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New England Writers' Centre

YOUTH WEEK STORY QUEST!

6/10/2024

 
Tenterfield celebrates Youth Week - April 2024

When Lee at Tenterfield Library called Lyn, NEWC's program manager, with an urgent request: "Do you know a local artist who's great with kids?" the answer was immediate, "Yes! We sure do."

The next thing we know, Armidale Author/Illustrator, Trish Donald, is heading to Tenterfield for Youth Week in April, where she had a creative time with children and adults at a workshop focused on developing micro-stories.
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​After the event, Trish filled us in on the fun she'd had with the children. "The stories captured a moment in time through the eyes of people, animals and objects with visual elements from the stories inspiring rock paintings. The rocks were placed along the Tenterfield Creek Trail walk for all to enjoy at the Story Quest Digital Sculpture trail through the Tenterfield Youth Precinct."

What a brilliant idea! Find out more, and see some of these lovely stories on the Tenterfield Shire Council website.

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Steampunk support network

3/19/2024

 
2023's Varuna-NEWC Fellowship winner talks of his experience... 
​Sometimes people say I'm weird, and I like it when they do. I like odd things. But I really felt like the odd thing when I turned up at The National Writer's House, Varuna, for my week long NEWC Fellowship. 
​
It wasn't that I was the lone guy in a group of six. It wasn't that I had driven 8 hours and felt kind of light-headed. It was more the fish-out-of-water type of odd. 
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"...it felt like I fit – maybe because it is a place of writers, built and maintained by people who care."
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Say G'day! Meet Julia @ Impact Editing

3/17/2024

 
Julia contacted the NEWC office recently to introduce herself and let us know that she was now an Armidale local, offering editorial services.

It's great to have more author services in the area and we're happy to share her news. 
"...my favourite form of editing is structural editing and book coaching."
I founded Impact Editing in 2021 after completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Editing at Macquarie University.

In 2023, my family relocated to Armidale after eleven years in Narrabri, where I worked as a journalist and educator.

I am passionate about literature, having studied literature at university and worked as a lecturer at the University of Tasmania, and then UNE, but I am also a skilled editor of non-fiction and dissertations.


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www.impactediting.com.au

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Murder and Shootouts

9/12/2023

 
By Anne Greenwood
Anne Greenwood, winner of the 2022 Varuna-NEWC Fellowship, for "Torment's Mirror" shares her experience of spending a week at Varuna.
I kill people. Okay, let me rephrase that. I kill people ….. okay, third time lucky…. I kill fictional people and then send other fictional people off to solve the crime. . . and there’s no better place to do that than at Varuna, The National Writers’ House.

Or, as I like to call it, murder central.
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Small, suprising things

8/10/2022

 
by Lydia Roberts
​A NICHE publisher making “small, surprising things” has just been launched by NEWC chair, Sophie Masson, and illustrator, Lorena Carrington.

Pardalote Press will publish unusual projects by the pair, who have set up a crowdfunding campaign to help establish their tiny press, which within the first two days of the campaign had already well overshot its original funding goal of $2,500.
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Creatives, creatures & community

7/15/2022

 
by Lydia Roberts
A LOVE LETTER to arachnids is how Armidale creative James O'Hanlon describes his forthcoming book, I Love Spiders.

James won the 2021 Varuna/New England Writers’ Centre Fellowship for his manuscript, which takes an endearing and scientific look at his great passion, arachnids.

"I spent a lot of time hanging around arachnologists and realising how overwhelmingly fascinating spiders were," James says.  ​"I thought the rest of the world ought to know about this, so the idea for a popular science book was born."
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James O'Hanlon, winner of the 2021 Varuna-NEWC Fellowship

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from Aspirational, to professional

7/12/2022

 
by Lydia Roberts
It was a rare scoop when university student Sharnee Rawson landed the role of co-editing Inside Story: the wonderful world of writing, illustrating and publishing children's books.

Published by United Publishers of Armidale (a collaboration between two New England-based boutique publishers, Christmas Press and Little Pink Dog Books), and the New England Writers’ Centre, Inside Story is a one-of-a-kind resource for anyone wanting to know more about the children's publishing industry.​
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Sharnee, at work on Inside Story
It is aimed at aspiring young creatives, such as Sharnee, who want to write, illustrate, or edit children’s books and is filled with tips, advice and anecdotes from professionals such as Sophie Masson, Kathy Creamer, Beatty Alvarez and Peter Creamer.

