Writers’ gathering Saturday 15 April 3-5pm, upstairs at UNE Sydney, 211 Church St Parramatta. We will discuss tropes, stereotypes and POV. Open Mic for short pieces or excerpts of your original work. Don’t forget ZineWest and our Ekphrastic project!
Saturday, 25 March 3-5 at UNE Sydney 211 Church Street Parramatta upstairs (There is a lift!)
Join us for an informal discussion and exercise on Writing Character.
Tell us about a protagonist or the voice of a poem that impressed.
And how do writers produce a memorable person, an unforgettable voice?
Plus Open Mic – your original works are most welcome – short or an excerpt.
Image: Banisters at 211 Church Photo: Mihaela Cristescu
And meanwhile don’t forget our Ekphrasis project and your entries for ZineWest!
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:
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.
With heart-felt thanks to UNE Sydney. Starting on 4th February, we will meet once a month on a Saturday 3-5 pm, at 211 Church Street Parramatta, for tutorials, workshops and open mic – except when we launch Parramatta Expression in June and ZineWest in October at 100 George Street.
Saturday Gathering Dates:
February: 4
March: 25
April: 15
May: 13
(June: 17 Parramatta Expression Launch)
July: 8
August: 12
September: 9
(October: 14 ZineWest Launch)
November: 11 – Includes AGM
These events are open to the public but please introduce yourself first by email at and visit our About page to see our charter and other info.
Saturday, 12 November at UNE, 28 George St Parramatta
3-5 pm Please sign in downstairs 2:50-3:00
Masks please, and no food or drink except bottled water.
We always bring wrapped sweets. No obligation to eat them.
Open Mic – short work or extract
Survey on your suggestions for 2023
*Ekphrastic writing – discussion and exercise
Afterwards, join us at the Woolpack for a quick drink/snack
*Ekphrastic Writing – one among many definitions – “describes or pays tribute to a piece of visual art”.
Here is an artwork we will include in the exercise: Meandering City by Kathryn Munro
Saturday, 10 September, 2022, 3-5pm
UNE, 28 George Street, Parramatta
Please sign in downstairs 2:50-3:05 pm
Please note we wear face masks. No food/drink except bottled water .
Bi-lingual poet and translator Mihaela Cristescu will get us thinking about poetry and then, whether you’re a poet or not, we’ll help fix a poem that needs help and maybe write a limerick.
Please bring a poem of your own to read AND/OR one of your favourite poems by someone else and tell us what you value about it. NB Our usual rule is no reading of works not written by the reader! So here’s your chance to break the rule…
Carol Amos will head up the drama team. Everyone draws a character from a hat. With a bit of information supplied, you write up the character’s story/style and then introduce them to the team. A whodunnit? Find out …
Saturday, 13th August, 3-5 pm at UNE Sydney’s 28 George Street, Parramatta
Please sign in on ground floor (28 George, Parramatta) 2:50-3:05 pm. This will be a masked event!
Plus Open Mic – bring something short to share!
Writing Workshop …
creating memorable scenes in a range of genre including historical fiction.
Saturday, 11 June 3-5 pm
UNE Sydney 28 George Street PARRAMATTA
Sign in on ground floor 2:45-3:00 pm
$5 entry with door prize
NB This is a masked event.
Dr Ariella Van Luyn is a lecturer in writing at UNE Sydney. She is the author of the historical novel Treading Air (Affirm Press) and her short stories have been published in international and Australian journals including Voiceworks, Overland, Southerly and The Lifted Brow. Her areas of research are Creative writing, Practice-led research, Online writing pedagogy, Historical fiction. See more of her bio here.
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.
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