Items for May/June 2009 Tascribe



Tascribe

State newsletter: Print Post Number PP 100002061

The Fellowship of Australian Writers Tasmania Inc

PO Box 234 North Hobart TAS 7002

.au

Issue No. 3 May – June 2016

Patron: Wal Eastman OAM

2016 Committee

President John Biggs, Secretary & Treasurer Robyn Mathison, Committee Members Jennie Herrera and Janet Upcher

Forthcoming Meetings at Friends Meeting House, 395 Argyle Street North Hobart. All welcome.

Saturday, May 14 at 2 p.m.: Results of Nairda Lyne Award followed by members’ readings.

Saturday, June 11 at 2 p.m.: Jane Williams and Ralph Wesman will speak about the three-month residency in Slovakia from which they returned recently.

Meeting Reports

Saturday, March 12: The meeting began with discussion about FAW anthologies and the list of proposed meeting activities John Biggs had prepared from the last year’s feedback forms. Members’ readings followed. John Owen invited feedback on the draft of a poem he circulated and read. John Biggs spoke about travel writing he is publishing on his web page and read an example. Greg Blades spoke about his writing. Betty McKenzie-Tubb read about the use of metaphor, asking how to avoid cliché. Shirley Burke read us a fan letter she has received from a six-year-old reader and showed us the picture book that prompted it. Mike Cooper read a short poem for Teodino Ottavi.

Saturday, April 9: Alison McConnell-Imbriotis gave a short workshop on preparation and voice production for giving readings. There was time afterwards for readings from Karen Armstrong, Betty McKenzie-Tubb and Alison McConnell-Imbriotis.

Forthcoming Events & News

* Warm welcome to new members Freya Cox and Alison McConnell-Imbriotis

* Republic Readings, presented by FAW and supported by the Republic Bar & Café and Tasmanian Writers Centre, are held between 3 and 5 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month at the Republic Bar & Café, Elizabeth Street, North Hobart. Each month at this free event there are two invited readers and an open-mic section in which anyone can read for up to five minutes. Freya Cox & Terry Whitebeach are the invited readers on May 1 and Christiane Conésa-Bostock & Louise Oxley have been invited to read on June 5.

* Hobart Bookshop invites members and friends to Lucy Frost’s launch of Sylvia Martin’s book Ink in Her Veins: The Troubled Life of Aileen Palmer on Wednesday, May 4 at 5.30 p.m.

* Anne Morgan invites members and friends to Hobart Bookshop at 5.30 p. m. on Thursday, May 5 when Christina Booth will launch Anne’s new book The Moonlight Bird & the Grolken, illustrated by Lois Bury [IPKidz, 2016].

* On April 14 a large crowd attended Hobart Bookshop for Andrew Wilkie’s launch of Karen Armstrong’s poetry collection If We Could Fly [Ginninderra Press, 2016].

* Check News.htm for the time and venue of FAW Tasmania NW Branch monthly meetings.

* Poetry Pedlars Open-Mic Readings are held between 7 and 9.30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month in the Pioneer Lobby, at the back of Albert Hall, Launceston. All writers are welcome.

Obituary

Vale Marjorie Maud Davey (née McArdell) 1.4.1919 – 24.3.2016

We are very sad to report that Marjorie died in late March, one week before her 97th birthday. As a founding member, long-serving committee member and newsletter editor of the NW Branch, Marjorie had been made a Life Member of the Fellowship some years ago. Since moving to Hobart, she had attended our branch meetings and Republic readings regularly and late last year many of our members helped celebrate the Hobart Bookshop launch of her novel Never to Return.

Marjorie grew up in Derby and was always passionately interested in the Aboriginal and Chinese heritage of northeast Tasmania. This interest – together with a love of reading, music, art, the environment, peace and social justice, gardening and good food – she fostered in her family and featured in her writing. Over the years she won many prizes for this and her poetry, stories and articles appeared in books, including FAW anthologies. She was a member of Field Naturalists and supported many causes, including Legacy. She was also actively involved in her local community, welcoming and befriending many migrant families.

Marjorie was witty and wise, had a great sense of humour and was a gifted storyteller. Six of her nine children – Patrick, Genevieve, Anne, Sharon, Greg and Catherine – and her grandchildren, Alice, Eleanor and Christina, survive her.

Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival

Is it the bucolic setting that makes Phillip Adams suddenly seem like a cross between a work horse and a show pony as, with his erudite wit and charm, he opens the Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival on March 18? He weaves together stories of early radio programs, Ray Bradbury, riding to the library on his Malvern Star and his undying gratitude to the librarian who introduced Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, alerting him to institutional injustice and propelling him into the Communist Party. He tells of the unholy smell of the long-necked tortoise, and dreams of a silo to store his 40,000 books. The sun shines and the festival, with its hundreds of attenders, swings into action.

