NTWF Online Book Club
In these housebound times of seclusion, we need books more than ever. The NT Writers Festival 2020 May program planned to share a fantastic lineup of interstate, international and NT writers with our audiences. But just because these writers won’t be appearing here in the NT in May, doesn’t mean you can’t delve into the enthralling worlds conjured up by their exciting new releases.
Enter, the NT Writers Festival Online Book Club. In this unique Book Club, you will receive five fantastic books by NT Writers Festival authors delivered straight to your doorstep across five months. Plus you’ll have the chance to join a monthly online facilitated meet up. Stay tuned for special guest appearances, including appearances from some of our writers! The NTWF Online Book Club is an experience for both long-term book-lovers and those of us ready to take up something new from the comfort of home.
Our first book selection is Doxology by U.S. Novelist Nell Zink. Never one to bow to convention, Zink’s absurd but astute satires plunge readers into the insular worlds of marginal subcultures, often to hilarious effect. Her latest book, Doxology, combines her usual sharply satiric observations with the sweeping scope of a “state of the nation” novel. For those interested in Trump’s America and what, if anything, can change in the US today, this book is sure to be one of the most engaging you’ll read this year.
Down the track we’ll be diving into All Our Shimmering Skies, the highly anticipated second novel by bestselling author, Trent Dalton. Set in Darwin, in 1942, as Japanese bombs rain down, this is a story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth and the secrets we bury inside ourselves.
If you trust our quality programming, then you’ll certainly trust us to curate an engaging reading list for you! Take a look at the full list of titles below and sign up today. Plus, you’ll be supporting Australian authors and local bookshop, The Bookshop Darwin, in the process!
Please note: We are currently trying to secure funding to be able to offer limited places in the NTWF Online Book Club free of charge to book lovers who are facing financial difficulties due to COVID-19. If you are interested in signing up to the NTWF Online Book Club, but don’t think you can afford it at this time, please drop us a line on rita@ntwriters.com.au with a max. 50-word statement on how COVID-19 has affected you, and we will put you on a waiting list. Please note that these places are contingent on as yet un-confirmed funding.
What will I need to participate online?
In light of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, NT Writers’ Centre is seeking to offer more events online.
You will need:
- A good internet connection.
- A computer or any device that connects to the internet (including phones and tablets) with a built in camera and microphone.
- Headphones with a built in microphone are helpful but non-essential. Alternatively we suggest you plan to join from a quiet, distraction-free location.
- To download Zoom https://zoom.us/
download - Participants will be sent further information about how to join the online meeting after registration.
- Some sessions may also be held on Facebook
- Doxology, Nell Zink
- Stone Sky Gold Mountain, Mirandi Riwoe
- Top End Girl, Miranda Tapsell
- Return to Dust, Dani Powell
- All Our Shimmering Skies, Trent Dalton
Books will be delivered to you in three instalments to reduce postage costs. The first delivery (Doxology, Stone Sky Gold Mountain) will arrive by 1 June 2020. The second delivery (Top End Girl, Return to Dust) will arrive by 7 August 2020. The final delivery will be of Trent Dalton’s All Our Shimmering Skies (release date postponed) in early October.
Cost: $200/$180 NTWC Members
Includes:
- Five fabulous new release books, delivered straight to your door
- Five facilitated Book Club meet ups with a selection of special guests and authors. Book Club meetings take place on the first Thursday of the Month, 5:30-7:30pm, July-November
Children’s Book Consultation with Erica Wagner
Are you writing books for children U12? Long time publisher, editor and bookseller Erica Wagner has agreed to offer 30 minute personal feedback over Zoom after reading a selection of your work. This is a unique opportunity to get advice directly from an experienced publisher and gain valuable insight into your work. Not one to be missed!
Erica Wagner has worked with books for most of her life, as a bookseller, editor and publisher and has worked with many of Australia’s finest writers and illustrators. Until recently she was the Executive Publisher, Books for Children and Young Adults at Allen & Unwin, working on a select list of picture books, non-fiction, children’s and YA fiction. Erica started her career as a trainee editor at Penguin Australia in 1988, becoming Associate Publisher in 1996. In 1998 she started a new children’s list, Silverfish, for Duffy & Snellgrove, and in 1999 was awarded the Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship. She was a publisher with Allen & Unwin for 20 years and is now a freelance publishing consultant as well as co-director of the micro publishing house, Twelve Panels Press. In 2017 she was awarded the Dromkeen Medal for her services to Australian children’s literature.
Date: ongoing basis
Venue: Zoom video link (consultation time to be arranged at convenient time for both parties)
Cost: $120 NTWC members/$150 non-members
SUBMISSIONS (The full form will be emailed to you on sign up)
FOR NOVELS:
A double-spaced first chapter and a 300 word (or less) synopsis as a word document + a bit about yourself and your creative journey so far (200 words max).
FOR PICTURE/ILLUSTRATED BOOKS:
Writers: 2 – 3 examples of your writing, 10 pages max (this could be one story or more, depending on length) + a bit about yourself and your creative journey so far (200 words max)
Artists: 3 – 5 examples of your work (no more than 10MB in total) as jpgs or pdf
Writer/illustrators: Send both the above
Online Manuscript Masterclass with Nadine Davidoff
In this full-day online masterclass, freelance book editor and writing teacher Nadine Davidoff will analyse the fundamental principles of compelling prose—whether it be fiction or narrative non-fiction.
