Manuscript Opportunity with Walker Books

Are you an Australian or New Zealand writer with a fiction manuscript ready for submission. Welcome to Walker Wednesday! UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has submitted to the first Walker Wednesday! We will be accepting manuscripts again on 7th of December. Walker Books, the leading children’s books publisher in Australia and New Zealand, is now accepting YA and middle-grade submissions from...

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Song: A Break in the Weather by Jenny Morris contributed irony to my story title!

Title of Jenny Morris's Break in the Weather used as ironic in my flash fiction piece. Just won a highly commended in the Out of the Asylum Writers Spilt Ink Competition - Prose section.  Also a break personally going from poetry to prose. A Break in the Weather He sighed into the dismal drama of his life and battled on. There were days when he had little strength, moving forward...

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Award Mentorships

2017 Emerging Writers’ and Illustrators’ Mentorship Program supported by Copyright Agency Cultural Fund The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Emerging Writers’ and Illustrators’ Mentorship Program provides the winners of these award mentorships with the opportunity to develop their early draft manuscript to a publishable standard through 13 free mentorships with professional mentors....

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A Writing Exercise - An Autobiographical Event

Writing What You Know This is an autobiographical event that occurred back in the fifties when my family went camping every school holidays. The exercise that I am currently teaching is that this anecdote of being "nearly" caught in flood waters will be turned into fiction/ art! Our Victorian Trip When I was seven, my family was on a camping trip to Melbourne. We had left the calm August shores...

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Voting for all issues the Greens stand for!

I'm new to voting for the Greens in this Federal Election (2nd July, 2016). I was once a Labor supporter, but since they have changed their policy on Asylum Seekers I decided to stop my support for them. I am against domestic violence, animal cruelty, against cruelty of any kind and to my mind Australia's handling of desperate refugees on Manus Island and in turning back the boats is appallingly...

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Writer's Block: Is there such a thing?

Quite patiently, Ben Watts cut apart and stitched together scenes from 53 films (find a complete list here) showing characters suffering through writer’s block. Adaptation, Barton Fink, Shakespeare in Love, The Royal Tenenbaums, and, yes, Throw Momma From the Train–they’re among the films featured in the 4-minute supercut above. If you give the clip a little time, you’ll see that the supercut has an arc to it. It tells a tale, and has an ending that...

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QWC & Hatchette Manuscript Development Program

Hachette Australia Manuscript Development Program, delivered by QWC Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) and Hachette Australia are proud to announce their 9th national program for fiction and non-fiction writers in 2016. WHAT IS THE PROGRAM? Launched in 2008, the Hachette Manuscript Development program continues to provide a vital professional and creative development opportunity for emerging Australian...

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Impress Prize 2016

The Impress Prize for New Writers 2016 This year’s prize is now open for entries. The deadline is 01/07/16. The prize was created to discover and publish new writing talent. Entries to the prize are assessed by the Impress team each year and a shortlist produced from which a panel chooses the winner. The panel is comprised of representatives from the publishing industry and the writing community. The...

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Submissions open for novel manuscripts with Leapfrog Press

Fiction Contest Past Winners: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 The 2016 Leapfrog Fiction Contest is now open for entries, and will run through May 1. Click one of the links above to read about past winners. Read an interview with this year's finalist judge, Sara Pritchard, here. Read an interview with Leapfrog's Lisa Graziano...

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Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Award

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award Now in its ninth year, the Award is an internationally renowned literary prize presented by Aesthetica Magazine. It is a fantastic opportunity for established and aspiring writers and poets to showcase their work to an international audience. Previous entrants have achieved further publication and wider recognition in the literary world. Prizes £500...

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Bath Flash Fiction Award

Bath Flash Fiction Award is an international rolling flash fiction competition. Each award runs for 4 months. Judging takes place quickly with a top prize of £1000, £300 second, and £100 third. At the close of each competition, the next competition begins. Our last winner was announced within a week of the Award closing, and running three Awards per year means our total annual prize fund is...

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World Wetlands Day Poetry Prize

World Wetlands Day Poetry Prize A celebration and exploration of the world of wetlands 2nd February each year is World Wetlands Day. On this date in 1971, countries from all over the world came together in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the Caspian Sea, to sign the Convention on Wetlands, vowing to protect and enhance the wetlands that fell within their borders. Our Judge Sarah Day’s...

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Poetry workshop with Helen Hagemann; From Image to Metaphor

I've been invited to conduct a poetry workshop by the Westcoast Community Centre in March. My workshop is titled; From Image to Metaphor. Michael Ondaatje once wrote an image of grasshoppers as “dolphins of drought”. Check out the details on the Westcoast Community Centre's Programme page - under Brain Challenges...

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Submitted my novel as a novella - Part 1

Part I  Bream Street: circa 1946  It was perhaps the first time he felt this freezing sensation. Age had run into his iron bones and most days he couldn’t get out of bed. Not that anyone would notice, living alone all these years and he’d left retirement too late. It was only the fishing in Satara Bay that had kept him going, his beach cottage central to everything, and his blue-aproned...

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