Category Archives: Western Australia

Day Thirty

Sadly, this is our last daily blog post as today is the final day of National Young Writers’ Month. It has been an epic month, with 30 writers all over Australia collaborating to write a Travelling Story to be featured in the next edition of Voiceworks, our National Young Writers’ Group on Facebook reaching over 400 members, our online collaborative story taking weird and wonderful twists, articles in Arts Hub and elsewhere and, most importantly, lots of writing goals achieved (we hope). So tell us… how did your National Young Writers’ Month go? Did you reach your goal? Link to your work or share your experiences below.

Before we leave you, there are just a few more things to share…

Adelaide, don’t forget today is the final day for applications to The Writing Project.

In NSW today is the last day for entries to the FAW Manly and Peninsula Branch Writing Competition and the 4th Oberon Writers’ Competition.

It’s also the last day for entries to the Poetry in Film Festival.

And finally, please join the Express Media mailing list to keep updated on opportunities for young writers all over the country. National Young Writers’ Month may have drawn to a close, but Express Media are here all year round.

Today the NYWM Travelling Story finishes up in Victoria. Our last daily writer is Jessica Barlow, 21, from North Ballarat. Look out for our next issue of Voiceworks, where you can read the full story.

Day Twenty-Nine

We’re almost done! Hopefully by this stage you are so close to reaching your NYWM goal you can almost touch it. In the hopes that you have come a long way, we’re sharing a post with you from the Queensland Writers’ Centre blog published around a month ago. This post is a nice wrap up of major publishers currently accepting unsolicited work. Time to put the writing you’ve done for NYWM to work.

Not quite there yet? How about applying for the QWC/Hachette Australian Manuscript Development Program? With previous recipients including Favell Parrett (longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award), this intensive opportunity for manuscript development is an exciting opportunity. Applications close July 12.

Victorian Writers, The Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition closes today at 4pm, so make sure you’ve sent your entry off.

South Australians, don’t forget you have only two weeks from today to submit your application for a Carclew Youth Arts Scholarship. Applications are due by July 13, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to be awarded $12,500 for creative writing or $12,500 for film and new media.

Today the NYWM Travelling Story is back in Victoria. Our daily writer is Jarryd Ladhams, 18, from Weering.

Friday Follow – who should you be following on Twitter to keep up to date with writing and publishing news?

Have you ever considered using Twitter to publish stories? There has been new attention on twitter novels thanks to the success of Jennifer Egan’s Black Box, published as a series of tweets from @NYerFiction. It can be reinvigorating to experiment with writing in different and experimental forms or formats, and here are some examples and information for you.

Melvin Burgess, author of Billy Elliot, writes twitter fiction. Neil Gaiman wrote a collaborative twitter story.

Brandon Mendelson, author of the Twitter novel The Falcon Can Hear the Falconer, has collated a list of tips for writing a twitter novel. You can visit Nanoism for collections of twitter fiction, or follow them on twitter directly. Trapeze also publish twitter fiction and poems, as do One Forty Fiction.

You can find epigrammatism-style examples such as @novelsin3lines, which are “the poems & novels Fénéon never otherwise wrote”, Six Word Stories, Twitter Fiction, Escarp, Seed Pod Publishing, or the popular Sean Hill.

So write your own. Tag it #vss (very short story), #nanofiction, or #fiction

Day Twenty-Seven

Do you understand what an editor does? Do you want to be an editor? Take a look at this article discussing the importance of editors and editing by Henry Rosenbloom, founder and publisher of Scribe.

The Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards will be announced tonight in Sydney. Check The Walkley Foundation website for more details.

In Melbourne tonight at 7pm author Alice Pung is giving an author talk as part of the Glen Eira Storytelling Festival. Check the website for details.

Tonight in Adelaide the Emerging Writers Forum takes place from 6.30pm onwards.

Words @ Deakin are now accepting submissions from Geelong secondary school students and Deakin University students to their online literary journal, Imagine. They are accepting submissions in the form of reviews, articles, original illustrations and photographs, poems up to 100 lines and prose between 100 and 2,000 words. Submissions should be sent to words@deaking.edu.au by September 30, 2012.

Don’t forget today is the deadline for the Mudgee Valley Writers 13thBiennial Competition.

Today the NYWM Travelling Story is in South Australia. Our daily writer is Sophie Fiegert, 20, from Happy Valley.

Access the Emerging Writers’ Festival 2012 digital archive

So the 2012 EWF might be over for another year, but in 2012 they curated a massive online festival as well:

No matter where you place your words online, EWFdigital is for you. Our dedicated digital festival portal presents a unique program including an interactive keynote address, panels, conversations, mentoring, curated content and networking opportunities.

