A question of websites: Jennifer answers

What was your original intention when setting up your website?

Although I started my website way back in 2014, I must confess that I still haven’t made a clear distinction between my website and my blog. That is still on a hypothetical ‘to do’ list! In 2014, I hardly knew what a blog was, but like Barry I wanted some kind of social media presence. I had resolved to become ‘a writer’ after many years of working as a musician and in educational research – and this was one way of establishing a writerly presence.

I looked at a few blogs and enrolled for a workshop at Writers Victoria on setting up your blog. I was flabbergasted when the person taking the workshop spent her time talking about recipes and childcare! I think it hadn’t occurred to me that people would want to share these very important aspects of their lives in this way – I’d envisaged blogs as being ‘literary’.

Barry acquainted me with WordPress and my nephew helped me with the initial setting up of a blog, designed with categories covering the various areas I thought I might write about. The six categories haven’t changed over the years (although I haven’t had any travel to write up since 2018). They are: My Reading, Memoir, Comments on concerts, plays, films, Travel, Short stories and Writing.

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Queensland Literary Awards | State Library of Queensland

We enjoyed every minute too, Barry. A night to remember. Congratulations once again.

Barry Lee Thompson

It’s a huge thrill and honour to have been a finalist in this year’s Queensland Literary Awards. Broken Rules and Other Stories was one of five books shortlisted for the University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection. Thanks so much to the judges and everyone involved in the awards.

I enjoyed every minute of the live stream of Thursday evening’s awards ceremony from State Library of Queensland. The recording is available on the State Library website, or you can catch it over on YouTube. It’s well worth a watch. (The Steele Rudd Award begins 43 minutes in.)

Many congratulations to the other finalists and winners. Shortlisted and winning titles are available in-person or online from SLQ’s Library Shop.

Happy reading and writing!

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EW Member News

Helen’s haibun ‘January’ is published in Issue 9 of Drifting Sands, May 2021. Drifting Sands is a journal of haibun and tanka prose. For more information about the journal, go here. You can read Helen’s beautiful haibun here.

Jennifer’s story ‘The Angel of Gennevilliers’ was recognised in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize 2020/21, making it on to their very competitive long-list. This annual international contest has become an established event on the literary calendar. There were 1631 entries in the 2020/21 competition.

Very well done to both!

New-Year Highs

While last year was taken up with the production and launch of our anthology Every Second Tuesday, each of us was also busy working on our individual projects. We all rounded off the year on personal highs.

Jennifer’s short story ‘The First Day’ was awarded a Highly Commended in the Port Stephens Literature Awards 2020.

Margaret’s story ‘Pastry Fever’ appeared in the Fall 2020 edition of Door Is A Jar literary magazine (Issue 16). Door Is A Jar is a US publication of poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, drama and artwork.

Helen was excited to have her poem ‘In deep blue’ selected for Democratic Poetic | Poetry Matters Issue 40 December 2020, a gathering of the journal’s finest poems from 2006 to 2019.

The successful launch of Barry’s first book Broken Rules and Other Stories in September was followed by the publication of Every Second Tuesday, and Barry is already planning and writing his next book.

The creative spirit surges. Watch this space throughout 2021 for more Elwood Writers news.

Winter on the Wireless

There’s another chance to hear last night’s special edition of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio tomorrow at 1:30PM (AEST). You can listen live from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Just follow the links on the VAR website, here.

This program was first broadcast in winter 2019, and was chosen for rebroadcasting. It features fiction, memoir, and poetry written by, and in some cases read on air by, Elwood Writers.

https://radio.visionaustralia.org/

The Vision Australia Radio Network incorporates ten community radio stations across Victoria, southern New South Wales, Adelaide and Perth. There are also five digital radio services available in the three metropolitan areas as VAR, VA Radio and IRIS.

‘Every Second Tuesday’ is coming

We may have been in lockdown for a few months but Elwood Writers has been busily putting the finishing touches to a project we’ve been working on over the past two years. We’re currently checking printed proof copies of Every Second Tuesday, an anthology of our writing drawn from over the last ten years.

