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Sixty kilometres north-west of Melbourne is Moorabool Shire—an area famous for its delicious strawberry fields, apple orchards, scenic national parks and plunging gorges. Yet it is also a place rich in writing talent, brimming with stories. Peter Carey and Frank Hardy once called these lands home, as do many writers and artists today.
The Moorabool Festival of Stories is a free event showcasing our rich storytelling culture, as well as investing in the future of our writers. Miles Franklin winning author A.S. Patrić (Black Rock, White City) and Jane Harper, winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript (The Dry), will delight as they impart their top tips for storytelling, as well as answering your questions and signing your books. Local author Allyse Near (Fairytales for Wilde Girls) will lead us down the path into her world of gothic fairytales and writing for young adults, while Dyna Eldaief shares in her cooking masterclass how she preserved the exact taste of her mother’s Egyptian cooking. And for those looking for other ways to tell stories, local poet Jennie Fraine and screenwriter Steve Tandy will discuss how these mediums can be used for expressing the storyteller within.
We are also thrilled to announce the inaugural Peter Carey Short Story Award as part of this festival. Open to all courageous Australian residents, the competition will award one winning short story of between 2000 - 3000 words $1000, as well as boasting rights for this prestigiously named award. The runner-up will receive $250. Shortlisted entries will be judged by Ryan O’Neill, author of the short story collection The Weight of a Human Heart and the recent novel-in-stories Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers.
So get pen to paper, rock up for a workshop and come meet the authors. Join us as we examine just how much stories are at the heart of us all.
www.moorabool.vic.gov.au/festivalofstories
Lerderderg Library, 215 Main Street, Bacchus Marsh6.00pm. Light supper included.RSVP: [email protected]
FREE EVENT
Moorabool Writers Craft is a creative writing group from Moorabool Shire in Victoria, Australia.
We have writers from Bacchus Marsh, Ballan, Gordon, Blackwood and many other parts of the Shire of Moorabool and beyond.
We meet on the 1st Saturday of the month at various locations in the shire.
We also welcome any online members from around the world to contribute, via comments on our site.
www.facebook.com/ mooraboolwriterscraft
10.00am - 11.00amPANEL DISCUSSION Author introductions, plus 5 top tips for writing.Alexis Drevikovsky MC, A.S. Patrić , Jane Harper, Allyse Near
2.00pm - 4.00pmA.S. PATRICSHORT STORY PRESENTATIONJoin 2016 Miles Franklin award winning author A.S. Patrić for a two hour session on the short story form. Learn the features of great short stories, while also delving into aspects of craft and the narrative choices writers face when fashioning works of short fiction.
11.15am - 1.15pmSTEVE TANDY TURN AN IDEA INTO A SCREENPLAYAimed at those who may already have a screenplay idea, but aren’t exactly sure how to begin the writing process. This session will cover the various elements of writing screenplays, from essential planning methods to writing and structuring the script itself, and finally what to do with your screenplay once it’s completed.
11.15am – 1.15pmJANE HARPER FROM IDEA TO PUBLICATIONJoin the award winning Jane Harper for a two hour insider’s guide on the journey to publication. Hear Jane speak on writing and editing techniques that include a focus on place, character and plot, and take away these practical steps to turn your idea into a completed manuscript.
READERS NOOKCome along for an interesting conversation
11.15am - 12.15pmJENNIE FRAINEMeet the author
12.00pm - 1.15pmALEXIS DREVIKOVSKYWriters Victoria
2.00pm - 2.45pmJANE HARPERMeet the author
2.50pm - 4.00pmALYSSE NEARMeet the author
2.00pm - 4.00pmDYNA ELDAIEF A TASTE OF EGYPTOver two decades the book has gone from concept to award winning cookbook. The road has not been smooth by any means. Hear Dyna's stories about capturing her Egyptian heritage through this cookbook. Collating recipes from her parents, writing the stories, approaching Australian publishers, how she found her publisher overseas, her experience negotiating a contract, the process of revision and editing as a partnership with the publisher, organising the book launch and what happens next.
11.15am - 1.15pm DYNA ELDAIEF MASTERCLASS Watch Dyna demonstrate a 3 course meal including her most popular Egyptian sweet while she talks about her path to publishing her book “The Taste of Egypt - home cooking from the Middle East” and her experiences on the biggest reality television cooking show in the Middle East.
Cost: $80pp includes signed book
Bookings 0407 213 181 Or email to [email protected]
AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING
11.15am - 12.00pmFIONA LOWE
12.15pm - 1.00pmMAZI MCBURNIE
2.00pm - 2.45pmBILL ROBERTSON
3.00pm - 3.45pmJOAN ARTHERTON HOOPER
11.15am - 12.00pm CIRCUS IN A SUITECASECircus in a suitecase is a comedy circus show where the children will betaken on a journey through the brilliant and often chaotic world of circus. Traditional circus acts take on a new twist when Terry Cole and Pat Bath keep upping the stakes on themselves, setting challenges that, when accomplished, are as electrifying as they are precise.
