Writers Voice September 2011 - Fellowship of Australian Writers NSW

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FAW Branch Reports Port Stephens FAW cont. from previous page Finally in February 2011 we had enough stories, articles and poems to compile a book. Our new title ‘Time and Tide’, suggested by Wendy Zirngast, was chosen as we travel from past to present with our writings. In March Penny Lane kindly offered to type everyone’s work, and soon a stack of A4 text was sent to the publisher who added his creative touch with interesting headings for our first draft. Draft two included Wendy’s black & white illustrations and Andrew Gregory’s front cover photograph (which also represents past and present). Christine and Wendy cut and pasted through 3 more drafts until the book was ready to print. We writers are very proud of our effort and the book launch was held in our local Tomaree Library on July 22 during torrential rain and hosted 50 people. Janice Love played her guitar as some of us sang “Time and Tide” to the tune of auld lang syne [photo page 17] and some of you read our work before serving afternoon tea. Copies of ‘TIME and TIDE’ are available for $20.00 by phoning Christine Gregory 4982 2004, or Annette Jones 4923 2555. [See Trevar’s review, page 16]. Christine Gregory 12 WRITERS’ VOICE 233—SEPTEMBER 2011 Attendees at the Port Stephens launch. shoalhaven faw This quarter the club introduced a welcome change to our traditional meeting format. In the past each club meeting contained a ‘business’ session, but the number has now been reduced to one every quarter, to allow greater focus on our writing. The extra time is intended to provide members with the opportunity to discuss their homework exercises and invite constructive criticism, to encourage fuller dialogue in the creative writing workshops and to give members the opportunity to read selections of their current work and receive feedback. The new meeting format has been a great success, resulting in livelier meetings and greater stimulation. This quarter we basked in the reflected glory of poet and club member, Irene Wilkie who won the freeverse section of the Henry Lawson Festival Award for her poem ‘Living Sculpture’. Irene also beat off the competition from the humorous and traditional poetry sections to become the overall poetry winner. Irene and her husband were invited to the festival in Grenfell to attend the award presentation night and receive her monetary prize and a bronze statuette. The town was full of poets, writers and artists and according to Irene, participating in the events and mingling with the talent was an inspiring experience. While at the festival, Irene entered the Poetry Slam competition hosted by Miles Merrill and Bravo Child and held on the platform of the beautifully restored Grenfell Railway Station where she placed third amongst the strong competition! The Shoalhaven Literary Competition closed at the end of May and our judge is currently assessing all the short stories submitted. Winners will be announced in September. This year we decided to outsource the administration of the competition which took a lot of worry out of our hands and enabled all our members to enter the competition. Entries this year were down – well below the several hundred entries received in previous years. We are hoping that the quality of the entries will compensate for the shortfall in quantity but we await our judge’s report. The winner will receive $1,000 and a two week writer’s residency at Arthur Boyd’s beautiful Bundanon Artist’s Retreat on the Shoalhaven River. We are able to provide this attractive prize only because of the financial support provided by the Shoalhaven Arts Board and the generosity of the Bundanon Trust. Nicky Beardmore stroud writers Our day in Copeland National Park proved to be a rewarding experience. A mini bus was hired and we set off with a picnic lunch and much laughter for a very interesting day. We were given a guided tour of the old mine works, followed by a very pretty boardwalk through rain forest and bushland. It was very cold, very green and most rewarding. Not only did we enjoy ourselves but we are now encouraged to write accounts of those old mining days, the people involved and the hardships they encountered. Fresh ideas are always needed by those who love to put pen to paper. Putting pen to paper, or perhaps fingers to computer keys, Sue Filson and Paul Gannon are now guiding the group through the intricacies of computer language from the very first step of actually turning the thing on. We have turned over several of our regular meetings to a very capable Paul for ongoing instruction in font Visit us on the Internet at www.fawnsw.org.au
