2025 American Writers Review Contest Results Announced

We’re pleased to share that the results of the American Writers Review 2025 Contest have now been published on the AWR website. It was a privilege for our group to serve as judges for this international literary event, and we extend our warm congratulations to the winners, finalists, and all who submitted work.

You can read the official announcement here:

https://www.americanwritersreview.com

We’ll be back soon with some reflections on the judging process, the entries, and what made the winning pieces stand out.

Elwood Writers is judging the AWR Contest 2025 | Theme: Buyers’ Remorse

Elwood Writers has been invited to judge this year’s American Writers Review (San Fedele Press) literary contest – we’re delighted to be on board. The theme is:

Buyers’ Remorse
It seemed like such a good idea…. But now?
American Writers Review

Submissions are now open and close on August 1, 2025. Please click here to read the guidelines carefully before submitting. There’s a cash prize involved for the overall winner.

The anthology is simultaneously accepting regular submissions – the window for this closes a month later, on September 1, 2025. Again, please familiarise yourself with the guidelines before submitting your work. See here for details.

Editor Donna Ferrara is seeking contributions in a wide range of categories, including visual art and photography – and, for the first time, drama/monologues.

For our new issue, we are seeking written work and imagery that springs from the moment when the best-laid schemes have turned to dust. The crash can be obvious, subtle, even not yet realized. The piece’s point of view could be disappointed or triumphant or oblivious. The moment of remorse could be immediate, in the future, or long in the past.
American Writers Review

We’ve established a very productive relationship with San Fedele Press over the years, with our fiction, memoir and poetry appearing in a variety of their publications. International literary connections such as this are so important, and well worth nurturing, especially in these troubled times.

If you decide to enter the contest, and we hope you do, we look forward to receiving your work.

Best of luck!

On writing retreats, and more

Barry Lee Thompson is no stranger to the writing retreat. He wrote an essay for US-based journal Working Writer about his experiences of retreats in the Blue Mountains of NSW and on the Indonesian island of Bali. Barry’s blog post below includes a link to the July/August edition of the journal, as well as details of how to subscribe to Working Writer. If you’ve ever wondered what happens on a writing retreat, or what doesn’t happen, then please dive right in and find out.

Strange June

After reading all about it, Elwood Writers is more than ever in the mood for our very own group retreat. We’ve discussed it once or twice during our fortnightly meetings, with great enthusiasm, but so far haven’t been able to finalise a plan. We will definitely make it happen, one of these days. Maybe next year, even. It’s high on our agenda. In the meantime, there’s always Barry’s article to transport us without having to leave the considerable comfort of our very warm and cosy armchairs …

Happy reading,

‘Waiting for Beckett’ finds a home

The Synchronicity of Submissions

Margaret McCaffrey of Elwood Writers recently posted a short piece on her website about the turn of events that led to her essay ‘Waiting for Beckett’ being published in oxygen6, the October 2023 edition of oxygen magazine (ISSN 2653-0376). Margaret’s post, linked above, makes for an interesting read about the small coincidences and chance remarks which can direct or lead us to fortunate places – it includes a link to the journal’s website, with an email address for subscription enquiries.

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.
http://www.greentreepublishing.com.au

oxygen is produced by Green Tree Publishing, a small publishing house that treads an independent path and is well worth your attention. You’ll find info about their other publications and initiatives, as well as subscription and purchase details, at their website – click here.

Small independent presses such as Green Tree Publishing bring tremendous diversity to the literary landscape and wider world – we all benefit hugely by celebrating and supporting them when and where we can, even if that means simply visiting their websites and taking an interest in what they’re up to.

Have a peaceful weekend. Happy reading.

Sunday’s listening, sorted

Coming up in February: Elwood Writers on Cover to Cover

A quick reminder that in about 15 minutes you’ll have another chance to catch Friday’s episode of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio, featuring work from Elwood Writers, including our stories published in the latest issue of 20 Artists magazine. That’s 1:00pm local time, but you can listen live wherever you are in the world (click here), unless you’re asleep or busy or not in the mood. There’s more info in the post linked above. Hope you can join us. You’ve just got time to make your favourite beverage.

And if you can’t join us today, don’t worry, there’s always the podcast, which we’ll share on this site as soon as it’s available.