What is voice and how does a writer cultivate it? What are the essential components of a powerful opening? How does a writer choose the best angle on their story? What is the most persuasive point of view? What are the options for structure? What are the most effective ways to evoke character and setting?
Drawing on examples from contemporary literature, Nadine’s workshop will expose the hidden architecture that scaffolds the best writing. Writers will come away with a renewed understanding of these key structural principles and how to apply them to their own work.
Davidoff brings extensive teaching and trade publishing experience to this fantastic one-off opportunity. This workshop is for anyone working on an extended piece of writing in fiction or nonfiction and looking to take their work to the next stage of development.
Nadine Davidoff is a freelance book editor and writing/editing teacher with extensive trade publishing experience. She has worked as a Senior Editor at Random House and a Commissioning Editor at Black Inc.
Davidoff has taught in RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing course and she teaches the annual Fiction Editing Masterclass in Melbourne University’s Masters of Publishing program.
What will I need to participate online?
In light of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, we are offering this workshop online. As with our regular workshops, participants can expect to receive high quality teaching and plenty of opportunity for interaction and discussion.
You will need:
Sunday April 26
9am-5pm
$110 / $80 NTWC Members
Bookings CLICK HERE
Writing Romance – Online Clinic with Mel A Rowe
Australian bestselling author, Mel A Rowe, winner of the NT Author Mentorship with Hachette Australia; short-listed for Best New Author by AusRom Today Readers’ Choice Awards; manuscript critiquer and competition judge for Romance Writers Australia. Mel also pens poetry and prose found in various international literary publications, representing Australia in her contributions to Poets of the World global community in Poetica I. Mel manages an award-winning flash fiction site, R&R Ramblings, and a procrastinator’s blog on her author site, melarowe.com. In this online clinic Mel will provide feedback to participants on three, (up to) 1500 word submissions of prose in the genres of Romance or Women’s Fiction.
Course Outline
- The course is run completely by email.
- Each month for three months, participants will submit up to 1500 words of writing in the Romance/Women’s Fiction genres. This might include: a short story; a section from a novel/memoir; or similar. You may choose to work on different pieces or chapters each round, or to develop one with multiple drafts–it’s up to you.
- Within two weeks you’ll receive feedback from Mel and your peers.
- All participants will be given the opportunity to read and comment on writing from others in the group. While this process of giving feedback is optional, it is strongly encouraged. Participation will enrich the process overall and help you to reflect on and improve your own writing.
- Access to the internet and a working computer is a requirement of this course. We will be using Google Drive as a hub, but communication by email only is also accepted.
Online – Gathering Ground: Walking, Talking and Writing With Place with Kelly Lee Hickey
In light of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, this walkshop will now take place online, where you can walk in your garden, write at home, and connect with others online. Please take special precautions in joining this event. Maintain your physical distance when walking, and give yourself ample space for writing.
“When you give yourself to places, they give you yourself back…. Exploring the world is one the best ways of exploring the mind, and walking travels both terrains.”– Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Walking and writing have a long history together. Gathering Ground is an invitation to this explore this tradition through three weekends of writing walk-shops. Each week a provocation will be explored through a short writers walk, followed by a generative writing session. This workshop is open to writers and artists of any form or experience interested in developing new ways of seeing, being and writing with/in place.
Kelly Lee Hickey was raised in Darwin, on the sweat soaked wetlands of Larrakia Land, and has made her home in the dusty red country of the Arrernte nation in Mparntwe/Alice Springs since 2008. An artist, producer and creative researcher, her practice explores the intersections between people and places, through collaborative and participatory works. Her work has been published and performed in Australia, China, Finland, New Zealand, Indonesia and Germany.
What will I need to participate online?
As with our regular workshops, participants can expect to receive high quality teaching and plenty of opportunity for interaction and discussion.
You will need:
Online via ZOOM, Saturday 28th March and 4th April, 10am – 12am
Price: Full $60, Member $50 (book using link below)
Online Writing Memoir with Joanne van Os
In light of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we are now offering this workshop online. The date has been confirmed as 18 April and will be offered via our online video link service called Zoom. This is a great opportunity to get the best out of writing your memoir in these times of isolation!
Every life has its stories. A memoir can cover a person’s whole life, or just a small section, and it can be about yourself, or someone else, but is usually from a personal perspective. It’s a genre that’s growing in popularity, with readers enjoying stories of ordinary people’s extraordinary lives. In this workshop Jo will seek to inspire, instruct and help you get started. For anyone who’s ever thought about writing a memoir.
Joanne van Os’ first book was best-selling memoir Outback Heart (Penguin), published in 2005 it tells the story of life with her first husband, the ‘Real Crocodile Dundee’ Rod Ansell, mustering wild cattle and buffalo and living a 19th century lifestyle in remote parts of the Northern Territory, and his tragic end in 1999. Children’s novels followed: Brumby Plains, Castaway, and The Secret of the Lonely Isles (shortlisted for the 2012 Territory Read awards). Her first general fiction novel, Ronan’s Echo, about the battle of Fromelles in WWI and the excavation of buried soldiers in 2010, was published in 2014. She is currently working on a new book.
What will I need to participate online?
As with our regular workshops, participants can expect to receive high quality teaching and plenty of opportunity for interaction and discussion.
You will need:
Saturday, April 18th
10am – 1pm
$80/$50 NTWC members
