Author Archives: Sarah Giles

About Sarah Giles

Sarah Giles (she/her) is a PhD candidate at Swinburne University researching the possibilities of the contemporary short story cycle exploring women’s experiences of isolation, trauma and mental illness. Her writing has been published in The Writing Mind: Creative Writing Responses to Images of the Living Brain, ACE III and ACE IV (Arresting Contemporary stories by Emerging Writers), The Incompleteness Book, TEXT Journal among others. Sarah works at Writers Victoria as Marketing and Memberships Officer and is a sessional tutor across multiple universities.

A photograph of a well-lit narrow alley.

Call for Papers – Axon: Creative Explorations

This issue of the Axon: Creative Explorations journal will explore the relationships and connections between Creative Writing, Place and History and will be published in the December–January 2024-25 issue.

The editors, Paul Hetherington and Cassandra Atherton, now invite 150-word abstracts for proposed articles related to the relationships and connections between Creative Writing, Place and History, which might include topics such as:

  • Poetry and place
  • Poetry and history
  • Genius Loci as a concept
  • Creative writing and the factual
  • Writing about ‘what actually happened’
  • Recreating histories
  • The relationship between truth, facts and invention
  • Visiting writing locations
  • Understanding the ‘other’ in other places
  • The creative use of documentary resources
  • Biography and creativity

Abstracts for articles on other related topics are also welcome.

All abstracts should be submitted by 30 APRIL 2024 at Axon’s Submissions Manager (https://axoncreativeexplorations.submittable.com/submit)

If an abstract is accepted by the editors, the full article will be due by 31 OCTOBER 2024.

Articles, essays, papers and other scholarly contributions are peer reviewed in a double blind process and in producing a research-based paper, authors should be drawing on a sound framework of scholarship relevant to the paper’s topic, rather than purely on personal experience and/or anecdotal evidence. Papers are expected to make a contribution that extends the current literature in the field. Authors are welcome to take a creative or lateral approach to their topic or to incorporate images or other graphic work.

Further information for authors is available here: https://axonjournal.com.au/contribute

Final revised articles, papers, essays and interviews (including endnotes) will be a minimum of 3,000 words and maximum of 6,000 words in length.

Please note: poems for the issue will be solicited by the editors. Unsolicited poems should not be submitted.

Roderick Visiting Fellowships 2024 & 2025

The Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing seeks expressions of interest (EOIs) from researchers in the field of Australian literary studies to participate in a series of Roderick Visiting Fellowships. The Roderick Visiting Fellowship Program aims to attract outstanding researchers in the field of Australian literary studies to make a positive contribution to the research culture of the James Cook University. This contribution should include conducting one masterclass, as well as presenting seminars or delivering public-facing guest lectures.

Expressions of interest should align with research themes that acknowledge JCU’s position in the tropical world by addressing one or more of the following themes: ecosystems, conservation and climate change; industry and economy; peoples and societies; health, medicine and biosecurity. Within these broad themes, the Roderick Centre has a particular interest in the Environment (e.g. Reef, Rainforest, Tropics); Empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People; and Medicine – Mental Health/ Wellbeing.

Roderick Visiting Fellows will join the centre for thirty (30) days. The Fellowship is valued at up to $20,000 which includes travel, accommodation, and administrative expenses plus a stipend to cover incidentals while staying at JCU.

Eligibility

The fellowships are available to any scholar from Australia or overseas who is actively working in the field of Australian literary studies.

 Your expression of interest should include:

  • Curriculum Vitae (CV), including details of degrees and qualifications; relevant positions held in the past five years; a list of publications, presentations, and achievements relevant to the application.
  • Fellowship Proposal: In no more than two pages, indicate the ways in which you will contribute to the University research culture by drawing on your experience and track record. The proposal should also indicate a schedule for the visit to JCU. We are initially seeking scholars who could be in residence from 15 July 2024 to coincide with the launch of the Roderick Centre. Other periods in 2024 and 2025 are welcome.
  • Two referee reports: The referee reports should address your experience and research capabilities, and an assessment of the value and viability of the fellowship proposal.

