OOTA Newsletter May 20, 2014 WRITING AT THE CENTRE Forthcoming Prose Workshops with Dr. Nandi Chinna
WRITING AT THE CENTRE THIS WEEK IS POETRY WITH SHANE MCCAULEY, FRIDAY, 23rd MAY AT THE FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE, 10.00AM – MIDDAY. POETRY BITES COME ALONG AND LISTEN TO GAIL WILLEMS READ FROM HER NEW COLLECTION FRIDAY, 23rd MAY, MIDDAY AT THE FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE CAFÉ. The Second Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards Maximum number of haiku allowed: five (5) haiku in English. Entry fee: none. Awards: First Place - $150 plus a copy of To Hear the Rain (as well as a copy to a library of the award winner's choice) plus a miniature crystal turtle Second Place - $75 plus a copy of To Hear the Rain (as well as a copy to a library of the award winner's choice) Third Place - $50 plus a copy of To Hear the Rain (as well as a copy to a library of the award winner's choice).
A Vast Emptiness. A Possible Book Virginia Woolf said that ‘writing a novel is like walking through a dark room, holding a lantern which lights up what is already in the room anyway’. Another writer says that writing is like having to rearrange the furniture in a dark room, and then when it was all rearranged the light will come on. Still another writer comments that writing is like being in an empty room which is nevertheless filled with unspoken words, with a sort of whispering. In this series of three prose workshops we will practice exercises and techniques which will allow us to enter these seemingly dark or empty rooms in our imaginations. We will rearrange, stumble upon, and illuminate what is already there, waiting to be expressed upon the page or computer screen.
Deadline for entries: June 1, 2014 Enter by email to John Stevenson at ithacan@earthlink.net
Fridays 10am – 12noon, May 30th, June 13th, and 27th June at the Fremantle Arts Centre , Room 2, upstairs in the main building. $20 OOTA: $25 NONOOTA (cost per class). No booking required. Dr Nandi Chinna is a poet, essayist, short story writer and sessional academic at ECU. Her short stories have been published as a part of the 1001 Nights text/performance project, and in various journals. Her first collection of poetry, Our Only Guide is Our Homesickness, was published by the Five Islands Press New Poets Program in 2007, followed by the chap book How to Measure Land, which was joint winner of the 2010 Picaro Press Byron Bay Writers Festival Poetry Prize. Her poetry collection Swamp was published by Fremantle Press in 2014. She lives near Fremantle, Western Australia.
. Call Nandi for info 9331 3104, or email for more details. chinnanandi@hotmail.com
CULTURE AND THE ARTS MINISTER JOHN DAY AND ACTING REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT MINISTER TERRY WALDRON RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THE PERFORMING ARTS REGIONAL TOURING BOOST GRANTS PROGRAM ‘BOOST’. THE BOOST PROGRAM IS A $900,000 GRANTS PROGRAM OVER THREE YEARS AND THE AIM IS TO INCREASE THE NUMBER AND DIVERSITY OF PROFESSIONAL SMALL TO MEDIUM PERFORMING ARTS WORKS TOURING REGIONAL WESTERN AUSTRALIA. APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE FIRST ROUND WHICH CLOSES FRIDAY 25 JULY 2014 (FOR ACTIVITY STARTING AFTER 1 JANUARY 2015). HERE ARE SOME KEY LINKS REGARDING THE BOOST GRANTS PROGRAM: MEDIA STATEMENT DCA WEBSITE – TEMPLATES (INCLUDING; BOOST INFORMATION PACK, APPLICATION FORM, PRESENTER CONFIRMATION FORM, BUDGET AND ITINERARY)
DCA WILL BE CONDUCTING AN INFORMATION SESSION AROUND BOOST IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE. WE WILL BE IN TOUCH AGAIN SHORTLY ONCE THE DETAILS ARE CONFIRMED.
The Twisted Stringybark Short Story Award 2014 Stringybark Stories is pleased to announce its latest short fiction award with over $860 in cash and books available to the best entries. But there are two catches. Firstly, the story has to have a nifty twist at the end (or the middle, or beginning) that surprises the reader, and secondly, that the story has a link, no matter how tenuous, to Australia. Writers have 1500 words to produce a short story that will delight and entertain the judges. International entries welcome. Closing date for entries is 29 June , 2014. Details at: http://www.stringybarkstories.net GIGS PERTH POETRY CLUB 24th May Guests: JULIE WATTS & Piri Altraide 2pm @ the Moon, 2pm, 323 William Street, Northbridge.
The John Knight Memorial Poetry Manuscript Prize honours the spirit of a Queensland poet, John Knight, who provided many poets with a rare opportunity to publish in book form. This is a prize for an unpublished poetry manuscript of 40 pages. Entries are now open, with the deadline for submissions being June 30. Details here Kimberley Haiku Online Competition Closes 30th July. Details "Gargouille" New biannual literary journal has announced it is open for submissions of short stories, poetry, scripts, aesthetic essays, lost and found words’. Further details here. POEM OF THE WEEK To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl
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VOICEBOX Monday 26 May Guests: Gary Colombo De Piazzi, Amanda Joy & Annette Mullumby. Read your poetry in the Open Mike. 7pm for 7.30pm start. The Fly Trap, Fremantle. CALENDAR MAY 30 – PCWC Patron’s Prize cowan05@bigpond.com 30 – Second Bite Poetry Prize. Details here JUNE 01 – The Lyndall Hadow/Donald Stuart Short Story Comp 06 – The Big Issue – “Take Me Away” Details. 11 - Masterclass: The Art of Illustration Details. 29 – Overland Wine Short Story Prize. Details here. 30 – P age Seventeen & competition. Details. 30 - The London Magazine Worldwide Poetry Competition 30 - Joe O’Sullivan & Joyce Parkes Writers Prizes details here. JULY 4 – 2014 Blake Poetry Prize. More info here 31 – The Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize. Info here AUGUST 1 – Best Australian Poems by Black Inc. 1 - New England Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing 31 - Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition 2014 Details. SEPTEMBER 01 – Anthology of Loss: Details 30 – Gold Coast Writers Festival Adult Writing Competition
≈ KSP Writers Centre : The Follow Your Dreams Festival This Festival featuring two special events is not just for writers but for ANYONE looking to reignite their passion for life and learn strategies for personal and financial success. Saturday Workshop 7 June, 1-4pm, Swan View Youth Centre. Tickets: $35 members, $50 non-members. Full details here.
“Do you realize that if you had started building the Parthenon on the day you were born, you would be all done in only one more year? Of course, you couldn’t have done that all alone. So never mind; you’re fine just being yourself. You’re loved for just being you. But did you know that at your age Judy Garland was pulling down 150,000 dollars a picture, Joan of Arc was leading the French army to victory and Blaise Pascal had cleaned up his room — no wait, I mean he had invented the calculator? Of course, there will be time for all that later in your life, after you come out of your room and begin to blossom, or at least pick up all your socks. For some reason I keep remembering that Lady Jane Grey was queen of England when she was only 15. But then she was beheaded, so never mind her as a role model. A few centuries later, when he was your age, Franz Schubert was doing the dishes for his family, but that did not keep him from composing two symphonies, four operas and two complete masses as a youngster. But of course, that was in Austria at the height of Romantic lyricism, not here in the suburbs of Cleveland. Frankly, who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15 or if Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17? We think you’re special just being you — playing with your food and staring into space. By the way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes, but that doesn’t mean he never helped out around the house.” —Billy Collins
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