Sydney Writers' Centre blog

$500 for poets

Dangerously Poetic Press, a community poets’ group based on the far north NSW coast, are holding an open poetry competition in memory of Jean Ringland. Jean was the author of Paperbarks and was well known among writers and poets of the Northern Rivers. She was a founding member of Dangerously Poetic and also set up the Bangalow Writers’ Group.

Dangerously Poetic Press and Jean’s family are offering a $500 cash prize to the winner of this competition, and a second prize of $250. For a poetry competition, that is a very generous reward! Both winners will also be published in the anthology Coming Home and receive a copy of Paperbarks.

Entry forms should be available on the DPP website soon at www.dangerouslypoetic.com or you can contact them directly through their site. The closing date for the prize is 26 June 2009.

For filmmakers who love books - or booklovers who want to make films!

You may be used to seeing trailers for films when you go to the cinema, but trailers for books? It’s been done in the UK and now Random House Australia is embracing film and the internet and calling on Australian film makers – and book lovers – to put together 90 second trailers for some of their latest releases.

The inaugural competition was held in the UK in 2008 and yielded some interesting results. Three National Film & Television School students were selected to make trailers for Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Beaumont, Small World by Matt Groff and The Outcast by Sadie Jones. (Click here to view the final films.)  

The Australian competition is a little different, in that the organisers are opening entries up to everyone and offering cash prizes of up to $6,000. They are keen to showcase not only the work of Random House Australia authors (and obviously create a new marketing campaign for their releases) but to also give young Australian filmmakers an opportunity get their work out there and be financially rewarded as well.

Full details can be found at www.bookvideoawards.com.au. Make sure you watch last year’s trailers – they’ll give you an idea of what judges are looking for.

Weekly book rant

Well, as I suspected would happen, I haven’t gotten through a whole book this week. I really was going to try – it just so easy to get distracted…

I will say though, that I am loving Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. So far, this is a truly funny book. He has a wonderful way with language – even as he writes a character whose English is far from good. Alexander Perchov (or, as his friends dub him, Alex) is about to become Foer’s translator for the duration of the latter’s tour in the Ukraine.

It’s almost as if Foer himself has managed to forget what it’s like to speak English natively. He’s managed to capture the naivety and bluntness that often comes through in those still learning this difficult language. And while you can’t help but laugh at Alex’s foibles and prejudices (his insistence, for example, that all American Jews have ‘low-grade brains’), he still comes across as a very sympathetic character – his ignorance of western culture and the English language is not something that’s being mocked. (For an example of Westerners who are mocking non-English speaking Eastern bloc-ers, see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.)

So, I’m really looking forward to this one. I’ll let you know my final thoughts next week.

 

Sydney Writers' Centre is expanding

It seems we just can’t keep up with the demand. We’ve had so much interest in our Feature Writing and Creative Writing courses that we’re fast running out of room at our Milsons Point headquarters, so we’re moving into the Kirribilli Club.

We’ll still hold many of our courses and seminars in our beautiful training room on Lavender Bay, but the the additional venue will give us the flexibility to schedule more of the courses you want, when you want them!

And don’t worry – the Kirribilli Club is right next door to us so you’ll still be able to enjoy stunning views on your way to class.

Our very first Kirribilli Club course will be Feature Writing for newspapers and magazines with Pamela Wilson and begins on Tuesday 21 April at 6.30pm. Click here for more details or to enrol.

Writing about life in the city of light

We're busy organising our information evening this Thursday for our Writing in Paris trip in November. If you can't make it to this session and you'd like to hear more about this fabulous writing opportunity, here's an article from previous participant Therese Spruhan.

FOR the first few days after I arrive in Paris I feel like I have been magically transported to a mythical land – like The Little Prince arriving on earth in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s famous book. Maybe it is the jet lag but everything around me seems surreal. Two days ago I was in Sydney and now I am living in an apartment in Montmartre.