Selection

  • EOIs will be considered by the Director and leaders of the Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing, as well as independent assessors.
  • EOIs will be assessed against your track record (relative to opportunity) and standing in the field, and also the strength of the proposal.
  • Preference will be given to EOIs that clearly align with JCU’s research themes.

Submission

Please forward your expression of interest to Associate Professor Roger Osborne Roger.Osborne@jcu.edu.au before 31 March 2024.

Call for Papers | TEXT Special Issue: Writing from the Fringes

Deadline: Monday 22 April 2024

TEXT editors are calling for paper abstracts and creative EOIs for a December special issue of the journal. The theme of the issue is “Writing from the Fringes”, and possible subject matter includes (but is not limited to) the following:

·         Written perspectives from writers of colour

·         Writers challenging neo-liberalism and patriarchy

·         Writing from the shadow/y land of Gothicism

·         Writing and reading Aboriginal Gothic literature/stories

·         Writing to challenge/subvert gender stereotypes

·         Writing and reading from positions of neurodiversity

·         Writing and reading from positions of disability

·         Thoughts and perspectives on reconfiguring Australia’s literary “canon”

·         Writing through/about trauma and pain

·         Writing through/about personal “hauntings”

·         Writing through/about racism

·         Writing through/about experiences of dislocation

·         For love or money? Writing through socio-economic hardship

·         Writing about diaspora and the immigrant’s/migrant’s experience

·         The margins as a liminal space (place): What is happening there?

·         (Re)writing history/perspectives from historical narratives, suppression, and oppression

·         Exploring relationships with the more-than-human world (through written work)

·         Writing that uses other englishes and/or languages other than English in English-based writing

·         Writing from/through translation.

Abstract Submissions

Abstracts for scholarly papers should be 200 words and sent to the editors at textsifringe@gmail.com with the subject line: “EOI for Scholarly Submission”.

Final scholarly papers would be 6,000 to 8,000 words, per TEXT guidelines (including endnotes).

EOIs for Creative Submissions

EOIs should be sent to the editors at textsifringe@gmail.com with the subject line: “EOI for Creative Submission”.

Creative EOIs should include a 200-word synopsis/description of the proposed work and its relation to the special issue’s theme, as well as a 200 to 300 word- (10 to 20 lines) creative sample.

Final prose works would be 2,000 to 3,000 words or a conventional equivalent for script-based works. Poem sequences of up to 80 lines (500 words for prose poems) are also welcome.

The deadline for scholarly paper abstracts and creative EOI submissions is Monday 22 April.

Call for Papers: a/b: Auto/Biography Studies

Submit a Manuscript to the journal a/b: Auto/Biography Studies for a Special Issue on: Lives, Selves, Media and #MeToo: Anticipating Futures, Tracing Histories and Articulating the Present.

The Journal is seeking 250-300 word abstracts for articles of up to 6000 words, and shorter creative or critical contributions of up to 1000 words. Please make clear in your abstract which format your proposal pertains to.

Abstracts are due on 4 March 2024, and full papers will be due on 2 September 2024.

We are also planning a collaborative workshop for potential contributors in July 2024, and details will follow for those whose full papers are requested.

The editorial team for this special issue is led by Kylie Cardell (Flinders University) and Emma Maguire (James Cook University). Please submit abstracts via email to: kylie.cardell@flinders.edu.au and emma.maguire@jcu.edu.au

Save the date: 2024 AAWP Conference

In exciting news, we have finalised the details of the 2024 AAWP Conference: 

  • Main program: Wednesday 27 – Friday 29 November 2024 
  • Venue: University of New England, Armidale (NSW)
  • Workshops (focusing creative, critical and professional practice): Tuesday 26 November
  • Conference theme: Intersections.

A call for abstracts and link to the conference website will follow, soon. 

Register via the Conference website

EOIs are open for RMIT’s non/fictionLAB and Mekong Review

RMIT University’s non/fictionLAB is proud to partner with Mekong Review to commission a new series of short, collaboratively-written literary works or criticism (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics work, book reviews etc) for publication in forthcoming issues of the international publication.

