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.

Call for Abstracts: Beyond Words: Interdisciplinary Intersections of Creative Writing andWellbeing

EDITORS: Dr Caty Flynn (The Genre Lab.) & Professor Ursula Hurley (University of Salford) CALL DEADLINE: 500-word abstracts by FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER 2023
CONTACT: bookandvolumeofthemind@gmail.com


CONTEXT
The phrase “creative writing” is used in wellbeing interventions as a catch-all term for many forms of practice. Currently, there is scant research to back up claims of efficacy, and little insight in terms of what the actual benefits of specific creative writing practices are, why these benefits occur, and how we can utilise this knowledge for shaping such practices so that we can get the most out of them. We believe passionately that creative writing can, indeed, improve wellbeing. But, we want to present a collection of investigations into the mechanisms of why and, by doing so, lay blueprints for how. This important intersection between wellbeing and creative writing has yet to be addressed robustly and this collection attempts to do so.

Creative writing research is inherently interdisciplinary. As Mi Csikszentmihalyi explains,
“being able to braid together ideas and emotions from disparate domains is one way writers express their creativity” (263). Science and psychology recognise the broader implications of creative writing’s applicability, evidenced by a wealth of developments over the last century, including but not limited to the explicit influences apparent in everyone from Freud to Damasio to Hofstadter, to Narrative Psychology (see Sarbin, 1986) and Drama Therapy (see Jones, 1996). Theorists of all disciplines typically turn to storytelling to elucidate their points. But, what can creative writing do for these fields beyond offering metaphors or analogies (useful as that may be)? What can creative writing do in terms of application, theory, communication, and creative conceptualisation with regard to wellbeing? In this proposed collection, we seek to move beyond metaphor towards mutual enrichment.


The overall purpose of the volume is to showcase innovative methodologies and new theories, highlight benefits and challenges, offer frameworks and directions for future research, and encourage new developments at the intersection of creative writing practice and wellbeing. Our enquiry considers the implications for creative practice; psychological and therapeutic practice; self-help; intersectionality, social justice and transformation; and experimental scientific research.

SUGGESTED THEMES/TOPICS
We aim to be inclusive in terms of discipline, approach, and background. We encourage both single-author and collaborative submissions, and chapters which incorporate practice-based research or creative or hybrid forms into process or presentation, thereby making form as well as content part of the research, as well as more traditional academic chapters. We are interested in chapters that foreground specific genres of writing or specific areas of wellbeing, and those which take a broader view. We encourage personal investigations as well as social research. Essentially, we are open to receiving any creative and robust response to the brief from any and every disciplinary perspective, to showcase the diversity of current practices and their transformative potential.


Of particular interest is interdisciplinary work that can creatively raise issues, themes, and topics such as:

  • Creative writing as a practice through which to shift perspective, question given rules and habitual behaviours, and imagine things otherwise.
  • Connections between the processes and concepts of writing and those of the cognitive and social sciences. Comparative essays on concepts from psychology, mental health, neuroscience, sociology etc with concepts from creative writing i.e., stories and brain processes, rhetorical/literary devices as biological/psychological/emotional functions/tools.
  • How can we make creative writing concepts accessible beyond literacy, vision, or any other barrier which impedes engagement? Chapters might imagine brail or audio methods, oral storytelling, dramatic or musical performance, games, and/or inclusive social facilitations.
  • Re-imaginings, syntheses, or innovative extensions of traditional or existing theory from an interdisciplinary lens – i.e., creative writing and psychology.
  • Case-studies, evaluative reports, cameos, co-constructed content or other outputs from creative writing wellbeing intervention trials or projects.
  • The capacities of creative writing to constitute a free and accessible mode of self-care for a large demographic of people in ways that support intersecting social inequalities observable in accessing effective mental health, wellbeing, and self-development support.
  • Are all types of creative writing good for us? Are certain types of writing “better” for us or more transformational, and others “worse” for us or regressive? In terms of reading or writing, particular genres or styles or movements or periods or practices.
  • Specific genres & their wellbeing potential / mental health utility/resonance; specific mental health conditions explored through the lens of creative writing; specific outcomes – self-expression; reconceptualisation; control; confidence; change; perspective; reflection; etc.
  • Evolutionary advantages of creative writing.
  • Disciplinary, sectoral, and/or any other challenges, difficulties, issues, or barriers in creative writing wellbeing research, development, engagement, and evaluation, including but not limited to ethical procedure, methodology, engagement, skillset, resources, knowledge base, facilitation, publication, funding, collaboration, and interdisciplinary working. How can we transform or overcome these challenges?
  • Robustly researched theoretical essays regarding the “why” and “how” of wellbeing/self-development benefits which emerge from creative writing.
  • The potential of creative writing for social change, resisting injustice, and transforming perceptions.
  • Methodologies for creative writing & mental health research and innovation.
  • Theoretical, experimental, and creative investigations of concepts and practices such as journaling; self-expression; life-writing; self-writing; and so on.
  • How can we build co-construction, community involvement, and social engagement into creative writing wellbeing projects?
  • Everyday utility/application of creative writing concepts/practices for self-care/expression/development.
  • The future of writing for wellbeing – directions/next steps; predictions/hopes; necessary changes; potential problems.