It is a time to rejoice in and pay homage to language in its many and varied forms. Patsy Cameron gives a warm Welcome to Country and in the session on ‘words and cultural voices’ the women discuss story, heritage and the impact of illiteracy on their families. The generosity of these women springs into focus during a later dynamic panel discussion where the illiteracy of youth dedicated to their mobile phones is bemoaned, and the incorrect use of the beloved apostrophe cited as a literary crime. This mix of opinions is tempered by Julian Burnside’s insightful recollections of pedantry, Henry Higgins and how Roger Casement was ‘hanged by a comma’. He reminds us of the perniciousness of ‘political speak’, where phrases such as ‘border protection’ serve to criminalise those who flee war in search of safety.

Concern about the effect of electronic media on youth literacy is laid to rest in the poetry slam where young poets create worlds of meaning and musicality, keeping grammar intact, despite their double-jointed thumbs and ability to text and tweet. Many recite without notes, their memories and concentration undamaged by eDevices.

Words about words surge on, from the ‘concise sound package’ of poetry to John Patrick’s passion for trees compelling him to write 28.000 words in one weekend. It is fascinating to hear how some find writing a hard slog brought about by a love affair with the subject matter, while others find it an absolute hoot that they have landed such a job.

Festivals are grand opportunities to collect obscure pieces of knowledge that have been gleaned through the process of writing. Chinese dragons bring rain; fortified towers in the Scottish borderlands were built as war machines; the term ‘the black dog’ was first discussed over 2000 years ago by Horace; over one thousand people came to watch a hanging in Prince’s Square in Launceston; and Bourke’s dilemma was either ‘to die like an Englishman or live like a black’.

Incredibly, this delightful and nourishing festival has no grant money to continue, despite the generosity of the volunteers who organise the program, marquees and sunshine and the writers themselves freely giving their time and stories. Political priorities are at odds with people’s priorities, as shown by the hundreds who turned up in this beautiful valley to celebrate the written word.

– Helen Swain

The session ‘Advance Australia Where?’ with Kerry O’Brien, Bob Brown, Julian Burnside and Phillip Adams is downloadable from .au/programs/latenightlive

Thanks to donors of Library Materials

Guest Editor Pete Hay: Prospect 6 poetry magazine ISSN 1836-375X [Blue Giraffe Press, 2016]

Members’ Credits

Karen Armstrong: If We Could Fly [Ginninderra Press, 2016] launched Hobart Bookshop, April. Marilyn Arnold: Poem SWWT Stylus, February; Poet-in-Residence Tamar Valley Writers Festival; Random Poems [Pedlars Publishing, 2016] launched, March. Anne Collins: Poem Prospect 6; reader, ‘An Evening in Andalusia’, Moonah Arts Centre, April. Jan Colville: Poem Prospect 6. Christiane Conésa-Bostock.: Poem Prospect 6. Maurice Evans: Granted Honorary Life Membership of FAW NW Branch. Graeme Hetherington: Poem Studio #137; 2 poems. Valley Micropress (NZ) January/February; poem, The Mozzie, February; poem. Prospect 6; poem. Poetry for Public Transport 7; 2 poems, Quadrant, March & 3 poems, April; poem Poetry Matters #26. Anne Kellas: The White Room Poems launched Collected Works Bookshop, Melbourne, March: invited reader Republic Bar & Café, April. Iggy Kim: Poem commended 2015 SWWT Robyn Mathison Poetry Award; poem commended Melbourne Poets Union International Competition 2015; invited reader Republic Bar & Café, April. Vi Lipscombe: Adult short story in Keepsakes, children’s short story in Lucky Draw, poem & 3 children’s short stories in Zoothology all edited by Sally Odgers; stories on ABC Open 500 Words, Feb, April & Dec, 2015; winner Eastern Shore Writers 2015 Annual Short Story Award. Liz McQuilkin: 2 poems,, Prospect 6. Gina Mercer: panellist Tamar Valley Writers Festival; 2 poems, Prospect 6. Anne Morgan: Schools Day speaker, meet-the-author session panellist, & The Moonlight Bird & the Grolken launched at Tamar Valley Writers Festival. Edith Speers: 2 poems,, Prospect 6. Annette Sumner: Poem, Poetry Matters #26. Helen Swain: Invited reader Republic Bar & Café, March. Leigh Swinbourne: Play reading of The Long Shadow by Mudlark Theatre Company, Earl Art Centre, Launceston, April. Kate Tongs: Poem, The Mozzie, February. Jane Williams: Speaker, Women’s Oasis, April.

