Information, inspiration and insights into the writing life
Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but it doesn’t follow that being a writer means resigning yourself to loneliness and isolation. Writing communities, large and small, exist in all kinds of forms, catering to all kinds of writers. Some communities develop organically.
Writers Victoria congratulates and welcomes the 2019 Glenfern Fellows:
Andy Griffiths is one of the most popular children’s authors in Australia. He has written more than 30 books, including nonsense verse, short stories, comic novels, picture books and plays. His books have been New York Times bestsellers, won more than fifty children’s choice awards, been adapted as theatre shows and sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. He is best known as the author of the JUST!
The artistic protagonist is a familiar figure in young adult fiction – the performance poet overcoming trauma onstage, the fan-fic writer finding their own story offline, the photographer shooting shadows in laneways … Art in YA, as in life, is bound up in character identity and agency. Emily Gale spoke to Writers Vic about the role of the artist in her work.
I have always been fascinated with how cinema depicts writers and the craft of writing. Much of what appears on the big screen, the huge publicity tours and massive advances, is pretty far from the mark in terms of reality for all but the most successful authors. That said much a lot that cinema gets right: the hard grind of getting the words on a page to make the deadline, dealing with rejection, struggling with envy in relation to more successful colleagues, the constant effort of staying relevant, etc.
Writers Victoria is excited to announce the 2019 Write-ability Fellows. Five writers with disability will receive tailored support for their writing project in the form of mentoring, manuscript assessment and/or attendance at Writers Victoria workshops, thanks to the generous support of the Grace Marion Wilson Trust.
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.
Melbourne-based literary magazine The Lifted Brow and RMIT’s non/fictionLab have announced the longlist for their Prize for Experimental Nonfiction. Amongst the longlisted writers are:
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.
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.
