The shortlist of this year’s American Writers Review literary contest is now up at the publisher’s website:
https://www.americanwritersreview.com
The overall winner will be announced soon, so watch this space.
Congratulations to the finalists!
EW
On Saturday 2 December, Margaret McCaffrey hosted a small literary gathering at her home – she’d invited fellow Elwood Writers Helen McDonald and Barry Lee Thompson to join her, and to read short pieces of their work. Margaret wanted to dedicate the afternoon’s event to Elwood Writers co-founder Jennifer Bryce, who died earlier this year.
Mindful of the health and safety of her guests, Margaret kept the numbers low (and the windows open) – the event was lively and entertaining, and copies of the new edition of 20 Artists, featuring all three members of Elwood Writers, were available, hot off the press, having only been released the day before.
The readings included poetry and haiku from Helen, short fiction from Barry, and memoir from Margaret herself. Tony Thomas was invited to read from Jennifer’s body of work, and he presented a short piece from her trove of oboe-themed stories, as well as an extract from Lily Campbell’s Secret, Jenny’s debut novel. The only thing missing was Jenny, but it felt as if she were there, watching, smiling; at times, if you listened carefully, you’d swear you could hear the sounds of her beloved oboe …
At this week’s Elwood Writers meeting, the final of 2023, it was agreed that the event had been a success, and more importantly had rounded off the year in a hugely positive way. Thank you to Margaret for asking us along, and for inviting us to read from our individual work. It was clear that a lot of thought and preparation went in to the very elegant afternoon – it shone through and was much appreciated.
It’s given us a taste for public readings again, and we discussed how we might take that forward. The last Elwood Writers public soiree was held at St Kilda Library on 25 August 2018, over five years ago. Where does the time go! Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about another event in the not-too-distant future. Anyway, we’re sure to return to this topic when we reconvene in February for our first meeting of 2024.
The holidays might have begun for Elwood Writers, but this isn’t our last blog post of the year. There are one or two more to follow before 2023 is out.
For now, have a peaceful weekend.
EW
Barry took part in two panel discussions at last year’s Australian Short Story Festival from Adelaide. COVID restrictions meant that participants and attendees from interstate and overseas could not be there in person, and sessions had a Zoom component.
Masculinity with Wayne Marshall, Barry Lee Thompson and Dominic Carew was on Saturday 6 November 2021.
Writing The Family with Barry Lee Thompson and Katherine Tamiko Arguile was on Sunday 7 November 2021.
Video recordings of both sessions are below:
For the full selection of ASSF 2021 videos, visit the YouTube link here. The ASSF website says these videos will be available till July, so they may be taken down by the end of this week.
Happy watching!
EW
Helen has been busy recently, happily reconnecting with a cultural and literary community that disappeared two years ago, “leaving many poets and writers of a much-loved spoken word event quite bereft”. Chamber Poets attracts poets from Melbourne and regional Victoria, and will be held every second Saturday of the month from 1pm–4.30pm in the Woodend RSL (Returned & Services League) in the Macedon ranges. For more information about Chamber Poets, visit the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChamberPoets
The July event this Saturday 9th will feature three poets: Angela Costi, Grant Caldwell and Claire Gaskin, who are launching An Embroidery of Old Maps and New; blue balloon (Collective Effort Press); and Eurydice Speaks and Ismene’s Survivable Resistance respectively.
All are welcome to come along and listen to some of Australia’s leading poets and to share their own poems, perhaps written in isolation, that just now might be ready to go out into the world.
Here Helen shares with us her delight at being at the return of the Chamber Poets held in June:
“It’s been a long road for all writers since you-know-what sent us all scurrying indoors, doomed to an artistic life played out on Zoom with its intermittent freezes, loss of audio and anxiety-making meetings, seminars and classes. Needs must.
So many books/collections were written and launched into this weird cybersphere. But happily, writers are emerging from their imposed cocoons, and book launches are at last taking place with live, wildly enthusiastic audiences. So it was that after a hiatus of two years, the Victorian regional Chamber Poets returned triumphantly on June 11th to Woodend, with the largest audience in the group’s history. There were three book launches, plus an open mic section and entertainment by the funky and humorous Black Forest Smoke band, and much-lauded local choir The Woodend Warblers.
Chamber Poets founder Myron Lysenko’s and Alice Wanderer’s haiku poetry collections – a ghost gum leans over and Lips Licked Clean – were launched along with Kevin Brophy’s latest poetry collection, In This Part of the World.
Inspired by the beautiful readings from each poet, some 20 people hungry for spoken word took to the open mic with their diverse and eclectic styles of poetry.”
Our friends at San Fedele Press in the USA are having a literary reading this weekend: Sunday 12 June at 2pm EST (US), on Zoom. All the Elwood Writers were fortunate to be able to attend the last SFP event, an ice-cream social where Helen and Barry were among contributors reading their work from the 2021 edition of American Writers Review.
We’d like to say we’ll be attending this weekend’s event, but with the time difference between the eastern seaboard of the US and Australia, we’d have to be firing up our computers at 4am on Monday. But you never know. Anyway, fingers crossed that the event’s being recorded again, so we can keep an eager eye out for the video.
Details, including a handy Zoom link, below:
| On Zoom, Sunday, June 12 at 2 p.m. EST. Highlighting American Writers Review contributors: Gale Martin, “The Year of Cortisol” Dr. Joel Savishinski, “Toilet Paper Panic” Ana M. Fores Tamayo, in English and Spanish, “New Day Dawn/El amanecer” Following the readings, there will be a Q & A. To join, click on the link below: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89951562488?pwd=aE1UaXhQUXpMMEsvbDV6QTlFVU9CZz09 Meeting ID: 899 5156 2488 Passcode: 257657 More information at https://www.americanwritersreview.com/ or email info@sanfedelepress.com |
Most of us here in Australia were sipping coffee rather than eating ice cream when we logged into the Ice Cream Social at 7.30 am Eastern Australian Daylight Time on Sunday 31st October – it was 4.30 pm Saturday in New Jersey. Patricia A. Florio, the founding publisher of American Writers Review, was a most welcoming convenor.
Continue reading “San Fedele Press: The Second Ice Cream Social | reviewed by Jennifer Bryce”In case you missed the virtual Ice Cream Social that San Fedele Press threw at the weekend, here’s the video:
It’s well worth watching. If you enjoy it, please consider taking a moment to ‘like’ and comment.
Happy viewing!
Elwood Writers 