I am here to do a 16-day ‘Writing in Paris’ course led by Australian memoirist Patti Miller. To ensure we get to experience life as a Parisian, if only for a short time, for the duration of our stay we live in apartments rather than hotels. The 11 members of the group are based in different locations across the city. Some are staying on the left bank in the Jardin des Plantes quarter and at Montparnasse in the 14th arrondisement.  On the right bank, others are living near the Champs-Elysees and Place de la Bastille.

Stay in your own apartment
My home is a comfortable apartment on Rue des Abbesses, Montmartre in the 18th arrondisement. I am sharing the two-bedroom apartment with Vanessa, a 30-year-old medical research scientist from Sydney who is also taking the course.

Over the next couple of weeks, Vanessa and I settle into life in Montmartre, a very stylish area with lots of cosy restaurants and bars, boutiques, patisseries, delicatessens – as well as specialist cheese, seafood, fruit and vegetables and stationery shops. We get to know the various shopkeepers on our street, and very quickly realise the importance of always saying ‘bonjour’ when we enter a shop and ‘au revoir’ when we leave. We also notice that we only need to return to a shop twice and we are treated as regulars.

Famous sights of Paris
We become very familiar with many of the sights in the area especially Sacre Coeur, the Roman Byzantine-style basilica which stands proudly on the highest point in Paris. When we climb the 327 steps of the church’s dome, we are rewarded with a fantastic view of the city and the Eiffel Tower in the distance. On my strolls around the area I frequently drop in and light a candle, and am moved by the beautiful voices of a group of Benedictine nuns when I attend Mass there one Sunday. When I venture further a-field, the elevated position of the basilica, built after the Franco-Prussian war, helps me find my way home.

Each week day morning we walk to our local Metro station – Abbesses – one of the few original Art Nouveau stations in Paris, to make the easy journey to our writing class on Rue de Birague in the Marais area. The venue is just two minutes walk from Place des Vosges where the French writer Victor Hugo used to live.

Coffee and Croissants
Fuelled with coffee and pastries, we listen to stories about French, English and American writers who  have lived and worked in Paris. We explore the importance of awareness and observation, structure and form. We learn to let go of our inhibitions and desire for perfection and just write. We write for 10 minutes about the hands of someone we know, about an emotion or an experience. We learn to stop procrastinating, stop thinking and let the words flow. And over the eight days of workshops, we develop an appreciation for the different styles and experiences of the members of the group.

When the class finishes at 1pm, we are free to enjoy the delights of Paris. Many of us begin the afternoon with lunch and a mandatory glass of wine at Café Crème, a restaurant below our workshop venue. After our delicious French meal, we set off in a group, pairs or on our own to visit a market, Notre Dame or Sainte Chapelle, enjoy a boat trip down the Seine, climb the Eiffel Tower, or take a stroll in the Luxembourg Gardens or the Tuileries. Other afternoons are spent experiencing the wonderful artworks at the Rodin Museum, the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, the Picasso Museum, the Pompidou Centre or the Musee de L’Orangerie. A number of people also find the time to shop.

We enjoy one very expensive cocktail in the Ernest Hemingway Bar at the Ritz Hotel at Place Vendome. Another evening is spent at a café near St Sulpice Church in the Luxembourg quarter where we listen to a talk from James Bradley, an Australian writer living at the Australia Council’s garret in Cite des Artes. We hear about the influences on his writing and the experience of living and writing in Paris.

Literary delights
We also get to enjoy the culinary delights of the city, with a number of lunches and dinners included in the trip.  A highlight is a night at La Closerie des Lilas in Montparnasse, famous as a meeting place for writers, musicians and artists since its establishment in the late 19th century. Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Jean-Paul Sartre and Samuel Beckett – to name just a few – were regular visitors to La Closerie des Lilas’ bars and garden restaurant. In fact, Hemingway is said to have written much of his novel The Sun Also Rises on the restaurant’s terrace.

