Blog posts

oxygen6

Congratulations to Elwood Writer Margaret McCaffrey, whose piece ‘Waiting for Beckett’ is published in the latest issue of oxygen.

Poetry can be whatever we need it to be. It can be a place of peace. It can be a place for breathing in the oxygen of new ways of looking, new ways of feeling, new ways of understanding.

from oxygen website

It’s a wonderful piece, Margaret – great to see it in print.

To find our more about Margaret’s work, visit her website, here.

Have a safe and peaceful weekend, everyone.

Happy reading.

EW

Elwood Writers shares the celebration: 500 Cover to Cover episodes

This Friday marks the 500th edition of Vision Australia Radio’s weekly literary program Cover to Cover. Produced and hosted by Tim McQueen, the program delivers book readings and short stories to an audience not just in Australia but across the globe.

Elwood Writers has a long history of contributing to Cover to Cover, starting with our very first dedicated broadcast – appropriately titled ‘Starting Over’ – back in January 2015. That was episode 38 of Cover to Cover. Our latest program was a tribute to our much loved and missed co-founder Jennifer Bryce (episode 484), which aired on 4 August this year.

Many congratulations to Tim and the entire team at Cover to Cover. Happy 500th episode! We’ll be listening.

EW

under the same moon

Alive with birds and frogs, suffused with the threat of bushfire and flood, these haiku sing with the uniqueness of Australian life. The skill on show is breathtaking, as distinctive individual voices lay bare moments of joy, loss, awareness and connection to inner and outer landscapes. 

Esther Ottaway, Winner, Tim Thorne Poetry Prize, Arts Tasmania Literary Awards, 2022
under the same moon | Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology

Congratulations to Helen McDonald of Elwood Writers on having three haiku included in under the same moon: Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology (eds. Lyn Reeves, Vanessa Proctor, Rob Scott).

Each poet in the book is “helping to form and shape a unique Australian voice, whether that is through haiku with distinctly Australian kigo or through senryu which explores the human element of life in this country from its cities, suburbs and rural towns to the natural environment”.

Published by Forty South in Tasmania, this beautiful book is available directly from the online shop at the publisher’s website. Simply click here for more information.

Well done, Helen. We can’t wait to read this!

Happy reading to everyone.

EW

Margaret muses on writing friendship

We six friends shared our Melbourne convent days together, later taking a deep dive into the buzz of early seventies’ London. 

‘Writing Friendship’

Earlier this year, The Human Writers published a story by Elwood Writer Margaret McCaffrey about her friend Jane – or, more particularly, about her friendship with Jane. A short time later, The Human Writers asked Margaret to record an audio of ‘For Jane’ to feature on their website.

Margaret then wrote a blog post about about how ‘For Jane’ came into being. The post, ‘Writing Friendship’, takes her relationship with Jane as a focus, reflects generally on the nature and peculiarities of friendship, and is rich in wonderful observations and references about writing and friendship. Here’s a quote from sculptor Louise Bourgeois that strikes a particular chord with us:

We either die of the past or we become an artist.

Louise Bourgeois

Maybe by sitting in our spaces, clicking away at our keyboards, drinking too much coffee and occasionally fretting about how the current book or story or essay or blog post or what-have-you is faring, we can take comfort in knowing that at the very least we’re staying alive. And perhaps we might be making a friend or two along the way. And maybe that’s really all that matters.

You can read ‘Writing Friendship’ below – be sure to check out Margaret’s story ‘For Jane’ while you’re there:

 Writing Friendship

Happy reading, listening, and writing!

EW

American Writers Review 2023

Congratulations to Barry, with two stories in the latest issue of American Writers Review from San Fedele Press. Elwood Writers has a formidable history of contributing work to AWR, and we’re thrilled that the group continues to be represented in this year’s issue.

Hot off the press
barryleethompson.com

We had the pleasure of sighting Barry’s contributor copy at the last Elwood Writers workshop, and I think we all agreed that San Fedele Press have outdone themselves – it really is a beautiful book, containing wonderfully compelling stories and artwork. Info about how to get your hands on a copy can be found in Barry’s blog post, linked just over to the left.

Happy reading!

EW

Podcast: Cover to Cover Ep. 484 | Tribute to Jennifer Bryce

The Elwood Writers tribute to colleague and friend Jennifer Bryce was broadcast on Vision Australia Radio’s Cover to Cover last Friday, 4 August 2023 (repeated Sunday 6 August). If you missed the program, or if you’d like to listen again, it’s now available as a podcast at the link below:

The recording can also be accessed via the MP3 audio-file below:

We hope you enjoy this celebration of Jenny’s life and work.

Best wishes,

EW

A Life Celebrated On Radio

Do tune in to Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio (VAR) this Friday evening at 8:00pm (AEST) to hear our tribute to Jennifer Bryce, our friend and colleague who co-founded Elwood Writers in 2007. Jenny died in April, and we were invited by Tim McQueen, presenter and producer of Cover to Cover, to put together a one-hour program honouring her life and work.

Our program focusses on Jenny’s literary and musical achievements, and features recordings of Jenny reading her stories ‘Memories of Adelaide’ and ‘So This Is Winter’. Barry reads Jenny’s short-story ‘Benjamin’, and Helen reads Jenny’s essay about the music she commissioned for the trio Ensemble Françaix. There are tributes and musical interludes, and Margaret does the honours in holding the program together with her wonderfully informative intros and links.

We reached the edge of the old Luna Park – mainly ruins – a few broken fences where it had once been secured because the structure was unsafe. Sure enough, the waters were receding quite dramatically. We stood and watched as the man-in-the-moon mouth sucked up the waters and regurgitated them out to sea, wheezing and gurgling to the beat of some unknown subterranean rhythm. Towers still tottered over the entrance, barely supporting a few fragile wooden slats – all that remained of the scenic railway. A wind sprang up, further agitating the swirling water, and for just a moment I could hear a clattering like the old train, and squeals as the carriages swooped through a tunnel.

from ‘So This Is Winter’ by Jennifer Bryce

You can listen to the program online from anywhere in the world – just hit the ‘listen live’ button on the VAR homepage. Or if you’d prefer going old-school, the radio frequency and tuning details are also on the website. You’ll find everything you need at the link below:

https://radio.visionaustralia.org

The program will be repeated on Sunday afternoon at 1:00pm, and we’ll share the podcast on this site as soon as it’s available.

Why not lose yourself for an hour in stories and music – we’d love you to join us in celebrating Jenny. Whenever and however you choose to listen, you’ll enjoy the warmest of welcomes …

Huge thanks go as always to Tim McQueen and the team at Vision Australia Radio for promoting and supporting the work of writers everywhere.

EW

Publishable | Queensland Writers Centre at State Library of Queensland

We visited the studios of Vision Australia Radio in Kooyong yesterday to record the material for Jenny’s tribute on Cover to Cover – all that remains now is for presenter and producer Tim McQueen and the production team to put the program together. More on that, including broadcast details, later.

While we were there, Tim shared the exciting news that his daughter Andrea McQueen has achieved the longlist in this year’s Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) Publishable program. Seems Tim is encouraging new literature on multiple fronts! You can see the full longlist here, and read more about Publishable and other QWC programs here.

Congratulations to Andrea, and the very best of luck with the next stage of Publishable.

EW