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BWI 2025 AGM Information

January 31, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The Ballarat Writers Inc AGM will be held on Wednesday 12 February 2025 at the Lakeview Hotel from 6.30pm.

Thinking you might like to join the committee? Here’s a brief summary of who does what, but the position descriptions will give you more detailed information:

  • President: Chairs meetings, introduces speakers, welcomes guests.
  • Secretary: Minutes, correspondence & bookings.
  • Treasurer: Manages financial affairs, banking, payments; records memberships.
  • Competitions Officer: coordinate all BWI competitions; appoint and liaise with judges; source and report on possible joint activities.
  • Publicity Officer: Compiles & circulates newsletter; maintains the BWI website; support for technological services to the group; and keeping the Facebook page active.
  • Committee members: Invaluable support people who assist others as required.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS TO BE FILLED:

CHAIRPERSON/PRESIDENT

SECRETARY

COMPETITIONS OFFICER

We offer mentoring for incoming committee members & would really appreciate your support. Nominations are welcome on the night of the AGM.

Position descriptions:

Chairperson PD

Treasurer and membership officer PD

Secretary PD

Competitions officer PD

Publicity Officer PD

General committee member (multiple positions available, no PD)

Reports from the 2024 Commitee

Chairperson

Treasurer

Secretary

Competitions

Publicity Officer

Workshops

Nominations

Nomination and proxy forms will be emailed to all members. These can be returned in advance, or taken on the night.

Voting will take place at the AGM, at the Lakeview Hotel, 22 Wendouree Parade, Lake Wendouree, 3350. Meeting opens at 6.30pm.

The gritty details:

Nominations of candidates for election as Officer Bearers of the Committee must be either:

  • made on the night at the AGM, when nominations are called for; or
  • delivered to the Secretary of BWI not less than 3 days before the date fixed for the holding of the Annual General Meeting, ie 9th February 2025
  • nominations can only be made for paid-up, financial members on the date of nomination.

A candidate for election as Officer Bearer may be nominated prior to or at the Annual General Meeting. If the number of nominations exceeds the number of vacancies to be filled, a ballot must be held.

The ballot for the election of Officer Bearers of the Committee must be conducted at the Annual General Meeting in such manner as the committee may direct.

The winner of the 2024 Pamela Miller Flash Fiction prize is…

August 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Richenda Rudman with her entry, The Seventh Son. Congratulations, Richenda!

The award was announced at the Members’ Night on 31st July.

Sixteen entries were received for the members-only contest on the theme this year of FIRE. The judges were members of the Ballarat Writers committee: Darren Rout, Phil Green, Cassandra Arnold and Bev Foster.

Now, for your delight, here is her winning story:

The Seventh Son

by Richenda Rudman

Children burned when he had a day off.

Chief Blayney realised this an hour into correlating rosters with fires and casualties; it was like condensation being wiped off a window. When Roy Allstock was working, children were saved from fires.

Allstock, always last man out, jogged from buildings sheathed in flames, carrying children, seconds before the buildings collapsed and embers shot like crazed stars into the smoke-dark sky.

‘How the hell did he get them out?’ Blayney asked his deputy as they walked across blackened ground, where an iron bed frame was twisted into a chaotic ringlet. The deputy shrugged. ‘They should be dead.’

* * *

Roy Allstock was an experienced firefighter when he joined Blayney’s platoon in Cranston; he worked hard, said little, was neither tall or short, plain or handsome.

One afternoon in the dayroom, between a card game and newspapers, the conversation turned to families. Allstock said he was the second youngest of eight kids, the last boy before the only girl in the family.

‘Your mother must have been pleased.’ Blayney said.

‘Yeh, she was. Strange, my father was the seventh son, too.

‘Funny how these things run in families.’

Before a seed from memory germinated in Blayney’s head, the discussion ended when they were called out to a fire.

According to the plump wheezing woman living next door, a woman and two little boys lived in the house. ‘The mother’s a drinker. Neglects the kids. I reckon she’s nodded off and dropped her ciggy!’

Another firefighter and Allstock entered the blazing building, while the rest of the crew attacked the fire from outside.  

The woman, coughing, emerged in the clutch of Allstock’s partner, but the height of the flames was fast becoming uncontrollable and Blayney’s gut sank as he looked at the fiery wall. Then he saw it: Allstock appeared, carrying a child on each hip as easily as if they were small clouds. Blayney looked as closely as the smoke and heat would allow, at how the fire was set apart from Allstock and the children, as if a thick and cooling membrane surrounded them. And despite the chaos, Allstock appeared to be calmly talking.

