Entries Tagged 'Competitions and grants' ↓

Entries will be closing soon for the 2012 City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards, so whip out a selection of your finest short fiction and get involved.

For those of you who may be geographically challenged, or perhaps a little ‘east coast’ (and as a native of Adelaide I have been the victim of this kind of scarring cultural profiling), just south of Perth, on the south-western point of Cockburn Sound, lies the picturesque city of Rockingham, which is rapidly establishing itself as a regional artistic hub. And 2011’s inaugural City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards helped to cement that reputation. This year the awards are back offering more than $2000 in prizes across three categories.

As with the 2011 prizes (which showcased the artwork of Derrick Carroll), this year’s competition takes its visual theme from the work of WA artist, Julie Silvester, in particular her 2004 work ‘Spring Breakers: Trigg’.

The City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards are free to enter and are open to all Australian authors, with entries falling into three categories: Open, Over 50s, and Young Writers (open to writers aged 12-17). Entries close Friday 12 October. For full details see the City of Rockingham website and get involved in one of Australia’s seriously up and coming literary awards.

Speakeasy caught up with Oz writer, awards coordinator and WA local Lee Battersby to discuss the upcoming Rockingham Short Fiction Awards. If you’re considering entering the competition you won’t want to miss what Lee has to say.

Speakeasy: Can you please tell our readers about the City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards, how they came about and what they mean to the local community and the wider literary community?

Lee Battersby (LB): The City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards originated as a result of feedback from the local writing community via a series of workshops conducted in 2010. The Rockingham region is expansive, and local arts practitioners can feel isolated. The establishment of a short story competition was seen as an ideal way of bringing together aspiring authors in the Rockingham region around a common goal, with a view to building their capacity to practice their chosen art.

The competition is supported by a series of workshops conducted by professional authors during the submission period, and the process climaxes during the City’s literary month in November, along with a number of events surrounding National Novel Writing Month, all designed to inspire aspiring authors to connect with each other for mutual support, guidance and advice.

In its inaugural year the competition attracted a significant number of entries from outside the region, which had the double benefit of not only promoting Rockingham as a hub of creativity to a national audience but also providing local writers with a national benchmark for their work: several Rockingham entries won awards, and seeing their work successfully compete at a national level is a great fillip for the confidence of writers in the region.

In its second year we expect the competition to continue to act as a flagship for the City’s Literary Programme and to grow as a credible avenue for aspiring authors to add a nationally recognised writing prize of genuine merit to their artistic CVs.

Speakeasy: Can you tell us something about Julie Silvester’s artwork and how it was selected?

LB: The City of Rockingham has a wide-ranging art collection, and is committed to providing a platform for cross-form arts practices. By using images from the art collection to provide the central theme of the competition we expose those pieces to a wider audience than may see them otherwise, and we enable local artists to view the collection in a co-operative, creative way, rather than simply as passive consumers.

The image used in the 2011 Short Fiction Awards was a haunting, earth-toned piece entitled ‘The Eviction’, by Derrick Carroll. It was important, therefore, to select an image for the 2012 Awards that provided a contrast to that work, in order to encourage entrants to create a story from a different narrative viewpoint, and to provide exposure to the different ‘moods’ of the City’s art collection. Julie Silvester’s artwork ‘Spring Breakers: Trigg’ fulfilled those requirements as well as being a work of high quality in its own right.

Speakeasy: Do the judges look for anything in particular, beyond reference to the theme art, regarding genre, local content, author profile etc.?

LB: The judge for each year’s competition is a professional writing industry member of long standing, and entries are judged ‘blind’ –that is, all identifying details such as name and address are removed before the entries are passed to the judge. That way, the only frames of reference upon which the judging decision is based are the literary and craft qualities of the story itself. Likewise, the identity of the judge is kept secret until the announcement of the winners, to preclude the possibility of entries being influenced by the judge’s professional background or any possible personal relationship between the judge and an entrant.

We simply ask entrants for their best work based on the theme, and trust the professional ability of our judge to identify the stories of the highest general quality when deciding upon winners in each category. That way, the judging process is based as fairly as possible upon the written merits of the stories themselves.

Speakeasy: Who is the competition open to? Are there any types of writers that you would particularly encourage to enter?

LB: The City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards is open to all writers in three

categories: Open, Over 50s, and Young Writers (12-17). There is no entry fee, and eligibility is restricted only in that employees of the City of Rockingham and their family members are ineligible to enter.