All chapters must constitute fully-integrated interdisciplinary work – a dialogue between fields, rather than a reading of one discipline through another in a one-way dynamic. All of these topics/ideas can be approached in whatever genre of writing feels appropriate. However, we do expect there to be rigorous interdisciplinary research, reading, and critical thinking underpinning even the most creative or experimental chapter. We interpret creative writing broadly, so do contact us if you are unsure about definitional boundaries.

Format: We invite 500-word Abstracts for 5,000-10,000-word chapters (negotiable). Please include up to 5 keywords and a brief biography of the author(s) which includes an institutional affiliation and your contact email.


Send your abstract to: bookandvolumeofthemind@gmail.com

Deadline for Abstracts: 06/10/2023.
Accepted authors will be notified 20/10/2023.
Accepted chapters to be delivered no later than 19/04/2024.
Editorial team: Dr Caty Flynn (The Genre Lab.) & Professor Ursula Hurley (University of Salford)


REFERENCES
Cozolino, L. (2010). The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2013). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial.
Damasio, A. (2000). The Feeling of what Happens. London: Vintage.
Freud, S. (2008). The Interpretation of Dreams. Oxford: Oxford’s World Classics.
Hofstadter, D. (2007). I am a Strange Loop. Philadelphia: Basic Books.
Koestler, A. (1975). The Act of Creation. London: Picador.
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors We Live By. London: University of Chicago Press.
Prentiss, S. and Walker, N. eds. (2020). The Science of Story: The Brain Behind Creative Nonfiction. London: Bloomsbury.

Australian Short Story Festival Mentorship

Submission deadline: Friday 25th August 2023

This incredible opportunity is open to emerging Australian or permanent resident short story writers who do not have a full-length, published collection. The winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a three-month long remote mentorship with award-winning Irish short story writer and playwright, Paul McVeigh. During this time, you will work with Paul to develop three short stories across three months of mentoring from October to December 2023.

This opportunity is made possible by the Australian Short Story Festival and an Australian Government’s Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) grant.

About Paul McVeigh:

Paul’s debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award, and was shortlisted for many others including The Prix du Roman Cezam. Paul began his writing career as a playwright and comedy writer. His short stories have been in numerous anthologies, journals and newspapers, as well as on BBC Radio 3,4 & 5, and Sky Arts. He co-founded London Short Story Festival and is associate director of Word Factory, London, ‘the UK national organisation for excellence in the short story’ The Guardian. He co-edited Belfast Stories and edited the Queer Love anthology and The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices. He has judged numerous literary prizes and his writing has been translated into seven languages.

To apply:

Send us your best short story under 5,000 words. Stories can be published or unpublished and of any genre or theme. Stories will be read and selected by Paul McVeigh.

Send your submissions to theaustralianshortstoryfest@gmail.com

Include in your email your full name, preferred email address and phone number as well as a short bio and a short paragraph (50-100 words) explaining why you would benefit from this mentorship.

