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| David Gilbey |
The Sydney launch of fourW twenty-nine was held at Gleebooks, Glebe on Saturday 24th November.
We thank all the contributors, family, and friends who attended the launch as well as the staff at Gleebooks for contributing to the success of the event and look forward to 2019 with the publication of the thirtieth edition of fourW.
The winners of the 2018 Booranga Literary Prizes
Poetry: Andy Kissane - Sacrifice
Prose: Dorothy Simmons - Opposable Thumbs
fourW twenty-nine was launched by Joan Phillip, retired academic, poet, and short story writer.
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| Joan Phillip and granddaughter Katrina |
(excerpt from Joan's launch speech)
"I need a breath — to do justice to the achievements, the
place of, our fourW journal in its
creative landscape is challenging. I shall begin by with homage to David, who
has nurtured, supported its development over these 29 years. As David always
acknowledges he has stalwart support from the executive committees, editorial
committees, Sandra Treble who administers Booranga with such competence, and
now Kathryn Halliwell, who soothed me when David was away and I was regretting
a double booking for this afternoon. But David is the abiding energy in the
achievement of the Journal, which had its beginning in his commitment to
community writing and art...
As I have re-read, skimmed, our collecting issues I know I
cannot mention everyone, but names repeat, echo, play like arpeggios in a suite
– such a wealth of voices, voices which appear across the scope of our literary
journals and competitions. Where could I start, perhaps with Dorothy Simmons –
I vividly remember her reading “Dumping”– I did not need to re-read it — There
is Virely Dunning, Derek Motion, who leaves me in awe; Mark O’Flynn, whose
writings I have presented to my classes, as I have Andy Kissane’s. Andy’s
interview for Spineless Wonders is a great introduction to study of the short
story. Students loved the idea of a good short story being a “kick in the
guts”. It is also a joy to find contributions from two past students, Robyn
Young, during her CSU undergraduate days and Sally Denshire who became a
colleague but was once my student at North Sydney Girls when I was in my first
years of teaching.
Sally’s writings segue to fourW twenty-nine, her meditation, “Reading the
Moths” is so light, with intensive visualizations of the beauty of the moths in
“the eucalypt air”, epitomizing the power of words to show us a world anew, to
make us pause.
Of course,
I cannot introduce this outstanding issue, which delves and deciphers so many
critical issues of our times, without acknowledging that its fine achievements
are in spite of straitened circumstances, the withdrawal of CSU support, not just
from fourW, but from Arts in
general. There is such blindness to the value of imagination, or artistic
endeavours, it is heartbreaking in its blindness. All those who have worked for
this journal over the years are to be congratulated for sustaining writers in
these gloomy times.
Thank goodness for David’s introducing the issue with
Dickens’ famous words...it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness
...it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair ...The qualities of
the writings in this journal have always belonged with wisdom and hope, with
light, never more so than now."
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| Andy Kissane reading his Booranga Prize winning poem 'Sacrifice' |
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| Tracie Miller, Bev Smith, David Gilbey, Steve Sharman |
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| Bev Smith and Kathryn Halliwell |
The Wagga Wagga launch of fourW twenty-nine was held at the Wagga Wagga City Library on Saturday 17th November with a large crowd in attendance. They were entertained by the readings of published poetry and prose from the anthology by twelve local and visiting writers. This included regular contributors over the years as well as those being published for the first time.