Competition details and deadlines

May 2: ASA 2016 Barbara Jefferis Award is for the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society. The award is for a novel in English first published and distributed in book form in the period January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Prizes: Winner $50,000; five runners-up $1000 each. Digital-only and self-published titles are also eligible this year. Details:

May 15: Australian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) Prize for up to 30 lines of poetry or up to 3000 words of prose. Winners will receive a ticket to Ubud Writers & Readers Festival and $500 towards economy air fares plus a one-year membership of AAWP and fully subsidised conference fees to attend the AAWP annual conference where they will be invited to read from their work. The editors of Meniscus will also consider the winner’s work for publication. Details

May 16: Griffith Review Novella Project IV is for original works of fiction between the length of a short story and a novel: 10,000 – 25,000 words preferably; maximum 35,000 words. Winners will share a $25,000 prize pool and will be published in Griffith Review 54 in October. Details are at

May 27: Poetry Matters Seventh Annual Competition theme is ‘what matters. Category 1: Poems up to 15 lines; category 2: poems 16 – 35 lines. Full conditions and entry form from cherylhoward@.au or with SSAE from Cheryl Howard, 61 Palmer Crescent, Newham VIC 3442

May 29: The Lifted Brow & RMIT non-fiction Lab Prize for Experimental Non-fiction is for up to 5000 words of non-fiction that tries to convey its meaning using unorthodox form, style, voice, or point-of-view. Winner $5000. Details

May 31: Eastwood/Hills Fellowship of Australian Writers Literary Competition 2016 All categories open theme.

Category 1: Short Story: Max 3000 words. 1st Prize $200; 2nd $100.

Category 2: Poetry. All forms except Bush Poetry. Max 80 lines per poem. 1st Prize $150; 2nd $$50

Category 3: Memoir. Max 1500 words. 1st Prize $150; 2nd $50.

Category 4: Pauline Walsh Award for Short Story: Max 800 words. 1st Prize $199; 2nd $50.

Entries to be postmarked on or before closing date. Each entry is to be accompanied by a separate signed entry form. Conditions and forms on Entry fee: $5 per entry or $20 for five entries. Cheques or money orders payable to Eastwood/Hills FAW. Or can be sent electronically. Enquiries: Marilyn Humbert: Ph. 02 9456 1307 or at mah53@.au

May 31: Eastwood/Hills Fellowship of Australian Writers 2016 Boree Log Award for Bush Verse is for a Bush Ballad to max 80 lines in perfect rhyme and metre with an Australian bush theme. Entries must be postmarked on or before the closing date. Each entry must be accompanied by a separate signed entry form. Forms and conditions at Entry fee $5 per entry with a maximum of four per entrant. Cheques or money orders payable to Eastwood/Hills FAW or can be sent electronically. Enquiries: Marilyn Humbert: Ph. 02 9456 1307 or mah53@.au

May 31: FAW Queensland 2016 Literary Awards – Section A: Poetry to 60 lines; Section B Haiku; Section C: Short Story to 2000 words; Section D: Flash Fiction to 250 words. Writers may submit up to 3

entries to any or all sections. Entry fee: $5 per entry or $12 for three. Prizes in each section are 1st $200; 2nd $60. Winners will be announced in July and winning and selected entries will be published in an anthology to be launched in September 2016. Entry form on or with ssae from PO Box 6338, Upper Mt Gravatt QLD 4122.

June 6: 2016 ACU Poetry Prize for an original, unpublished poem of up to 80 lines, on the theme ‘Loving Kindness’ will be judged by Chris Wallace-Crabbe. Normal conditions apply. Entry fee: $20 per poem. Prizes: 1st $7000; 2nd $2000; 3rd $1000. For more information contact Carmel Yahl aculiterature@acu.edu.au or 02 9739 2380. Entry form is essential and has full guidelines. Go to acu.edu.au/poetry-prize or send ssae to ACU Prize for Poetry, Australian Catholic University, 40 Edward St, North Sydney NSW 2380.

