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The Writing Life

Information, inspiration and insights into the writing life

Publishability Fellows for 2019 announced

Portrait of Jessica Walton

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.

Our Prize Winners for May 2019

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

Our Prize Winners for July 2019

Trophy

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

MAY: Shivaun Plozza

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.

The Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund: Round 4 Recipients Announced

Notebook and travel items resting on a map

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.

Screenwriting is a Collective Dream

Christopher Gist

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? 

Our Prize Winners for April 2019

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

Voice Gives Projects Life

Kathryn Heyman

Diving In: Finding Your Voice (and your subject)

Writing Your Way to the End: Plotting, Momentum, and Re-Drafting

CC: Your novel, 'Storm and Grace', was praised for its urgency and its poetry. How do you maintain these two, perhaps somewhat opposed, qualities in your work?

Seek to Truly Engage

The Festival Toolkit

CC: How long have you been involved with running literary events?

Have a Map (and then Diverge)

Plotting and Structure for Beginners

CC: Which comes first for you, plot or character?