Annual General Meeting

Our Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday 18 April at the Historic Council Chambers and the executive positions and committee vacancies have been filled with David Gilbey returned for another term as President. Welcome to our three new committee members Ian Stewart, Kate Allman, and Ruby Foxlewin and to our continuing committee members from 2017.

A change in structure sees Sandra Treble filling the role of Treasurer and Kathryn Halliwell, as Secretary. These positions are titles which are taken on in line with their paid positions.

David Gilbey and Julie Montgarrett

Thanks to Dr Julie Montgarrett for being our guest speaker on the night and presenting a portion of her PhD titled Messy Resistance: the artist as doubtful writer?

"Julie Montgarrett spoke of the nuanced values of writing as a visual artist. She drew our attention to how the processes of creating text-like forms (asemic writing) and her research into archival written, visual, and archaeological sources informs her creation of artists' books. 

These complex, layered, intricate and challenging artefacts present 'fraught fictions and fragile facts'. Each page explores, both directly and indirectly, our understanding of colonial Tasmania (Van Dieman's Land) and the displacement of indigenous and familial knowledge from that region. Her use of writing - both found and made - provides one of several means of guiding speculation about the past while tentatively informing the present, particularly regarding historic events and the influence of absent individuals upon identities today."—Dr Sam Bowker

Jacob's Book from the Tideline by Julie Montgarrett     Photo: James Farley

Booranga Writers' Centre is supported by the  NSW Government through Create NSW.

Booranga Writers' Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial and in-kind support provided by Create NSW, Wagga Wagga City Council and Charles Sturt University.

Ellen van Neerven: Writer-in-Residence in July

Ellen van Neerven

July brings our third writer-in-residence to Booranga and we are honoured to welcome award-winning author Ellen van Neerven to Wagga Wagga. Ellen will be in residence from 8 until 14 July and will deliver the ASAL Patrons Lecture at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery on Friday 13 July as well as conduct a writing workshop on Saturday 14 July at Booranga.

Ellen van Neerven is a writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. Her first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014), was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Heat and Light was also shortlisted for The Stella Prize, the Queensland Literary Award for State Significance, and the Readings Prize. Ellen was named as a Sydney Morning Herald‘s Best Young Australian Novelist in 2015. 

Ellen’s second book, a collection of poetry, Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize and Highly Commended for the 2016 Wesley Michel Wright Prize.

Until 2016 Ellen was the Managing Editor of black&write! Indigenous Writing and Editing Project at State Library of Queensland. She received the 2017 Queensland Writers Centre Johnno Award and the 2015 Express Media Award for Outstanding Contribution by a Young Person in Literary Arts. She currently lives and works in Melbourne.
https://ellenvanneervencurrie.wordpress.com/

Patrons Lectures are hosted by ASAL with funding from the Copyright Agency. These lectures support emerging and distinguished Australian writers to travel to locations around Australia to present a public talk or lecture on a topic of his or her choosing for a broader public.

By bringing Australian writers into a wide range of communities, Patrons Lectures aim to stimulate broad interest in Australian writing and facilitate deeper understanding between writers, the academy, secondary teachers and the reading public.

Ellen's events are as follows:

Our 'members only' event is a Meet-the-Writer soirée to welcome Ellen to Booranga. This is being held on Tuesday 10 July, 6pm at Booranga. 

To register your attendance please RSVP booranga@csu.edu.au

Also available to 2018 financial members is a limited number of one-on-one consultations with Ellen. 

To submit a piece of writing for consideration for one of these consultations please email booranga@csu.edu.au

ASAL Patrons Lecture:

When: Friday 13 July, 6pm to 8pm

Where: Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

Baylis St. Wagga Wagga

Cost: Free, bookings essential as seating is limited. RSVP

Writing Workshop

When: Saturday 14 July, 2pm to 4pm

Where: Booranga Writers’ Centre, Mambarra Drive, Wagga Wagga

Cost: Free for members, a $10 donation is requested from non-members. RSVP

Booranga Writers' Centre is supported by the  NSW Government through Create NSW.

Booranga Writers' Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial and in-kind support provided by Create NSW, Wagga Wagga City Council and Charles Sturt University.

Residency by Donna Abela

Playwright, Donna Abela, provided rare opportunities to young regional playwrights and acting students during her residency at Booranga in March. Along with her writing workshop at Booranga, Donna was able to give a mentoring session to a Year 12 student from Temora who is writing a play as part of her HSC. Donna's workshop also 
provided writing exercises which produced many interesting possibilities for future story-lines 





















Working closely with 1st year CSU Acting students and staff Donna was able to make significant progress in the writing of her current play, Flame Tree Street, as well as allowing the students to gain first-hand experience in working with a writer to fine-tune the direction of the play before the first draft was locked in.

