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- Article Title: Advances - May 2005
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Much has been written and muttered about the difficulty of turning scholarship into commercially viable manuscripts and of interesting publishers in academic writing – some of it, indeed, by Tom Griffiths in the March issue of ABR. In his Commentary, Professor Griffiths defended the role of universities in fostering cogent, rigorous writing. (He also produced one of our favourite quotes of the year: ‘Scholarly writers tend to be pathetically grateful to be published.’) Now Picador Australia and the University of Sydney have taken it one step further. In what is claimed to be a ‘world-first commercial non-fiction publishing project’, costing more than $660,000, six writing residencies will be offered for recent doctoral graduates to turn their research dissertations into commercial non-fiction to be published by Picador Australia. The graduates will be mentored by ‘established literary non-fiction writers of the highest calibre’. Drusilla Modjeska, currently an ARC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, will lead the project, which will also fund an Australian Postgraduate Award, a scholarship for doctoral research into aspects of Australian non-fiction publishing.
Beyond the pond
Verse is one of the world’s few truly international poetry magazines, with perhaps the most eclectic group of contributors of any such publication. Many transatlantic magazines describe themselves as international but never look beyond the pond. Since 1995, when Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki began editing Verse, it has published hundreds of poems from more than thirty countries, not just the US and the UK. To celebrate Verse’s twentieth anniversary, the editors have produced a special number containing 250 writers from more than two dozen countries. Australia, once again, is well represented: poets include J.S. Harry, John Kinsella and Gig Ryan. (Both editors have spent time in Australia; Brian Henry reviewed The Best Australian Poetry 2004 and The Best Australian Poems 2004 in our summer issue.) ‘Advances’ enjoyed this translation of a German poem by Günther Eich, entitled ‘The Dependable Critic’: ‘He leaves out / what’s important. / So you can always tell / what is. // He discusses / yesterday’s farts / and today’s. / His felicitous find: / a fart from tomorrow.’ An annual subscription costs US$18. To subscribe, write to Verse, Department of English, University of Georgia, GA 30602, USA.
Picking a winner
Notwithstanding the blanket coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II, apparently there is more to be said on the subject of his death and his legacy. Paul Collins promptly set off to Rome to finish a book that MUP commissioned last year in anticipation of the election of a new pontiff. He was in Rome during the conclave waiting for that wisp of smoke (a kind of feudal press release). MUP will publish God’s New Man: John Paul II’s Legacy and the Election of the New Pope around August.
Go west!
The folk at the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre are as busy as ever, with a series of events planned for June. Gary Crew will conduct three workshops – on boys and reading, editing, and prose and poetry writing in the classroom – while illustrator Shaun Tan will run a session on the visual literary aspects of his work. An Open Day on June 19 will see a gathering of local writers and illustrators, and exhibitions including Jan Ormerod’s Lizzie Nonsense and Gregory Rogers’s The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard. The Centre is housed in the old Fremantle Prison Hospital. Phone (08) 9430 6869 for further information.
ASAL prizes
The 2005 ASAL Conference will be held from June 4 to 6 at the Art Gallery and the State Library of South Australia. The theme this year is ‘Writing across Cultures: Fiction, History, Memory’. Guest speakers include Sneja Gunew, author of Haunted Nations, which was reviewed in last month’s issue. In addition to the three prominent prizes already awarded at the ASAL conference (the Gold Medal for Literature, the McRae Russell Prize for literary studies and the biannual Mary Gilmore Prize for Poetry), this year will feature two new prizes: the A.D. Hope Prize for the best postgraduate paper from the 2004 conference, and the biennial Magarey Prize for Biography by a woman (worth $10,000). For all you South Australians, this award is not related to the Magarey Medal for best and fairest in SA AFL! For more information about this year’s conference, visit http://www.asc.uq.edu.au/asal.
ASA mentorships
The Australian Society of Authors is offering ten mentorships for young and emerging writers and picture book illustrators, including two for indigenous authors. Past ASA mentorship successes include Terri Janke, whose novel Butterfly Song was reviewed in the March issue of ABR, and Georgia Blain whose fourth novel, Names for Nothingness, was published in 2004. One to watch out for is former forensic investigator Esther McKay, mentored last year by crime writer Gabrielle Lord. McKay’s memoir, Crime Scene, will be released in July. For more information about the ASA mentorship programme, go to www.asauthors.org/mentorships, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone Jill Dimond on (02) 9318 0877.
Salvation and the unconscious
Congratulations to Alex Lewis on winning this year’s Somerset College National Novella. At just fifteen years old, Alex is the youngest author to win this prestigious award. The prize, the only national competition of its kind, is open to all secondary school students and offers a prize of $3000. So what was the winning story about? Well, Freud’s work on the unconscious and T.S. Eliot’s juxtaposition of salvation and damnation. You know, just the usual teenage fare.
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