Happy listening.

Now online: 20 Artists literary edition

In December, 20 Artists launched Handwritten Issue One, the inaugural literary edition of their magazine: 20 literary pieces by 20 Port Phillip artists includes work by all three Elwood Writers. This is 20 Artists’ fourth print publication – previous magazines have featured visual arts and photography.

The pieces from this latest issue are now available at the 20 Artists website. To read Helen’s poem ‘Behind the Mask’, click here. For Margaret’s ‘A Pocket Handkerchief at the Edge of the World’, click here. And for Barry’s short story ‘Portrait’, click here. You’ll find all 20 authors and their stories by clicking here.

20 Artists is supported by the City of Port Phillip Cultural Development Fund.

And a quick reminder: the Elwood Writers stories from the magazine will feature in this Friday’s episode of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio, produced and presented by Tim McQueen. In print, online, and on the radio – how good is that! Click here for more info on the radio broadcast.

Happy reading.

Coming up in February: Elwood Writers on Cover to Cover

It’s been a radio-themed start to 2024 for the group, and that looks set to continue into next month as a selection of our work features in the 2 February edition of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio.

The lineup includes our pieces from the latest edition of 20 Artists magazine, published in December: Barry’s ‘Portrait’, ‘A Pocket Handkerchief at the Edge of the World’ by Margaret, and Helen’s poem ‘Behind the Mask’.

Also included in the program is a re-broadcast of Barry’s short story ‘Gray’ from Broken Rules and Other Stories (Transit Lounge), with a new introduction. And we’ll be sharing the hour with Julie Koh, whose story ‘On the Road’ is taken from New Australian Fiction 2023 (Kill Your Darlings).

As always, you can listen to Cover to Cover on the radio if you’re in Australia, or online from anywhere in the world. And if you happen to miss the show, we’ll be sharing the podcast the following week.

Tune in on Friday 2 February (repeated Sunday 4 February) – listening details can be found on the Vision Australia Radio website – just click here.

Thanks as ever to Tim McQueen and the team at Vision Australia Radio for continuing to support and encourage Australian writing in all its many forms.

More information on our stories in 20 Artists magazine can be found by clicking here.

Happy reading and listening and writing.

Helen’s year keeps on giving

Just when we thought we could rest on our literary laurels as the quietness of Christmas and the holiday season descends, Helen called the Elwood Writers office and was delighted to share some exciting news: her poem ‘Glimpse’ is included in the just-published WA Poets Inc online quarterly journal Creatrix #63. Congratulations, Helen! You can read Helen’s poem by clicking here.

But wait, there’s more: her one-line senryu (loosely defined as similar in structure to a haiku but without the seasonal reference, and depicting human foibles) is published in failed ~~haiku~~ – a journal of English Senryu | Volume 8, Issue 96 (USA). We’ve downloaded the issue so you don’t have to, and you can read it by clicking the link here. This collection of short-form poems is pithy, poignant, and funny, and definitely packs a punch. All the poems are well worth your time, and you’ll find Helen’s on page 150. Each month poets from all over the world submit to this US-based journal. It’s interesting to read what the publication and its people are all about, so if you’d like to know more, just head on over to their ‘About’ page by clicking the link here.

Well done, Helen – your year clearly isn’t over until it’s over! What a wonderful way to see out 2023 and welcome 2024 …

Happy reading to all, as always,

Elwood Writers feature in 20 Artists Handwritten Issue

Within these pages, you’ll find a rich tapestry of short stories, satire, touching poetry, local snapshots, heartfelt memories, and even contemplative spiritual prose. These stories reveal the profound roots of creativity, which run deep within our community.
20 Artists | Handwritten Issue One

We were delighted to be approached earlier this year by 20 Artists in Melbourne, Victoria, to contribute to their first ever literary edition of the magazine. This issue is their fourth publication – previous magazines have featured visual arts and photography. 20 Artists is supported by the City of Port Phillip Cultural Development Fund.

This is a wonderful way to cap off the year for Elwood Writers, and we’re thrilled to be included in this beautiful publication.

More information on the 20 Artists project, including biographies of the contributors, will be available soon at the 20 Artists website, here.

Happy reading!

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.