Mekong Review & non/fictionLab: Call for expressions of interest

Mekong Review, under the managing editorship of Kirsten Han, is a quarterly English-language magazine of arts, literature, culture, politics, the environment and society in Asia, written by people from the region or those who know it well. From its founding in 2015 by Minh Bui Jones, its aim has been to provide a fresh perspective: one that covers Asian histories, lives and cultures through emerging regional voices. Its approach is close to that of publications like the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books—that is, basing its writing around new publications of interest—but its view is distinctly Asian. Contributors are requested to please familiarise themselves with the content and style of Mekong Review.

In line with the publication’s position as a cosmopolitan and free press in Asia, this series will examine the notions of space and place through creative exchange and collaboration between writers from Australia and SE Asia. Questions that these pieces might consider/respond to include: What are the pressing conversations or exchanges we might have today about space, place, home, housing, belonging and/or unbelonging? How do writers understand and/or represent place and space? How does the politics of place inform our writing/art? What kinds of spaces do we create through writing? What opinions do we share or differ on regarding space/place phenomena? How might we approach the writing of place together from our respective positions?

Works will be commissioned IN PAIRS but published as a single work. We would like one writer to be based in Australia and one in the SE Asia region. You might like to discuss and debate a book, cocreate a poem, story or comic, review one another’s books, interview one another, or anything in between or beyond! It is up to you to choose your writing companion and approach.

There will be up to EIGHT works commissioned. Prose: 1000-1200 words; 50-60 lines poetry; comics up to half a page (dimensions W 24.96 x H 16.74 cm).

How to submit your EOI:

Interested contributors need to submit:

  • 150-word abstract articulating the form and nature of the intended work
  • Bios for each author
  • A piece (or excerpt) of writing by each contributor in the form (e.g. fiction, review, poem)proposed in the abstract (or similar sample of writing).

Please submit the above to both Sree Iyer sreedhevi.iyer@rmit.edu.au and Kirsten Han kirstenhan@mekongreview.com by 20 January 2024. Decisions on abstracts will be made by first week of February 2024, and final pieces will be due on a rolling basis as negotiated with Mekong Review. *

*Please note that the first issue in the series (May) has a deadline of 20 March for final pieces. Please indicate in your submission if you would be able to make that deadline.

Industry-based writers (ie non-salaried practitioners without university affiliation) will be paid for their work.

Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor role at University of Melbourne

The School of Culture and Communication is seeking a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor to play a leadership role in the development of innovative teaching practices in the School. Essential criteria include a PhD in any of the School’s disciplines – creative writing is one of these.

Applications close 1 December.

Learn more

2023 Australian Short Story Festival Program

The full program of events, including workshops, panels, book launches and more, is now available on the Australian Short Story Festival (ASSF) website. With a star-studded lineup of storytellers from across Australia and overseas, the 2023 festival is one not to be missed! The festival will be held at the Fullarton Park Community Centre in the City of Unley in Adelaide from the 9th to the 12th of November. Tickets are available to purchase now, with discounts for students, concession card holders and City of Unley residents. For more information and to purchase your tickets, visit the ASSF website.

2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize Longlists Announced

Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA), in partnership with Australia’s leading essential building and infrastructure services provider ARA Group, is excited to announce the Longlists for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize.

This year’s Longlists traverse a vast tapestry of settings and eras, delving into tales of love against prejudice, the resilience in the face of societal shifts, and the enduring spirit of individuals amidst challenges. From sun-soaked Australian landscapes to the complexities of medieval England and the turmoil of wartime Europe, the stories underscore the potency of historical fiction to illuminate the intricacies of human nature, evoke untold tales, and spotlight the shared tribulations and triumphs echoing through time.

The Longlist for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Adult Category is:

The Longlist for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Children and Young Adult (CYA) Category is:

The ARA Historical Novel Prize is worth a total of $100,000 in prize monies. The Prize will award $50,000 to the Adult category winner, with an additional $5,000 to be awarded to each of the remaining two shortlisted authors. In the Children and Young Adult (CYA) category, the winner will receive $30,000, while the two shortlisted authors will receive $5,000 each.

The 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize Shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 27 September 2023. Winners will be announced on 19 October 2023. For more information about the awards and to see last year’s winners, please visit the HNSA website.