Community Engagement Project funded in the lead up to the 2016 Cairns Tropical Writers Festival

NEWSLETTERDecember 2015

“our place in the world”

Tropical Writers is a non-profit community based

membership organisation based in Far North Queensland.

Membership is open and meetings are monthly.

For more information:http://www.tropicalwriters.com.au

For Cairns Tropical Writers Festival News, subscribe at:

http://www.cairnstropicalwritersfestival.com

emerge 2016: new writers in the region

emerge 2016: new writers in the region: This new program sees a skilled coordinator enable isolated but aspiring writers from across Far North Queensland to connect and participate in a series of six or more developmental workshops.

These are led by industry professionals that will provide opportunities for participants to engage, network and enhance their skills and confidence in writing.

Workshop participants from Cardwell to the Torres Strait will be supported in these workshops in early 2016 in the lead up to the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival on 12-14 August 2016.

Then at the festival these new writers will contribute to the unique voice of the region

by collaborating with the local writing community to launch a book and to participate in the 2016 festival program.

The full program schedule, listing the expert tutors and the exciting locations for workshops around the region, will be announced in the new year.

If you or someone you know wants to act on your new year resolutions to write a family or community story, get started with poetry, explore fiction or gain skills in writing non-fiction, then let us know so we can send you more information.

Melissa Robertson:events@cairnstropicalwritersfestival.comEve Stafford:program@cairnstropicalwritersfestival.com

emerge 2016 is funded by a successful application to the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government initiative that supports sustainable cultural development in regional, remote and very remote Australia. The Regional Arts Fund program is delivered in partnership with Artslink Queensland.

The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative that supports sustainable cultural development in regional, remote and very remote Australia.

The program is delivered in partnership with Artslink Queensland.

Bookings: http://www.cairnstropicalwritersfestival.com/2016-memoir-ws.html

2.

Have you thought of writing a local or community history?

Is your family keen for you to write the family history, or would you like to write about a family member who has had a long and interesting life, someone else’s story or even your own?

Then this one-day Memories to Memoirs workshop is for you.

Helen will guide you through the steps involved, from concept to completion. She will provide you with a detailed ten-point plan for getting started through to writing your book, whether it is intended just for family, or for local or national publication. Topics covered include subject/s selection, research and interviewing techniques.

Participants will have the chance to study a range of biographies, considering the style, content and structure. If participants already have an idea or research or some writing they have started of their own they are urged to bring it along so that Helen can offer you some personal direction.

This workshop is a lead-up event to the 2016 Cairns Tropical Writers Festival, 12-14 August, a biennial event hosted by Tropical Writers Inc. A discount is offered if you become a member of TW, which will keep you connected to whatever else is happening as well as have other ongoing benefits.

Setting the date on a weekend will allow working people to attend, as they are often overlooked. Also, starting at 10.00am and finishing at 4.00pm will allow regional writers within a 100kms radius or so of Cairns to arrive in time, and still get home before dark.

WHEN: 10.00am - 4.00pm, Sunday 31 January 2016 WHERE: Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre Meeting Room, Collins Avenue, CairnsWORKSHOP INVESTMENT: $50 full / $ 45 members of TWJOINING TW: http://tropicalwriters.com.au/annualfees.html BOOK NOW: http://www.cairnstropicalwritersfestival.com/2016-memoir-ws.htmlLUNCH: BYO or buy at Visitors Centre cafe next door

Helen Chryssides is a non-fiction author and freelance journalist based in Brisbane. Her articles regularly appear in national publications including Reader’s Digest, Who Weekly, The Canberra Times, and the Good Weekend magazine in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. With a Polish and Greek-Cypriot background, Helen also teaches English as a Second Language and has worked with migrants in writing their own stories.

Her books include:

Local Heroes (Collins Dove) which profiles ten prominent Aboriginal people including Cathy Freeman (talking about her Olympic ambitions long before she was famous)

A Different Light (HarperCollins) which chronicles the experience of 11 individuals who came from overseas to settle in Australia and includes Elizabeth Jolley and Bryce Courtenay

Your Home Business (two editions, Allen & Unwin)

Arabian Nightmare (with Richard Arnot, Allen & Unwin)

Memories into Memoirs: biography/autobiography and community history

one-day workshop Sunday 31 January 2016

Here’s wishing you a bookish Christmas and a reading and writing New Year

There is still time to buy books for gifts and holiday reading from local authors. Collins Booksellers in Smithfield have pointed towards their local bestsellers for 2015.

