Writing about Health: incl. Brenda Walker's "Reading by Moonlight"

Writing about Health with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 5th May, 1pm-3pm.  Readings of Brenda Walker's "Reading by Moonlight". This workshop will introduce writing ideas on health to help deconstruct our own experiences so that we can look more deeply into how health has affected the characters that we create on a day to day basis in our writing. If you have had problems with your health throughout your lifetime, this is a great area to draw from as there are many readers who will be able to relate. 
Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, enquire about room at front desk.
Time: 1-3pm. What to bring:  Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad
Cost:  OOTA $20  - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save).  
Please note: For information on joining OOTA and what we do, please visit our website http://ootawriters.com

Reading by Moonlight by Brenda Walker: A memoir of reading and healing

The first time Brenda Walker packed her bag to go into hospital, she wondered which book to take with her. As a novelist and professor of literature, her life had been built around reading and writing. Now she was also a patient, being treated for breast cancer, fighting for her life and afraid for herself and her family. But turning to medicine didn't mean she turned away from fiction. Books had always been her solace and sustenance, and now choosing the right one was the most important thing she could do for herself.

In Reading by Moonlight, Brenda describes the five stages of her treatment and how different books and authors helped her through the tumultuous process of recovery. As well as offering wonderful introductions and insights into the work of writers like Dante, Tolstoy, Nabokov, Beckett and Dickens, Brenda shows how the very process of reading – surrendering and then regathering yourself – echoes the process of healing.

Reading by Moonlight guides, reassures, throws light on dark places, and finds beauty in the stories that come to us in times of jeopardy. It affirms that reading can be essential to life itself.

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Writing About Art (2) - Contemporary Impressionist, Daniela Selir

This workshop is a continuum of studying Daniela Selir's painting "Arts Centre Cafe"which is the subject for the City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards 2017. Most of Selir's work is contemporary, and as well, hints of a style by the old French Impressionists, including Renoir and Claude Monet. The Impressionist movement was characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.


Please Note: This Prose class on Friday 21st April will be held in the FAC's small cafe room of Canvas Cafe from 10.00am til 12.00 midday. This is because it is school holidays and the Arts Centre does not have a room for us. As well, some writing exercises will revolve around the "Arts Centre Cafe" which is the subject for the City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards 2017. A great opportunity to hone your skills looking at the ambience, structure and the sensuous aesthetics of the cafe, while perhaps having a coffee!  Critiquing group will meet after lunch.





CONTEMPORARY IMPRESSIONIST
A term used to describe works created by contemporary artists that share similar aesthetic qualities with those by the French Impressionists. Whether depicting urban environments or the natural world, all of the images that can be considered Contemporary Impressionist are rendered with loose, expressive brushwork and focus on the effects of light. Like many of the Impressionists, Daniela Selir finds peace and serenity in real places in the natural world. She has painted many scenes of a Billabong - one of her favourite spots.

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Ekphrasis: Writing About Art workshop with Helen Hagemann

Ekphrasis: "Writing About Art" will focus on a painting by Daniela Selir (1994) titled "Arts Centre Cafe" with the option of entering the City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards. Friday, 7th April, 1pm-3pm. We will read short extracts of ekphrastic prose by John Ruskin, William Thackeray, Robert Rosenblum and in particular Homer's Bk 18 of the Illiad. Writing exercises will consider how to incorporate the "7" formal elements of art design in a short story.

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Drawing Studio.
Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad Cost: OOTA $20 - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save). Please note: No credit card facility and new attendees who arrive without the class fee will be asked to pay on the day via direct debit transfer.
For information on joining OOTA and what we do, please visit our website http://ootawriters.com

City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards - Now Open

Entries close: 14 July 2017

Entries are now open for the 2017 City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards, with more than $5000 in prizes on offer.
Authors can submit up to three stories. Entered stories must be inspired by, drawn upon, or use the theme of the artwork "Arts Centre Cafe" by Daniela Selir (1994), which can be found on the entry form.
Individual stories cannot be entered in more than one category, and must be original, unpublished, not have received an award in another competition, and not be under consideration elsewhere from the time of entry in the awards until the official announcement of winners.
To ensure anonymity, please do not put names or contact details on the manuscript. Entries are read ‘blind’ by the judge, and all entries must be accompanied by a completed and signed entry form. Entries must be type-written, double-spaced on one side only of A4-sized white paper, with pages numbered, and the story title on each page.
Email entries as an attached .rtf of word document to customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au with "2017 Short Fiction Awards: [STORY TITLE] by [YOUR NAME]" as the subject line OR post it in an A4 envelope to:
City of Rockingham Short Fiction Awards
Community Development Officer, Arts and Culture
City of Rockingham
PO Box 2142
Rockingham DC WA 6967
Entry is free, and winners will be notified by phone or mail prior to the official announcement. The judge’s decisions is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. Any attempt to lobby judges or City of Rockingham employees, or influence decisions, may result in disqualification.

For further queries, please contact the Community Development Officer (Arts & Culture) on 9528 0333 or customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au.

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