Chris Baty, the Willy Lit festival and student successes

Hugh Deacon, Lucia Nardo and Denise Hughes 

at the after-celebrations of the Williamstown Literary Soiree

(where the Ada Cambridge Awards were announced)

Well, it's been frantically busy in PWE this last week. We had the fantastic Chris Baty, originator of NaNoWriMo -- Mr Motivator, I reckon he should be called -- in to speak to a combined Story Structure and Novel 2 class, and then the Willy Lit Festival. I feel as if I'm coming off the Melbourne Writers' Festival or a good speculative fiction convention -- wanting to sit down and write, write, write. I hope you're all feeling the same!

Watch this space for student reviews of the different events...

Congratulations to our students who did well at the Lit Fest: Lucia Nardo and Hugh Deacon for being shortlisted in the Ada Cambridge, and Lucia for winning a commendation, and Denise Hughes for being shortlisted in the Seagulls Poetry Prize. Hugh, Denise and Marlene Gorman also all gave spirited readings in the People's Choice Awards for Fiction, and Megan Green and Louise Crossley read in the People's Choice Awards for Poetry. (I didn't hear their readings so can't comment on them, but did hear Denise, Marlene and Hugh! Well done, all of you, for participating.) Margaret McCarthy, one of our teachers, actually won the poetry section, so congratulations to her.

I also believe Lucia Nardo led a fantastic session on working out who you are as a writer. Students who attended this workshop were raving about it -- and I know it would've been great because we had Lucia do a session for us PWE teachers earlier this year. Lots of fun and insightful, and we have the colourful result pasted to the office wall (just in case you've wandered through and wondered what that collage is.)

Happy writing, everyone!

Tracey Rolfe

Readings at Rotunda

John King hooks the audience in with the beginning of his novel.

How fantastic are our Rotunda nights! Excuse me if I have a little bragging session, but I'm really excited about all that's going on in PWE at the moment. And this session didn't let us down. This session was entertaining and informative -- as you'll see if you read Kathy's report below. Sherryl looked like she was born for the interviewer's chair, and John Clarke was just sensational, and we followed this up with some pretty sensational PWE student readings, which John was generous enough to hang around for and to listen to.

Megan Green gets gritty in her crime novel.

I'm not joking when I say it was generous of John to stick around. I can't tell you how many readings I've been to where the guest readers get up and do their bit and then go off. If there's an open-mic session afterwards, you'll never find them there. They're long gone. And these are people not nearly as well known as John -- perhaps with fame comes grace. No, I know that's not true. It's obviously just something he has.

Christine Kowal shares some poems with the audience.

Many people find it hard to get up and read in front of an audience. Last year, we had Debra Byrne come in and do a performance workshop with the Poetry and Writing for Young Adults students, and for anyone else who wanted to join. I know, as the Poetry teacher, that it was one of the highlights of the year for most of us. Debra's workshop was lots of fun and informative, and I know it helped me deal with my own nerves -- yes, I admit it, even those of us who stand up in front of a class week after week get nervous sometimes. I know some of our readers were nervous, but they covered it well. They all looked like seasoned pros -- no-one rushed, and they all read well. They all read as if they were proud to "own" their work, and so they should be.

Lucia Nardo reads from her Ada Cambridge shortlisted entry.

One of the great benefits of Rotunda, is not just that we're engaging with the wider community, but that it does give our students a chance to strut their stuff. Last year we had performances by the Comedy 1 and Poetry 1 students -- on separate nights. I'm not sure I would've been grateful of the large audience when I was a student, but a few years on I can tell you it would've been good for me. And that's why I was so pleased with our five readers -- their readings was a late addition to the program, but you wouldn't have thought so. They looked very well prepared and did themselves proud. Thanks, guys, for having the guts to put your work out there. And, I can tell you from looking around, which I know you were too busy to do, that it was all very well received.

Hugh Deacon has everyone in stitches with his story.

News from the trenches

Well, the Novel 2 class (or at least selected members) is busy reading stories for the Ada Cambridge Award, which is an award for a piece of short biographical (or autobiographical) writing, and is part of the Williamstown Literary Festival. (If you click on the name, you'll go to their website and can have a look at what they're offering this year.)

In the meantime, we've just heard that Megan Green, one of our students, has had a request from the State Library of Victoria (in association with the National Library of Australia) to include her articles on the recent Black Saturday bushfires for their bibliography database. The articles were published in a newspaper, but one of the library's researches found them online and decided they had "cultural historical significance", which was what they needed for inclusion -- so, as Megan says, it pays to have a blog and website! And I guess it also shows that you just never know where your work might end up.

Welcome to our student blog

Hi, everyone,

And welcome to the student blog. We're only three weeks into the semester and already it seems like everything is happening.

A couple of weeks ago, Sherryl and I attended the launch of Scribe's new publication New Australian stories, edited by Aviva Tuffield. It's always exciting to see a new book come out, particularly a short story collection, but this one was more so than usual for us because one of our past students, Demet Divaroven, has a story there. (And it was one she workshopped in one of Sherryl's classes!) Demet's story sits very well alongside those of authors such as Margo Lanagan, Carmel Bird, Cate Kennedy, Max Barry and Michael McGirr, and it was terrific to see her up on stage as a reader on the night. It was also lovely to see another of our students, Karen Sertori, there, supporting Demet. Friendship groups, which often become workshop groups after the course has finished, are one of the great benefits of doing a course. Keep a watch out for photos of the night -- if I can find the cord to upload the photos! In the meantime, keep an eye on Demet. She was shortlisted last year for the Vogel Award, and we just know there are lots of exciting times ahead for her!

Sherryl and I have also been out and about to the poetry reading at The Bank in Yarraville, where Margaret McCarthy, one of our PWE teachers, read along with Paul Mitchell, Lisa Gorton and Jillian Pattinson. This reading, which was part of the Yarraville Festival, was also the first of our Rotunda events for the year and was very well attended.

Our next Rotunda event is this Friday night -- The Age writer James Button in conversation with US essayist Brian Doyle. If you regularly attend Rotunda nights, you'll know how great these are, but just be aware that this one is at a different venue to usual: it's at the Terrace Restaurant at the Footscray Nicholson campus (the campus is on the corner of Albert and Pilgrim Streets). It's almost booked out, so if you do want to come, you'd better respond to Bruno pronto (bruno.lettieri@vu.edu.au). Admission prices are still $10 or $5 concession.

If you're looking for something a bit different, there's the poetry bus tour with poets Kristin Henry, Paul Mitchell and Lisa Gorton (to be confirmed) on Friday 27 March at 6 pm, departing from the Footscray Nicholson Campus. The bus will be visiting a range of venues including piers and rotundas in the Williamstown, Altona and Westgate Bridge areas. Tickets are $15 or $10 concession, and you'll need to book with Bruno. BYO picnic basket, torch and wine bottle!

Tracey Rolfe

Karen Sertori and Demet Divaroven at the launch of New Australian Stories