The KSP Writers Centre aims to provide a schedule of linked activities for all writers. ArtsWA provides essential funds for Writers/Editors-in-Residence and Specialist Tutors for the Young Writers Group, and to assist with running the KSP Science Fiction and Short Fiction Competitions. The KSP Foundation is indebted to Mundaring Shire for continuing support and thanks all volunteers for their help. The KSP Writer-in-Residence program, funded by ArtsWA, attracts Emerging and Established writers and editors from WA and interstate. Writers reside in the house, attend some regular KSP group sessions and are available for consultation by appointment.
For bookings, Workshop details and Enquiries, Please Email
kspf@iinet.net.au
or phone the Coordinator on 08 9294 1872. Bookings are essential for all events. All events are
open to KSPF members and the public unless otherwise specified.
Regular Writing Groups for beginners to advanced writers Members $4, non-members $7 per session
Tuesday 6, Wednesday 7, Thursday 8, 9.30am – 4pm, School Holiday Write-A-Rama with Dr Melissa O’Shea
Attention young writers. Do you love writing stories? If you are 11 - 17 yrs old, come to our 3-day school holiday Write-A-Rama and develop your writing skills in a fun and creative setting. Guest speakers will be present, and your work will be published in an anthology. M $65, NM $85, bookings essential.
Wednesday 7 October – Tuesday 3 November: Established Writer-In-Residence Jean Kent
Jean is an established poet with a long record of publication, awards, grants and fellowships. Her poems and stories have been appearing in literary magazines and anthologies in Australia and overseas since 1970, and she has published three collections of her poetry. She has promoted poetry and encouraged other writers with writers’ centres, educational centres and community groups, and has been a competition judge, a mentor, an editor, a reader, and a workshop facilitator and creative writing teacher in schools, universities and local communities. Jean is particularly interested in celebrating the Australian landscape. Her project at KSP is a collection of poems exploring where a variety of contemporary Australians feel ‘at home’ - homes of memory, dream and fantasy, as well as physical places.
Tuesday 20 7pm – 10 pm, Literary Dinner with Established Writer-In-Residence Jean Kent
Take this opportunity to meet Jean and hear her poetry at our special literary dinner in her honour at 11 Old York Road, Greenmount. M$20, NM $25 Bookings essential
Friday, October 23, 2009, 11.30 – 1.30 and finishing on Friday, December 11, 2009. Creative Writing for homeschooled Teens 11-15 years old
By popular demand the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre will offer another workshop for home schooled children in term 4. The course will go over 8 weeks and is designed for teenagers aged approximately 11 to 15 years (Years 7 – 10) who are beginning to exploring their creative writing talents and potential or who are interested in amplifying the skills they have learned last term. The course will cover major techniques of prose writing and – for the first time ever – writing plays for radio. Pupils will learn about finding topics, narrative devices, storyline, dialogue, sound effects and script layout. They will receive writing tips, constructive criticism and feedback. The workshops will be held at the KSP Writers Centre, 11 Old York Road, Greenmount each Friday for eight weeks, commencing on October 23, 2009, 11.30 – 1.30 and finishing on December 11, 2009. The course is suitable for all levels, from beginners to the more experienced. The costs are $ 95 for Non-Members and $ 80 for KSP Members. The facilitator of the course will once more be Kathleen Dzubiel who is a published poet. Her work has been performed in public and on radio across Australia. She has been conducting courses in creative writing for over ten years. (Any young writers who attend school and can arrange to come are also welcome.)
Saturday 24 1pm – 4pm: Workshop ‘Poetry for Luminous Tortoises’ with Established Writer-In-Residence Jean Kent
This workshop will provide stimulation, support and technical help with writing poetry. You will have the opportunity to slow down and be illuminated by examples of contemporary poetry, as well as by the possibilities of your own. Through word play and exercises to stimulate writing, you will b encouraged to stick your neck out – and to move confidently on. Suitable for writers of all levels. M$25, NM $40 Bookings essential.
Saturday 24 4.15pm: KSP AGM
This is the opportunity for members to elect the Management Committee they would like for the next twelve months, and for you to volunteer for a place on the Management Committee. Nominations are especially invited for Treasurer.
Sunday 25 2.00pm – 4.00pm: Writefree Writing Group 2009 Anthology Launch
Tuesday 27 1.30pm for 2.00pm Write-a-Book-in-a-Day Awards at Princess Margaret Hospital
You are invited to the award presentation in the Megazone rooftop play area at Princess Margaret Hospital. All WA team books will be on display. Light refreshments. This year over 90 teams competed Australia-wide to write a children's book in twelve hours for the children's hospital in their state. You will be amazed at the books written by primary school, secondary school and adult teams.
