HomeWord 07 - a Western Sydney Writers Festival
NWG Inc President, Lil Scully welcomes you to HomeWord Festival 2007 - Writing Western Sydney!
HomeWord is hosted by
NEW WRITERS' GROUP INCORPORATED and supported by a Parramatta City Council Community Events Grant.
CONTACT: Email or visit
NWG Inc's Home Site
HOMEWORD FESTIVAL 07 CALENDAR
Saturday 8th December
NWG Inc Anthology 07 - Launch with readings/performances
Poets' Forum David Musgrove with leading poets discussing how poets find their audience
The Road Home DVD and the Anthology will be on sale
Image: J. Douglas
At Parramatta Heritage Centre - 346A Church St (Beside Lennox Bridge)
1:00 for 1:30 Welcome drink and nibbles
1:30 - 3:00 Anthology Launch and Readings from NWG Inc members
3:00 - 3:30 Afternoon Tea
3:30 - 4:30 Poetry Forum - Led by Poet and Publisher David Musgrave
$5:00 Entry. Lucky Door Prize
David Musgrave
Jess Cook
Events October
National Poetry Slam - Parramatta Heat
UPDATE: 
Photo by Bernadette Horrell
Peter Maric: runner-up; Jess Cook: MC; Kathy Edwards: winner
(Don won the NWG Inc award)
Your time starts now...
Where: Mars Hill Café Parramatta, 331 Church Street
When: Friday, October 26, from 8.30pm.
MC: Poet Jess Cook (aka Cook N Kitch)
Guest Performer: Tom Keily (aka Citizen Tom)
Audience members free. Contestants pay $5.
All contestants will be given a mic, a live audience and just two
minutes to impress the judges (selected at random at each heat)
with their spoken word, poetry, hip hop, monologues and stories.
There will be a $40 cash prize for the winner who will
progress, with the runner-up, to the NSW Final on November
30 for a chance to take home $500 and $100 respectively.
The Australian Poetry Slam Final will be in December.
For more details, Email Isabell
Crossing the Line" - a film by Anita Barar
Where: Mars Hill Café, 331 Church St, Parramatta
When: Saturday, 27th October, 3pm
Anita Barar's 75 minutes documentary film "Crossing The Line" tells the personal stories of Australians who originally came from India or Pakistan and
experienced first hand the challenges of crossing the border in 1947 in the wake of the partition of India. First person accounts are accompanied by
history on these tumultous events which continue to create headlines today.
"Crossing the Line" was launched in Sydney by noted singer 'Kamahl' and has been screened in India at Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta during Anita's recent visit
to India.
After the film there will be time for discussion and a few readings from gatherers.
Events in June
WRITING WORKSHOPS - Saturday, 9th June 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Granville Library Meeting Room, 8 Carlton St. Granville
Drama with Sydney Playwright Wayne Tunks - 9:00-10:45 am
Creative Writing with author/activist Paula Aboud - 11:00-12:45
Writing History with local Historian John McClymont - 1:00-2:45 pm
Creative Writing with author/activist Paula Aboud - 3:00-4:45 pm
Bookings recommended: Ph:0449 078858 $5 only per session
FESTIVAL/ZINEWEST LAUNCH - Sunday, 10th June 2:15-4:15 pm
Riverside Theatres, Cnr Church and Market Sts - FREE Entry
The Festival will be launched at this two hour event featuring readings by some of the writers published in the zine. We will also
showcase The Road Home, a videowork created by multi-media artist Fida Haq in
collaboration with members of NWG Inc. ZineWest judge, Professor Jane Goodall of the Writing and Society Research Group (UWS)will announce
the ZineWest prize winners. MC: Lil Scully, President of NWG Inc.
Intermission - meet the talented Western Sydney writers, special guests and Parramatta's cultural luminaries before moving on to the forum
....
"WHY I WRITE" - FORUM WITH DAVID MALOUF FREE Entry
Sunday, 10th June 4:45-5:45pm
Award winning Australian author David Malouf is one of the finest writers of our time. He will talk about writing
in our forum at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta and there will be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.
David's latest work, his first poetry collection in 27 years, Typewriter Music, will be on sale.
