In response to numerous requests for late abstract submissions (so many more than expected), the AAWP conference team are re-opening the Call for Papers for the 2021 conference, November 24-26.

The window for submission is now open and must close July 31. This deadline coincides with the early bird registration (see below). So, if you missed out the first round or are simply excited at the prospect of an amazing Creative Writing research conference event near the beach, please submit before July 31. We’ve arranged discounted accommodation, great food and some excellent guest speakers. It’s also just a lovely place to visit. Come for the conference, stay for the weekend.

And if you submit your abstract early, we’ll try to let you know before the early bird date closes.

Early Bird Conference Registration reminder: July 31.

If your abstract has been accepted or you just want to attend this year’s conference at the excellent discounted price, please follow this link.

For enquiries, please email the 2021 Conference Management Committee: aawpconf2021@gmail.com

This issue of the Axon journal investigates ways in which contemporary poetry (and other forms of creative practice) constitute, result from or are otherwise connected to travel—whether this is understood literally or metaphorically. We are NOT looking for poems. Please submit academic papers that explore and relate to:

• ways in which readers may ‘travel’ in poetry
• ways in which poetic form may contribute to ideas or modes of imaginative travel
• the composition of poetry as a form of travelling
• the composition of poetry as a result of travel
• reflections on or interviews about travel and poetry
• reflections on or interviews about travel and creativity
• how ‘travel’ and ‘creativity’ may be connected—literally, imaginatively or metaphorically
• how poetry may allow or facilitate forms of creative ‘travel’
• how creativity is, in and of itself, a way of travelling
• tropes of travel in poetry
• poetry/creative practice and travelling through cultures, sexualities and/or gender diversity
• creative fluidity and ‘travelling’
• poetry’s connection to movement through space and/or time
• creative transformations/metamorphoses as a way of ‘travelling’

What we would like from contributors:

1. A 150-word abstract of your proposed paper by Friday 20 August 2021.
2. If your abstract is accepted (we will notify you by Friday 3 September 2021), a full written paper of between 3,000 and 6,000 words should be submitted by Monday 22 November 2021.

Submissions can be lodged here
Please DO NOT submit poems to this issue

The AAWP has partnered with UWAP once again to bring this exciting new publication pathway and prize for writers of poetry, literary novels, short story collections, and hybrid works.

Submissions are now open. Head to our prizes page here for more information on how to enter.

Please submit to our dazzling suite of prizes, as listed below.

Head to our Prizes page here to enter.

Abstracts are invited for this online workshop on creative nonfiction as it is practised in Australasia.

Guest speakers on the day are the award-winning writer Behrouz Boochani, author of No Friend but the Mountain, and his translator Omid Tofighian.

Participants are invited to explore uniquely Australasian research, practice and pedagogy regarding creative nonfiction. Investigations into diverse manifestations of this form are welcome, ranging across a broad spectrum from life writing/memoir to experimental histories and narrative journalism.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

* Environment/s

* Experiments

* Ethics, empathy, and change

* Speaking truth to power

* Immersive experiences and the eye-witness

* Subjectivities

* Aesthetics

* Life writing

* Multiplicities

* Cultural, social and political diversity

* Tracing histories

* Imagination

* Fact and/or fiction

* Social Justice

One aim of the workshop is to develop individual and collaborative written work.  People accepted to participate are asked to submit a 1000-word short paper by 31 August to be circulated ahead of the workshop for discussion on the day. 

We anticipate that there will be at least one publication emerging from the workshop, a special issue of the journal Literary Journalism Studies which will be devoted to Australian work in the field, to be published in 2023.

If you would like to attend, please submit an abstract of 300-500 words, plus a short bio of less than 150 words by 31 Mayto willa.mcdonald@mq.edu.au with the subject line “Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop”.

The AAWP’s 26th Annual Conference will be held from November 24 – 26, 2021. 

The deadline for the Call for Paper Abstracts has been extended until May 4, 11:59PM (AEST).

The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Fire Country’.Hosted by the University of the Sunshine Coast and Central Queensland University, the conference will take place at Sippy Downs, USC’s Sunshine Coast campus, situated on the unceded lands of its traditional owners, the Gubbi Gubbi people.

For more information, please see the Conference webpage here.

AAWP colleagues co-wrote a critical review of the Stella Prize shortlist for The Conversation.

The outcome of that prize will be announced later today.

Read the full review (and maybe get your next reading recommendations) here.

The Incompleteness Book II—Writing Back and Thinking Forward

Deadline Extended to 4 May 2021

Dear all,

Thank you to those who have already submitted to The Incompleteness Book II. It has been such a pleasure to receive submissions from those who submitted in 2020, as well as new voices.

