that respond to one of twelve selected art works from the Nillumbik Art Collection. The twelve artworks will be on display at the Nillumbik Shire Offices, Civic Drive, Greensborough from Monday 3 February, 2014. They will also be available to view here. There are two sections: Open Section: $500 first prize; $300 second prize and $200 third prize. Young Poets Section, for poets aged between 12 and 18 years: $150 prize. Each poet may enter up to three poems. You must use a separate entry form and fee for each poem entered. There is a $10 entry fee for each poem entered, with the exception of the Young Poets Section which has no entry fee. Entries close on Monday 31 March 2014 and must be post marked by the closing date. All entrants will be notified of the results by the end of April, 2014. More info here.
'Nurture': A Workshop for Playwrights Hellie Turner invites playwrights to join her in an exploration of the craft and process pertaining to the development of a play script. This will be a workshop with the emphasis being on 'work'. Hellie is a prolific, veteran playwright with numerous awards and production credits to her name and has written for all sectors of theatre. 12 & 13 April, 10am-3pm, at Stages WA, 266 William St Northbridge. Cost: $150 Stages Members, $160 Non-Members. For details, click here.
KSP’s February workshops: a six week Online Grammar and Punctuation with author Karen Treanor beginning Monday 17 February, and Curator Versus Creator, a workshop with Emerging Writer-in-Residence, Ailsa Piper, on Saturday 22 February from 1.00-4.00pm.
KSP’s website has information about Ailsa Piper, KSP’s first Emerging Writer-in-Residence for 2014. Ailsa will arrive for her month-long stay at the centre on 10 February and you will be able to meet her at a variety of the regular writing groups during this period.
Further, two lucky members will have the opportunity for a one-hour mentorship with Ailsa. If you are interested, please forward a brief synopsis and sample of the project you want Ailsa to help with as well, as a few sentences explaining why you would like Ailsa’s help, to kspf@iinet.net.au
And of course, KSP will be hosting one of their famous Literary Dinners for Ailsa on Tuesday 25 February from 7.00-9.00pm where she will give three readings of the writing she works on during her residency.
For bookings or to enquire about these or any of our other scheduled events for 2014, please phone the centre on 9294 1872 or email us at kspf@iinet.net.au Andrew Levett Acting Coordinator Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre 11 Old York Road Greenmount WA 6056 Tel/Fax 08 9294 1872 http://kspf.iinet.net.au/
The Questions Writing Prize 2014
VOICEBOX!!!!!
The Questions Writing Prize recognises and rewards talented writers aged 18 to 30. Submissions are now invited of fiction and non-fiction from 1,500 to 2,000 words, on any topic. The prize for the best submission is $2,000. (Where there is more than one winner the prize money will be shared.). The winner of the Questions Writing Prize will have their work published in a book and a forthcoming issue of Questions. Please send submissions via email in a word document by 1 July. For more information, click here.
Voicebox. is back for 2014. 10 x 5 min. open mike.Doors open at 7 pm, poetry begins at 7.30.There is a bar and tea, coffee, snacks and cake will be available for purchase. The Fly Trap is a cash only venue. See Voicebox Fremantle on Facebook, or email poets.voicebox@gmail.com . -- on behalf of the Voicebox Collective: Liana Joy Christensen, Sarah Leighton, Nandi Chinna and Josephine Clarke.Voicebox @ The Fly Trap on the LAST Monday of the month, except public holidays, 7.30pm.Tickets $10/$6 available www.flybynight.org or at the door.
JACKSON IS BACK
Woman Scream 2014 is on the way!
Poetry Kitchen resumed for 2014.
This March 2014, more than thirty countries will add their voices to the worldwide chain of events at the 4th Woman Scream International Poetry Festival. The initiative born in the Dominican Republic, has spread to several countries, and aims to commemorate the role of women in society, and to deliver messages of respect, self-esteem and no violence against women, through poetry and cultural activities. The Woman Scream 2014 festival is a chain of simultaneous events with the participation of men and women of different generations. It is organized by Women Poets International Movement (Movimiento Mujeres Poetas International, MPI, Inc.), and enthusiastically embraced by followers and members from different cultural environments internationally.