The 2011 competition attracted entries from every state in Australia except Tasmania, and we’re hoping to better that in 2012. We feel our prize selections are exciting enough to attract writers of all levels, but as a community organisation we are always especially excited to see work from aspiring artists. The Over 50s category is a specific point of difference from other writing competitions, and we definitely encourage writers from that particular age group to enter.

Speakeasy: Can you offer any information about previous prize winners and their work?

LB: 2011 Competition judge Tehani Wessely said of the entries received: ‘With such a darkly intricate artwork to draw inspiration from in “The Eviction”, it’s hardly surprising that stories were evocative, compelling, disturbing and engaging. While many writers took a very literal interpretation of the work, others used it with a light touch, with satisfying results in both areas. While many works were very well-written, some were let down by a lack of true story, being instead mood pieces or vignettes. A very short story is possibly one of the hardest types of writing to execute well, as in a limited space there is still a need for plot, character and good writing. Rarely can any one of those three elements stand well enough on its own to create a good story – almost always, all three are required. The very best of stories uses all three seamlessly and integrates them into a work that makes it impossible to tell which of the three are doing the hardest work in making it great!’

As advice on how to approach entries for this year’s competition I think it would be difficult to go past Tehani’s advice.

2011 winners came from WA, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, so it’s fair to say the theme resonated with writers from across the country, and we’re hoping that this year’s image will do the same.

Speakeasy: Is there anything else you would like to mention to our readers?

LB: It’s encouraging to see the Rockingham region being recognised as a hub of creative expression, and the quality of programmes created within the region resonating with so many literary practitioners across the country. By creating a strong regional base for the literary arts in an area not traditionally associated with authorship we hope that writers across the country will be encouraged to think of Rockingham as a viable source of artistic inspiration, and ally the region’s literary growth to their own.

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Julian Thumm is a freelance editor and writer. He has degrees from The University of Queensland and The University of Adelaide. He has worked with the Australian Journal of Communication, The University of Queensland Press, and Corporate Communication International through The City University of New York. He is currently based in Brisbane.

Cram your novel in a compactor; strap your short story to a rack; or break out your best short novel or long short story. In other words, it’s time to bust out those novellas. Seizure, the cutting-edge, Sydney-based journal, is currently running Viva La Novella, a novella competition for Australian and New Zealand writers. Seizure is looking for novellas running between 20-50,000 words and is offering, to the winning author, $1000, publication in Seizure, the full editorial treatment and significant exposure.

Shorter than a novel but longer than a short story, the novella is an under-published and underexposed narrative form. However, given that so much of the world suffers from a rapidly eroding attention span perhaps the novella is overdue for a new breath of life. Australian writer John Dale suggests that for the emerging writer the future may well lie with the novella. He says ‘the novella is the genre best suited to conceptualizing the digital age’ largely because it ‘strips narrative back to its essentials, cutting away the excess baggage’. The implication here is that digital publishing presents fresh opportunities for revitalising the life of the novella, as well as offering a dynamic medium for emerging writers.

Speakeasy recently caught up with author, artist, creative director and design ninja, David Henley, the mastermind behind Viva La Novella, to offer us some behind-the-scenes hints and tips. So, whip out those novellas and check out what David had to say.

Speakeasy: How did Seizure’s novella competition come about?

David Henley (DH): We wanted to find a way to encourage writers beyond the short story. Seizure puts out a magazine for short pieces but we felt a lot of writers could go further if they had more room.

Speakeasy: Why has Seizure chosen to promote the novella and why do you think the novella is such an under-published form? What opportunities do you think the novella offers to young writers and publishers?

DH: There are economic and chicken-and-egg reasons why the novella is not as commercially viable in print, largely due to an alleged value perception in book buyers that more pages equates to better value.

Novellas are a great place to start for a lot of writers. Writing a full length novel is a complex and time-consuming exercise, and something that is hard to complete if you work and/or study. The opportunities for writers and publishers are the same, but it takes risk and experiment to discover anything new. We think (hope, pray, etc.) the online marketplace can change the value perception, so that people will want a good reading experience, rather than a solid and heavy one. Digital publishing also affords greater flexibility with pricing structures.

Speakeasy: Is the competition open to writers across a free range of genres? Are there kinds of writers (in terms of genre or otherwise) whom you would particularly encourage to enter?

DH: Yes, absolutely. We are open to all sorts of writing and genres.

