Category Archives: Spoken Word

Open Mic – Valentine Theme

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Blast from the past at 211 Church Street (UNE Sydney) with Sue Chamoun, Luke Carman, Sue Crawford and Carol Amos. Will be great to return in 2023!
Photo: Mihaela Cristescu

First gathering for 2023 with NEW Writers’ Group Inc Saturday 4 Feb, 3-5 pm UNE Sydney 211 Church Street Parramatta – enter at ground floor reception, let them know you are attending our event, then head upstairs to sign in. Entry $5. Free for financial members.

Program!
Introductions; Updates on our calendar and key projects for 2023; Open Mic

OPEN MIC details:

  • Valentine theme – your interpretation
  • Light deep comic ironic (but not crude thanks)
  • No props, no music, solo only, English only
  • Time limit strictly 3 mins max
  • Your original work
  • Book award 

Note re Venue: 
We do not use the kitchen or student/staff equipment.
Guests at UNE premises are allowed only bottled water on site and no food.
(We sometimes go for a drink/snack afterwards.)
Wheelchair access. There is a wheelchair lift near main entrance and internal lift.
NB Some scooters might be too large. Please contact us at least three days beforehand at re options.

COVID: Please comply with social distancing requests. Do not attend if feeling unwell or testing positive.

New to us? You are most welcome but suggest you check our About page to see our charter and other information.

 

Onsite in Parramatta

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Carol Amos, President of NEW Writers’ Group Inc, welcomed us to our first onsite Parramatta gathering in two years of Covid on Saturday, 26 March. We lined up outside for the group photo (inside it’s masks on always) and a kind passerby took this shot with Mihaela’s camera. Special thanks to UNE Sydney at Parramatta for this ideal venue. Kudos to Eric and Chris for tech support with Sue, Carol and the Cartwrights for ideas on Dialogue, and everyone for turning up on an unpredictably rainy day.  

GATHERINGS UNE Sydney at 28 George Street Parramatta
Queries:

Saturdays 3-5pm: Sign in 2:50-3:05 Ground floor entrance 
April 9, May 14, June 11,
July 9, August 13, Sept 10, Nov 12
Attendance: $5 for onsite gatherings
Free for financial members and carers
Please wear well fitted masks.

Carol Amos getting ready
Rainy arrival
Mihaela Cristescu Signing us in
Peter Cartwright

Valentine’s Spoken Word Comp – Book Award

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On 12 February, we took up our annual challenge of ‘rating’ completely different works of two minutes duration. We enjoyed all the contributions and the judge would have been happy to give out multiple book awards, but there was only one copy. Congratulations to Geneva Valek who won in a photo finish. We welcome into our Pop Up Zine 2022 all entries (except those being developed as longer works for a future we hope to hear about!)

Book Award – Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna – which won the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for YA.

NWG Inc February / March Events

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Saturday 12 Feb 3-4:30 pm

Valentine’s Day Spoken Word Val’s Rules:
2 mins of your original take on love/romance – the joy the despair the mundane. Solo, no music, no props, no intros, English only. You lose marks for unnecessary swearing and going over time.
Book award!  

 

 

We’ll also swap news on our latest reading and writing and discuss the NWG Inc’s 2022 calendar before wrapping up with Open Mic: your original work any topic, 2 mins max.
Zoom Link: 

 

1st March ZineWest 2022 Writing Entries open – entry form available soon.


Saturday 12 March 11:30 am
Launch of Stay A While, 6th edition of Mihaela Cristescu’s Romanian /Australian bi-lingual anthologies. State Library of NSW. 

 

Saturday 26 March, 3-4:30 pm Writing Exercise and discussion plus Open Mic. Details to come.

 

Editors’ Workshop 27th Feb, 2021

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You are a member of a panel selecting work for a new journal…
This workshop puts a simple question:
Three good pieces. One space left. Which piece will your panel publish?

Click on this download for the WORKSHOP SHEET which includes the three pieces.

We will also recap a few points from Felicity Castagna’s 13th Feb workshop on the form and shape of our writing. Plus Open Mic – 2 mins max of your original work. (NB don’t bring pieces intended for ZW21 – editors might be present.