Applications are due by midnight on Friday 25th August 2023. The winner will be contacted by the end of September 2023. Any questions to be directed to Gillian Hagenus through info@australianshortstoryfestival.com

Online Forum: Uncertainty Across Expanded Fields of Practice #2

FRI 19 MAY 2023, 12:30 – 2.00pm (ACST)

Tickets: $10-$25 (pay what you can)

Open to artists and researchers at any stage of practice.

This event features South Australian artists Brad Darkson, Deirdre Feeney, Niki Sperou and Catherine Truman addressing their processes, as well as a range of topics including traditional First Nations land management using fire, depth-of-field exploration, inter-species empathy and altered landscapes.

Hosted by writer and advocate Jessica Alice, CEO of Writers SA, we’ll examine the experimental methodology and DNA of the Uncertain Times project. In this participatory dialogue–a conversation for our times–you will be invited to ask a question or propose a talking point around the uncertainty of your practice.

To find out more about this event and how to book your ticket, visit the website here.

UCD Ad Astra Fellowship

Deadline for applications: Friday 26 May

In 2019 we launched the UCD Ad Astra Fellowship scheme to welcome early career academics into our community of scholars. The response since then has been exceptional and we are now looking for the next thirty Fellows to join the Colleges of Business, Arts & Humanities and Health & Agricultural Sciences.

We are particularly interested in receiving applications from academics who will contribute to advancing one or more of the four themes identified in our current strategy: Creating a Sustainable Global Society, Transforming through Digital Technology, Building a Healthy World, and Empowering Humanity. I invite you to explore the themes and consider how you might align your interests with our ambitions.

To learn more about this opportunity and find out how to apply, visit the UCD website.

Call for Papers : The writer’s place

A Special Issue of TEXT Journal of Writing and Writing Courses

Deadline for EOIs: 29 May 2023.

This Special Issue seeks to explore the experience of the place of writing. Much has been written about how writers immerse themselves and ‘feel’ – even vicariously in recent years – in/to the place/s their stories are set. But little scholarly attention has been given to the writer’s place, where the works are often ‘written up’. 

Yi-Fu Tuan clarifies in differentiating ‘space’ from ‘place’:

Place has a history and meaning. Place incarnates the experiences and aspirations of a people. Place is not only a fact to be explained in the broader frame of space, but it is also a reality to be clarified and understood from the perspectives of the people who have given it meaning.  

(Tuan 1979:387).

This Special Issue seeks contributions from writers (of creative nonfiction, fiction, academic writing, poetry/poetics, life/self-writing) as to the meaning attached to their place of writing.   

Malcolm Holz (2022) suggests that as many writers work alone, a large space may not be required to be most creative/productive, rather, that it is often the small place, the archetypal writer-hermit’s hut in the wild, where many influential (and infamous) writers retreated. Martin Heidegger, for example, produced most of his vast works in a hut in the Black Forest (Sharr 2006). Virginia Woolf’s (1929) classic essay illuminated the significance of having ‘a room of one’s own’ in which to write.

This provocation/invitation for contributors is centred on the phenomenology – the phenomenological experience – of the writer’s place. Potential contributors might like to consider:

  • What are the characteristics of the writer’s (preferred or limited) place of writing, and how important is the articulation/decoration/function of that place in the creative process e.g., the writer’s chair, desk, bookcase, pictures, music, temperature?
  • What is the writer’s experience – how does the writer ‘feel’ when writing – and how does the place of writing influence that experience, the creative process, and creative outputs; can the place be imagined/ virtual; how does technology affect the planning or design of the writing space; what does writing in that place smell or taste like? 
  • Does the writer (or their editor?) feel that the work created in a place of the writer’s own making is of a higher quality than if produced in a place they would prefer not to be?
  • Is the writer’s place only/solely the mind/body, and if so, what goes on in writing in that place?

This Special Issue of TEXT is seeking, but is not limited to, creative works and scholarly studies in the coalescence of the psychological space and the physical place of writing. Where do writers go: is it alone in their head, or bed; down the hall, or beside the pool; perhaps on the veranda, or in a fold-up chair by the beach, or a hut in the mountains? What is it about that place which attracts, and what happens – what is the writer’s experience – when the writer gets ‘t/here’?

