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
Saturday 20 June 1pm – 4 pm: Workshop ‘Persona and the Poem’ with Tracy Ryan
This workshop will consider ways of freeing the poetic voice from the strictly autobiographical or literal "I". Considering some examples from contemporary and traditional published poetry, we will explore how to use invented or borrowed personae in our own work. Tracy Ryan is the author of five full-length works of poetry, most recently Scar Revision (2008), as well as three novels, the latest of which is Sweet (2008). She has worked as an editor and bookseller, and taught writing at universities in three different countries. M $25, NM$40, bookings essential.
Saturday 18 1pm – 4pm: Workshop ‘Self Publishing: its merits and downfalls’ with Helen Iles.
Helen will tell us about the merits and pitfalls of self publishing and vanity presses, as well as looking at the manuscript preparation (including editing, preparing prelim and end pages) pre-press/layout, cover design, assessing the market, and factoring expense and profit. Helen has been writing since primary school and was published in magazines from an early age. She has held numerous creative writing workshops and has won competitions for poetry and short stories. In 2000 she started Linellen Press, with the aim of publishing and promoting Western Australian authors. M$25, NM $40
Friday 24: Closing date for 2010 Established Writer-In-Residence applications
Please click on 'Residency Program' in the menu sidebar for full details and application conditions.
Friday 31: Closing date for 2009 Young Writer-In-Residence applications
Please click on 'Residency Program' in the menu sidebar for full details and application conditions. Open to Young writers twenty-five years old or younger. The successful applicant is funded through a grant to KSP from the WA Department of CUlture and the Arts.
Saturday 1 August 1pm – 4 pm: Plotting the Novel: A Workshop on the Devious Art of Plotting with John Harman.
A good plot is both the skeleton and sinews of the story, providing direction, definition and the power to move readers’ feelings to a satisfactory resolution. By understanding and experimenting with the nine-point arc of a typical plot, workshop participants will learn the devious art of plotting. Getting the plot and character perfectly entwined is both the storyteller’s craft and art. M$25, NM $40 Bookings essential.
Saturday 1 August – Friday 28 August: Emerging Writer-In-Residence Heather K Hummel (USA)
Heather K Hummel has worked as a college English teacher, an editor, and a technical writer. She is one of the founding editors of the online literary journal, Blood Orange Review and currently works at the National Writing Project headquarters in Berkeley, California, USA. She has published recent poems in Babel Fruit, Calyx, and Quay, and has also written a young adult novel titled Urban Coyote, still unpublished. Heather's current writing project is a collection of poetry titled Not Touching, Touching. The poems explore intimate human relationships to nature, especially the interconnected fragility that comes with environmental destruction and pollution. Her work is informed by her interest in nature writing, deep ecology, and ecofeminist theory.
Sunday 16 3pm: Speculative Fiction Awards
Come along for a fascinating afternoon – attend the Awards presentation, listen to readings from the winning entries and hear our judge’s report on the outstanding quality of this year’s entrants. A delicious afternoon tea will be available for a gold coin donation.
Tuesday 18 7pm – 10pm: Literary Dinner with Emerging Writer-In-Residence Heather K Hummel
Don’t miss this opportunity to meet Heather and hear her writing at our special literary dinner in her honour at 11 Old York Road, Greenmount. M$20, NM $25 Bookings essential.
Saturday 22 1pm – 4pm: Workshop ‘Editing Your Own Work with Patience and Precision’ with Emerging Writer-In-Residence Heather K Hummel
Editing your own work can be frustrating and overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. This workshop will address layers of editing and how to use them sharpen your draft into a finished product. We will mainly work with revising poems, but the skills can also be applied to other types of writing as well. We will practice editing for meaning, sound, imagery, and precision. The workshop will discuss various handbooks and compare the editing approaches of different writers so that we can learn a wide array of editing methods and styles. Please bring drafts of poems you would like to revise when you come to the workshop.M$25, NM $40
Friday 28: Closing date for 2010 Emerging Writer-In-Residence applications
Please click on 'Residency Program' in the menu sidebar for full details and application conditions.
Monday 7 September – Monday 5 October, Emerging Writer-In-Residence Helen Gildfind
For the past decade Helen has been seriously developing her poetry and fiction whilst studying professional writing, history and education in tertiary institutions. In this time she has had short stories and poetry published in Westerly, Veranda, Voiceworks, Hecate and Poetrix, as well as academic essays published in Antipodes and Idiom. She has been short-listed for the Marian Eldridge Award (2006) and won second prize in the John Marsden Award for Young Australian Writers (2005). Helen is currently studying Australian women writers from the 1930s (including Prichard) in the form of PhD research at Melbourne University, where she also tutors creative writing. Her project while at KSP is a work of fiction, Paper People, and Helen hopes that the residency will provide the concentrated time necessary to develop it to its full potential.
Tuesday 8 September 4 - 5.30pm workshop for children with science fiction writer Bevan McGuiness.
In association with the heARTlines Children’s Literature Festival. $5 KSP/MAC members, $10 non-members. Bookings essential, through Mundaring Arts Centre 9295 3991.
Saturday 12 4 – 5.30 Children’s Writing Workshop with Jan Ramage and Ellen Hickman
Author and illustrator of The Tuart Dwellers (in association with Mundaring heARTlines Children’s Literature Festival. $5 KSP/MAC members, $10 non-members. Bookings essential, through Mundaring Arts Centre 9295 3991.
Tuesday 22 7 – 10pm Literary Dinner with Emerging Writer-In-Residence Helen Gildfind
Meet Helen and hear her writing at our special literary dinner in her honour at 11 Old York Road, Greenmount. Helen is the last of our Emerging Writers-In-Residence in 2009, so don’t miss this opportunity. M$20, NM $25, bookings essential.
Friday 25 Closing date for KSP Short Fiction Competition
Saturday 26 1pm – 4pm: Workshop ‘Panning for Gold’ with Emerging Writer-In-Residence Helen Gildfind
(in association with Mundaring heARTlines Children’s Literature Festival) This workshop is about writing a lot of words, very quickly, in the pursuit of ideas that a more careful and inhibited practice may miss or purposely ignore. The title alludes to the notion that writing comes from writing. While spontaneous writing may seem to be ‘useless’ or ‘rubbish,’ within it the seed-idea of a story can be found. In this workshop we will pan our muddy and muddled ideas in search for those little nuggets of gold from which a whole story can be fashioned. Members $25, non-members $40, bookings essential.
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 10 -15 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
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.
Sunday 25 12.30pm – 4.30pm: Writefree Writing Group 2009 Anthology Launch
Young Writer in Residence (TBA) in residence for two weeks, including literary dinner and workshop.
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. M $25, NM $40, bookings essential.
Sunday 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. 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, and the Department for Child Protection. The Young Writers' categories in the KSP Speculative Fiction Award and the KSP Short Fiction Award are funded by the Shire of Mundaring and Open Section of the KSP Short Fiction 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.