Trevor's Writing

Adelaide Writers’ Week March 2010

No Comments »7th March, 2010; Category: Adelaide Writers' Week, Authors, Awards, Events, Writers

Tom Keneally opening Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

Last week I attended three days of the six day Adelaide Writers’ Week. This is an important and integral part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts held every two years. This festival attracts readers and writers from all over Australia, as well as a glittering gathering of international writers who come as guest speakers. Each day starts at 9:30am and runs until 6pm so it is quite a marathon effort for organisers and attendees as well. The sessions are all free (except for several evening sessions in the Town Hall). The sessions vary from panel discussions on writing, reading and literature through to book launches and meet-the-author opportunities.

Three large marquees are set up in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens a five minute walk from the CBD. The East Tent and the West Tent host sessions concurrently while the Book Tent is housed in another tent in between. This shop features books written only by authors present on the programme. All authors are available for book signings too.

2010 Writers' Week, Pioneer Women's Memorial Gardens, Adelaide

On the first day of the festival there was a special session to announce the winners of the Festival Awards for Literature. This was done by the Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann. In all there are ten awards ranging from plays, children’s books, non-fiction to unpublished manuscripts. The cash awards are very generous and I applaud the state government for supporting our writers in this way. May it continue.

Premier Mike Rann at Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

Further reading:

Adelaide Writers’ Week 2010 Day 1

Happy Birthday to my writing blog

5 Comments »6th March, 2010; Category: Blogging, Blogs, Events, Master of Arts course, Short Stories

This blog about writing is four years old.

Cue: the sound of wild cheering, strains of “Happy Birthday” and the popping of corks drifting through cyberspace.

[Editors note: corks popping? Why wasn’t I invited??]

Yes folks, this blog about writing is now officially 4 years old today. It has crawled, stumbled and staggered across the pages of literary endeavour over the last four years trying to say something significant – and sometimes just trying to say something.

At times I’ve shared some of my short stories, at other times I’ve published here a few samples of my poetry. Over the last two years I’ve shared my struggles, joys and frustrations while trying to complete my Master of Arts in Creative Writing, including the trials of trying to write a novel for my thesis paper.

This blog continues to grow and prosper – well, grow a little each day. Still waiting for the prosper bit. I try to post every day but often it can be several days between posts as the other demands of my writing life take up time and energy.

Thank you to all of my faithful readers.

Special thanks to all of you who have made the effort to leave a comment. I’d by mighty chuffed if you left a comment wishing the blog a Happy Birthday.

A extra special thanks to my son Sim’ who does all of the background technical stuff keeping this blog going.

Good writing.

Adelaide Writers’ Week Day 1 Feb 2010

2 Comments »28th February, 2010; Category: Authors, Books, Events

Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

Today I attended the first day of the Adelaide Writers’ Week for this years’ Festival of Arts. This is an important and well attended part of the biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts. This time it’s the 50th Anniversary of the Festival and this week our premier announced that from 2012 it will become an annual event (a promise if he is elected again in a few weeks time!)

Adelaide Writers’ Week is regarded highly as the leading festival for writers in Australia, and one of the best in the world. A large group of international and Australian writers gather here every two years for a feast of talking about books, writing and literature.

I’ve only ever had the chance to attend once before and I am the poorer for this. (Because sessions are held during the day I couldn’t attend while I was still classroom teaching a few years back – in another life.)

Today the festivities were opened by none other than Tom Keneally (Schindler’s Ark), a very engaging and entertaining speaker. I didn’t realise he had such a clever wit and sharp humour.

Below I’ve included some photos of the setting in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens, a five minute walk from the heart of Adelaide.

I am planning to attend again tomorrow and later in the week. I’ll bring more reports as we go.

Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

How does this happen? Confessions of a book lover.

4 Comments »27th February, 2010; Category: Adelaide Writers' Week, Books, Events, Novels, Reading, Writers

The biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts starts today. This feast of cultural events is now a well established event in South Australia, celebrating 50 years of festivals this year. It has maintained a world class standard for festivals since its inception. This week there have been political promises to make it an annual event – we have a state election here in 3 weeks’ time.

Writers’ Week

A very prominent and popular part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts is Writers’ Week, starting tomorrow. Several dozen leading Australian and International writers descend on Adelaide for this festival. Several large marquees are set up in the beautiful parklands and the writers are given centre stage for a whole week. Most sessions are free events for the reading and writing public, a rare thing these days. Book launches are also a prominent feature of the week, along with the announcement of a raft of awards.

Programme Guide

I plan to attend a number of sessions next week so during the week I wandered into a leading bookshop in Adelaide to buy the programme guide. The price was $7 and I thought that wouldn’t break the bank or drain the wallet too much.

How come then I come out of the bookshop with six books in a bag?

Those wonderful novels – some in hardback – were sitting there on the bargain tables quietly whispering my name and begging to be taken to a good home. I couldn’t resist.

As part of this confession, and to atone for my misdeeds, I’ll read those books over coming weeks and then review them here on this blog. It’s the least I can do.

Good reading.

Good writing.

To read more about my impressions of the Adelaide Writers’ Week click here.

Review: Better than the Witch Doctor

No Comments »24th February, 2010; Category: Authors, Books, Christian, Master of Arts course, Non Fiction, Reviews

Mary Cundy is an amazing woman. I have never met her, but after reading her book I feel as if I know her very well. I read this book as background research for my Master of Arts in Creative Writing thesis novel and exegesis essay. Although it did not have a direct bearing on my novel it was fascinating reading and it gave me a good feel for the setting of my novel. In fact, she lived for a time right where my novel is set.

In 1957 Mary Cundy, a young social worker in England, obeyed the call of God on her life and travelled to the mountainous country of Nepal. At this time very few outsiders had ever visited the country, let alone work there as a Christian missionary. For the next 33 years she served in remote parts of the country bringing medical help to the local people, even though she had no training in the field.

Scene from our lodge in Monjo, Nepal

She lived with the people in their villages in very poor and demanding conditions. She quickly started a dispensary, helping over 100 very ill people daily. She graphically describes the daily lives of the village people and the struggles she had coping with their medical needs, physical needs as well as making small inroads into their spiritual needs. As a Christian missionary, however, her work was frequently hampered by officialdom (it was forbidden at the time to proselytise), suspicion (the local witch doctors were very powerful) and mistrust (she was often the first non-Nepali person locals had seen).

This is a very encouraging book. Not only is it a good read, I found it amazing how God can take ordinary people like Mary, put them in impossible situations, and produce extraordinary lives.

As far as I can determine, this book is sadly no longer in print.

Reference:

Cundy, M 1994, Better than the witch doctor, Monarch Publications, Crowborough, East Sussex.

Further reading:

My travels in Nepal – links to my travel blog, includes many photos taken in Nepal.
Writing a novel – a series of articles about how I went about writing my novel for children set in Nepal.

Ama Dablam, Nepal