“I had always been eager for involvement in [NEWC], so I was ecstatic when I was hired as an editor for Inside Story,” Sharnee says.

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Big question leads to crime novel

7/11/2022

 
By Lydia Roberts
What's the worst that could happen?
It's a common enough question that led to award winning author JP (Josh) Pomare writing a "twisty thriller".

Josh and his partner, from Melbourne, were mulling the idea of letting their home to Airbnb guests.

They wondered what was the worst that could happen if they did so and decided it was worth the risk.

​The business has been a success, but the question, of what could possibly go wrong, led to Josh's latest novel, The Last Guests.
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Crime writer, JP Pomare "what's the worst that could happen?"

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Drawing out your inner child

4/29/2022

 
By Lydia Roberts
ILLUSTRATOR Sandy Flett wants to draw out our inner child.  ​
So she has designed a “kit bag” of drawing warm-ups, tips and advice to help potential illustrators and writers achieve their goal of drawing and writing for children.

Sandy will share her kit bag, as well as her experience as a children’s illustrator, at a workshop organised by the New England Writers’ Centre. 

“I would love the participants in this workshop to have their dreams of becoming an illustrator made more possible,” Sandy says.

“It would be awesome for people to come away feeling more confident in their ability to create and to learn to relax into illustration work.”

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Click the poster to find out more.
"Illustrating children’s books is a way of reconnecting with our own childhood."

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Turning the page on editing

11/18/2021

 
By Lydia Roberts
SUCCESSFUL SEGUE: Editor Anna Thomson is also a published writer.
​EVER get stuck into a good story, only to find your mind drifting after a few chapters because you can’t understand the characters?

Armidale editor Anna Thomson found she couldn’t “fall into” the story with some works she edited, even though the plot was well written and constructed.

Her solution was to write her own novel and, thanks to the inaugural Varuna-New England Writers' Centre fellowship, she spent a week working on Bloodwood.
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“Having an entire week to work uninterrupted on the manuscript was just what I, and it, needed,” Thomson said.
Anna Thompson was the winner of the 2019 Inaugural Varuna-NEWC Fellowship
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We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which the New England Writers' Centre is situated and pay our respects to Aboriginal Elders past, present and emerging.
  • Home
  • Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing
  • Illustration Prize for Children's Picture Book Publishing
  • Varuna-NEWC Fellowship
  • About
    • SPARK
    • Our Board
    • Our Sponsors
  • Membership
  • Contact Us
  • 2024 Archive
    • 2024 Illustration Prize for Children's Picture Book Publishing
    • 2024 Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing >
      • 2024 Thunderbolt Judges
      • 2024 Thunderbolt Winning submissions
    • Writing for the Primary Education Market
    • Story to Script Course
    • Writing and Illustrating for Children
    • Riveted Press Pitch Sessions
    • Grow Big Little Seed
    • Crafting Memoir
  • 2023 Archive
    • 2023 Thunderbolt winners >
      • 2023 Thunderbolt Judges
      • 2023 Thunderbolt winning submissions
    • 2023 Illustration Prize for children's picture book publishing
    • Varuna Fellowship 2023
  • 2022 Archive
    • 2022 Summer Micro Grants >
      • 2022 Summer micro grants_Mary McMillan >
        • 2022 Summer micro grants_Kerry Moran
    • 2022 Illustration Prize for children's picture book illustration
    • 2022 Thunderbolt winners >
      • 2022 Thunderbolt Prize winning submissions
      • 2022 Thunderbolt Prize Judges Reports
    • 2022 Varuna-NEWC Fellowship
  • 2021 Archive
    • 2021 Illustration Prize Winners
    • Varuna Fellowship 2021
    • Thunderbolt Prize 2021 >
      • Thunderbolt Prize 2021 Judges Reports
    • 2021 Summer Micro Grants >
      • 2021 Summer micro grants_Trish >
        • Beetle Hunt Stories
      • 2021 Summer micro grants_James
      • 2021 Summer Micro Grants_Fiona
  • 2020 Archive
    • Thunderbolt Prize 2020 >
      • Thunderbolt Prize 2020 Judges Reports
      • Thunderbolt Prize 2020_Winning submissions
    • Illustration Prize 2020 Winners
    • Varuna Fellowship 2020
    • 2020 Historical Novel Prize
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • Inside Story Book
    • By The Book video series
    • Stories Connect