Monday, 2 October 2017

Claire Baker On a Winning Streak

On a Winning Streak
by Claire Baker


After the upheaval of 2016, my New Year’s resolution was to focus on my writing. Various competitions and opportunities for publication were included in the first Booranga Newsletter for 2017, and I decided that the Jugiong Writers’ Festival would be my first poetry submission. And it paid off, in more ways than one. I was delighted to win the Adult Open Section with my poem “Dinner with Family”. As a surprising bonus I also won the raffle ($100 to spend at the Curator’s Corner, at Jugiong). But that wasn’t all. At lunch, I started chatting to some friendly people, and realised that one was a distant cousin from Young that I didn’t know I had…small world!
Claire Baker

One of the organisers of the Jugiong Writers’ Festival emailed me a little while later and suggested I might like to submit my poem to the editor of Award Winning Australian Writing 2017 (published by Melbourne Books), as this publication was calling for entries. My poem made it through the selection process, and I was thrilled to be included. It is great to be in such a publication alongside some past writers-in-residence of Booranga Writers’ Centre too. 

Armed with a bit more confidence in my writing ability, I decided to have a go at obtaining one of the five places at the Strictly Poetry Writing week to be held at Varuna, the National Writers’ House in Katoomba, under the facilitation of Vanessa Kirkpatrick. An expression of interest, publication history and ten current poems were required, and I spent a week assembling this information. The stars must be aligned for me this year, because my application was successful. What a luxury – a week thinking, discussing, studying, and writing poetry in the Blue Mountains. I feel truly blessed.

        
Varuna Writers' House
Sometimes it pays to take a chance and put yourself out there. Even if you are a bit hesitant and unsure of the quality of your work, you’ll never know what other people think if you don’t show them, either during workshops, family and friends, or places that hold writing competitions. I hope my experiences encourage others to have a go and take that chance.

Thank you to my writing friends at Booranga Writers’ Centre for the stimulating workshops that are so necessary for improving and developing my writing skills, and the encouragement and enjoyment expressed at my successes this year. 





Varuna, Claire and Me 
by Joan Cahill   
    
Who would have thought back in 2008 when I was awarded a Litlink Residency at Varuna, The National Writers’ House in Katoomba, that this week, the years would seemingly evaporate?

 I was chosen as one of the five writers for that magical week of writing and critique, and today, my friend and fellow writer, Claire Baker, telephoned me with the news that she had been accepted to take up a week of  residency in October this year. The excitement in her voice, her questions and enthusiasm, brought back delightful memories.


 Varuna is a creative retreat and writers’ network for Australian stories and ideas.  They ‘support bringing rigour and commitment to the writing craft; building a respectful and inclusive community; valuing of heritage and place; and making writing and creativity matter’. Varuna is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council for the Arts and by the New South Wales Government, Arts NSW.

Joan at Varuna

 It took me some years to produce the culmination of my work and my first collection of poetry ‘Buddha’s Left Foot’ was launched just last year and included some of the poems I wrote during that week. Recalling our stimulating discussion evenings with the group in front of a roaring fire, I felt a little frisson of yearning for that turning point in my writing life and Peter Bishop’s mentorship.

 Congratulations Claire. May you continue to aim high and we look forward to your first collection of poetry.  

Photos by Joan Cahill


Booranga Prize Short List




Congratulation to all the successful writers who have been selected for the short list in the poetry and prose categories in the Booranga 2017 Prizes.

We look forward to the announcement of the winners at the Wagga Wagga launch of fourW twenty-eight at Wagga Wagga City Library on Saturday 18 November. 
Please join us RSVP 

Poetry:
Adam Fieled ‘Nights I staggered drunkenly’
Elanna Herbert ‘Road to Gallipoli: between Cappadocia and Pamukkale’
Matt Hetherington ‘Seidel’s’
Kit Kelen ‘Practice of a disappearance’
Daniel King ‘King Henry X’
Andy Kissane ‘Caught’
Derek Motion ‘Birds poem’
Graham Rowlands ‘Absolutely’

Prose:
Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois ‘Stinky Cheese’
Maryanne Khan ‘Sideways’
Alison Lesley ‘Weightless’
Julie Maclean ‘Joel and Jess on the Verge’
Dorothy Simmons ‘In Your Face’

Updates from Booranga




The writers’ flat at Booranga will continue to be well utilised for the remainder of the year even though our Writer-in-Residence program for 2017 is complete. 

Over the coming months the flat will be utilised by several visiting writers including PhD candidate Monique Shephard while she attends a writing retreat at NW&GIC on Wagga Campus of CSU. 