EWFdigital is not bound by physical space, and the discussion focuses on the realm of digital writing. We bring emerging, edgy and energetic digital thinkers and writers from around the globe directly to your screen. Collaborative and dynamic, EWFdigital will be on your mobile, on your computer, on your tablet – and it happily blurs the boundaries between writer, audience, creator and consumer.

Check out all the content that’s still up there. If you couldn’t make the festival, or if you just want to keep on re-living it, then now it’s possible.

http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/ewfdigital/

Voiceworks #89 Space launch at Paper Mountain – tonight!

Tonight at Paper Mountain, upstairs @ 267 William Street, Northbridge

7.00pm

with performances by RABBIT ISLAND and PETER BIBBY

Come help us launch the latest issue of VOICEWORKS MAGAZINE – featuring the best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, illustrations, and graphic art by under 25-year-olds around the country.

With readings from TRISTAN FIDLER, EVA BUJALKA, ZOE BARRON, ELIZABETH JANE WOODS, MICHAEL COLLINS and SCOTT-PATRICK MITCHELL. Hosted by MC BYRON BARD

GOLD COIN DONATION BAR

$5 on the door, or free entry with purchase of the mag! ($10)

http://express-media.tumblr.com/

http://expressmedia.org.au/voiceworks/

FB event page here: http://www.facebook.com/events/189117177881807/

Day Twenty-Four

Today is the deadline for submissions and pitches to Voiceworks #90 Copy/Paste. Check out the Voiceworks submissions section for details.

New South Wales poets and writers, Australian Poetry is launching the second edition of their flagship publication the Australian Poetry Journal this afternoon at the Brett Whitely Studio. Check the website for further details.

Today the NYWM Travelling Story is in South Australia. Our daily writer is Nick Gibbs, 22, from Clare.

Sunday Session – take a day off writing and find some inspiration to recharge your creative battery.

Today it is time to abandon your computer, leave behind your iPod and your mobile phone. Leave words behind. Take time to appreciate other people’s creations. Visit a gallery, go see some live music, watch a theatre production. Whatever it is, let it be three-dimensional, instead of on a screen or on a page. If you manage to stop staring at screens and words, you will let your other senses absorb the world and experience it differently. When it’s time to come back to writing again you might be renewed by a new rhythm or a new approach.

Seizure Novella Competition

Publishing bigwig Seizure is on the hunt for invigorating fiction and are launching a new novella competition for Australian and New Zealand writers:

If you sometimes think that novels are just obese novellas, then you’re on our wavelength. And since we are theme-lovers this time we are challenging all writers to tackle the theme: ‘Origin’. You can take this as the start of a series, the genesis of a character, a history or a myth.

What’s a novella? For our purposes a slim 20–50,000 words.

Why a novella?  It is a movie-length reading experience and perfect for a digital read. Longer than a short story and shorter than a novel, it’s an under-published form.

What’s the prize? There will only be one winner this time. Firstly they’ll receive a thousand dollars in unmarked bills. Secondly they’ll get put through the Seizure rock-crusher/editing machine. Thirdly the winner’s novella will be designed with the usual Seizure flair and unleashed onto the world in digital and printed form.

Entries close November 1, 2012. Shortlisting December and Releasing March 2013

We are taking submissions through submishmash:

Submit to Viva La Novella

Day Twenty-Two

Today is the final day for submissions to Offset, Victoria University’s annual creative journal. Email your work to offset.submissions@students.vu.edu.au.

The new Voiceworks magazine is released today! Head on over to Express Media and order your copy (or better yet, subscribe to the magazine) today. In other exciting news, did you know there are launches for this edition in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth?

Friday Follow – who should you be following on twitter to keep up to date with writing and publishing news?

Here’s a mixed bag of publications we find tweeting interesting tidbits and information…

@synmedia – SYN Media

@kyd_journal – Kill Your Darlings

@vibewire – Vibewire

@OverlandJournal – Overland Journal

@heywire – Heywire

@IslandMagTas – Island Magazine

@AustFiction – Review Australian Fiction

@Meanjin – Meanjin Journal

@nlagovau – National Library of Australia

@Text_Publishing – Text Publishing

@RightNowInc – Right Now Magazine

@CentreYouthLit – The Centre for Youth Literature

@artscareer – NAVA Arts Career

 

Today the NYWM Travelling Story is in Western Australia. Our daily writer is Elaenor Dougherty, 23, from Albany.

Travelling Story – Elaenor Dougherty

Today’s contribution to the NYWM Travelling Story will be written by Elaenor Dougherty.

Elaenor Dougherty (23, Albany WA) is currently studying History and English at UWA in Albany. In 2002 she spent a year travelling around Australia and after completing high school she travelled to Europe where she lived for two years. Different people and places inspire her writing as well as her desire to pursue a literary career. Here’s her blog.