reproduced from ABC Radio National

The UN estimates more than 20 million people have been made homeless by monsoonal floods that have affected 20 per cent of Pakistan’s total land area.

The next River Readings will be held at 6pm on Friday, 10 September and will feature Mark Tredinnick. Mark’s latest book, The Blue Plateau, is shortlisted for the Non Fiction category of the $100,000 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Support for the readings comes from Arts NSW.

River Readings is a regular poetry reading series in the Shoalhaven, presented by the South Coast Writers Centre, with the support of the Kitchen Table Poets and FAW Shoalhaven. Each reading features a guest poet and an open section where local poets have five minutes to share their work with the audience. Local writer and artist Chere Le Page is the MC for the event.

All are welcome to come along to hear guest poet Mark Tredinnick and poets are encouraged to take part in the open reading.

When: 6pm, Friday 10 September 2010

Where: Shoalhaven Arts Centre, 12 Berry Street, Nowra NSW 2541

Bookings and information: 02 4228 0151 or scwc@1earth.net.

A gold coin donation is welcome

Also on 10 September, Mark will present a poetry workshop at the Arts Centre, 2pm–5pm, entry $50. For further information call Colleen on 4421 3076.

More about Mark Tredinnick

Mark Tredinnick, is an award-winning poet and essayist. He lives in the Southern Highlands.

Mark is the author of The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir—published in Australia (UNSW Press), The Road South (poems on CD, River Road), The Little Green Grammar Book, The Little Red Writing Book, The Land’s Wild Music, A Place on Earth, and, with Geoff Whyte, The Little Black Book of Business Writing.

Mark’s honours include the Blake Poetry Prize, the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize (runner up), the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, the Calibre Essay Prize, and the Wildcare Nature Writing Prize. His work has been anthologised and published widely in Australian and the US journals. His poems have appeared in The Best Australian Poems; his prose in The Best Australian Essays.

Mark’s poems and essays have appeared in Blue Dog, Indigo, Island, Isotope, Kunapipi, Manoa, Mascara, Meanjin, Orion, PAN, Southerly, Snorkel, The Grove, The Sun-Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, Wet Ink, World Literature Today, and other journals and newspapers; he writes regularly for newspapers including The Australian, The Sun-Herald, and The Sydney Morning Herald.

After a childhood and education suburban Sydney, Mark lived for many years in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, terrain he explores in The Blue Plateau and a number of his essays and poems. For a time he lived at Lavender Bay by Sydney Harbour and at Glebe and Annandale in the city’s inner west. He has travelled widely in the United States of America, and has written often about American literature and landscapes. Much of his work is published in the US; he has read at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the University of Oregon and elsewhere. In March 2007, Mark moved with his young family to “Nettlebed”, a farmhouse near the Wingecarribee River, 120 km southwest of Sydney.

First: View of Dark Point. Bruce McIntyre, Marrickville NSW

Second: Poetry in the Trenches. John Upton, Burwood NSW

Third: Conversation with an Aboriginal Man of High Degree in the Todd River late one night early one morning after the Cas. Steve Browne, Alice Springs NT

HC: Flight of Ideas. Lyn Vellins, Alexandria  NSW

C: Python Bends. Peter Mitchell, Lismore NSW

C: Gallery Café. John Egan, Ashfield NSW

Shortlisted

Growth. Heather Kay, Cowan NSW

Blockout. Susan Adams, Dangar Island NSW

Until Next Time. Loula Rodopoulos Malvern East Vic

Attention Must Be Paid. William Zappa, EarlwoodNSW

Congratulations to everyone.

Reading these poems gave us much pleasure. Your enthusiasm was exciting.

Comments have been sent to as many poets as possible. We hope that, after further work, these poems can be sent out again. Even those that have won cash prizes can still be accepted by some magazines as we do not publish your entries anywhere.

Tips:

• Follow conditions ie line limit , number of copies.
• Watch rhythm, even free verse should show a subliminal rhythm.
• Edit your work for omissions, typing and spelling mistakes.
• Be wary of too many adjectives.
• Make your choice of word match the subject, tone, pace.
• Avoid cliché.

Improvement can be made by listening to criticism and by reading modern poetry ie Best Australian Poems, Best Australian Poetry. Blue Dog etc (from Library): by all means read all those classic poems you love but take care not to use archaic language in your own poetry. Use the speech of today.