Zohab Khan will again be in residence in the lead-up to Wagga’s multicultural festival Fusion17. His residency is part of a joint project between Wagga Wagga City Council, The Red Room Company and Multicultural Council of Wagga Wagga which will see Zohab conduct school workshops and mentor a local young poet. This will culminate in performances at Fusion17 festival on Saturday 21 October at the Victory Memorial Gardens in Wagga Wagga.



Arriving mid-November will be poet Ivy Alvarez who has been a previous writer-in-residence at Booranga. While in residence Ivy will officially launch fourW twenty-eight on Saturday 18 November at the Wagga Wagga City Library. 

Charles Sturt University Facilities Management team recently visited Booranga Writers' Centre and carried out a review of the emergency procedures and equipment at the cottage. The staff were taken through and emergency evacuation drill and, as a result of the review, there are now updated diagrams in all the zones of the building showing exit points and assembly area to be used in case of an emergency. Next time you are at the Centre please take note of these diagrams which are located inside the entrance to each zone of the building.

 Ongoing maintenance has also been carried out by the Maintenance Division of CSU which included the repair and replacement of rotted timber on the front verandah and the cleaning of the gutters on the building to remove build-up of leaf litter. 





 We acknowledge the ongoing in-kind support given by Charles Sturt University which allows us to continue to run our annual program for the benefit of the local community.



Biff Ward Writer-in Residence



Biff Ward, August Writer-in Residence

Biff Ward

Memoirs were the focus of Booranga’s final writer-in-residence events as we hosted author Biff Ward at Booranga. Biff gave a reading at the Historic Council Chambers in Wagga Wagga on Thursday 24 August where she shared excepts from her award-winning memoir In My Mother’s Hands


Maurice Corlett
The evening commenced with local poet, Maurice Corlett, reading several of his new works. Maurice said “It was a pleasure to be the opening reader to Biff Ward’s Booranga Writers’ reading, and a joy to hear Biff read from her recent work and share with us her history and inspiration.”


Biff expressed her gratitude to Booranga for the rare opportunity to read to an audience, as when attending literary festivals the format runs to a very brief reading which is then followed by a panel discussion which doesn't allow for the luxury of an extended reading by the author.

Biff Ward and Maurice Corlett
Holding a writing workshop on Saturday 26 August allowed Biff to share her writing and teaching expertise in the field of creative non-fiction with aspiring memoir writers. 


Participants were asked to think of a memoir project and to then writer a ‘beginning’. This exercise was followed up with another which challenged the writers to ‘delve deeper’ into their chosen project and resulted in new directions being explored from the original intent of the writers.



Biff also conducted a workshop for a group of Year 12 Extension English students from The Riverina Anglican College who attended Booranga Writers' Centre on Monday 29 August. Six students and their teacher, Paul Chigwidden, spent several very productive hours with Biff as part of their HSC Life Writing studies.



David, Ingrid, Maurice, Biff and Pat

Biff's residency rounded out Booranga's very successful residency program for 2017 and we look forward to continuing our program in 2018.




We gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from Create NSW which allows Booranga to continue to run the annual Writer-in-Residence program.

Zohab at Sonder





Zohab at Cafe Sonder
Café Sonder accommodated a capacity crowd on Friday evening 21 July when Booranga’s poetry performance event was held there featuring writer-in-residence Zohab Zee khan.

The audience of more than 60 people was firstly entertained by local poet Nutmeg Jacqueline who presented a strong and engaging set of original poems which set the tone for Zohab to take the stage. Performing works from from his current publication, I Write, as well as treating us to a sample of a new work-in-progress, Zohab kept the audience enthralled as he covered ground from love poems to hard-hitting slam poetry.

Zohab Khan and Nutmeg Jazqueline

The timing and venue for Booranga’s July event deviated from the usual format, and our thanks go to the proprietors of Café Sonder, Adil Khan and Tanya Hardwick, for contributing to the enormous success of the evening. We also thank Raw Roar Poetry Slam for the loan of their PA system for the event.



The following afternoon Zohab attracted a gathering of 25 writers when he presented a poetry writing workshop at Booranga Writers’ Centre. He took the participants through some of his approaches to writing poetry and everyone had the opportunity to share their efforts in the writing exercise set by Zohab.


Zohab’s residency also included a performance reading, and open mic for local poets, at Griffith City Library which was well supported by the local community. 
Thanks to Western Riverina Arts for their role in securing the Griffith event.


Booranga workshop with Zohab
Part of the large crowd for Zohab at Sonder




We gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from Create NSW which allows Booranga to continue to run the annual Writer-in-Residence program.
Photos by Booranga