Eight Australian writers have been shortlisted for the 2015 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship $10,000 award. In its fourth year, the Fellowship once again received a strong field of high-quality proposals from emerging and established writers across Australia. “It is very exciting to see the diverse range of both subjects and literary approaches to biographical writing […]
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When Noel Turnbull was invited to the North Melbourne Meat Market to meet with Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Joel Becker in 2002, he thought the Victorian Writers Centre [as Writers Victoria was known at the time] was looking for help to raise some money. Being invited to follow in the footsteps of the organisation’s matron, Judith
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The six years that Isolde Lueckenhausen spent on the Writers Victoria Committee of Management involved a series of transitions for the organisation. She was consecutively the Secretary, Deputy Chair and then Chair of the organisation. Isolde worked alongside three successive Directors (Joel Becker, Roderick Poole and Kate Larsen), “each with their own vision and strengths.”
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When Chris McKenzie took on the role of Director of Writers Victoria (then called the Victorian Writers’ Centre), the organisation was based in the Broom Factory in George Street, Fitzroy. Chris arrived in the mid-90s during the first push by state funding agencies to increase the professionalism of member organisations. ‘Arts management’ was becoming a
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When retired journalist Iola Mathews was trying to get back into writing in 2003, she called the National Trust to see if they had a room somewhere that she could write in. “I started to think about a room outside the house,” Iola wrote in her 2009 memoir, ‘My Mother, My Writing and Me’. “Somewhere I
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Bev Roberts was the very first Coordinator of the Victorian Writers Centre. In celebration of the organisation’s 25th anniversary, Bev tells how the exciting story, “filled with drama, blood, sweat and tears”, all began. Many of the members of Writers Victoria may be surprised to know that the organisation had quite radical beginnings in community
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Judith Rodriguez remembers the elegance of the Victorian Writers Centre’s first home in Tasma Terrace, which sat behind a high, iron fence in East Melbourne. Judith became Chair of the organisation in 1993 (a post she held until 1996), just after the Centre moved to its next home at the Broom Factory in Fitzroy. The
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Sue Penhall was “not much of a joiner” when her eldest son twisted her arm into helping out at Writers Victoria (then called the Victorian Writers Centre). Newly arrived from Adelaide, Sue began volunteering at Writers Victoria in 1999. Celebrating her own 15th anniversary with the organisation in 2014, Sue is our longest-serving volunteer and
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Kevin Brophy remembers visiting possible locations for Writers Victoria (then called the Victorian Writers’ Centre) along with founding Coordinator Bev Roberts when the idea to set up a state writers’ centre was first being discussed. A member since its inception, Kevin joined the Committee of Management in 1995 before taking on the role of Chair from
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Chris Thompson’s introduction to Writers Victoria (then called the Victorian Writers’ Centre) took place in late 1990 when the organisation was located in Tasma Terrace in Parliament Place, East Melbourne. As Artistic Director of St Martins Youth Arts Centre, Chris went to the National Trust building to meet with Agnes Nieuwenhuizen to talk about her
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