Category Archives: Art

NWG Inc at WestWords

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In 2024, NEW Writers Group Incorporated will be based at WestWords, 41 Hunter Street Parramatta, for monthly events.

An outstanding opportunity for NWG Inc members and colleagues to foster inspiration and creative skills at this remarkable hub of Western Sydney literary programs and events.

NEW Writers Group Incorporated  committee has accepted the gracious invitation made by WestWords Executive Director Michael Campbell to base NWG Inc’s regular monthly events at the delightful WestWords venue, 41 Hunter Street, Parramatta in 2024. 

“How do we condense what we do at WestWords into a simple message? In a nutshell, it’s about telling stories that represent the people of Western Sydney.”

NWG Inc will shortly post a calendar of dates but our first event will be a Saturday in February, 3-5pm: Afternoon tea – welcome & introductions; author interview; invited readers; and an open mic on the theme of Valentine. NB: we hope for varied interpretations! Please write for 16 years and over. You will have two minutes at the mic … Book awards.
$5 entry. Free for financial members. First visit to NWG Inc? Free entry. Check with us in January for more details. 

ZineWest 2023 Awards

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At UNE Sydney in Parramatta, on Saturday14th October, we were delighted to launch ZineWest 2023.
Our judges, Luke Carman (Writing) and Maria Constantinescu (Art),  announced their awards.
Cover Image by Sandra Borri.

We honour the judges for their dedicaton and thank the contributors and friends attending –  supporting their colleagues, volunteering, reading. For those unable to come, you can order a contributor’s copy and more copies At our Shop.

Luke Carman gave his annual commentary on all the writing pieces and announced the following awards:

1st Place and Best Prose:
The Sound of Water by Adam Byatt
2nd Place:
The River is a Mirror by Trish Jean
3rd Place and Best Poem
Amity by Mitch Browne
Highly Commended 
Dawn by Lisel Herrmann
A Way from where you live by Kristof Mikes-Lui
1942 by Geneva Valek

Editors’ Award
Joint winners –
The Feasting by Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan
Her vs Him by Paris Rosemont

Maria Constantinescu gave her commentary on the images published in the zine and announced the following awards:

Best Image:
Pelican at Dusk by Trish Jean
1st Runner-up 
A Girl and Her Dog by Erin Macnaught
2nd Runner-up
Going Places by Marina Robins

Photos to come!

We thank our sponsors and supporters including the Writing and Society Research Cenre at WSU, and our generous private donors.

 

ZineWest 2023 Launch

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Dr. Luke Carman will launch ZineWest 2023 on Saturday, 14 October, 11:00 am – 1:30 pm at UNE Sydney, Level 4, 100 George Street, Parramatta.
Also attending is art judge, Maria Constantinescu.

All welcome. $10 entry includes door prize ticket and morning tea. Carers and children under 13, free entry. Please note: Ground floor entry will be accessible from 10:45 – 11:30 am. If you expect to be late please advise before the day.

Zines $15, Contributors’ first copy $5

Morning Tea 11:00 am
Launch 11:30 am – 1:30 pm 
Commentary by Luke Carman 
Art PPT with Maria Constantinescu
Readings, prizes and awards
Giant Raffle & Door Prizes

Prizes announced at the launch
Writing: 1st $400, 2nd $300, 3rd $200; Highly Commended awards; Editors Award
Art: Best Image $100; Runners-up book awards

Writing co-sponsor for 1st place – Writing & Research Society Centre
Other prizes – Private donors

 

 

 

 

ZineWest 2023 – Art List

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Maria Constantinescu is an Australian artist based in Sydney, who has collaborated with NWG Inc on projects in Parramatta. She is our ZineWest Art judge for 2023. Maria will announce the winner of Best Image ($100) and Runners-up (book titles) at the ZineWest launch, 14th October, 11:00 am, UNE Sydney, 100 George St. Parramatta. Below, see the Art publication list and Maria’s bio.

ZineWest 2023 Art 

Sandra Borri – Autumn Pickings 
Mihaela Cristescu – The Way of the Water 
Trish Jean – Pelican at Dusk & Face in the Billabong
Erin Macnaught – A Girl and Her Dog 
Kathryn Munro – Floral Bouquet 
Marina Robins – Going Places 
Karla Schindler – The Garden Visitor
Michaela Simoni – Near Wentworth Falls 
Dannielle Viera – Ebony_Devil & Still Life 

Note: Most entries were in colour. We have sought  permission from several entrants to publish one of their colour images in greyscale for the zine’s inside pages. We will update the list accordingly.

Maria Constantinescu is an Australian artist based in Sydney, NSW. Her work investigates different modalities in which information about the universe and related theories of the sublime are translated into contemporary works of art, as a continuum of an artistic tradition nascent in the 18th-century Romanticism. Through a range of media including painting, drawing, digital video, and clay, Constantinescu’s studio practice explores connections between imagination and reality, and focuses on modes of making the unseen visible, presenting the unpresentable, and transformation metaphorically linked with alchemy. Constantinescu’s work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions and is held in private collections in Australia and overseas. For more details and artwork images, please visit her website www.mariac.com.au or her Instagram page @maria.constantinescu.art.