June 30: Scribes Writers – Poetic Licence Competition Category A: Traditional Verse; Category B. Free Verse, open theme. Maximum 60 lines. Prizes each category: 1st $200; 2nd $100. Entry fee $7 per entry, both categories. Send to Scribes Writers Poetry Competition, South Barwon Community Centre, 33 Mount Pleasant Rd, Belmont VIC 3216. Full details with SSAE to above address or or email geelongscribeswriters@

July 27: Elyne Mitchell Writing Award 2016 theme for fiction and non-fiction to 2500 words referencing an Australian rural experience is ‘A New Perspective’. Prize: $1000. Details .au

August 31: FAW Tasmania Poetry Prize for a poem up to 60 lines. 1st Prize $150; 2nd $50. Entry fee: $5 per poem. Usual conditions apply. Guidelines on .au.

Opportunities

ABC Open 500 Words is a monthly writing challenge for non-fiction stories. There is a new theme each month. Choose the perfect image to go with the story and your work could be published on the ABC website. Detail at http//.au/open500words

ABC Tales is a website that gives writing tips and feedback from editors, and publishes short stories and poems online. Go to

Azuria, Geelong’s independent literary magazine seeks submissions from Australian and overseas writers of essays, poetry (especially in languages other than English, with their translations) and short prose. Further details from the editor Dr E. Reilly at geelongwriters@

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal Submission dates are March 31 and September 30. Subscription of $A30 (within Australia), $A35 or $US25 (Japan and NZ) for 2 issues per year, in May and November. Send subscriptions (cheques made out to B. M. George), or submissions (with SSAE) to Beverley George, PO Box 3274, Umina Beach NSW 2257. More information:

FURIA Short Story Magazine publishes stories up to 10,000 words long. Submit work with SSAE to The Editor, FURIA, GPO Box 1421, Melbourne VIC 3001.

Margaret River Press seeks work by established and emerging writers – fiction and creative non-fiction that explores ecological, intercultural and gender themes. For further information send ssae to Caroline Wood at PO Box 47, Witchcliffe WA 6286 or see

Overland publishes emerging, politically engaged poets, printing their work alongside more established national and international contemporaries. Minimum payment is $100 for poems published in the print journal. Payment for poems published online may be different. Send work to the Poetry Editor, Peter Minter, Overland, VU-Footscray Park Campus, PO Box 14428, Melbourne VIC 8001.

Poetry Matters (3 issues per year) is edited and published by Cheryl Howard, who invites submissions of up to 5 poems, writing on the topic of poetry, drawings & cartoons. All work must be original, unpublished and not on offer elsewhere. Send work, with ssae, to Cheryl Howard, 61 Palmer Crescent, Newham VIC 3442. Payment is one copy of the issue in which the work appears. Subscription is $ . Make cheques payable to Cheryl Howard. For a sample copy send $10 or ten $1 stamps.

Right Now Magazine is a magazine focusing on Human Rights in Australia and publishes poetry, fiction and non-fiction. It cannot pay contributors. See .au or email cara@.au

Studio journal explores creative ideas and spiritual perspectives, publishes work of literary merit, offers a venue for new and aspiring writers and develops a sense of community among members and friends. The journal has been published since 1980 and seeks poetry up to 100 lines, short stories, letters, reviews and prose literary articles up to 3,000 words. Payment is a copy of the magazine and authors retain copyright of their own work. Send submissions with SSAE to Studio, 727 Peel Street, Albury NSW 2640. Subscription is $40 within Australia for three issues (post-free) of the new-look, larger-size magazine. Studio is happy to consider both new or previously published work.

Uneven Floor is a poetry blogzine that publishes poems in text, audio, video and image format. Previously published poems are welcome. unevenfloorpoetry. or unevenfloor

Windfall Australian Haiku published by Blue Giraffe Press seeks haiku relevant to the experience of urban and rural life in Australia. Observations that celebrate landform, seasons and our unique flora and fauna are welcome. Please send submissions, with ssae, to The Editor Windfall, Beverley George, PO Box 3274, Umina Beach NSW 2257 or to beverleygeorge@.au only during the month of July. Please direct all enquiries, including requests for submission guidelines, to the publisher Peter Macrow, Blue Giraffe Press, 6/16 Osborne Street, Sandy Bay TAS 7005. The subscription of $15 (or $25 Australian for Overseas subscribers) provides one issue per year for two years, postage included. Please make cheques or money orders payable to Peter Macrow.

‘I’m aware of the sadness and trials of this world – who could not be? But I’m aware of the various responses to them, and one is to look for the possibility of happiness and delight, rather than just thinking the world is a totally dysfunctional place.’ Alexander McCall Smith

Hobart Bookshop at 22 Salamanca Square stocks new and second-hand books and stationery and gives FAW members 10% discount on all purchases.

Deadline for July-August Tascribe: Monday, June 13. News & credits to the PO Box, please.

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