Northern Heat by Helene Young: a romantic suspense novel set in Cooktown

Paw Paw Lawyer by John Bottoms: an engaging tale of regional legal practice

Cairns - City of South Pacific: a History 1770-1995 by Dr Tim Bottoms

Double Madness: a crime novel set after Cyclone Yasi by Caroline de Costa

Legends of Australia’s Wild North: true stories of the characters by Robert Reid

Voices of Dementia Carers: a practical guide by Helene McCarthy

Crack Falling: a novel of corrupt pollies, a girl, bent cops and vice by T J Clark

The Cruising Dream: true stories of adventure by Jenny Lawton

Cassowary Hill, a novel by David de Vaux

Wet Tropics by Craig Ward & Tim Hawkes

Tropical Wildlife from Dark to Dawn: science and art by Buck Richardson

3.

4.

PEOPLE PIXout and about

at the Di Morrissey Literary Lunch

Elizabeth Martin and Wendy Good

Buck Richardson and Hazel Menehira

Steve Good, Bhama Daly and Barbi Wildish

Colleen McCabe and Claire Aylward

Sylvia Pattison and Margaret Green

Judy Peters (centre) and friends

Alaine Yates and Diane FinlaySoc and Robyn Kienzle and Annette Woods

5.

PEOPLE PIXout and about

At the book launch for David de Vaux’s

Cassowary Hill novel

At the Cairns hearing of the Senate Inquiry into the 2014

and 2015 Arts budgets

Tropical Writers breakfasted early before attending the Cairns hearing of the Senate Inquiry into the Arts in support of colleagues presenting at the hearing: From left, Bernadette Curnuck (and bub), Bhama Daly, Oonagh Prettejohn, Melissa Robertson, Suzanne Bayliss, Robyn Kienzle, Kate Adams and Kerstin Brown.

Above: Richard Parkes and David de Vaux

At right: Andrew and Kerstin Brown of Collins Booksellers, Smithfield, with author David de Vaux

Jane Gess and Robyn Kienzle Eve Stafford and Buck Richardson

INDUSTRY NEWS

ABC OPEN - CAIRNS ABC Open assists people all over regional Australia to write and publish digital stories online. There are already plenty of wonderful short stories from the far north that you can read at: https://open.abc.net.au/explore

It certainly is a fascinating way to get to know more about the locals in our own neck of the woods, as well as to get started in becoming a contributor.

The Cairns ABC Open group meet monthly, but recently held an extra workshop on environmental portraiture given by Brendan Mounter, ABC Open Producer usually based in Longreach. Environmental portraiture photographs the person in their own context or habitat to produce a picture that tells the story, whether it is a family setting, workplace or in the outdoors.

Humans in Cairns

This new project now underway starts with the axiom that every person has a story. Your challenge is to find someone from the Cairns region with an interesting story and to document this through an environmental portrait with supporting text.

The photograph should try and capture the essence of who this person is and be related to the story you are trying to tell. Don’t be afraid to experiment with composition, framing, point-of-views, angles or lighting.

The text should be between 200 – 500 words and answer the 5Ws + H (who, what, when, where and why, plus how).

You can profile a subject you already know, or for those who are feeling particularly bold, you can approach a stranger to find out their story.

There is no strict deadline for this project, but by the end of January would be ideal. Once you’ve got your story ready, upload it to the Pic of the Week project on the ABC Open site. Make sure to add Cairns as the location. As discussed, this project has been inspired by Humans of New York. Here’s what’s also been created for ABC Open in Bundaberg: https://open.abc.net.au/explore/111820

Brendan Mounter, ABC Open Producer giving a workshop at the Cairns city library on portraiture skills to get good pictures to accompany stories on the ABC Open site. 6.

The Cairns ABC Open group meets monthly on the second Wednesday from 9.00am - 11.00am at Cairns City Library. This provides for mutual support and to gain skills in digital storytelling for the ABC Open site. Some works are read aloud. The next meeting will be 13 January 2016, and newcomers are welcome. The local coordinator to contact is author and Tropical Writers member Maria Bianco E: millie.b@bigpond.com

You can read some of the recent stories about the far north or other regional Australians here:

HOME: https://open.abc.net.au/

ABOUT: https://open.abc.net.au/about

EXPLORE: https://open.abc.net.au/explore Then go to stories, tips and workshops, projects, and more. The skills area has writing, photography, video, gallery and tutorials, social media and storytelling.

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