Saturday 7 November - Saturday 21 November: Young Writer-In-Residence Jessica Stalley
Jessica is a local writer with one completed novel in her portfolio, Sweetheart - a dramatic novel set in suburban Australia which deals with the fallout of a family’s devastating secret. She studied English and Media Studies at Murdoch University with lecturers including Simone Lazaroo and Deborah Robertson. She is currently working on a trilogy of supernatural novels set in New York and Mexico and plans to use her time at the centre to further develop this piece of work. The series begins with Mia Blake, who is walking home from work one bleak winter evening when everything goes black. She wakes up three days later in a seedy Mexican motel, bitten, bloodied and…dead. A newborn vampire, Mia must leave everything she holds dear and use her wits to survive in a tough city. Jessica also publishes a weekly writing blog as well as a personal development blog and is interested in building a long-term writing career.
Saturday 7 - Sunday 8, Darlington Arts Festival at the Darlington Oval
KSP will be there with a stall, information, books for sale and readings.
Saturday 14 November 1pm – 4 pm: Looking at the ‘big picture’: Structural editing for prose writers’ with Amanda Curtin (Repeat workshop by popular demand)
A workshop designed to help fiction and non-fiction writers approach their work as a structural editor would. Amanda will discuss common structural problems, as well as techniques to help writers step back from the words and sentences and look at ‘big-picture’ issues. This is the perfect workshop to do so you have the summer holidays to apply what you learn to your manuscript! Amanda Curtin is a freelance book editor with 25 years’ experience (adult and junior fiction, picture books, general non-fiction, scholarly). She is also an award-winning writer of short fiction and essays, and in 2008 published her first novel, The Sinkings.(This workshop is fully booked)
Tuesday 17 7pm – 10 pm, Literary Dinner with Young Writer-In-Residence Jessica Stalley
Don’t miss the opportunity to meet Jessica and hear some of her work at our special literary dinner in her honour at 11 Old York Road, Greenmount. M$20, NM $25 Bookings essential.
Saturday 21 1pm – 4pm: Workshop ‘Creating a Novel Blueprint’ with Young Writer-In-Residence Jessica Stalley
This workshop is about taking the seed of an idea you have for a novel and using it to create a detailed writing plan. During the workshop there will be plenty of time for reflective writing, as well as more structured time for creating a usable novel blueprint. Moving through three stages of creation - Inspiration, Planning, and Writing - we will develop a structured novel blueprint that will guide us through the writing process without taking any of the excitement or anticipation away from the writing process. Through the use of writing prompts and freewriting exercises, we will emerge at the end of the workshop with a novel blueprint, tools for keeping track of characters and other details, and an achievable writing schedule with an optional self-imposed first-draft deadline.Members $25, non-members $40, bookings essential.
Saturday 28 7pm – 9pm: Book presentation: "The Kimberley Series" by Joel Smoker
Born at Derby, the west Kimberley regional centre in Western Australia, in 1952, Joel Smoker has been taking photographs since he was in primary school at Halls Creek. He started with a Box Brownie camera and then graduated to a Kodak camera that could shoot colour as well as black and white. He still has photographs in his collection that he took from his travels around the Kimberley as a boy. In 1983 Joel took up a position as an Arts Advisory Teacher with the Education Department, based at the Kimberley District Education Office in Kununurra in the east Kimberley. The job was for three years and during those years Joel took his camera with him wherever he went. The result is a collection of images that document the landscape and the times during those years. The Kimberley Series are forty photographs that have been selected from this collection of images. The Kimberley Series of photographs were first exhibited in 1987 at Birrukmarri Gallery in Fremantle in conjunction with an exhibition of art by artists from the Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre in Kununurra. The photographs have since been exhibited at Hogarth Galleries in Sydney in 1992 and numerous other exhibitions. They represent the vision of a native son. The Kimberley Series of photographs can be viewed on Joel’s web site at www.joelsmoker.com Members $4, Non-members $7Sunday 6 11.00am Katharine’s Birthday and Short Fiction Awards.
Guided tours of the house and retreats, presentations to volunteers, all in celebration of Katharine Susannah Prichard’s birthday. Light refreshments. At 3 pm Katharine Susannah Prichard Short Fiction Awards and Karen W Treanor Poetry Awards. Presentation of the Mundaring Young Writers Award and Mundaring Community Bank Open Awards, and the reading of the judge’s report. Winning writers will read extracts of their winning stories.
Thursday 17 7.30pm – 9.30pm: Thursday Night Group 2009 Anthology Launch
The Writers in Residence and some of the programs for Young Writers are funded by The Department of Culture and the Arts. The Young Writers' categories in the KSP Speculative Fiction Award and the KSP Short Fiction Award are funded by the Shire of Mundaring and Karen F Treanor Poetry Award is funded by the Mundaring Community Bank.
These events are also advertised in the Hills Gazette, Midland Reporter, and The Echo. Bookings are essential. Please email kspfevents@iinet.net.au, or phone the events coordinator on (08) 9294 1872.