News for writers in the Fremantle Community, Perth & Surrounds

Writing at the Centre, an independent writing group in affiliation with Out of the Asylum Writers Group, offers alternate prose and poetry classes each Friday afternoon @ 1pm in Room 3 of the Fremantle Arts Centre. We originally emerged from a grass-roots writing class as early as in the days when Elizabeth Jolley taught at the lovely old heritage building, Fremantle Arts Centre. Susan Hayes, the State Literature Officer, held office in the building and organised and supported creative writing classes. From there it grew into a non-profit organisation known as OOTA (Out of the Asylum Inc.) and classes now flourish with the attendance of OOTA writers, encouraged by tutors Shane McCauley and Helen Hagemann. Our aims are to nurture writers, to encourage the craft of writing and to promote our writing-base for those writers interested in furthering their skills, their publications and career.

The Centre provides a a fortnightly course in poetry from January to December in the capable hands of Shane McCauley.  Helen Hagemann conducts the prose class and offers a variety of studies, readings, writing exercises, and critiquing sessions that also run fortnightly from February to December.

The grounds at the Fremantle Arts Centre

In the coming months, we will be posting writing news, events, local workshops, and advertising our own independent class news. This may develop into a newsletter page, as well as an A5 printed sheet for prospective new members who attend the class for the first time. It is envisaged that we will also have a publication page where you can read our writers' work. This will be mainly prose, however we will not exclude poetry. We hope to promote our existing class members as well as reach as many beginners of writing as possible.