Visiting La Closerie des Lilas is like stepping into a world where everyone is in a good mood. Patrons entering the bar are greeted like long lost friends – including us. With no tables spare, we sit at the bar and watch Thomas and Salem our friendly waiters make exotic cocktails. Sipping on French champagne we are served green peppery olives and other tasty hors d’oeuvres. As the piano plays in the background, lovers lean into each other and kiss. Intense and animated conversations take place at tables engraved with the names of writers, artists and musicians who regularly sat there. When it’s time to leave, Thomas and Salem shower us with souvenirs and we warmly embrace.

Day trips from Paris
On the weekends we have the opportunity to visit the historic and beautiful town of Chartres and tour its famous cathedral. We also make the short train journey out of Paris to see the spectacular palaces and gardens of Fontainebleau and Versailles.

Our final evening is spent at Vagenende Restaurant on the Boulevard St Germain on the left bank. In the ornate belle époque surroundings we enjoy each other’s company, delicious food and fine wine. We say au revoir to Paris and drink to our rich and intense experience over the past 16 days. We leave the beautiful city of light inspired and with a strong desire to return home and continue to write.

Well, that's certainly inspired me. Maybe it's inspired you too? Click here for more details.

Images: Early morning at Sacre Coeur, Edith Piaf statue near Gambetta Metro, Looking towards the Eiffel Tower - Therese Spruhan.

Author of Eat, Pray Love on "genius"

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love reflects on the idea that all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

Writers' block

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Weekly book rant

Welcome to my Weekly Book Rant. In an effort to encourage more reading, and more writing, I’m going to share with you my feelings on whatever I happen to be reading on a Friday. I can’t promise any great insights, or even that I’ll finish a book a week, but I promise to be honest.

So, here goes. I've just finished reading Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and I’ll admit to some mixed feelings about this one. I don't think I was expecting it to be quite so bleak. And, while the characters were beautifully written and the writing also stunning, I just felt that it occasionally veered towards being overly sentimental.

I was also a little disappointed that the narrative didn’t include a more detailed history of the wars in Afghanistan from 1975. I realise that wasn’t the point of the book – obviously Amir and Hassan’s story is the focus – but I thought it might have added some perspective to the story, helped me understand better why the boys’ relationship seemed so fractured. 

Despite all this, I did find myself staying up late for a few nights trying to get through it, so it obviously grabbed me in some way. And I’ll also admit to feeling slightly depressed when I finished it – maybe I’ll hold off watching the film until I’m over it.

I'm now onto Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. I've only read the first chapter and already I have three new 'funniest lines in a book' to add to my list!

The Australian Vogel Literary Award

Allen & Unwin’s prestigious Vogel Award is now open for entries. With $20,000 prize money, guaranteed publication and royalties from book sales (and, I hear, a loaf of bread), this is probably the most important competition for writers with an unpublished manuscript.

The award was established in 1980 by Danish immigrant Niels Stevns, owner of Vogel’s bread in Australia. In partnership with The Australian and Allen & Unwin, he set up one of the country’s richest literary prizes for new writers.

So, if you’re under 35 and have an original manuscript of at least 30,000 words that hasn’t been published before check out www.allenandunwin.com. Entries close on 31 May 2009.

Writing in Paris Information Night

We’re going to Paris! On Thursday 19 March the Sydney Writers’ Centre will hold an information evening for  all those interested in our Writing in Paris trip in October this year. Patti Miller, memoir writing teacher and Paris guide, will be there to answer your questions about the course and the trip. The evening will start at 6pm and finish at around 7.30pm.

If you haven’t yet heard about this once in a lifetime trip, check out the details on our website - sydneywriterscentre.com.au/writinginparis. From 23 October to 7 November 2009, Patti Miller will guide participants through their memoir writing journey and through the streets of Paris.

If you would like attend the Information Evening you must RSVP by Monday 16 March.