 

 

 

 

Art ZineWest 2023 due 16 July

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Kathryn Munro – Meandering City

New Deadline for art entries to ZineWest 2023 is Sunday 16 July 2023.
ZineWest2023_ArtEntryForm.
Looking for images from Western Sydney creatives. Open style. We have some great entries already, but hoping for a few more artists to be involved. We include up to eight colour images on the cover and colour insert but we like grayscale for inside pages and these sometimes land on the ‘colour’ pages. It’s an A5 digital zine. Please check the entry form for more details.

Parramatta Expression Launch

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Saturday 17 June, 2023, we will launch Ambiguous Loss, an anthology of stories and poems by Western Sydney Writers who are award winning contributors to NEW Writers Group Inc’s projects. We will also present ekphrastic collaborations between local artists and writers. Parramatta Expression 2023 has been supported by a City of Parramatta Council Community Grant.

Level 4, 100 George Street Parramatta (UNE premises)
Entry $5 Ambiguous Loss $15 (1st copy free for anthology contributors).
11:00am for finger food including Sahtein Lebanese Feasts.
11:30am for readings and book awards
Please note the building will be open for guests to enter between 10:45 and 11:30am
Image on cover – Mihaela Cristescu

 

Parramatta Expression Ekphrasis update

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Our second round for Ekphrasis writing in response to Parramatta images is due 20th April. Writers new to the project can offer responses to 1-3 of the ten images. Writers who entered work in the first round, are welcome to send additional writing related to the three new images: Maria Constantinescu’s abstract – acrylic and Lake Parramatta sediment and water; Michaela Simoni’s painting of a lone canoeist inspired by Parramatta River (the project’s motif image); and the gallery’s only night scene, by Marina Robins. Full Gallery and entry form 

 

Maria Constantinescu
Marina Robins
Michaela Simoni

Parramatta Expression 2023 – Ekphrasis – Writing

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During January we were offered images of Parramatta by local artists. It is now the turn of writers from Parramatta, and anywhere in Western Sydney, to respond with poetry or prose. You can write a response for up to 3 separate images in the gallery. Book awards.

PARRAMATTA EXPRESSION GALLERY (1)

Parramatta Expression Ekphrasis Writing Entry Form

Image by Michaela Simoni

Please read the entry form before you write. There is a brief statement of what we’re hoping for – more than just a good description of the image… Plus details on maximum words/lines.
All contributors retain full copyright. Launch is on 17 June in Parramatta. This project has been supported by a City of Parramatta Council Community Grant.

Street Musicians – Launch

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Romanian/Australian Anthology

Experiment Farm Cottage, Parramatta

11 March 2023, 11:30am – 1:30 pm

Launched by Luke Carman

Readings, Live Music, Refreshments

Free Entry

Street Musicians is Volume 7 of Mihaela Cristescu’s bilingual anthology series for Romanian and Australian writers, illustrated by Luminita Serbanescu and edited by Mihaela Cristescu and S.E. Crawford. The anthologies are first published and launched in Romania and then launched in Australia. Due to renovations at the State Library of NSW, which has hosted past launches, we will welcome you to the historic venue, Experiment Farm Cottage, at 9 Ruse Street, Harris Park, in Parramatta, NSW. 

This Romanian/Australian annual series is supported by NEW Writers’ Group Incorporated which is based in Parramatta. Many Western Sydney writers have contributed to one or more volumes, together with Romanian writers from Romania, Australia and other countries.
See also Code-Mixing Poetry on FB or our Rom/Aus page on this website for updates.

NB. This is a smaller venue than at the State Library so please RSVP  or to Mihaela via Code-Mixing Poetry by 12 February. 

 

 

 

Parramatta Expression 2023

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In 2023, NWG Inc will publish Parramatta images by local artists and invite Western Sydney writers to respond with an *ekphrastic poem or short prose. We are looking for images that have a hint of story, movement or mood. Here is an example by Michaela Simoni (first published in ZineWest 2022). Your work might be in a very different style, but we hope this image gives you a clue to the depth we are looking for.

 

The Ekphrastic project is open to all creatives in Parramatta and Western Sydney generally. These works will be published in a Pop Up Zine 2023 and some will also be republished in our digital Expression which is a good place for images. In January we will be sending around an entry form for writers, but art entries are open now, to help get the project underway by January:  Parramatta Expression:  ENTRY FORM (ART)

Parramatta Expression will also publish a print edition of our journal Expression which will include the works of a small 2022 NWG Inc workshop group that focussed on stories longer than we can usually print publish plus some poetry from ZineWest award-winning poets.

*Ekphrasis: “Description” in Greek… An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.”https://www.poetryfoundation.org/

 “Basically, an ekphrasis is a literary description of art. Like other kinds of imagery, ekphrasis paints a picture with words. What makes it different from something like pictorialism is that the picture it paints is itself a picture: ekphrasis stages an encounter between representations in two mediums, one visual and one verbal.” https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/

Parramatta Expression 2023 has been supported by a City of Parramatta Council Community Grant.