We look for innovation and difference in imagery, language and subject. Humour and wit are always welcome.

The Kitchen Table Poets’ book, Tangents is now available ($22 postage included)

This event will be part of the Far South Coast Workshop Program, a series of creative writing workshops held in the Eurobodalla and Bega Valley Shire. Presented by South Coast Writers Centre, ACT Writers Centre, NSW Writers Centre, Bega Valley Shire Council and the South East Arts Region. Supported by Arts NSW. Thanks to Writers of the Far South Coast for their assistance with this workshop program.

About Susan Hampton

Susan Hampton lives in Canberra and has written six books of poems. Her latest book News of the Insect World came out from Five Islands Press in November 2009. Her previous book The Kindly Ones was shortlisted for five awards, and won The Judith Wright Poetry Prize for 2006. Some of her poems are available at www.foxediting.com. Susan works as a poetry and fiction editor. She has received grants from ACT ARTS and the Literature Board of the Australia Council. Her poetry is featured in the National Museum’s Eternity Exhibition, and her work has been broadcast on ABC radio’s “Poetica”. She taught creative writing, drama, journalism and literature at universities from 1981-2000, and has been Writer-in-Residence at ANU, UC, ADFA, UNE, Darwin and Wollongong Universities. In 2004 Susan taught a series of online writing courses for the ACT Writers Centre, and she has tutored at the Summer School in Poetry at Wollongong University for four years.

When: 10am-3.30pm, Saturday 14 August 2010

Where:  Batemans Bay Community Centre, Batemans Bay Community Centre, 2 Museum Place, Batemans Bay NSW

Bookings: scwc@1earth.net or 02 4228 0151

Cost: $30 members of South Coast Writers Centre, ACT Writers Centre and NSW Writers Centre/$65 non-members

More information: Contact SCWC Director Ali Smith on scwc@1earth.net or 0431 689 465.

Iris Fan Xing, Debby Sou Vai Keng, Kit Kelen and Chris Song Zijiang, visiting from China, will read their work at the Manse in Nowra on Saturday 24 July at 2pm.

Three of China’s most promising emerging poets and two award-winning Australian poets will present an afternoon of public poetry readings in Nowra.

This free literary event will be held from 2pm until 4pm on 24 July at the Manse on Kinghorn Street Nowra, (opposite Aldi). The readings from Debby Sou Vai Keng, Iris Fan Xing and Chris Song Zijiang, (in English) from the three poets from the University of Macao, China will interest local writers and readers who are welcome to come. This event will also feature readings from two renowned Australian poets: Kit Kelen, who is currently teaching creative writing at the University of Macao and local writer Chris Mansell, who runs the Berry-based publishing house PressPress.

These readings celebrate an innovative translation project which is part of the Bundanon Trust’s artist in residence program. Debby Sou Vai Keng, Iris Fan Xing and Chris Song Zijiang are working with Kit Kelen to translate a range of contemporary Australian poetry into Chinese. This exciting translation project is the first of its kind in Australia, and it is being undertaken with the generous support of the Bundanon Trust and the Australia China Council.

The poets from Macao who are working on this project are among China’s most exciting literary talents. Debby Sou Vai Keng is a painter and writer whose first volume of English-language poetry Everybody Has a Pet was published last year. Iris Fan Xing has worked on translating the works of contemporary Aboriginal women poets into Chinese and has also translated Chinese classical poetry from the Yuan dynasty into English. She also published her first volume of poetry, Lost in the Afternoon (a bilingual English/Chinese parallel text) last year.

Chris Song Zijiang has translated the works of the women poets of the Tang and Song Dynasties into Chinese and his first volume of poems, Wiping the Dim Sky (a bilingual English/Chinese parallel text) was published last year.

Kit Kelen is a well-respected Australian writer who has published nine books of poetry and two novels. His first volume of poetry The Naming of the Harbour and the Trees won the Anne Elder award in 1992 and established Kit as an important voice in Australian poetry. Chris Mansell is one of the Illawarra’s key literary figures. She has written eleven collections of poetry and was the winner of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award.

Concerto in the Ruins

Front image: Concerto in the Ruins (detail)

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears and eyes.

What would the Romans think of this exhibition?