Donna's residency culminated in a performance of selected scenes from her current work-in-progress which was held at the CSU Television Production Studio. This was a wonderful opportunity for acting students in a regional university to gain invaluable experience and insight into the finer points of their chosen career path. And all in the first few weeks of their tertiary studies. Booranga President, David Gilbey, said "It was a great experience for drama students, writers, audience - full of energy and invention!"
The event was filmed and edited by CSU TV production students and is now an ongoing resource for future students. The Youtube is available to view https://youtu.be/eitPVNRLD2I




Donna summed up the importance of her residency "I am incredibly grateful to the Booranga Writers’ Centre for inviting me to be part of your funded residency programme, and for the opportunity I had to partner with CSU staff and students as I explored the first draft of Flame Tree Street. 

As I said in my presentation, a play needs to undergo some sort of alchemical process. At Booranga, my play did this. It shifted ground, becoming not simply a bundle of concepts, but a blueprint for dramatic action and
theatrical expressions and solutions. 

As I work towards completing the first draft for a workshop with professional actors in late April, I can proceed with greater confidence in the themes and ideas and aesthetic I am exploring, and with renewed enthusiasm for the world I am seeking to create."

Booranga Writers' Centre is supported by the  NSW Government through Create NSW.

Booranga Writers' Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial and in-kind support provided by Create NSW, Wagga Wagga City Council and Charles Sturt University.

Lili Wilkinson - May Writer-in-Residence

Booranga's second writer-in-residence for 2018 is YA author Lili Wilkinson, who will be in residence from 1 May until 14 May. During her stay at Booranga Lili will give a public reading at the Historic Council Chambers Thursday 3 May, 5 to 7pm and conduct a writing workshop at Booranga on Saturday 12 May, 2 to 4pm.


Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eleven books, including Green Valentine and Pink. She established insideadog.com.au and the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Lili has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne, and now spends most of her time reading and writing books for children and teenagers.  Her latest novel is The Boundless Sublime.

http://liliwilkinson.com.au/

Lili's events are as follows:

Our 'members only' event is a Meet-the-Writer soirée to welcome Lili to Booranga. This is being held on Wednesday 2 May, 6pm at Booranga. 

To register your attendance please RSVP booranga@csu.edu.au

Also available to 2018 financial members is a limited number of one-on-one consultations/mentorships with Lili. 

To submit a piece of writing for consideration for one of these consultations please email booranga@csu.edu.au

Writing Workshop

When: Saturday 12 May, 2pm to 4pm

Where: Booranga Writers’ Centre, Mambarra Drive, Wagga Wagga

Cost: Free for members, a $10 donation is requested from non-members. RSVP

Public Reading:

When: Thursday 3 May, 5 pm to 7pm

Where: Historic Council Chambers

Fitzmaurice St. Wagga Wagga

Cost: Free, bookings essential as seating is limited. RSVP

Booranga Writers' Centre is supported by the  NSW Government through Create NSW.

Booranga Writers' Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial and in-kind support provided by Create NSW, Wagga Wagga City Council and Charles Sturt University.

Dr Craig Munro visits Booranga

Booranga Writers' Centre recently received a visit from Dr Craig Munro, a long-time friend of Booranga President, David Gilbey. Dr Munro was travelling through Wagga Wagga with his wife, Bridget Griffen-Foley*, on their way to Adelaide and expressed and interest in seeing the Writers' Centre and meeting with us.


Craig is an award-winning biographer, and the founding chair of the Queensland Writers Centre and has been involved with the Canberra Writers' Centre.


As UQP's inaugural fiction editor, he worked with many emerging writers who have since become celebrated authors, and in 1985 he won the Barbara Ramsden Award for Editing.
His books include:
Under Cover: Adventures in the Art of Editing (2015), Wild Man of Letters (on PR 'Inky' Stephenson), Paper Empires: A History of the book in Australia (2006).

Having been involved with writers centres in the past, Craig was able to share with us many valuable insights into the way other centres operate. We are most grateful for the donation of his book 

Under Cover: Adventures in the Art of Editing to Booranga and it will be a valuable resource to the Centre and it's members. 

Dr Munro meet with some Booranga committee members L to R tracie Miller, Craig Munro, David Gilbey, Maurice Corlettt.

*Bridget Griffen-Foley is an associate professor, an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellow, and the director of the Center for Media History at Macquarie University. Widely recognised as Australia's leading media historian, she is the author of The House of Packer, Party Games, and Sir Frank Packer.

Donna Abela, March Writer-in-Residence

Booranga's 2018 Writer-in-Residence program commences in March with our first visiting writer, Donna Abela, in residence from 5 March to 16 March. During her time at Booranga Donna will be conducting a writing workshop at Booranga on Saturday 10 March 2 to 4pm. She will be working closely with the CSU Drama Department work-shopping her new script with the students. This collaboration will culminate in a public presentation of her play at the CSU Drama Studio 10 am on Friday 16 March. 

Donna Abela is an award-winning playwright based in Sydney. Her play Jump For Jordan won the 2013 Griffin Playwriting Award, and the 2015 Australian Writers’ Guild’s AWGIE Award for Stage. It was re-printed by Currency Press in 2017, is in the 2019-2022 HSC Drama Syllabus, and will be showcased at the 2018 International Women Playwrights Conference in Santiago, Chile. The play was the creative component of her doctoral thesis entitled Dialogic Interplay: a Strategy for Representing Difference and Cultural Diversity on Stage which she completed in 2016. 