Blayney had to pull the wheezy neighbour off the dazed mother and didn’t recall Allstock’s actions until a final piece in the mosaic of Allstock’s abilities was provided by a child’s drawing.

The newly sober woman and two little boys visited the fire station, where the older child had drawn a picture of a firefighter carrying them out of the fire.

‘Looks like Allstock,’ one of the men said.

Allstock ruffled the boy’s hair. ‘That’s a great drawing!’

‘Yes,’ said the boy. ‘It’s you telling the fire to stay away from us.’

Everyone laughed, except Allstock, who gave a small smile.

And then the seed in Blayney’s head sprouted. The old tale was true: the seventh son of a seventh son talks to fire. And the fire listens.

* * *

It’s that time of year again!

July 24, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The Martha Richardson Memorial Poetry Prize 2024

Our biennial poetry competion will be open for entries from August 1 to October 13.

You can find all the details by clicking the link below.

The judge, Melissa Watts, is also offering a poetry workshop, POLISH TO PUBLISH on Sunday 22 September. Details to follow!

Here’s what she says about the day:

Roll up your sleeves – this interactive workshop is designed to make your poem gleam.

Bring along some drafts and work through a range of guided activities that will have you appreciating your work in new and expansive ways. Be prepared to be challenged, you may need to kill your darlings, but the result will have you glistening in the slush pile.

Note: This class is designed to work with your existing drafts so please remember to bring them along.

So get thinking about the 2024 theme, The Bush, and we look forward to seeing all the entries come flooding in! First prize is $1000…

The Martha Richardson Memorial Poetry Prize 2024

The 2023 Pamela Miller Prize

April 26, 2023 / / 0 Comments

It’s that time of the year again with the Pamela Miller Prize, our annual flash fiction competition.

The winner of the Pamela Miller Prize will receive a certificate and $100 first prize, as well as publication in the Ballarat Writers newsletter and website. The winner will be announced at the Ballarat Writers July members’ night. 

The Pamela Miller Prize first ran in 2015, in memory of Pamela Miller, who was a very active and productive member of Ballarat Writers. She was a writer of short stories and poetry, and won the short story competition with ‘Murder at MADE’ in 2014. Early in 2015, Pamela wrote a very popular poem called ‘Bronze Heads—The Prime Minister’s Walk’ as part of a Ballarat Writers project during the Begonia Festival.

Entries open: Monday 1 May

Entries close: Wednesday 31 May

Ballarat Writers is accepting fictional prose entries of up to 450 words on the theme Smile. Entry is free. 

This is limited to members of Ballarat Writers, so make sure you’ve joined or renewed your membership!

All entries must:

  • be original and unpublished
  • be written by a current member of Ballarat Writers (judging committee members cannot enter)
  • engage with the theme Smile, and be 450 words in length or less (not including the title)
  • be sent to competitions@ballaratwriters.com with the subject line ‘2023 Pamela Miller Prize Entry’.

As the competition will be a blind judging, please do not include your name or contact details on the entry. 

You can read more about the Pamela Miller prize here.

Good luck and happy writing!

AGM is nigh

February 9, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Ballarat Writers invites members to attend our annual general meeting on 16 February.

We do need to make quorum, so please come along if you can.

The AGM tends to not require a big commitment in time. There is the opportunity to have a meal and a drink along with a catch-up outside of the official business, and there will be a free drink for members to help mark the occasion. 

A key point of business will be the election of the committee to oversee operations for the year ahead. Advance nominations close today, 9 February, but nominations will be accepted from the floor at the AGM.

Some committee members will not be standing again so please consider if contributing to BW and the writing community through a committee role is something you’d like to do. There is a handover plan in place to ease the transition.

We are calling for nominations for the following Office Bearers:

  • Chairperson
  • Treasurer & Membership Coordinator
  • Secretary/Public Officer
  • Competitions Coordinator                                                        
  • Publicity & Media Coordinator
  • General Committee Member 

Note: The position of Treasurer requires skills and experience in finance and/or bookkeeping. Position reports and descriptions are available from the website.

Where: Bunch of Grapes, 401 Pleasant St South, Ballarat
When: 6.30pm, 16 February 2022
Cost: FREE 
Refreshments: Drinks and meals will be available to purchase, and members will be provided with a drink ticket on arrival valid for basic alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, tea and coffee.
Covid: The venue will be operating under the Covid restrictions of the day. Proof of double vaccination is required to attend.