We would encourage anyone who hasn’t tried to complete a longer project before to use this competition as their impetus.

Speakeasy: If it isn’t giving too much away, what kinds of qualities would you look for in a top-shelf submission?

DH: The dream submission would be a tight story that took me in, held my attention, made me think, and then ended gracefully.

Speakeasy: On the website, Seizure is described as ‘a launchpad for new writing where young authors and editors experiment with form and style’. How important is this focus on young writers and experimental form and style going to be to the competition?

DH: That is one of Seizure’s mottos as a whole, and largely it means a lot more collaboration between our editors and writers in the development of ideas than most other publishers and journals.

In relation to the competition it will come down to each entry. If you are a writer ‘experimenting’ with form then I’d encourage you to remember your science and that experiments start with a hypothesis that is tested by experiment. So, have a hypothesis and you might get somewhere.

Speakeasy: The theme for the competition is ‘Origin’: what was the motivation behind this theme? What kind of creative engagement with the theme are you hoping to see in the submissions?

DH: Well, we wanted to provoke the writers to think about story structure. Many young writers are stuck in their development by concentrating on sentences, and fail to consider the bigger playing field of story and plot.

We’d love to find a story that made us want to read more: perhaps the novella could be the start of a series, or meme.

Speakeasy: What kind of exposure or benefits might young or emerging writers hope to get from the competition and from their potential publication in Seizure?

DH: At the beginning of your career you need exposure however you can get it. Money will only come after you’ve got runs on the board and when you are a known quantity.

The aim of Seizure, in all its publications, events and activities, is to help spread the word and get the name of our creatives known to a bigger audience. Even though Seizure is one of Australia’s newest journals, we are doing well getting out to over 100 bookstores, and recently into newsagencies.

The other thing about Seizure is that we give every piece special treatment, with a rigorous edit, then a copy edit by experienced editors, and then we create individual art for every story. So writers get exposure, become part of the community and their work is crafted and presented beautifully.

Speakeasy: Are there any plans to publically announce the shortlisted authors or will their work, or excerpts of it, be made available?

DH: We are considering an announcement for the shortlist at the end of the year, once the authors have confirmed. Then we will go into rigorous editing mode so there won’t be extracts until after that. We won’t be able to confirm plans until consulting with the winners.

Speakeasy: Is there anything else you might like to mention to our readers?

DH: We hope that some of you will enter, or just investigate what we are doing at Seizure. There’s so much good writing in Australia, the challenge is getting people to take notice. That’s what we’re trying to help with.

Entries for Viva La Novella close November 1, 2012. For further submission details and full submission guidelines visit the Seizure website.

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Julian Thumm is a freelance editor and writer. He has degrees from The University of Queensland and The University of Adelaide. He has worked with the Australian Journal of Communication, The University of Queensland Press, and Corporate Communication International through The City University of New York. He is currently based in Brisbane.

With a list of past contributors that includes such Oz lit luminaries as Patrick White, Peter Carey, Elizabeth Jolley, David Williamson, Judith Wright, Thea Astley, Xavier Herbert, Bruce Dawe, Frank Moorhouse, Manning Clark, Christina Stead—to name just a few—the pages of Overland have long been considered one of Australia’s premier literary storehouses.

However, there is much more to the magazine than simply promoting the who’s who of Australian intelligentsia. Overland, like all good journals should be, is active in promoting and encouraging Australia’s emerging writers. The Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers is currently open and offering $8000 dollars in prizes, as well as publication and serious exposure for the winning authors. The doors are also about to open for The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets. So check out the links for more details.

Radically political, Overland has a long-standing commitment to providing a platform for dissenting opinions, marginalised voices, and alternative viewpoints. That being said, a romp through the pages of Overland is not all socialist manifestos or scenes from Zola. There is a wonderful eclecticism, which has seen recent issues include a short story by 19-year-old Stephen Pham, an article on the leftist politics of steampunk fiction, and a fascinating and provocative editorial on the ongoing epidemic of American mass shootings by Overland editor Jeff Sparrow.

Speakeasy recently caught up with Jeff.

Speakeasy: Overland announces itself as ‘the most radical of Australia’s long-standing literary and cultural magazines’. What does this ideological stance mean to the journal’s content, in particular the creative content (e.g., fiction, poetry, etc.)? In what ways do you look for this ethos to be reflected in submissions?

