Connecting you with Australian culture online
Events | Featured projects | Call for entries | Announcements
29 June 2009 – 3 July 2009
The Young Writers' bootcamp leads 13 to 17 year-old participants through a weeklong journey of writing discovery. Focusing on the short story, each participant will have the opportunity to write, edit and polish a new work as well as develop any works in progress during the week. They will also learn secrets to publication success and outline opportunities and avenues for young writers. Queensland Writers' Centre.
27 June - 10 July 2009
A two-week residential studio programme of Playwriting Australia, the National Script Workshop provides writers with the resources to progress to the next stage of creative development, without the expectation of an immediate performance outcome or the need to produce a performance-ready draft. Scripts may be completed first drafts requiring further dramaturgy, or incomplete drafts needing to undergo further development.
15 July 2009
Tips for Getting Published workshop gives a brief introduction to the publishing industry and how to go about getting your book published. This 90-minute session is a must for any aspiring writer. Immanuel Lutheran College.
7–9 August 2009
The focus of the Byron Bay Writers Festival program is firmly on Australian writing, with recognition of our physical place in the world through the inclusion of Indonesian and Asian authors. Fundamentally, the festival provides a forum for intelligent discussion and guests are invited to address the issues that matter to them as writers and which necessarily concern us all. It is a celebration of the vitality of thought and creativity with a healthy emphasis on fun.
Image courtesy of Aireys Festival of Words.
14–16 August 2009
Now in its third year, the Aireys Festival of Words attracts internationally acclaimed writers and showcases the talents of local authors, illustrators, musicians and artists, who all take part in a weekend-long celebration of words, sounds and images. Various locations.
21–30 August 2009
The Melbourne Writers Festival brings together 250 writers from overseas, nationally and locally, for a ten day feast of ideas, debate, readings, discussions and interviews. In its 24th year, the festival presents 250 unique sessions at venues in Federation Square and nearby, and provides an opportunity to relax and mingle with writers and other audience members in the Atrium—the festival hub. Various locations.
2 February 2009 - 31 August 2009
The Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge aims to promote a love of reading. At the beginning of the school year, the Premier renews his invitation to Victorian students in Prep to Year 9 to take up the challenge of reading a specified number of books by 31 August 2009.
8–10 October 2009
The Society of Editors (SA) announces that the 4th IPEd National Editors Conference will be held in Adelaide. The conference will take place at the Adelaide Festival Centre on the banks of the River Torrens, with associated events taking place in and around the city centre.
May 2009
Songwriter and lead singer of the Triffids, David McComb died in 1999 leaving behind a legacy of evocative music. Always more than a pop musician, McComb was a perceptive poet who explored and confronted addiction, pop culture, the colloquial and the metaphysical. Collected and published for the first time, Beautiful Waste is the poetry McComb wrote during his 20s and 30s when the Triffids' musical output was at its height. Introduced by renowned poet John Kinsella, the poems in this book will appeal to fans of popular music and contemporary poetry alike.
May 2009
Newly appointed Nanjing-Australian Cultural Ambassador Aileen Hall's role is to help create links and friendship between Nanjing and Australia, to build lines of communication, promote cultural exchanges, cultural understanding, mutual learning and reflection, and the shared learning of Chinese and English. Mentored by author Hazel Edwards, primary students are creating illustrations and swapping lost school pet stories in Mandarin and in English.
Ongoing
The Institute for Aboriginal Development (IAD) press presents a list of dictionaries and language resources covering several Indigenous languages. Indigenous languages included are Alyawarr, Anmatyerr, Arrernte, Gamilaraay Yuwaalaraay, Kaytetye, Ngaanyatjarra & Ngaatjatjarra, Pintupi Luritja, Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, Warlpiri, and Warumungu.
Entries by 15 July 2009
The Max Harris Poetry Award 2009 is now open for entries. Offering $3,000 for the winning entry, the Max Harris Poetry Award aims to recognise the work and talent of Australian poets. The winning entry and two unpaid commended entries will receive University of South Australia Max Harris Poetry Award Certificates, which will be presented at an award ceremony in October 2009 and will be featured on the Poetry and Poetics Centre website.
Entries by 24 July 2009
The 2009 Queensland Writers Centre / Hachette Australia Manuscript Development Program for Fiction Writers is now open. This program has been created for emerging Australian authors of fiction who are either unpublished or have no more than one significant work commercially published. Up to 10 emerging fiction writers will work with publishers for Hachette Australia to develop high-quality fiction manuscripts.
14–16 August 2009
Now in its third year, the Aireys Festival of Words attracts internationally acclaimed writers and showcases the talents of local authors, illustrators, musicians and artists, who all take part in a weekend-long celebration of words, sounds and images. Various locations.
18 June 2009
Tim Winton was announced as the 2009 winner for his novel Breath. Twenty-five years ago, Tim won his first Miles Franklin Literary Award for Shallows. This year's win means that he is the only writer ever to have won four times in his own right. The Miles Franklin Literary Award celebrates Australian character and creativity and nurtures the continuing life of literature about Australia. It is awarded for the novel of the year which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases.
28 May 2009
The judging panels for the Prime Minister's Literary Award will review the 93 fiction and 161 non-fiction eligible books entered into the 2009 awards. Author and academic Professor Peter Pierce will return as Chair of the fiction panel for the second year, together with Professor John Hay AC and Radio National's executive producer of Artworks Dr Lyn Gallacher. Broadcaster, writer and filmmaker Phillip Adams AO will chair the non-fiction panel and will be joined by author and editor of Australian Book Review Peter Rose, and historian Professor Joan Beaumont FASSA.
23 May 2009
Fremantle Press author Alice Nelson was presented with The Sydney Morning Herald best young Australian novelist award at the Sydney Writers Festival this week. The judges said that it was a rich and evocative novel, with Nelson moving her narrative easily between Perth and China, between the past and the future, juxtaposing the inner life of her protagonist, Maya Wise, with the political upheaval of the Hong Kong handover.
18 May 2009
NSW Premier's Literary Awards winners have been announced. The winners include Vietnamese-Australian Nam Le for his collection of short stories, The Boat. Chloe Hooper's The Tall Man: death and life on Palm Island, and The Good Parents by Joan London.
To contact us with your news and events, please email the News Editor, NewsEditor at culture dot gov dot au, including the URL of your website.
If you can see this message, you are probably not seeing this site in the way it was designed. This site uses cascading style sheets (CSS2) to control the way in which elements are displayed on the page.
You will still be able to access everything in this site, but we do recommend you upgrade your browser to a more recent, standards compliant, browser.