‘Lost Frescoes’, currently on show at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra, www.shoalhavenartscentre.com.au explores a response to place, antiquity, lost surfaces and ancient imagery. It evolved from 6 weeks in Italy exploring ancient art, and in particular, the leached, eroded surfaces of frescoes at Ostia Antica, (Rome’s port in the second century AD), and Pompeii. What had been the vibrant interior wall decoration of antiquity was faded, crackled and pock marked. The original intention of enhancement is reversed to a naturally decayed graffiti. Fabulous.

The intention of ancient frescoes was to decorate villas and insulae of middleclass Italians with scenes on walls and ceilings.

Village of Mysteries Pompeii

Pompeii

In this exhibition the smallest artworks address The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii with reference to realism.

The grainy textures of the depleted surfaces at Ostia Antica are presented in the slightly larger pieces.

The main, largest artworks get in close and concentrate on abstract qualities and tilt their lid to the abstract expressionists. The original intention dissipates and a more ethereal surface remains. However, the ‘Lost Frescoes’ also seek to entertain, distract, create fantasy and pleasure but in a contemporary society.

How is a fresco made? By the application of natural pigments on wet plaster. The plaster absorbs the stains before it dries….a very quick, concise application of pigments that precludes layers of overwork.

Conversely, ‘Lost Frescoes’ celebrate and explore faded pigments which retain intensity at times, then flake and peel off. Evident now are lashings of thick oil paint, delicate glazing, implied or real texture and gestural energy.

These artworks are created to enrich our contemporary lives.

Contact Sue Irvin - 0410 548 656 for studio viewings

Sue Irvin is a contemporary artist from Gerringong, NSW Australia.

Her artworks consist of luscious abstracted oil paintings that reflect her passion for place

‘Odyssey’ is a series of watercolours that reflect the broad cultural and geographical differences of overseas destinations to her beloved Australia. Italy, Oman, Turkey, Egypt, Great Britain and France are featured in the ‘Odyssey’ series. Cappadocia, Turkey is the stimulus for her next exhibition.

Matthew Hill’s interest in photography first began as a teenager in the 1970s with the purchase of his first SLR camera. Working in black and white film, he started out taking street scenes throughout Sydney. He then undertook a photographic course at the Ultimo Tech as it was called then. Apart from this formal training Matthew is self taught. He cites major influences and inspiration from such photographers as Irving Penn, Andre Kertesz, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Edward Weston to name a few.

Working with limited black and white film taught him to compose and get the photo right in camera. In 2004 the purchase of a digital SLR camera re-ignited his interest and the ability to print his own work opened a whole new world of creative possibility.

Exhibitions

Matthew was invited to hold his first exhibition at the JD Gallery Kangaroo Valley in 2005, composed of mostly work from the previous year. His second exhibtion was held in 2006 at Bella Cafe Kangaroo Valley, a regular exhibition site. The theme was closeup photos of plants and flowers. He has also been involved in a number of mixed exhibtions, the latest being the 2010 biannual photo competition held at the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre.

Awards

2005  Second -  Red Lens National Photo Competition
2006  First prize -  Heritage National Photo Competition
2007  First prize -  Berry Landcare Photo competition
2007  First prize -  Arts in the Valley Kangaroo Valley Photo Competition
2007  Second prize -  9×5 Mixed Media competition Arts in the Valley

Contact the artist

Matthew can be contacted at matthewhillphoto@gmail.com

http://snapsofberrybook.wordpress.com

The Sisters in Crime Australian annual Scarlet Stiletto Women’s Crime and Mystery Short Story Competition is on again. The awards, Australia’s only crime writing competition for women, is celebrating its 17th birthday and offering $4750 in prize money. The awards, organised by Sisters in Crime Australia, are Australia’s most lucrative crime-writing competition for either gender. Story length is 5000 words maximum, with an entry fee of $10.

Top prize is the HarperCollins first prize of $750 plus the coveted trophy, a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a perspex mount. Fashionista Sally Browne is now the shoes’ official patron, offering an on-going supply of scarlet stilettos in which she has been photographed all over the world, including the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro.

