Information, inspiration and insights into the writing life.
Some of Australia’s most remarkable and inspiring stories stem from true life. Told in voices plain, ornate, and everything in between, first-person accounts serve many purposes and begin from diverse places. A great number of successful books are sparked by the writer’s curiosity about a detail of family, which has always been puzzling or unspoken: […]
Ask an ALAA Agent – Get a Grip on Life Read More »
I begin every talk I ever give – no matter what the subject – by telling people they need to have something worth selling. It applies to agents, publishers, and authors. The best description of something worth selling is: a good story, well told. This applies to fiction, narrative non-fiction and children’s books.
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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
25 Years of WV: message from Noel Turnbull Read More »
Do you have a manuscript in your ‘bottom drawer’? One that you promised yourself that you would finish, polish, and get out to agents and/or publishers this year? Now it’s October. . . The year is almost over and you’re keen to make good on that New Year’s resolution and get it onto someone’s desk
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Writers Victoria, RMIT and Affirm Press are pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural WRAP Synopsis Prize. The first prize went to Anita Smith, with Mark Brandi announced as runner-up. Last night’s audience at The Salon does Synopsis also awarded a People’s Choice award to Will Cox. Smith will receive 5-hours of editorial support
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Former Hazel Rowley fellow Maxine Beneba Clarke shares her advice for writers considering applying for this year’s Hazel Rowley Fellowship. “Four months before my first fiction book, ‘Foreign Soil’, was due to come out, snowed under with copy edits, I saw a call-out for applications for the 2014 Hazel Rowley Fellowship. The Fellowship, I read,
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Five writers with disability will receive six hours of free mentoring with authors, assessors and industry experts through the inaugural Write-ability Fellowships announced this week. The Fellowships, a joint initiative of Writers Victoria and Arts Access Victoria, have been awarded to Heidi Everett (with mentor Lyndel Caffrey), Robbie O’Brien (with mentor Matthew Hooper), Jack Waghorn
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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.”
25 Years of WV: Interview with Isolde Lueckenhausen Read More »
The classic plotter vs pantser debate continues, as Graeme Simsion and Paddy O’Reilly speak to Program Intern Kate Steele about plotting and flying by the seat of your pants. The Plotter – Graeme Simsion You wrote your first novel ‘The Rosie Project’ in a unique way, having started it as a screenplay, then adapting it
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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
25 Years of WV: interview with Chris McKenzie Read More »