Thanks, too, to those of you who have let us know that you’d like to contribute but are feeling “underwater”. On that basis we are extending the deadline to 4 May 2021 (11:59PM AEST).

Writing forward and/or thinking back: what do you make of the in/completeness, one year on?

Perhaps you write in great weariness … So be it. We welcome your submissions.

Please note that this opportunity is open only to current AAWP members. You will be prompted to provide membership details, when you submit via the following link:

https://meniscusliteraryjournal.submittable.com/submit/164256/the-in-completeness-book-v2-0

For inquiries re. the status of your membership please contact: memberships@aawp.org.au

If the membership fee presents an issue, please contact Julia: jprendergast@swin.edu.au

Please note that international contributors should pay the international affiliate membership fee (a reduced fee for international colleagues who would like to participate in AAWP initiatives but are less likely to attend AAWP conferences, regularly).

Write boldly. Go gently.

Julia.

Dr Julia Prendergast
Chair of the Executive Committee
Australasian Association of Writing Programs: AAWP
AAWP Portfolio: Partnerships and Prizes

Senior Lecturer, Writing and Literature
Major Discipline Coordinator: Professional Writing and Editing
Swinburne University

In partnership:
Central Queensland University and University of the Sunshine Coast
USC Sunshine Coast Campus, Sippy Downs

24-26 November 2021

THEME: Fire Country

We invite presentations – 15 minutes in duration – from practice, research, industry and pedagogy – and pre-formed collaborative discussion panels (three panellists only) that reflect consideration of a ‘fire country’ and the ways we enable and disseminate those marginal and mainstream voices that contribute to its discourse.

See the full CFP here for more on this year’s theme.

Deadline for abstract submissions is 16 April 2021. This deadline is final.

These should include your name, abstract (200 – 250 words max), university affiliation, e-mail address, the title of your proposed paper, and a short bio (100 words max). Only AAWP members are eligible to present.

You can find membership details, prices, and online sign-up options here.

Professional development sessions for postgraduate candidates and ECR colleagues will be offered in association with the main conference program.

Queries to: AAWP Conference aawpconf2021@gmail.com. The 2021 conference website to submit abstracts and proposals (200-250 words max) can be found here

Conference Committee:
Dr Elizabeth Ellison; Dr Lee McGowan; Dr Nicole Anae; Dr Ross Watkins; Dr Eileen HerbertGoodall; Tash Turgoose; Ali Hickling; Amanda Fiedler; and Lonnie Gilroy

The Incompleteness Book II—Writing Back and Thinking Forward

Deadline: Wednesday 15 April 11.59pm 2021 (EST)

Dear all,

In April 2020, amidst the global pandemic of Covid-19, the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), the peak academic body representing the discipline of Creative Writing in Australasia, sent a call for contributions to a Special Issue of TEXT—Journal of Writing and Writing Courses. The theme of the Special Issue was: The in/completeness of human experience. The collection was subsequently published as The Incompleteness Book (2020: Recent Work Press).

We are delighted to announce that Shane Strange, Publisher at Recent Work Press, will publish a follow-up collection: The Incompleteness Book II—Writing Back and Thinking Forward (eds. Eileen Herbert Goodall, Julia Prendergast and Jen Webb).

We invite contributions to this theme, broadly interpreted. We are deeply interested in capturing a composite “picture” of what people make of the prompt: the incompleteness of human experience, one year on. Writing back and thinking forward, we encourage you to consider: What have you discarded? What do you covet more closely than ever? Have we learned something about ourselves or more broadly? Where to, from here?

Please send creative work—short-short fiction, “sudden” fiction, “sketchy” stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, short pithy scripts, as well as hybrid forms. We are accepting submissions on the following scale: up to 400 words prose (including submissions in script format), 40 lines for poetry (approximately 200 words for prose poems), and the equivalent for hybrid forms. Submissions must be previously unpublished. We will accept a maximum of two submissions, per author. Please send your most polished work, without delay. The aim is to capture the immediacy of people’s “thinking positions” in the form of “sudden” writing. The call closes on Wednesday 15 April 2021, 11.59pm (EST).

Please note that this opportunity is open only to current AAWP members. You will be prompted to provide membership details, when you submit:

https://meniscusliteraryjournal.submittable.com/submit/164256/the-in-completeness-book-v2-0

• For inquiries re. the status of your membership please contact: memberships@aawp.org.au
• If the membership fee presents an issue, please contact Julia: jprendergast@swin.edu.au
• Please note that international contributors should pay the international affiliate membership fee (a reduced fee for international colleagues who would like to participate in AAWP initiatives but are less likely to attend AAWP conferences, regularly).

Write boldly. Go gently. In solidarity.

Julia.