Jeff Sparrow (JS): We are a political literary journal. That doesn’t mean that every poem or story must be about striking coal miners or the plight of refugees. Rather that, both with essays and creative work, we look for writers who have something to say and know how to say it; that while we seek to publish fine writing, we’re not simply after belles-lettres so much as work that engages with the questions of its era. But really, the best way to get a sense of what Overland publishes is to look at previous issues.

Speakeasy: Despite remaining committed to the print journal, Overland’s online presence seems to offer further opportunities for the exchange of opinions in a more dynamic and immediate way than what is available to more traditional print media. Can you speak a little about this and how the foray into online publishing has altered what Overland is capable of?

JS: As you say, Overland is still very much committed to the print journal. Most writers prefer publishing in print and it’s still the favoured option for many readers.

At the same time, we are increasingly devoting resources to our website, which publishes new material most days.

Online publishing has several great advantages. It’s instant, for a start, and so can respond to current debates in a way that a quarterly print journal simply can’t. It also facilitates a dialogue with readers: the Overland blog fosters a very lively ongoing debate about culture and politics. Finally, you can publish different kinds of content online. For instance, we’ve just put online our first ever selection of spoken-word poetry, a really exciting new venture for us.

Speakeasy: Overland has a long and proud tradition of publishing some of Australia’s most celebrated writers. This legacy can often be daunting to emerging writers. That being said, Overland recently published a story by 19-year-old Stephen Pham. What advice would you give to emerging writers who would love to see their work published in Overland?

JS: It’s important not to think of publication as an end in and of itself, but to ask why you want to see a particular piece of work in print. What are you trying to do with it? What do you seek to convey? When you are clear on those answers to those questions, it’s a lot easier to assess the writing.

Specifically, when it comes to Overland, we encourage writers to get involved. Visit the website, engage in the discussions, take out a subscription. When you interact with the journal in its various forms, you can get a sense of what its project is, and then you can decide whether it’s something of which you want to be a part.

Speakeasy: I know it’s cutting it close to the deadline, but could you tell us a little about The Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers and The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets?

JS: Both prizes are attempts to provide opportunities for new writers. The Australian publishing industry is going through lean times at the moment, and it’s very difficult for emerging writers to catch a break. These prizes offer substantial cash prizes as well as publication, and they’re exclusively for writers who have not yet had a book published under their own name. There’s more details about both on the Overland website.

Speakeasy: The Overland website is announcing two new projects: an online fiction series and Audio Overland. Could you tell us a little about these projects, and any associated publication opportunities that our readers might be interested in?

JS: As I mentioned, we’re putting a lot of resources into the Overland website. As part of that, we’re using the site to expand the amount of fiction we can publish, as well as providing opportunities for emerging editors. Next year, we’ll be supplementing our print editions with a certain number of special online fiction supplements, showcasing the work of emerging writers. We will shortly announce a similar project for poetry, including spoken-word and digital poetry.

Speakeasy: Is there anything else you would like to mention to our readers?

JS: Again, I’d encourage people to get involved. We are a not-for-profit organisation, depending on the support of our community. Overland subscriptions are incredibly cheap. If you like the project, consider becoming a subscriber.

For more details about anything mentioned above, visit the Overland website. Remember that entries for The Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers close midnight, 31 August 2012, so get busy

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Julian Thumm is a freelance editor and writer. He has degrees from The University of Queensland and The University of Adelaide. He has worked with the Australian Journal of Communication, The University of Queensland Press, and Corporate Communication International through The City University of New York. He is currently based in Brisbane.

Overland is on the hunt for new literary voices with submissions for their Emerging Writers Short Story prize closing at the end of August. With a first prize of $6000 and two runners-up prizes of $1000, it’s a fabulous opportunity for any emerging writer.

Details and competition guidelines are available now on the Overland website, but if you’re wondering if you qualify as “Emerging” here’s the definition being used by the contest:

The prize is for new and emerging writers. Entrants are eligible only if they have not, by the close of the competition, published a single-authored print book (in any genre or form) via a commercial publisher with effective national distribution – that is, distribution in all states. Writers who have published in multi-authored works, in self-published books or in exclusively electronic form are still eligible.

The competition accepts stories up to 3,000 words in length and will by judged a team that includes Overland’s fiction editor, Jennifer Mills; Victoria University Creative Writing lecturer Enza Gandolfo; and Overland editors Jeff Sparrow and Jacinda Woodhead.

