Information, inspiration and insights into the writing life
Writing is not a career for the faint-hearted or the impatient. To start a career as a freelance writer, you have to be both resilient and prepared to play the long game.
The Writing Life
Prior to becoming a YA author, Fiona Wood used to work in marketing and arts management, did some freelance journalism and spent 12 years working as a television scriptwriter penning episodes for some beloved TV shows, hour-long specials and children’s drama. Her first YA novel Six Impossible Things was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year, Older Readers, in 2011; and Wildlife, her second novel, won that award in 2014.
Writers Victoria is delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition. Now in its eleventh year, the prize supports emerging Victorian writers.
Writers Victoria is thrilled to announce that Heidi Everett and Jessica Walton will be the 2019 Publishability Fellows. Heidi will be using 12-month fellowship to work on her memoir ‘My Friend Fox’ about her experience of schizoaffective disorder. Jessica Walton will be penning a collection of poems on disability and dance tilted ‘Crip the Light Fantastic’.
Three writers also had their work highly commended by Andy Jackson, the Publishability Fellowships judge: Daniel Kraus, Anthony Riddell and Michelle Vasiliu.
Welcome to our monthly brag about our Writers Victoria community members who have won awards, been shortlisted or longlisted for writing prizes or received industry recognition.
Collective Celebrations
The shortlists for the 2019 Reading & Enjoying Australian Literature (REAL) Awards—which act as shortlists for children’s choice book awards in New South Wales (KOALAs), Northern Territory (KROC Awards) and Victoria (YABBAs)—have been announced. Amongst the shortlist are:
Picture story books
Welcome to our monthly brag about our Writers Victoria community members who have won awards, been shortlisted or longlisted for writing prizes or received industry recognition.
Collective Celebrations
The shortlists for the 2019 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards have been announced. Amongst the shortlisted authors in each category are:
Birth to three years
Shivaun Plozza is an award-winning author of books for young adults as well as a freelance editor and manuscript assessor. Her debut novel Frankie (Penguin, 2016) was shortlisted for the Inky Awards, got Highly Commented at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and won the YA Crime Novel category of the Davitt Awards. Tin Heart (Penguin), her second novel, was inspired by her brother’s kidney transplant and was released in 2018.
Round 4 of the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund received 111 applications, requesting a total of $559,410 in grant money.
This round's judges were writer Roanna Gonsalves, Aviva Tuffield from University of Queensland Press, and Jackie Tang from Readings. They were impressed with the overall quality of the applications in what was a competitive round, awarding a total of $49,569 to 12 recipients.
Young Writers: School Holiday Program: Writing for the Screen
CC: The move away from commercial to network television has allowed TV writing to break out of some of its traditional boundaries in terms of format and audience. What are the results of this for aspiring TV writers?
Welcome to our monthly brag about our Writers Victoria community members who have won awards, been shortlisted or longlisted for writing prizes or received industry recognition.
The shortlists for the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced. Amongst the shortlist are:
Book of the year for younger children (ages 7-12)
- Andy Griffiths, tutor, for ‘The 104-Storey Treehouse’
Small publishers’ adult book of the year