Saturday, 27th February, 2021, 3-5 pm Zoom.  Email us at to request a Zoom Link. 

Mihaela Cristescu

 

NWG Inc gatherings online

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  Next NWG Inc  Zoom Gatherings are Saturdays 13 and 27 June. We will schedule one at 3pm and one at 4pm. (Free zoom meetings last 40 minutes) Financial members will be emailed but any Sydney writer 16 years or over is welcome to ask for an invitation. Short readings from your original works plus a discussion on authenticity. We usually believe we’re genuine, but how do we convince the reader/listener … Chaired by Carol Amos

NWG Inc’s Pres. Carol Amos at UNE Sydney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ZineWest 2020 – due 10 May

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ZineWest 2020 is OPEN!  ZineWest is an annual competition and  journal for new writers, 16 years and over, with a strong Western Sydney connection. We welcome any word-based creative work we can reproduce. (NB but this year we are declining work written for the under 16’s.) Free entry, up to three pieces. Deadline is 10 May, 2020. WritingEntryForm_ZW2020

This is our fourteenth year. A good number of our past entrants have graduated to trade publication and we hope the same for all writers who entrust their work to us. We print publish around 30 writers and ten visual artists, plus a further ten writers are invited to present their work at an Open Mic comp. We welcome a range of styles and subjects. ZW is a good place for those shorter works not necessarily suited to a bigger competition. All works selected for print publication are forwarded to the judge, Luke Carman (An Elegant Young Man, Intimate Antipathies). Prizes include $400 (first place) and Giramondo Titles. We look forward to reading your work! NB The art entry form will be available in May.

ZW19FrontCover

ZineWest 2019 PDF

NWG Inc 2020

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February: How to please the reader was our first topic this year. Do our reactions as readers help us write better for our imagined fans? What techniques/topics/style do we admire? We agreed that personal opinion isn’t easy to corral. 

Mihaela Cristescu and Norm Fairbairn received book awards: This Little Red Thing and Bent not Broken for reading their poetry in tribute to Valentine. Titles courtesy of SWEATSHOP See photo below.

Our second gathering for 2020, was a mock editing panel where each group had to decide between three good, but rather different pieces, for the one remaining space in an earnest new journal. It proved what we all know, that given a different editing/selection team, you will get different answers!

ZineWest 2019 launch

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SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER AT UNE SYDNEY
232 CHURCH STREET PARRAMATTA

ZW18Writing winner Annie XY Zhang

PRINT ZINE LAUNCH:
$10 Entry includes door prize and entry to ZW WORD
Zines @12 (contributors get first copy free)

11:30 am: Light lunch featuring Sahtein Lebanese Feasts

12 Noon – 1:30 ish …

  • Address by Rob Field, Director of UNE Sydney
  • Readings
  • Prizes with Luke Carman (writing) and Sophia Kouyoumdjian (art)
    Co-sponsor for writing awards: the Writing and Society Research Centre WSU $400 1st Prize plus Giramondo Titles. Art prize $100 (private donor)
  • More Readings
  • Editors’ Award
  • Music with Fernando Andres and Victor Valdes
  • GIANT RAFFLE
    followed by

ZW WORD!
Entry $2 (unless you paid for the print zine launch)

Loredana Tudor-Tomescu – Winner ZW WORD 2018

2:00 pm Nibbles/drinks – sign on for Open Mic
2:15 – 3:30 pm

  • MUSIC – Fernando Andres and Victor Valdes
  • GUEST WRITERS
  • OPEN MIC –  Win $100 & SWEATSHOP Titles
    Judges: Jason Gray and Annie Zhang
  • Rules: 2 mins only; solo; your original work; english only; no music, dance or props; preferably no rants/lectures!

ZineWest ’19 Art due 1st July

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Publish your visual art in a Western Sydney zine!

The writing entries are in, and it’s time to invite artists with a connection to Western Sydney to send us images for inclusion in our annual print zine. There is a prize of $100 for the Best Image. We aim to publish work by at least 10 visual artists.Our Judge (who sees all entries) is Sophia Kouyoumdjian, Director Parramatta Artists Studios. ArtEntryForm_ZW19 

Launch is 12th October, at UNE Sydney 232 Church Street, Parramatta

Img: L. Marsden