Last week the Australian Council launched an online survey regarding the relevance and support they provide to the arts, culture, and creative industries.

They’re looking for responses from artists and art-workers across all art forms, including writing and publishing, to contribute feedback on what aspects of the agency can be improved. The questionaire should take about ten minutes to fill in, and it closes at 5pm AEDT, Friday 9 March 2012.

We urge all Speakeasy readers to head over to the  Australia Council Review Survey site have their say on the role the Council plays in the future.

Most writers need to supplement any income they derive from sales of their work with other activities – like teaching, mentoring, editing, public speaking, serving coffee and working in bookstores.

Being a writer asks more of us than just being an artist, or a craftsperson. We must also be our own project manager, Gantt charting our way through a variety of tasks. There’s the researching, writing, critiquing, editing, polishing and pitching our work, but also dealing with the business aspects of writing: the grant submissions, the workshops, the author events, the festivals, the tax returns, the sojourns to the stationery store.

Fortunately, there are resources to help writers deal with the administration of their creative practice.

Staff from the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts make themselves to writers available each year to outline the opportunities available through grants for publishing, new work and promotion. An information night and some follow-up individual consultation sessions are coming up in Brisbane on 17 and 18 March – to book please phone Queensland Writers Centre on 3842 9922 or email qldwriters@qwc.asn.au. Other states and territories, contact your writers centre or the Arts Council for info about your turn.

As well, Public Lending Right (PLR) and Educational Lending Right (ELR) are Australian Government cultural programs that make payments to eligible Australian creators and publishers in recognition that income is lost through the free multiple use of their books in public and educational lending libraries. New title claims for both PLR and ELR close on 31 March each year. Creators or publishers can make a claim through Lending Rights Online or by using the forms available from Making a Claim.

Have a great weekend of writing, folks.

Hachette Australia and Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) have announced their national program for writers in 2010. This round, the program is open for emerging Australian authors of both commercial adult fiction and non-fiction with manuscripts that range from 50,000 – 120,000 words.

Up to 10 emerging fiction and non-fiction writers will work with editors from Hachette Australia to develop high-quality manuscripts during a week-long intensive program held at Queensland Writers Centre in November. It’s awesome, folks – I was lucky enough to attend last year, and I can’t recommend this program highly enough.

Applications opened nationally on Monday 03 May 2010. See QWC’s website for full guidelines and an application form.

 

You’ve probably heard already: we’ve started on the production schedule for the next print edition of The Australian Writer’s Marketplace 2011/12.

But don’t worry, your copy of AWM 2009/10 is still good! The eleventh edition of AWM won’t be out until late next year. It just means that anyone who has a listing in AWMonline is receiving lots of gentle (for now) reminders to make sure all your details are up to date. Listees, just head over to www.AWMonline.com.au, log in with your Username (always an email address), and click on Password Reminder if you need it. Then go to My Details > Listings Management, click on "Edit" next to each listing, check your details and click SAVE (even if you don’t change any details).

Need help? Send in a contact form and we’ll get back to you asap.

As I help people to update their listings, I get to have lots of interesting conversations with agents, publishers, writing groups and organisations, competition organisers, magazines and journals, etc etc… The Australian writing and publishing industry has been holding its breath all year, awaiting the outcome of the dreaded review into restrictions on the parallel importation of books. A long exhale of relief resounded around our country last month, and the industry is bustling with plans for next year and beyond:

• The Aurealis Awards finalists for 2009 have been announced. Congratulations to all the fabulous Australian speculative fiction writers on the list, including Writing Racers Sean Williams, Peter M. Ball, and Angela Slatter. “Our Aussie authors are some of the best in the business,” says Ron Serdiuk, Awards Coordinator. “Many of the names on this list aren’t just prominent within the science fiction and fantasy genre. They include Scott Westerfeld and Andrew McGahan, authors who are critically acclaimed and enjoyed throughout Australia and the world."
• SPUNC member and independent publisher, Aduki Press, has a new owner. After four years building Aduki from a small newsletter publisher to one of Melbourne’s healthiest small publishers, Emily Clark has decided to move on to pastures new and sell the business. New owner, Chris Chinchilla, says he is "keen to take our books and ideas to many new fronts, especially how [Aduki] can fit into the rapidly evolving world of content publishing. However, have no fear, I am definitely intending to maintain our focus on community, environment, food, migration, politics, social justice and travel as well as our existing networks and communities."
• Books Alive, the Australian Government initiative administered nationwide by the Australia Council for the Arts, is calling for entries in a book cover design competition.The winning designer shall receive $2500, their winning cover design shall appear on approximately 200,000 copies of the free book, and the cover design shall also feature in a massive media and marketing campaign. Entries close at 5 pm, Friday, 5 February 2010. See last year’s winning cover here.
• Scarlet Stiletto Awards were announced while I was away. A big congrats to all the wonderful women crime writers involved!

