VARUNA BLUE MOUNTAINS COMMUNITY WRITING PROGRAM
The Varuna Blue Mountains Community Writing Program offers support and guidance to Blue Mountains writers through a range of writing courses and activities as well as providing writers and readers the chance to become part of a national and international community of writers. Varuna's Community Writing Program is a partnership between the Eleanor Dark Foundation Ltd and the Blue Mountains City Council. The Varuna Community Writing Program is funded through the Council's Cultural Partnerships Program.
The 2008 Varuna Blue Mountains Community Writing Program consists of:
PROGRAM CHANGES
The Varuna Community Program for 2008 has been changed. Local residents will no longer be required to join an associates program. Instead, an improved range of programs and events will be held throughout the year, and promoted through our community mailing list. Each course or program will need to be booked and paid for separately. Book a place in any part of the Blue Mountains Community Program using this form (click here).
VARUNA BLUE MOUNTAINS WRITERS' & READERS' DAY
Our Writers' & Readers' Day is held on the first Tuesday of each month, providing a regular meeting place to share writing and reading experiences, and to meet and talk with one of the many national and international writers visiting Varuna. The program includes a morning tea break and interview with a resident Varuna writer.
The convener of the Varuna Writers' and Readers' Day is novelist, teacher and award-winning radio playwright, Helen Barnes-Bulley.
WHEN IS IT?
10.00am -12.30pm, first Tuesday of the month, (excluding January and October)
COST
$120 per year ($12 per session x 10 sessions). Please note that we will need a minimum of 15 participants to commit and pay upfront in order for it to be feasible for Helen to run this program.
VARUNA BLUE MOUNTAINS WRITERS' WORKSHOPS
Workshop No. 2: ‘Writing Your Life’ with Patti Miller
A five week course on life writing. Learn how to access memory, write with vivid detail, bring your experience to life on the page, find your writing voice, find the story and the shape of your life on the page.
It will be a small group in an encouraging and creative atmosphere at Varuna, The Writer’s House and will be suitable for beginners as well as those who have made a start - individual attention with a maximum of 12 enrolled.
Participants will need to obtain a copy of the set text, Writing Your Life (see below).
Patti Miller is the author of the best-selling Writing Your Life (writing text), The Last One Who Remembers (memoir) and Child (a novel), Whatever The Gods Do (memoir) and The Memoir Book. She has taught creative writing classes at universities and writers’ centres around Australia for many years, specialising in ‘life writing’ since 1991.
She has a BA and MA in Writing from UTS. She also assesses and edits life writing and fiction manuscripts and many manuscripts she has worked on have been published.
See her website: www.lifestories.com.au
SET TEXT
Writing Your Life (2001) - available at bookshops. (Try Megalong Books in Leura.)
BOOKINGS
First email varuna@varuna.com.au to inquire if there are still spaces available and if so, please send payment of $220 using the booking form.
WHEN
August 1-29, 2008 (five consecutive Fridays)
10am to 1pm (includes morning tea break)
TUTOR
Patti Miller
COST
$220 per course
WHERE
Varuna, the Writers' House, 141 Cascade St, Katoomba.
*Please note we will need a Minimum of 10 participants to run each workshop / course and the fee would need to be paid upfront.
Watch this space for information on other coming workshop courses.
VARUNA BLUE MOUNTAINS CONSULTATION DAYS
Once a year the Varuna Blue Mountains Community Writing program offers a professional consultation service to local writers. The Varuna Blue Mountains Consultation Days program has been designed so Blue Mountains writers currently engaged on a specific writing project can receive professional attention and advice about their work from Varuna's Creative Director, Peter Bishop.
WHEN ARE THE CONSULTATION DAYS?
April 15-16-18, 2008
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
$25 per consultation.
HOW CAN I BOOK A CONSULTATION?
Blue Mountains writers will be notified via the community mailing list (click here) when bookings are open for consultation spaces.
2008 VARUNA BLUE MOUNTAINS EVENTS
In 2008 a number of special Blue Mountains community events will take place, including a two-day program as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival and a Longlines Community week program.
Sydney Writers' Festival in Katoomba - May 19 & 20, 2008
Sydney Writers' Festival in Katoomba was a fabulous presentation across a two-day program at the Carrington Hotel, including international guests and writers from around Australia.
Varuna Blue Mountains LongLines Community Week Program - October 6-12, 2008
The Macquarie Group Foundation LongLines Program has been created specifically for writers from remote, regional areas of Australia and Indigenous writers. A Longlines Community week will be held in October with workshops and consultations as well as an Open Day with readings held in the Varuna garden. Details will appear in
News & Diary and also be distributed through the
community mailing list (click here).
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