sizes, margins, headers and footers and other various mysteries. We are eager to assist all our members to follow correct procedures when entering writing competitions. Our last internal competition has been decided and chosen entries will now be submitted to an external competition for consideration. Fingers crossed for all those involved, hopefully competition rules have been adhered to and the standard of writing upheld. Sue and Rex attended the book launch for Port Stephens FAW at Salamander Bay. They were treated to a very enjoyable day and found the anthology ‘Time and Tide’, to be an attractive book full of interesting local snippets. Our congratulations to everyone involved. Bernie and Lila Butler were also to attend but found themselves landlocked in the very wet weather which had visited the area at that time. Numbers at some of our meetings have been a little down; Jean Moase was a welcome face at the last meeting and is on the mend we hope. Sadly, Barbara Robinson has left us due to home requirements and we will miss her humour and interesting stories. Some have taken holidays, others have had family members unwell and in need of their time and care. However we all keep writing, and after all, everything in our life can be a catalyst for another story. Happy writing, Trish Van Eyk wollondilly We are awaiting the result of our application to Council for a grant to publish our third anthology. This publication will have a Wollondilly district theme with many poems, articles and stories reflecting the diversity of our part of New South Wales. Our members are planning to organise small workshops on short story and poetry writing. The poetry workshops will include free verse writing and bush poetry writing. Our library is now set up. Members are encouraged to borrow the books and articles and to submit a critique in our monthly newsletter Scribblings Vince Morrison (left, Wollondilly FAW President) and Keith Coombes (former Secretary) promoted the group to potential new members at the Wollondilly Family Day Expo, held at the Tahmoor Community Centre in July. of their findings, and to inform members how the book helped them in their story and poetry writing. At our recent AGM Keith Coombes retired as secretary of our group. The new committee is; Vince Morrison (Pres), Joanne Dellit (VP/Librarian), Olivia Mulligan (Sec), Narelle Noppert (Magazine Editor), Richard Bell/Rosemary Peters (Treasurers), Clare Bell (tea/coffee facilitator) and Glorya Gray (Publicity). Olivia Mulligan wyonG writers Signatures – signs off! The last issue of Signatures has been produced, collated and distributed to those people who contributed or supported our magazine in any way. The issue began with an Editorial by Shirley Goodbar, Signatures Editor and who is currently overseas. Shirley began her editorial: “With this issue we celebrate the demise of a grand experiment, as to whether a small group of writers could produce quality publications for the public display of their work. That experiment worked very well for three and a half years. Nevertheless, there are many facets to such an adventure, and we eventually encountered the realities of modern publishing and printing. Like many other similar print publications over the past years, we could not build a large enough reader base to cover costs What we have accomplished is invaluable. We have learned many of the processes and procedures in creating a publication, and have made innumerable new friends through their writings and support for what we were trying to do. We are particularly grateful to Wyong Shire Council’s Cultural Development Office for the initial grants. The personal instructions of Stuart Slough, and Eric Hook of Bookbound Publishing whose advice, guidance and support were so instrumental in bringing about the final polished product. We are grateful to you, the readers, subscribers, and advertisers, for it is you who have allowed us to have these experiences. Thank you, from Shirley Goodbar, Editor, Beryl Stirling, Asst. Editor, Yvonne Sorenson, Artist/Illustrator and all the members of Wyong Writers FAW Inc.” Our new web site has been the incentive for one new member and we have had a number of enquiries regarding membership. As a result of the web site we have been approached to see if our group would be interested in joining a continuous Script Writing Workshop on the third Friday of each month. This enquiry has accordingly been passed along to members for their information. At our last meeting in July, approximately twenty people, including two visitors, obtained great information from Jill Mathers, a Central Coast writer, on what is involved writing memoirs. Many questions were covered including how to make it flow. Jill said memoir does not mean it has to be “all about me” for it will also cover time and events. In addition, Jill touched on copyright as well as defamation. A couple of members expressed the opinion that they didn’t think writing a memoir could be so involved. We are busy reviewing our work in groups to submit it for publication in Wyong Writers’ first anthology at the end of this year. Poetry, prose, articles etc., are up for grabs as well as illustrations from our established artists. Margaret Young Visit us on the Internet at www.fawnsw.org.au WRITERS’ VOICE 233—SEPTEMBER 2011 13 o
Page 1 and 2: Writers Voice S p r i n g E d i t i
Page 3 and 4: State Council News ANNOUNCEMENT: AT
Page 5 and 6: Sydney Harbour Bridge’! Twice a s
Page 7 and 8: FAW Branch Reports Blue Mountains f
Page 9 and 10: plot; on the quality of the narrati
Page 11: Shawna Hartley’s May assignment w
Page 15 and 16: elected Vice Presidents with Marjor
Page 17 and 18: Helen and Johan with members of the
Page 19 and 20: Competition Results results: eastwo
Page 21 and 22: Articles Keeping The Short Story al
Page 23 and 24: Jacqui Winn: 2nd prize Brighton Com
Page 25 and 26: FAW Members’ Bookshelf ALEESAh DA
Page 27 and 28: WATERLINE WRITING COMPETITION cont.
Page 29 and 30: NORTH ARM COVE COMPETITION cont. fr
Page 31 and 32: PorT STePHenS FaW 3rd Thursday - 10

Writers Voice September 2011 - Fellowship of Australian Writers NSW

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