Other prizes include:

Kill City Bookshop 2nd prize ($400)
Readings Books Music Film 3rd prize ($300 voucher)
Allen & Unwin Young Writers’ Award ($400) for writers 18 or under.
THE OLVAR WOOD Late Starters Award (50+) $1250 Mentorship through Olvar Wood Writers’ Retreat
The Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award ($500)
The Cate Kennedy Award for Best New Talent ($350)
The Dorothy Porter Award for Innovation ($300)
Benn’s Books: Best Investigative story ($200)
ScriptWorks Great Film Idea Award: ($200)
Pulp Fiction Bookshop: Funniest Crime Award ($150 voucher)

Thanks also to Spinifex Books

Sisters in Crime spokesperson, Phyllis King, said, ‘Winning a prize in the Scarlet Stiletto Awards can also be a springboard into getting a book published. Previous such winners include Tara Moss, Cate Kennedy, Angela Savage, Josephine Pennicott, Alex Palmer, Liz Filleul, Margaret Bevege, Patricia Bernard, Bronwen Blake, Jo McGahey and Cheryl Jorgensen.’

Last year’s first prize and stiletto trophy went to Amanda Wrangles, a former hairdresser and dive master on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Wrangles is a mother of three and started writing fiction only the year before. The Scarlet Stiletto Awards was the first competition she had ever entered. She is currently working on her first novel, a young adult urban fantasy mystery. The award has given her a massive boost.

Ms King said that every year the judges – Sisters in Crime convenors plus writers who’ve won 1st prize twice – spotted new trends.

“In 2009 the stories featured lots of poisonings. Husbands should immediately remove oleanders from their gardens – they’re being used for much more than landscaping. The previous year, there were lots of mums and bubs on the case. In one story, the crime happening next door was overheard on the baby’s monitor.”

Sisters in Crime has 500 members nationally and holds chapters in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane (just being re-formed) and an association with Partners in Crime in Sydney. It also publishes a magazine, Stiletto.

The 17th Scarlet Stiletto Awards close on August 31, 2010.
The entry fee is $10.
Entry forms are available by writing to
Scarlet Stiletto Awards,
PO Box 121,
Bittern VIC 3918

or on its website: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/

Poetry workshop with Susan Hampton – 14 August 2010

Please bring with you 15 copies of 3 pages of your poems/writing. In this workshop we’ll explore working with imagery, and the concept of point of view in poetry. We’ll look at techniques for making your poems stronger and more memorable. We will workshop a few pages from each person. Presented by South Coast Writers Centre, ACT Writers Centre, NSW Writers Centre, Bega Valley Shire Council and the South East Arts Region. Supported by Arts NSW. Thanks to Writers of the Far South Coast for their assistance with this workshop program.

When: 10am-3.30pm, Saturday 14 August 2010

Where: Batemans Bay Community Centre, Batemans Bay Community Centre, 2 Museum Place, Batemans Bay NSW

Bookings: scwc@1earth.net or 02 4228 0151

Cost: $30 members of SCWC, NSW WC and ACT WC/$65 non-members

Non-fiction writing workshop with Jeff Apter – 18 September 2010

Jeff Apter will share his experience as a professional writer and his insights into the craft of non-fiction writing, from how to select the right topic to research, and how to write and prepare manuscripts for publication. Presented by South Coast Writers Centre, ACT Writers Centre, NSW Writers Centre, Bega Valley Shire Council and the South East Arts Region. Supported by Arts NSW. Thanks to Writers of the Far South Coast for their assistance with this workshop program.

When: 10am-3.30pm, Saturday 18 September 2010

Where:  Holiday Hub Recreation room, Pambula Beach, Merimbula

Bookings: scwc@1earth.net or 02 4228 0151

Cost: $30 members of SCWC, NSW WC and ACT WC/$65 non-members

Getting Started in Theatre Writing with Timothy Daly – 20 November 2010

This practical, hands-on workshop will both allow you to try your hand at writing for theatre, as well as showing you over 30 practical writing techniques that work well in theatre writing. Other aspects covered will be: the differences between theatre writing and novel or short story writing; the differences between theatre writing and film writing; dramatic structure and how to use plot in theatre writing.

Suitable for both beginners in theatre writing and for those with some theatre-writing experience. Presented by South Coast Writers Centre, ACT Writers Centre, NSW Writers Centre, Bega Valley Shire Council and the South East Arts Region. Supported by Arts NSW. Thanks to Writers of the Far South Coast for their assistance with this workshop program.

When: 10am-3.30pm, Saturday 20 November 2010

Where:  Bermagui Library and Community Centre

Bookings: scwc@1earth.net or 02 4228 0151

Cost: $30 members of SCWC, NSW WC and ACT WC/$65 non-members