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.
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.
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
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
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 @
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
We have extended the due date for art and photographs of Parramatta – city and LGA – to 30th September. (Writing entries are now closed.)
Writing Parramatta 2021 Entry Form
Image: C.A. Broadribb
Elizabeth Chang, Art Judge, and Luke Carman, Writing Judge: Fifteenth edition of ZineWest
NB Award winners are not notified prior to the launch.
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.
Publishing Workshop with Felicity CastagnaWe are looking for your stories, memories and images of Parramatta, CBD and LGA, for online publication. You need to be 16 years or over and have a strong connection to Parramatta. Due 31st August. ENTRY FORM