Ryan O'Neill PCSSA Judge
Jane Harper has worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK. She lives in Melbourne and writes for the Herald Sun, among other publications. Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, The Dry is her first novel with rights sold to over twenty territories.
A.S. Patric's novel Black Rock White City won the 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award. He is a winner of the Ned Kelly Award and the Booranga Prize, and is the author of Las Vegas for Vegans, a short story collection shortlisted in the Queensland Literary Awards. He is also the author The Rattler & other stories, and is publishing The Butcherbird Stories in 2018 - his third collection. His stories have featured in The Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Overland, Southerly, Island, Quadrant, in over 20 other literary journals, and in Best Australian Stories 2010 and 2012.
Allyse Near’s debut novel, Fairytales for Wilde Girls, won Best Horror and Best Young Adult Novel at the Aurealis Awards and Honour Book of the Year at the CBCA Awards, and was shortlisted for the Norma K Hemming and Inky Awards. Near won Deakin University’s inaugural Judith Rodriguez Prize for Fiction in her second year of study, and was one of MWF’s 30 Under 30 in 2015. She counts Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, Francesca Lia Block and the Brothers Grimm among her biggest literary influences.
General Manager - Writers Victoria
Alexis’ professional life has revolved around words. She taught English to Mexican children, placated disgruntled airline passengers and worked to reconnect consumers to the sustainable food sector.
She’s happiest somewhere between literature, language and keeping things organised.
My mother was born in Cairo and my father in Minia (South of Cairo) and although I was born in Australia I have a real passion for Middle Eastern food. Home life for me has always centred around food. Food was the answer to all things in my parent’s eyes, if I was sick – I needed food, if I was tired – I needed food! Today I love to cook with my children, it really is one of my greatest joys.
A poet since the ABC Children’s Hour gave her a purple certificate for a poem her father helped her to rhyme, Jennie Fraine is a playful writer, but asks the deep questions about writing poetry. Some of her answers may surprise you.
Jennie’s first collection of poetry, The Cast Changes, was runner-up in the coveted FAW Anne Elder Award in 1986. Her writings have been featured in numerous magazines, anthologies, maps, and self-published collections.
Award-winning author Fiona Lowe brings us a sweeping Australian novel of lost love and tangled family secrets – set in Victoria’s beautiful Western District. Families are complicated, nothing is black and white and love comes in many guises. Fiona Lowe has been a midwife, a sexual health counsellor and a family support worker - an ideal career path for an author who writes novels about family and relationships. A recipient of the prestigious USA RITA award and the Australian RUBY award, Fiona’s books are set in small country towns, feature real people facing
difficult choices and explore how family ties and relationships impact our decisions.
Steven Tandy is an emerging writer/director from Regional Victoria. He was awarded a scholarship to study a Bachelor of Film and Television at Swinburne University, where he honed his craft writing and directing his own short films-many being filmed in his hometown of Bacchus Marsh. Most recently, Tandy moved on from shorts and began writing his debut feature screenplay, ‘The Black Dogs We Carry’ which he pitched at Open Channel’s ‘Short and Sharp Pitching’ competition, winning both the Judges' and the Audience award. The screenplay has since been optioned with Tandy attached to direct.
Mazi Mcburnie earned a degree in Social Science. She has worked as a librarian, in senior care, and as a teacher. Mazi and her husband have two adult daughters, three granddaughters, and live in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. Gypsy Lullaby is her first of many novels.
Growing up in Colac as a Ward of the State, to deserted wife in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, to mother of daughters struggling with drug, alcohol and mental health issues, Joan has an astonishing sense of humour and an iron-clad will to ‘rise above her station’ and turn her life into a success. Nothing to Cry About, an unflinching memoir, begins with author, Joan Atherton Hooper, discovering a photo of the young man who, in 1939, murdered her father. Joan’s story, from age two in an orphanage, swings between fantasies of Hollywood and restraints from the Vatican.
Bill Robertson is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Victoria Police. He served thirty six years in the Force at metropolitan and country stations and, as an Assistant Commissioner, held the three portfolios of Research and Development, Personnel and Police Training. He attended the noted UK Senior Command Course at Bramshill and was Team Leader for an Ausaid review of police training in Fiji. After retirement he was commissioned to review the Police Witness Protection Program for the former Office of Police Integrity.
Terry Cole is an accomplished actor, director, musician and circus performer. He is a long term member of Circus in a Suitcase and the Famous Fratellini Brothers and is also an inspirational workshop leader. Terry has many years of experience as a performer and is well-known and loved for his work both as a multi-instrumentalist singer/musician and as a multidimensional circus performer.
Writers Victoria
The Moorabool News
AllPress Printing
State Library of Victoria
Review of Australian Fiction
Moorabool Writers Craft
Access the Melbourne to Ballarat V-Line train and stop at Bacchus Marsh station - buses arrive arrive at Gell street or Bennett Street bus stops, which is only a short stroll to the library precinct.