How to submit your expression of interest:

Please submit a 200-word Expression of Interest by email to Malcolm Holz with ‘The Writer’s Place’ as the subject line. In your EOI please outline how your paper or work(s) explore(s) aspects of the experience of the writer’s place.  Please also include the following information: your full name, institutional affiliation (if any), email address, title of paper/work, brief biography (50–100 words), and 3 to 5 keywords (at least 2 of which should clearly relate to the issue’s title).

Deadline for EOIs: 29 May 2023.

Deadline for finished works/papers: 31 July 2023.  
Enquiries: Malcolm Holz (malcolmholz@outlook.com)

References

Holz, M. (2022) (Re)creative reflective writing in Focus and Flow: towards a timeless way of Being

Paper presented at Australasian Association of Writing Programs Annual Conference, Fire Country, University of the Sunshine Coast, November 2022

Sharr, A. (2009) Heidegger’s hut

MIT Press, Massachusetts

Tuan, Yi-Fu. (1979) Space and Place: Humanistic Perspective

In Gale, S. & Olsson, G. (Eds.) Philosophy in Geography

D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland.  pp. 387-427

Woolf, V. (1929) A room of one’s own

Hogarth Press, England

ENTRIES FOR THE 2023 ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE NOW OPEN

Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA), in partnership with Australia’s leading essential building and infrastructure services provider ARA Group, is excited to announce that entries for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize opened at 9am on 12 April 2023.

The ARA Historical Novel Prize is the richest genre-based literary award in Australasia, incorporating both an Adult category and a Children and Young Adult (CYA) category. The 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 CYA category, the winner will receive $30,000, while the two short listers will receive $5,000 each.

Key dates:

  • Awards open: 9am (AEST) 12 April 2023
  • Awards close: 5pm (AEST) 14 June 2023
  • Longlist announced (nine books): 13 September 2023
  • Shortlist announced (three books): 27 September 2023
  • Winners announced: 19 October 2023

Winners will be announced at a cocktail party in Sydney on 19 October.

The HNSA supports and promotes the writing, reading and publication of historical fiction across Australia and New Zealand. It is the third arm of the international Historical Novel Society.

To enter the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize, visit: https://hnsa.org.au/the-2023-ara-historical-novel-prize/

Call for Abstracts | We Need to Talk: The 28th Annual Conference of the AAWP

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 28 July 2023, 11:59PM (AEST). 

Submit your abstract

The 28th annual conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs is hosted by the University of Canberra’s Centre for Creative and Cultural Research. 

The event will be held on Ngunnawal Country; we acknowledge with gratitude that we have been welcomed to walk on this unceded land, and pay our respects to their elders, past and present, and emerging.  

We invite proposals for conference papers, panels, or performances that focus on issues that demand personal, social and institutional attention; and we are very interested in proposals that are collaborative, dialogic, improvisational, and/or performative.  

Please consider the following list of starter-topic areas as you construct your abstract/proposal:  

Orality – e.g. 

  • Spoken word forms 
  • Writing/improvising for performance 
  • Song / chant 
  • Script/screenplay 
  • Audio and transdisciplinary storytelling modes 
  • Yarning Circles 
  • Podcasts 

Poetry – e.g. 

  • Performance poetry 
  • Transformative practice 
  • Collaborative work 
  • Ecopoetry
  • Poetry of resistance

Essay – e.g. 

  • Intimacy 
  • Lyrical or dialogic essay
  • Writing as conversatio, or collaboration
  • Reading as intimacy 
  • Manifesto / diatribe / rant 

Sustainability – e.g. 

  • The environment and living in the more-than-human world 
  • Traditional ways of knowing, being and storying 
  • Economic and political engagement in writing/by writers 
  • Object writing 
  • Alternate knowledge systems 
  • Umwelt 

Queering Writing – e.g.  

  • Decentred and diverse voices 
  • Indigenous stories 
  • Neglected art forms 
  • Queering forms 
  • AI / Chat GPT – implications, limitations, possibilities  
  • Gatekeeping 

Arts/Health – e.g.

