OOTA Newsletter July 22, 2014
OOTA NEWS Just a friendly reminder that your membership subscription is now due. You have until 31 st August, 2014 to renew so that you can still receive Network Tuesday and also our new membership journal Westerly (Dec Issue). You can download the membership form @ http://www.ootawriters.blogspot.com.au/p/members hip_4377.html CONGRATULATIONS TO: Veronica Lake who recently won Third Prize in the PCWC’s Patron’s Prize for Poets for her poem Stained Glass Saint. Veronica was also Highly Commended in the Henry Kendall Poetry Competition NSW for November Stars, winning also a commended for Dragonfly Wing. Congratulations to: Rosie Barter for 2nd Prize in the FAW’s 2014 Lyndall Hadow for Not Sweet, Not Sweet at All . To Alison Davis for a highly commended for Do Not Disturb and to Victoria Sloan for making the shortlist. Well done! 2014 Perth Poetry Festival WORKSHOPS Sound and Imagery in Poetry Judith Beveridge Friday 15th August 2.30–4pm. An interactive workshop suitable for all levels of ability where Judith will talk about the use of sound and imagery in poetry. Poetry Live in the House Jeltje Fanoy Saturday 16th August 10 am – 12 noon. For the last decade or so, Jeltje has been performing and recording with improvising musicians. In this workshop she will discuss how, working with musicians, she became more aware of the rhythms of speech inherent in her own poetry. This is an interactive workshop and suitable for all poets of varying levels of ability. Making a Poem Tony Curtis: Sunday 17th August 11.30am– 1.30pm. Join eminent Irish poet, Tony Curtis, for an enlightening session on ‘making poems’, an interactive workshop emphasising Tony's delight in talking to people about how they make their poems, and why. Bookings at http://www.trybooking.com/EYQT (a booking fee applies).
WRITING AT THE CENTRE Friday, 25th July, is Prose with Helen Hagemann. 10.00am til noon @ the Swanbourne Bookcaffe. The class will include writing exercises and critiquing (esp. your short stories for the Spilt Ink!). Please bring enough copies to hand out to your fellow writers. (If writers need to leave early we can choose which order you prefer).There is no charge for this class, but writers will need to order food and coffee to satisfy the owners for providing the space. * WA Editor and Poet, Alexis Lateef has started a WA based poetry journal, called WRIT Poetry Review; website in the making.. Lateef is currently accepting submissions and would like to extend an invitation to OOTA Writers. Please advise poets to submit a maximum of three poems with a short bio to writpoetryreview@gmail.com. http://www.writreview.com.au/
Submissions are open for our newest poetry project:
Prayers of a Secular World Out in May 2015 Inkerman & Blunt is calling for poems that resonate like prayers, prayers relevant to our secular society. The deadline for submissions is Friday 29 August 2014.
Click on Graphic for Website Details
The Society of Women Writers WA is running a Writers' Boot Camp in Kelmscott on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 August 2014, from 9am to 5pm, both days. Boot Camp is open to men & women. The cost is $180 for members or $240 for non-members. Membership forms are available on the website if you wish to join. Booking and pre-payment is essential to secure your place. For bookings or information, call the Society of Women Writers on 0415 840 031, email swwofwa@gmail.com or check the website: www.swwofwa.com CALENDAR JULY 26 – Perth Poetry Club: Guest Jackson 28 – Voicebox: Dick Alderson & company. The Fly Trap 30 - Kimberley Haiku Online Competition Details 31 – The Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize. Info here 31 - 2014 Henry Handel Richardson Writing Comp AUGUST 1 - Trudy Graham/Julie Lewis Literary Award: Prose: Details 1 – Best Australian Poems, Essays & Stories by Black Inc. 1 - New England Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing 2 – Launch of Andrew Burke’s One Hour Seeds Another 2-3 - Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1: Click here. 14-17 – Perth Poetry Festival 22 – Poetry d'Amour 2015. Details at WA Poets Inc 31 - Carmel Bird Award 2014 - Long Story Comp: details 31 - Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition 2014 Details. 31 – Wesrerly Magazine: Special Edition West Aust/Asia Issue SEPTEMBER 01 – Anthology of Loss: Details 30 – Gold Coast Writers Festival Adult Writing Competition OCTOBER 10 - The City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards: Details ≈ Nannup Winter Writers Retreat is being held at Nannup River Cottages from Friday, August 1, to Sunday, August 3. This inaugural event has been organized by the Nannup Arts Council. Author Sarah Evans will be presenting workshops on poetry and short story writing. Children's book illustrator-author Gabriel Evans will conduct an illustration workshop and singer-songwriter Mary Myfanwy Evans will talking about her songwriting techniques as well as performing. The weekend also involves ghost stories, Irish music and a talk by publishers Pick-a-Woowoo on do-it-yourself publishing. FMI: Nannup Arts Council Inc website: nannupartscouncil.com/nac-inc-winter-writers-retreat-booknow
List of Literary Magazines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_magazi nes Sci-ku competition 2014 Theme: Food- Date: Entries close Sunday 24 August. 3 Categories: Primary school, secondary school, Open. Contact: Kiran Groom, Programs Coordinator, RiAus (kgroom@riaus.org.au) Website: Online submissions at riaus.org.au/sci-ku POEM OF THE WEEK A Writer’s Room by Tony Curtis As if visitors were coming, I tidied my room. I tore up papers, letters, abandoned scraps; lines I had jotted down on buses and trains. One note noted that I had gone so far into myself I was beginning to see the light on the other side. That must have been a bad day; everyone knows there is no light on the other side. I broke for tea to see how Mohamed was getting on with wallpapering the kitchen. It is a Laura Ashley blue; it will lift the spirits. I returned to my room and moved things around, piled paperbacks in different stacks, put back what books I could on shelves, then began reading an old copy of The Guardian. I spent half an hour reading an article on C.K. Williams. I love what he does with a long line, he irons it until it’s as neat as a freshly pressed shirt. And does the room look any better? I don’t know, but for the first time in weeks, months even, I can see the wood on the top of the table. I often wonder if all this clutter is what makes my poems so ramshackled. And it isn’t that I don’t notice the chaos. Every Saturday I look at ‘A Writer’s Room’ in The Guardian Review and each week there is a photograph of a room, neat as a grave. My room is a bombed-out bunker and in it the poetry war goes on and on. If C.K. Williams were writing this poem a tramp would now pass through and take a piss in the corner then grunt an apology when he sees me, saying sorry, he mistook all this rubbish for an alleyway. Tony Curtis will be one of the featured poets this year at the Perth Spring Poetry Festival. (Published in Folk - Arc Publications 2011)
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