OOTA Newsletter February 18, 2014
WRITING AT THE CENTRE. Helen Hagemann’s prose class on Friday 21st February @ 10.00am is in Room 2. On 21st March & 4th April we will be in Room 3. Our Monthly Critiquing First hour of the class will be a critiquing session. Writers are reminded to bring a 2 page, double spaced “scene/chapter” of a novel, or 2 pages of a short story. PLEASE NOTE: Please bring enough printed copies to distribute to your fellow writers.
OOTA NEWS OOTA would like to thank a small number of members, besides the committee, who have volunteered to help man the tent at the Perth Writers Festival this coming Friday and Saturday. We really appreciate your help. Many thanks! WHAT, WHERE, ETC. KSPWC, PCWC, FAWWA and OOTA will be located in one tent space for both days, Friday 21 and Saturday 22 February. The tent is the REMIDA tent; you will find it marked on the map that is a link below. The tent is adjacent to the entrance of the Romeo Tent on a triangular section of the lawn and sits beside the FIBRANT tent. The Festival is also providing 20 chairs and 8 x trestle tables inside this venue for our use. So please come along, we would appreciate a quick hello or a spell for a quick break for lunch or bookshop buying. Click on the link for the PWF Map HERE
Martin Amis – an author not to be missed. Second Hour The class will read 2 small chapters from The Bride Stripped Bare by anonymous (really it’s Nikki Gemmel!). Writers will gain insights into how Gemmel sustains a novel written wholly in the 2nd person point-ofview. There will be a quick quiz and a writing exercise on the 2nd person POV. This will help writers decide their voice for either a short story or novel chapter. All members are welcome to listen to our prose writers for the 1st hour. Free!
Coming up: Sunday April 13 2014
The Writer’s Tales Harper Collins Wants Your Love! SUBMIT WEDNESDAY On Wednesday 19 February, HarperCollins Australia's online submission portal, The Wednesday Post, will be searching for fabulous Romance, Erotica and Women's Fiction manuscripts. They're looking for charming love stories that will keep readers hooked till the beautiful, or bitter end. Whether or not you’ve been previously published, this is the perfect opportunity to submit your work and have a chance to be published by an awardwinning, international publishing house. All entries will be considered for both print and ebook publication as well as digital-only publication. General manuscript submissions reopen 26 February. For guidelines, click on link. http://www.wednesdaypost.com.au/ South Perth “I Love Poetry” Competition Monash University Publishing invites you to the launch of Dare me! The Life and Work of Gerald Glaskin by John Burbidge, with a forward by Robert Dessaix. To be launched Graham Willett MC Dr Trisha Kotai-Ewers with special guest Rae Kean. WHEN Monday 24 February 2014 5.30 for 6.00pm start at Mattie Furphy House, Kirkwood Road, Swanbourne WA (Fellowship of Australian Writers WA) RSVP (essential) by 20 February to Sarah Cannon sarah.cannon@monash.edu.au or Tel 03 9905 0526 UWA Publishing Launches 'Scholarly' UWA Publishing is pleased to introduce a new imprint to its operations, UWAP Scholarly. Academic monographs play an important role as disseminators of research findings in the university sector. UWAP Scholarly is looking for lively writing and cogent arguments in the fields of humanities and social sciences, and the natural sciences. Books will be produced in both print and eBook formats. For guidelines, click here. The joanne burns (prose poem/microfiction) Award : In 2014, the joanne burns Award will be run in conjunction with Flashing the Square, which will present short literary works on the vast screen at Federation Square during the Melbourne Writers Festival. We are looking for screensized literature (up to 200 words in no more than two paragraphs). Open theme and in micofiction/prose poem form. First prize $300. All entries will be considered for publication in the Flashing the Square anthology. Selected entries will go on to be produced as videos to be screened during the Melbourne Writers Festival (August 21-31). For details, click here.
a creative writing workshop with Horst Kornberger Stories bear a powerful charge. Because they speak directly to the psyche they effectively mobilise creative response. Some stories are particularly suited to writers: I call them the ‘The Writer’s Tales.’ They reflect the initiatory stages of the creative self and work like a powerful catalyst on writing potential. In this workshop I will tell these tales and lead you into a series of writing exercises that harness their creative potential for your work. When:
Sunday 13 April, 2.00 pm - 5.00 pm
Where: Tom Collins House, FAWWA, Allen Park, Corner Woad St and Kirkwood Rd, Swanbourne Cost: $70/$50 concession Book in now at our website. * BOOT CAMP WORKOUT FOR EMERGING WRITERS Helen Iles, President of the Society of Women Writers WA, is holding a Writers Boot Camp at the Guildford Mechanics Institute, 20 Meadow Street Guildford on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 March 2014 from 9am to 5pm. Cost is $180 for members of the Society, or $240 for non-members. For media enquiries, please contact Helen Iles on 0429 116 395 or email: linpress@tpg.com.au
The Ampersand Project Seeks YA Fiction Since 2011, Hardie Grant Egmont has reserved a special corner of its Young Adult list for publishing debut novels. Its call it the Ampersand Project because they love to work collaboratively with writers. If you’re serious about a career in YA fiction, then they’re serious about you. 2014 submissions are now open and close at midnight on 28 February. Open to YA manuscripts across all genres and word-counts. Writers should not have already published a YA novel under their own name with a mainstream trade publisher. For details, click here.
GIGS
Perth Poetry Club: Saturday 22 nd February Features : Recoil 5 Launch, Moon Café 2-4pm.
CALENDAR FEBRUARY 2014 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 31 - Ekphrastis Poetry Award APRIL 12-13 Nurture: A Workshop for Playwrights MAY 1– Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
MEMBERS ACHIEVEMENTS Congratulations to Kevin Gillam He has poems accepted into the following Australian anthologies: "me?" in 'The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry' - "moth words" in 'Writing to the Edge' (prose poetry) published by Spineless Wonders, and "the hush" in 'Recoil 5'. Congratulations to all OOTA members in Regime #3. Renee Schipp, Christopher Konrad, Shane McCauley, Sue Clennell, Roland Leach, and Gail Willems
JukeBox On sale now: $20 + postage– The book will be showcased at the Perth Writers Festival. Spread the word, Louise Allan has on her Facebook page! Thanks Louise.
POEM OF THE WEEK Seed by Paula Meehan The first warm day of spring and I step out into the garden from the gloom of a house where hope had died to tally the storm damage, to seek what may have survived. And finding some forgotten lupins I’d sown from seed last autumn holding in their fingers a raindrop each like a peace offering, or a promise, I am suddenly grateful and would offer a prayer if I believed in God. But not believing, I bless the power of seed, its casual, useful persistence, and bless the power of sun, its conspiracy with the underground, and thank my stars the winter’s ended. ootawriters@gmail.com http://ootawriters.blogspot.com.au OOTA Committee 2014 Julie Watts: President Helen Trengrove: Vice-President Leanne Searle: Treasurer / Membership Admin Secretary: Liz Hearnden Helen Hagemann: Newsletter/ Web Committee members: Carolyn Abbs, Flora Smith and Murray Jennings.