Forum Chair: Professor Ivor Indyk - *Writing and Society Research Group at UWS.
Photograph: ©Conrad Del Villar '05
*The Writing and Society Research Group is in the College of Arts at the University of Western Sydney.
This group led by Ivor Indyk, brings together scholars in the humanities, writers, and members of the
publishing industry, who have a common interest in exploring the social power of writing.
Events in May
Poetry Slam - Prize $200
Where the poets of Sydney are given a mike and two minutes to wow a live audience for
the $200 prize! Also $50 for second place and $25 for third. Contestants are judged
by randomly selected members of the audience. $5 to register as a contestant, free to just attend.
MC: OneWord's Nathan Judd
Guest Host:
Citizen Tom
Singer/Songwriter TC Coombes will be accompanied by guitarist singer/songwriter Dan Hopkins.
Friday 25th May 8:30 pm Mars Hill Cafe
UPDATE Winner: Jamal-Al Halaq (translator Mohsen Bani-Saeed); Runner-up
Jenny Campbell; Third place Kirsten. Congratulations to all contestants - Citizen Tom commended the high standard
of material as well as presentation. An entertaining night - lots of laughter! Also special thanks to TC Coombes and Dan Hopkins
for some great music, Nathan Judd the OneWord
host for setting up the night and our scorer extraordinaire, Isabell Petrinic.
NWG Inc Gathering Workshops - "The Writing of David Malouf"
We'll have some readings from David's work followed by informal discussion. After a short break
it will be open mic as usual for writers to read their original work -
all genres welcome. Free entry.
Saturday 26th May 3-5pm Mars Hill Cafe
Western Fringe Songwriters - with Stewart Peters
Special Guest Allan Caswell will talk about song-writing technique
Stewart says: "Bring you guitar/keyboard to sing a song or two, and enjoy having drums/percussion and bass added to your performance."
Sunday 27th May 4:00-6:30 pm Mars Hill Cafe
Parramatta Filmmakers with Dianne Ellis
Dianne welcomes visitors - script-writers, film-makers, and anyone who loves film - to her monthly club.
Special Guest Speaker is screen editor Enzo Tedeschi
who will discuss the merits of different editing programs available for the Mac and PC.
Sunday 27th May 7:00-9:00 pm Mars Hill Cafe
More about ZineWest 07 . This project is an initiative of New Writers' Group Incorporated to create a regional Western Sydney magazine on a
shoestring! We asked for word-based entries including cartoons, short short prose, poetry, memoir/history, traditional and contemporary styles.
A NWG Inc editorial committee selected 34 pieces from 140 submissions sent in by 70 writers from across the Western suburbs. Members from 15 writers'
groups were involved plus writers not affiliated with any particular writing group. We are delighted to welcome as co-sponsors of our ZineWest prizes,
The Writing and Society Research Group, in the College of Arts at the University of
Western Sydney. This group led by Ivor Indyk, brings together scholars in the humanities, writers,
and members of the publishing industry, who have a common interest in exploring the social power of writing. The group has doubled the first prize
of $200 to $400 and added a subscription of HEAT Magazine worth $60, to second prize.
More about The Road Home. This is the second and more ambitious collaborative project undertaken by Fida Haq and members/gatherers of NWG Inc.
The first work was entitled "Silent Words" a flash animation of writers' brief responses to the topic of "Media Irresponsibility" in the wake
of the Cronulla riots. It was presented at last year's festival launch and can be seen on our main website in downloads and also on Fida Haq's site.
The Road Home, our 2007 project, is based on a theme used to inspire our writers earlier this year. The 'road home' is a concept that never fails
to produce a reaction, a memory, a fantasy, a wish. Writers' written responses cover the humourous and tragic, the political and spiritual.
Fida's videowork is created from the images and sounds of the writers reading their pieces interlaced with street scenes in Parramatta locations
and supported by a background of indigenous music. Fida will present the work at the HomeWord Festival launch and also at the Hawkesbury Regional
Gallery as one of his visual works in a group exhibition entitled Synthetic Spaces - see "Western Front" exhibition at
Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, 8th June to 22nd July)