Now we’re excited to share news of the anthology’s forthcoming publication in both paperback and ebook forms. We’ll keep you posted …

2019: Another Year Over

It’s been another lively year for Elwood Writers, both individually and collectively. There are too many highlights to pick and choose for an end-of-year wrap-up. But this might be a good opportunity to say special congratulations again to Jennifer, whose first novel Lily Campbell’s Secret was published in May, and launched at Readings in Carlton by Toni Jordan in June. And a happy hooray for Helen, whose poems were published far and wide this year, including two in the US. Two excerpts from Margaret’s full-length draft manuscript were published in American Writers Review (San Fedele Press). Well done, Margaret. And Barry had a short story included in the winter issue of Roomers magazine, and has also contributed to the brand new summer issue.

For a more comprehensive picture of all we’ve been up to, we’d invite you to take a look back at our posts over the year. You can access all our previous posts in the archives section on the right-hand side of this page.

Thanks very much for your company here on the website. We look forward to seeing you again in 2020. There are a couple of exciting projects lined up, and we’re itching to share more on these in the coming weeks. For now, happy reading and writing, and all the very best wishes of the season from Elwood Writers.

Book launch: American Writers Review 2019

Speaking of book launches …

The day after the launch of Lily Campbell’s Secret, way across the globe in Pennsylvania, San Fedele Press will celebrate the release of American Writers Review 2019 with an ice-cream social at Wilkes University.

If only Elwood Writers could go along to this. Not just because we adore a good old ice-cream social, but because three of our writers have work included in this terrific anthology. More about that later. Congratulations to Margaret, Helen, and Barry, and to all of the other contributors in this latest edition of AWR.

Friday 14 June, Wilkes University, Henry Student Center Ballroom (2nd floor), 7:30pm for readings, mingling, and ice-cream.

What’s occurring?

2018 was an industrious and fruitful year for Elwood Writers. Among other events, we hosted and thoroughly enjoyed presenting our work at our first public soiree, in August at St Kilda Library, and in November provided the material for the Armistice Day Centenary edition of Cover To Cover on Vision Australia Radio.

We’ve more exciting group projects planned for 2019, kicking off with an excursion to Adelaide for Writers’ Week in March. We’re thrilled to have been invited to collaborate with Tim McQueen and the team at Cover To Cover for another themed program on Vision Australia Radio, and will post more about that closer to the time. Also in the pipeline is another soiree, possibly towards the end of the year.

And of course our individual projects continue, with material regularly workshopped within our fortnightly group meetings.

With so much going on and coming up, from time to time it can be useful to consolidate and reflect. In that spirit, we’ve created a dedicated page on the website for recordings, mostly podcasts, of our group radio programs. All our programs for Cover To Cover beginning with Starting Over in January 2015 can now be accessed easily in one place, here, or by clicking on the link below:

Vision Australia Radio

We look forward to updating this podcasts page with the recording of 2019’s radio program later this year.

There’s much to look forward to, and always so much to write about. Here’s to a peaceful year; happy reading, listening, and writing.

Best wishes from Elwood Writers.

Winter 2018 Soiree | Margaret McCaffrey

Margaret’s notes on the Elwood Writers soiree held in August at St Kilda Library:

The Elwood Writers 2018 soiree was our third in a series of evening readings. The group’s first two events were held in a private home where we tested the performance waters with family and friends. This year we branched out a little, presenting at a local public venue and inviting a slightly wider audience.

The concept of a soiree is loosely based on the old-fashioned, European notion of a ‘salon’. People are invited to gather and enjoy themselves while being entertained with stories and musical interludes.

As my own work is mainly memoir and of a personal nature, I can find public readings to be challenging. But I have to be willing to open my soul, while protecting myself with the suited armour of a story and carefully crafted narrative.

Despite the challenges, however, in the long run I value the opportunity to leave my comfort zone (the support of my group and the patient listening of my partner), to spring into the exhilarating and expectant atmosphere of a live audience, whether this be with friends or strangers.

The audience’s response to us can be subtle. It might come in the form of a sigh of satisfaction or as a wave of relief (or even agitation) that ripples through the crowd. One might detect a murmur at the end of a story or poem, or a facial expression of pleasure or questioning. But despite any nervous apprehension on my part, I would not be willing to miss the experience for anything.

The graduation from working solo to public performance is all in the path of the writer, I believe, where she must firm her step and ready herself to stride forth into the realm of the more global sphere.

All images HarrietClaire Photography

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we live and write, and we pay our respects to all elders past and present.