There are so many resources to inspire, motivate and support the Australian writer – we are very fortunate. If you are feeling overwhelmed or under-appreciated, contact your writers centre and start getting (re)connected! And have a great week of writing, everyone.

 

I have made a commitment to balanced blogging, since I Could Have Cats took me to task for my recent rant on the PIR debate. But then something like this comes along: Kindle hits Australia this month.

Regular Speakeasy readers will remember that one of the key issues preventing the sale of Kindle outside the US was the complexity of Amazon’s negotiations with local telecommunications providers, whose 3G networks are required for distribution of Kindle books. According to cnet:

A spokesperson for VHA said it hadn’t signed a deal with the bookseller. Telstra has yet to respond to queries. Optus said it "had nothing to confirm". On the site, however, it is possible to check wireless coverage that the device will access, which seems to be quite extensive.

So everyone’s being very coy, but if you compare coverage maps (and thanks to the very clever Mark Bahnisch for this tip), it looks like a pretty good pattern match for Optus. Don’t take my word for it.

Now, let us all take a brief moment to grok out on the fact that the gadget uses real ink. Mmmm, lo-fi…

I alluded to a little rant about this issue, and here’s the thing. Well, there are many things, as non-Optus (I’m postulating) customers will soon realise, but here’s my thing: Prices are all in USD! For some, this would be no biggie – your actual price information is just a conversion rate away. But it represents a barrier to the seamless integration of e-books into users’ experiences, one of the strongest benefits of digital publishing. It also makes me feel totally coca-colonised.

Still, if you look at this comprehensive list of kindle services, Australia is better off than most countries, especially Islamic countries, and even poor old Canada, still out in the Kindle wilderness…

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From Publishers’ Lunch:

Simon & Schuster is taking their successful Simon Spotlight Entertainment line and merging it with Pocket Books’ hardcovers and trade paperbacks to create a new imprint, Gallery Books. Pocket itself will return to focusing entirely on mass market publishing, as partner for all of the S&S imprints and continuing with paperback originals for "rising authors" such as Kresley Cole and Thomas Greanias.

The new line is expected to launch in spring 2010. CEO Carolyn Reidy writes to employees that "as a company we need to insure that each of our imprints has sufficient strength and support, especially in this difficult environment." Reidy notes that Gallery will have immediate strength in areas where Pocket and SSE "have already forged well-earned reputations, such as women’s fiction, pop culture and entertainment," while it "will also operate with a mandate to acquire top authors and hot prospects in a broad range of publishing categories, both fiction and nonfiction."

Large publishers often lack agility in the marketplace, constraining their ability to respond to economic and cultural trends. It will be so interesting to see how Gallery Books performs.

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Budding scriptwriters pease note, next week is your last chance this year to throw your hat into the Neighbours pool:

The Australian Writers Guild has once again joined forces with FremantleMedia Australia to present the Neighbours Scriptwriter Training Initiative. The initiative provides the opportunity for two writers to join the Neighbours writing team for six weeks as trainee storyliners and learn what it takes to write for Australia’s favourite serial.

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FYI, Speakeasy will now be posting once weekly, as we move into the production schedule for the next AWM print edtion.

Write on, everybody!

Crime fiction writers and readers in Australia have a lot to thank the Scarlet Stiletto Awards for – they have launched many of our favourite authors. In 1991, convenor Carmel Shute set up Sisters in Crime, the organisation respnsible for finding and promoting so much new talent in Australian women’s crime fiction. I caught up with Carmel to chat about the history of this vibrant group, the latest Scarlet Stiletto Awards, and the new anthology of award winners, The First Cut.

MV: This is the 16th Scarlet Stiletto Awards – can you tell us how they started?