Poetry Kitchen (now with two timeslots) Tactful feedback, writing experiments, yummy snacks. In Fremantle, with experienced poet & editor Jackson. Tuesdays 10-12 or 1-3, fortnightly from 5 Nov. Pay as you feel. Limited places, book now. lostpoetjj@gmail.com | 0406 624 578More info: proximitypoetry.com/kitchen
Kaitlyn Plyley is performing at The Blue Room Theatre as part of Perth's Fringe World Festival. If you're looking for quality spoken word, you've found it! A not-to-miss event for Febuary 2014. Performance poet Kaitlyn Plyley is performing at The Blue Room Theatre as part of Perth's Fringe World Festival.WHEN: 4th - 8th Feb | 6.30pmWHERE: The Blue Room Theatre (53 James Street, Northbridge WA 6003)Get the full rundown at http://blueroom.org.au/events/not-much-totell-you Writing Love Poetry Workshop with Mark Tredinnick
Saturday 15 February 10 am to 12 noon Mattie Furphy House, Swanbourne Love in popular culture is so overrun and overwrought with mass-market metaphor that it’s hard, especially in love’s thrall, to find language unsaid before, to find words that do justice. Mark will work through the ways and means and the traps entailed in writing a winning love poem. Tickets $80/$60 (Standard/WAPI member) Book online with credit card at http://www.trybooking.com/DZHV or visit the WAPI website at http://www.wapoets.net.au/love-poetry-eventpoetrydamour-2014/poetry-damour-2014/workshops/
The first Woman Scream International Poetry Festival was held in honour of Susana Chavez, the Mexican poet murdered in 2011, with the participation of 17 countries and a total of 44 events celebrated in Europe, U.S. and Latin America. In 2012, boundaries reached other nationalities including Africa and India with 30 participating countries and 95 events scheduled. The last 2013 more than 100 events were planned honoring the Pakistani Malala Youfsuzai. This 2014, new nations have joined this cause in pursuit of a common goal. Perth Poetry Club in conjunction with WAPI is hosting the Perth contribution to Woman Scream 2014 on Saturday, 8th March (International Women’s Day) at The Moon Café, 323 William Street, Northbridge. Further details to follow in the next week. You can check more about Woman Scream festival 2014 and previous events on http://womanscream.blogspot.com and Facebook.
OPPORTUNITIES Script Entries Open Script entries are now open for Short+Sweet festivals throughout 2014! Enter now to be considered for more than 10 of our international festivals, including S+S Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Delhi, Chennai, KL, Canberra, Sydney 2015 and more. For more details and to submit your entry, go to: http://shortandsweet.org/submit-script Perth Poetry Club – 8th February: Daniel Oxenburgh (to be confirmed)) and Chris Kennedy. Moon Café, 323 William St Northbridge. 2pm – 4pm.
CALENDAR FEBRUARY 2014 31 Jan-15 Feb Poetry d'Amour Perth 15 – Poetry Workshop with Mark Tredinnick 20-23 - Perth Writers Festival 24 - Voicebox with Gail Willems, Kevin Gillam and Danijela Kambaskovic. 28 – Australian Love Stories, Ed. Cate Kennedy MARCH 03 – Cordite, No theme III 13 – Castaways Poetry Prize 14 - The Ethel Webb Bundell Literary Awards Poetry & short story. 31 – Westerly for July Issue
MEMBERS ACHIEVEMENTS Congratulations to Gail Willems. Gail will soon have a poem published in the upcoming Regime 3 (probably with a lot of other OOTA members), titled “Stone Walls and Forgotten Spaces”.
POEM OF THE WEEK THE PARADE Driving, I was redirected past crowded sidewalks, in a slurry of midday sleet. I'd not seen or heard the news for days having been inside with my son, who was now in The Royal, in Surgical Specialties, the unit for burns. His scald-wound had opened, was infected, inflamed, in need of cleaning and closure. The car park's digital board flashed red like No Vacancy at a bleak motel without windows. I drove on and found a white bunker with signs reading Manager, Staff Only, Tow-Away Area. In town, wet wind kept the crowds back and down. The police were in form - the more senior of them medalled and awkward and stern. I asked a man for the drum. He said cobber, cricketers, tickertape parade. Having no camera and no desire to watch a fat spinner and then a skipper with a grin in a pin-striped blazer roll by, I stayed on regardless -- a fool in the rain with an empty pusher. Soon my son would be wheeled from theatre. I looked up and down for a sign of the World Cup winners. Somewhere near, a pipe band began like big cats with emphysema. Two cops on bikes appeared in the slick, followed by the sporrans and stems, the bags and beards, and behind them a man in a cut-down Porsche, waving under a gold umbrella: a batsman, punter and failed brawler. Where were the bowlers and keeper, the middle-order duffers, the southpawed, Sandgroping drinks waiter? When the tickertape fell, in the wake of The Player, it might have been newspaper, torn and thrown badly. A child let go of her red balloon. The cricketer watched it rise. Approaching the hospital, the exhaust fans worked the air like applause. — Anthony Lawrence
Congratulations to Fran Graham Fran recently won a Highly Commended in the FAW Tasmania's Norma and Colin Knight Poetry Award, for her poem 'The Reading Group'.
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