Other recent plays include: Monkey ... Journey to the West (part of the 2014 Brisbane Festival, and 2015 Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Festival programs), Spirit (2016 AWGIE Award for Radio Adaptation), Caylee’s Ukulele (nominated 2014 AWGIE Award for Children’s Theatre), Aurora’s Lament (2012 AWGIE Award for Radio), and Mrs Macquarie’s Cello (2010 AWGIE Award for Radio). Her 2004 adaptation of Tales from the Arabian Nights (nominated 2005 AWGIE Award for Children’s Theatre) continues to be a popular choice for schools and universities, and last year was produced at the CSU Riverina Playhouse by the University Theatre Ensemble.

As a dramaturge, teacher and mentor, Donna leads inclusive and culturally safe processes that support the exploration and discovery of new works for performance, and leverage the creative proficiency and resilience of writers. In 2017, Donna worked with Playwriting Australian, the National Theatre of Parramatta, Urban Theatre Projects, the University of Wollongong, Macquarie University, Excelsia College and the Starlight Foundation to teach, mentor or provide dramaturgy support to over seventy student, emerging and professional writers for screen and stage.

Donna is a founding member of the socially-engaged theatre company PYT | Fairfield, and the playwrights’ alliance 7-ON. She is currently working on two new plays with the working titles of Flame Tree Street and The Secret Warzone.

Donna’s events are as follows:

The first of our 'members only' events is our Meet-the-Writer soirée to welcome Donna to Booranga. This is being held on Wednesday 7 March, 6pm at Booranga. 
To register your attendance please RSVP


Also available to 2018 financial members is a limited number of one-on-one consultations/mentorships with Donna. 
Playwrights would benefit from this most, but if you are novelists or short story writer, Donna could work on narrative patterns or explore how you might leverage your own creative process. To submit a piece of writing for consideration for one of these consultations please email Booranga.

Writing Workshop

When: Saturday 10 March 2pm to 4pm

Where: Booranga Writers’ Centre, Mambarra Drive, Wagga Wagga

Cost: Free for members, a $10 donation is requested from non-members. RSVP

Public Performance:

When: Friday 16 March 10am to 12 noon

Where: DramaStudio, Building 71, Room 109, (map link)

Mambarra Drive, CSU Wagga Wagga

Cost: Free, bookings essential as seating is limited. RSVP

Some websites

Some plays available at: https://australianplays.org/playwright/ASC-13

Interview about Jump for Jordan: http://www.podcastchart.com/podcasts/not-in-print-theatre-is-going-off-script/episodes/jump-for-jordan-caught-between-cultures-l-award-winning-australian-theatre

Some radio plays available at: https://eastsidefm.org/blogs/sonictales/

Blog for 7-ON: http://sevenon.blogspot.com.au

Booranga Writers' Centre is supported by the  NSW Government through Create NSW.

Booranga Writers' Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial and in-kind support provided by Create NSW, Wagga Wagga City Council and Charles Sturt University.

2018 Competitions & Opportunities

Submissions to fourW  Anthology of New Writing  
Closes 30 June each year
All submissions to fourW are considered for the Booranga Literary Prizes
https://arts-ed.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/2914604/Booranga-Prize-submission-guidelines-Feb2018.pdf


Booranga Literary Prizes
The Booranga Prizes, of $500 each, are awarded to the best poem and the best short story submitted each year and are published in our annual anthology, fourW.
https://arts-ed.csu.edu.au/booranga/booranga-prize

Australian Writers’ Centre Furious Fiction
First weekend of every month
Writers have 55 hours to write a 500 words-or-fewer story to be in the running for $500. On the first Friday of every month, a new set of short story prompts will be revealed to guide writers.
https://www.writerscentre.com.au/furious-fiction/



Tropfest 2019
Closes 4 January 2019
https://www.tropfest.org.au/


2019 Calibre Essay Prize
Closes 14 January 2019
https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5086:2019-calibre-essay-prize&Itemid=300


2019 black&write Fellowships
Closes 31 January 2019
http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/awards/blackwrite/fellowships


Newcastle Short Story Award
Closes 4 February 2019
https://hunterwriterscentre.org/newcastle-short-story-award-2019/


2019 International Women's Day Art Prize & Literature Prize
Closes 5 February 2019
Entry is restricted to female residents of the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council area.
Entry form: cootawattlebirds@gmail.com


Jugiong Writers' Festival Short Story and Poetry Competition
Closes 16 February 2019
http://jugiongwritersfestival.com/competitions/


Woollahra Digital Literary Awards
Closes 11 March 2019
https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/library/whats_on/digital_literary_award


Fairlight Moderns - novella submissions
Currently seeking submissions of novella-length works in English from authors based anywhere in the world. We are particularly keen to publish work by new and emerging writers,
http://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/submissions/


Light Horse Australia: Harry Chauvel Foundation
Help us build on online Light Horse Anthology
https://www.chauvelfoundation.com/an-anthology