  • Writing, reading, and wellbeing 
  • Transdisciplinary practice for health 
  • Creative interventions and trauma 
  • Working beyond the academy (outreach, communicating research) 
  • Silences in academia 
  • Care for the author 

(or other topics, though we do ask that you aim to accommodate the theme of the conference in your work)

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 28 July 2023, 11:59PM (AEST). 
Proposals should include: 

  • your name
  • your university or other institutional affiliation 
  • your e-mail address  
  • the title of your proposed paper 
  • your abstract (250 words max) 
  • identify whether it is for a paper, a panel, or a performance
  • a short bio (100 words max).  
Submit your abstract

Please submit your queries to jen.webb@canberra.edu.au.

NB: while everyone is welcome to attend the conference, only current AAWP members are eligible to present. You can find membership details, prices, and online sign-up options here. 

VI Premium Virtual Edition | European Course for Teachers of Creative Writing

Enrolments are already open until March, 15th, 2023.

From the 21st to the 23rd of March, 2023, the EACWP launches the sixth Premium Virtual Edition of its European Course for Teachers of Creative Writing. Worldwide participants are welcome to join us.

In the spirit of abundance, gratitude and enjoyment of a new rising year to come, EACWP are delighted to announce a course they have longed for that has finally come true: a pedagogical proposal on both the sensual, Dyonisian experience of the body up to the sacred, Apollonian, even mystic experience of the soul approached from the complementary and intertwined disciplines of Food, Drink and Drug Writing. Just as a garden of earthly, literary delights.

The enrolment process for the sixth virtual edition of our Teachers Training Course, which, as in its regular format, will comprise three different workshops that will take place on Tuesday, 21st, Wednesday, 22nd and Thursday, 23rd of March (2023) from 17.00 to 19.00 (CET).

For more details, visit the EACWP website.

Learn more

Call for papers: EACWP VI Pedagogical Conference 2023

The deadline for submissions has been extended to March, 24 (2023).

The EACWP Conference is a biannual event devoted to foster a European and Worldwide dialogue on the different approaches to creative writing education. The VI EACWP conference will take place in Madrid, in the locations of Casa Árabe (The Arabic House) and in the context of Escuela de Escritores 20th anniversary, from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 May 2023. The on-line format for proposals will only be accepted for the Multilingual Workshops. 

Central to the conference will be an acknowledgement of the importance of creativity and how enhance it through the practice of writing. In times of crisis – probably, the only possible times – writers can make creativity a permanent way of living as artists, continuously questioning, developing and reformulating our craft.

Visit the EACWP Conference website for further details.

Learn more

University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize

The Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize is running again in 2023.

The prize is now open until 30 June 2023, 23:59 GMT.

Enter here

About the Prize

The University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize has been offered annually since 2014. On behalf of the University, this is administered by the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research in the Faculty of Arts and Design.

The prize celebrates the enduring significance of poetry to cultures everywhere in the world, and its ongoing and often seminal importance to world literatures. It marks the University of Canberra’s commitment to creativity and imagination in all that it does, and builds on the work of the International Poetry Studies Institute in identifying poetry as a highly resilient and sophisticated human activity. It also builds on the activities of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, which conducts wide-ranging research into human creativity and culture.

The 2023 prize winners will be announced by November 2023 and the prize winners and short-list will be notified prior to that.

Important details are:

  • The winner will receive AUD$15,000
  • The international winner will receive AUD$5,000
  • The runner-up (second-placed poem) will receive AUD$5,000
  • Four additional poems will be short-listed
  • An online prize anthology of up to 60 longlisted poems will be published

Entry fees

  • Entrants may submit up to six poems, and will pay a separate fee for each poem.
  • First Entry: $AUD25 or $15 concession
  • Additional Entry (up to five additional entries): $AUD20 or $10 concession
  • See How to Enter for details and Early Bird fee options

Outline of prize rules and conditions

  • All poems entered for the prize will be single poems that have a maximum length of 60 lines
  • All entries will be in English
  • No simultaneous submissions will be allowed
  • Entries must be unpublished and original works of the author
  • Translations will not be eligible unless they are English translations from another language produced by the original author
  • Judges (To be confirmed for 2023)
  • Full Conditions of Entry

Please direct all enquiries to: vcpoetryprize@canberra.edu.au
Do not call the University, unfortunately they cannot address queries over the phone.