NWG Inc in 2022

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Photo: Mihaela Cristescu

NEW Writers’ Group Inc will soon be back at work!  In January the committee will draw up a calendar for 2022. No onsite venue yet, but the following events and projects are decided:

  • Our first gathering will be on Zoom in February, date to be confirmed.
  • ZineWest will open for entries from 1st March and be launched in October.
  • Romanian/Australian Anthology (Stay a While) launch is 12 March at the State Library of NSW. 
  • Writing projects for our regular anthologists and other Western Sydney creatives are being discussed.
  • The FB page Writing Parramatta will continue. We have a backlog of Q&A’s to post and will seek more from local artists and writers.
  • Gatherings – whether on zoom or onsite – will be held at least once a month for open mic, workshops and tutorials.
  • In the monthly sessions we plan to include short Q&A’s with individual writers.
  • We will run additional sessions with a specific focus – details to come. 

Writing Parramatta Spotlight

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NEW Writers Group Inc secretary, Mihaela Cristescu chatted on 17 November, to Jim Taggart and Darryn Cape-Davis, on Spotlight, Alive 90.5 about our Writing Parramatta project. Jim and Darryn read poems by Marina Robins, The Tropics888 and Peter Cartwright.  Mihaela brought to the studio a Covid-delayed birthday cake to celebrate the first year of the show!
Listen to the podcast here 

 

Image: Reflections by Marina Robins won Best Image Award in WP21.

Writing Parramatta Awards

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Saturday, 13th November, 2021, we gathered on Zoom to explore the collection of poems, images and stories published during this year on Parramatta themes. This project is part of Writing Parramatta 2021 which has been supported by a City of Parramatta Creative Economy Grant.

BOOK AWARDS:
Best Image: Reflections by Marina Robins; Runner-up: Light and Dark of Parramatta Park by Dannielle Viera. Judge Justine Youssef.
Best Prose: The Song by Geneva Valek; Runners-up: Run to Parra-dise by Nic Lesley and Going To Ground by Augusta Supple. Awarded by S.E. Crawford, Carol Amos and Christopher Sammut.
Best Poem: Jo’n’wicksy by Les Wicks; Runner-up Mars Hill Cafe by Belinda Curby. Awarded by S.E. Crawford, Mihaela Cristescu and Peter Cartwright.

Slide Images: Reflections: Marina Robins; Light and Dark of Parramatta Park by Dannielle Viera.

 

Justine Youssef

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Meet our art judge for Writing Parramatta 2021!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being mostly writers, NEW Writers’ Group always needs an artist to make decisions on art!  Justine’s choice of Best Image – Book award for WP21 – will be announced on Saturday, 13th November at our Zoom Launch.

Justine Youssef is an artist currently living and working across unceded Darug and Gadigal Lands. Through moving image, performance, scent and installation, their practice engages with moments and places that reconfigure authoritative realities. They have been awarded the 2019 John Fries Award (The Copyright Agency) for their work ‘Under the table I learn how to feed you’, and held their first solo exhibition ‘All Blessings, All Curses’ at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney. Further to this, Youssef was a founding co-director of Pari, an artist-run space in Parramatta, and the Professional Practice Coordinator at the National Association for the Visual Arts.  Image Credit:  Joe Brennan

ZineWest 2021 Awards

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Thanks to all the contributors who created the 15th edition of ZineWest. Copies available at our shop. If you have a piece published in ZW21, select a product that includes your free copy.

Awards announced at the Zoom launch, 16th October: 

ART – Judge Elizabeth Chang, Curator and Artist Development, Parramatta Artists Studios

BEST IMAGE AWARD: SANDRA BORRI for Galah
RUNNER-UP: ERIN MACNAUGHT for Hands #1

WRITING – Judge Luke Carman, author and lecturer, Writing and Society Research Centre WSU

FIRST Place and Best Prose: CHRISTOPHER SAMMUT for Breathe
SECOND place and Best Poem: PETER CARTWRIGHT for The Time
THIRD place GENEVA VALEK for The Rat (prose)

HIGHLY COMMENDED –
MYRA KOCH for Piano for Sale (prose)
NORM FAIRBAIRN for On the Lake (poem)
JO MULARCZYK for Lies of Love (prose)

EDITORS’ AWARD
PETE SHMIGEL for Geronimo’s Daybreak

Image: Christopher Sammut



ZineWest 2021 Launch

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SATURDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2021 
3-4:30 ZOOM – Readings, Awards with Elizabeth Chang and Luke Carman
In 2022 we hope to add back in – food and giant book raffle!

Our cover features Galah, by one of our contributing artists, Sandra Borri.  Poems, stories, images and a little reminiscence re 15 years of finding interesting and diverse creativity in Western Sydney. More info @

A few good words …

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Free writing workshop led by Parramatta author Felicity Castagna
Saturday, 30th October 3-5pm. Contact us for the Zoom link, see email below.

We’ll look at micro fiction – the writing where each word is important but not necessarily prominent – the opposite of clutter and shouting and cliché – the super short memorable piece that is great training for our bigger works.

Would you like your original piece reviewed during the session?

Send us up to 3 Haiku¹ or one short poem max nine lines, or one work of prose max 100 words. Include your name, location and a couple of lines about your writing interests. You can paste the writing into the body of the email or send as an attachment.

Due: 22nd October 

¹Haiku: we don’t insist on 5/7/5 but advise against anything longer.

This workshop has been supported by a City of Parramatta Creative Economy Grant.

Cover Image: Felicity’s latest book

 

 

ZineWest 2021 Launch

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Elizabeth Chang, Art Judge, and Luke Carman, Writing Judge: Fifteenth edition of ZineWest

Zoom: Saturday, 16th October, 2021, 3-5pm – details below.

AWARDS – winners are not notified prior to the launch.
 
Writing:
A generous supporter has donated cash prizes for 2nd & 3rd place.
 
  • First Place = $400  (Co-sponsor Writing & Society Research Centre WSU)
  • Second Place = $300 (Private donor)
  • Third Place = $200 (Private donor)
  • Highly commended writers will receive book awards (Giramondo, Sweatshop, private donors)
  • Editor’s Award: Book prize (Giramondo)
Images
  • Best Image = $100 (private donor)
  • Runners up = Book prizes

NB Award winners are not notified prior to the launch.

LAUNCH DETAILS – Zoom link available early October.
 
  • Opening: Carol Amos, President NWG Inc 
  • Artwork – Comments and awards: Liz Chang 
  • Writing – Comments and awards: Luke Carman
  • Readings
  • Editors’ writing award

Free entry. Copies: $15. Sales online due to Covid.
Contributors’ first copies are free, but we will need to recoup postage.

ZineWest 2021 is part of the Writing Parramatta 2021 project which has been supported by a City of Parramatta Creative Economy Grant.

Felicity Castagna

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Publishing Workshop with Felicity Castagna
 
Zoom
7th August, 2021, 3-5 pm
More info contact
 
 
 
“Felicity Castagna is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University. She publishes essays on home, suburbia, site-responsive art making and Australian literature and has a particular interest in collaborative and community- based art practice as well as the methodology of teaching creative practice. Her creative non-fiction and critical responses to literature and art are published both here and internationally on platforms such as The Sydney Review of Books, Electric Literature, LitHub, The Griffith Review and ABC radio and television.

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