Back in 1994, Sisters in Crime wanted to unearth new female criminal writing talent and decided a short story competition was the best way to do that. Like many of our best ideas, it took shape over a boozy dinner. We were keen to keep the award within the tradition of the Golden and Silver Daggers presented by the Crime Writers’ Association in the UK so decided to call it the Scarlet Stiletto Award – a play on stiletto the weapon and stiletto the shoe with a suitably tartish touch! As well as receiving $750 in cash from HarperCollins, the overall winner is also presented with a trophy – a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a perspex mount.

MV: What big names in crime writing have been launched after winning a SS Award? 
 
A number of winners of the various categories in the Scarlet Stiletto Awards have gone on to have novels published – Tara Moss, Cate Kennedy, Angela Savage, Josephine Pennicott, Alex Palmer, Liz Filleul, Margaret Bevege, Patricia Bernard, Bronwen Blake, Jo McGahey and Cheryl Jorgensen – though in the case of Cate Kennedy, who won the first two Scarlet Stiletto Awards, it wasn’t in the crime field.

 Lisa Burnett with Scarlet Stiletto winner, Tara Moss

MV: What’s new about SS Awards this year?
 
This year that the prize-money has been boosted to a total of $4200 by two new sponsored awards: The Olvar Wood Late Starters Award for writers 50 or over, consisting of a $650 Weekend Package at Olvar Wood Writers’ Retreat in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast and ScriptWorks Great Film Idea Award ($200). Download an entry form from the Sisters in Crime website http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/
 
MV: Can people read Scarlet Stiletto winners’ stories anywhere?
 
The first 13 years’ winning stories can be found in Scarlet Stiletto: The First Cut (Mira, 2007), now available for $30 (postage paid) from Sisters in Crime, GPO Box 5319, Melbourne 3001.
 
MV: What do you think makes for a winning submission in the short story competition?
 
Good writing! The stories that most often fail to meet the mark are ones where men (mostly husbands) get killed off for no particularly compelling reason. Sisters, if you desire to get rid of your husband, you don’t have to plunge your sewing scissors into his jugular. There is always the divorce court.
 
MV: You have been putting energy and effort into SinCOz and SS for years. When and how did you become involved in SinCOz and SS? What motivates you?

Women’s crime fiction exploded in the eighties and early nineties. Every time my female friends and I got together. It seemed that our conversation invariably turned to the latest ripper read. Many of the books originated in the United States where Sara Paretsky had formed Sisters in Crime at the 1986 Bouchercon crime convention to fight for a better deal for women crime writers.

In 1991, I produced a 45-minute documentary entitled “Sisters in Crime” for Radio National’s Coming Out Show. Based on interviews with US writers Paretsky, Sue Grafton and others, it explored the phenomenon of feminist crime writing and offered a free bibliography. The response was enormous (for Radio National anyway) and a group of us in met in my lounge room in St Kilda to plot. Right away, we decided our organisation would involve readers, not just writers, and offer a forum for discussion and debate. Sisters in Crime Australia launched itself (with a debate!) at the Feminist Book Fortnight in Melbourne in September 1991.  I’ve never had such fun – and the debates are our regular events in Melbourne continue to expand my knowledge (and enjoyment) of crime fiction. I just love crime fiction and the terrific organisation we’ve created.

MV: What are you most interested in at the moment in Australian women’s crime writing – trends/opportunities /industry developments? 

Sisters in Crime’s overriding mission to get women crime writers published  and debated. With the Productivity Commission report hanging over the Australian publishing industry like an executioner’s axe, we’re naturally very nervous at the moment. It’s taken a lot of effort to persuade Australian publishers to ‘risk’ taking on Australian women crime writers. We’d hate to see them just opt for the latest hot crime book from overseas.
 
MV: SinCOz is an amazing, vibrant resource for crime writers. Can you tell us how regional SinCOz members (or aspiring members) can connect with their local group, or with other activities? E.g. Are there plans to start recording or podcasting SinCOz Melbourne activities?

Sisters in Crime has chapters in Melbourne (where most members live and most events happen), Perth, Brisbane and Sydney where the organisation is called Partners in Crime. We’d welcome some new members to help revitalise the Brisbane chapter. We’re planning a brand new interactive website later this year. We already record events (to use as a basis for article in Stiletto magazine) but will think about podcasting. The latest Stiletto – all 88 pages of it – is just out. To join, download a form from the existing Sisters in Crime website http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/

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Join us at AWMonline tonight for the regular Writing Race, 7:45pm for an 8pm start. Enjoy an hour of dedicated writing in the company of your AWMonline Writing Race buddies.

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