For further information contact Rebecca Fletcher: chairperson@ballaratwriters.com

August Members’ Night goes online

August 22, 2021 / / 0 Comments

With new lockdown restrictions ruling out our usual meeting at the Bunch of Grapes, our monthly Members’ Night is going to Zoom on Wednesday 25 August. Details have been sent via newsletter, so please let us know if you have not received them or need assistance with navigating the Zoom environment! Fingers crossed we will be back at the table in September!

Pamela Miller Award winner announced

July 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The winner of the 2021 Pamela Miller Award was announced at the June Members’ Night on 30 June.

Richenda Rudman was judged the winner with ‘Returning the Sharps’. Richenda won $100, an engraved glass and a certificate. Congratulations!

Eight entries were received for the contest, for BW members only. Judges were members of the Ballarat Writers committee: Rebecca Fletcher, Kirstyn McDermott, Laura Wilson, Nicole Kelly, Megan Riedl and Jason Nahrung.

Entries had to be fictional prose entries of up to 500 words on the theme A New Start.

July Writers Corner – social media

June 22, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Writers Corner is back! With the June event having been cancelled due to Covid restrictions, July will pick up where we left off with a discussion of social media for writers.

Do you have followers or are you a follower, perhaps a blogger or a vlogger, tweeter, snapper, and or a chatter?  Maybe you just enjoy a surf, virtually speaking from a digitised reality. 

Is it a matter of sitting in front of your keyboard and tapping away, word after word, sentence after sentence – taking the words straight to the world wide web? Is social media the ultimate in self-publishing – do it anytime, anywhere, put it out there? Well, maybe not.

Building content is difficult. Reaching and keeping followers (audience) is not easy. Just because you have built it, they may not come.  But you should come to Writers Corner and tell your social media story.

Come along on Tuesday 6 July at 2pm at the Bunch of Grapes in Pleasant Street, Ballarat, and join the Writers Corner discussion about social media and putting yourself out there in the digital universe.

Writers Corner – tools of the trade

April 27, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Do you use pen and paper, dictionary and/or thesaurus, laptop and/or desktop? Are you a fan of Word or Scrivener?  Does technology get in the way of the creative moment?

Tools of the Trade: this deceptively rich topic should give us a couple of hours of interesting discussion at our May edition of Writers Corner, a casual, loosely moderated discussion group for BW members and prospective members.

There are research processes and resources – Trove? Your local library? Others? How about eavesdropping on the morning commute or the local coffee shop? Note taking and filing, and the good old Post-it note, all tools of the trade!

Love them or hate them, it is time to talk about them. Humans are renowned tool makers, and we all love a good tool.

Never mind the vagaries of Microsoft Word or the richness of Scrivener.  Who has a favourite dictionary or thesaurus with well-thumbed pages showing the ravages of overuse; checking those subtle nuances to give your writing that special edge?

You might be writing a couple of hundred words for your local community newsletter (hint) or the ultimate Rocky Horror saga of speculative fiction with a romantic twist; perhaps you are in the middle of your dissertation on the finer elements of the decline of neo capitalist empires; keeping track of notes, ideas, context and continuity can benefit from good processes, indexing, filing and search routines.

Image: Pixabay

Come along on 4 May at the Bunch of Grapes, 401 Pleasant St, Ballarat, from 2pm to 4pm and share your ideas for the tools you like, or gripe about the tools you dislike – whether it be pens, pencils, coloured biros, quill and ink, a filing cabinet or a shoe box or simply the art of observation. 

Questions? Contact BW or hit us up at the Facebook event.

Writers Corner – travel writing

March 24, 2021 / / 0 Comments
Image by Dariusz Sankowski from Pixabay

Do you have a favourite piece of travel writing? Has reading stories of travelling inspired you to pack a bag and take to the road, jet set off to strange lands?  What was it about that writing that inspired you?

The discussion topic for our first Writers Corner, on Tuesday 6 April, is travel writing. This creative form of nonfiction is often based on the writer’s encounter with foreign places.  However, it can also take several other forms, which is something we can explore.

There is a practical side to travel writing: tips and advice, the must see’s and do’s, and how to get from one place to another.

In these restricted times travel writing would seem questionable. Writing about travel may fuel aspirations that cannot be achieved, or alternatively make how-to’s and itinerary planning even more critical.

Travel writing is not simply a product of the industrial revolution or the jet setter age; this popular form of writing has been written since Classical times. A couple of early examples include:

· Rutilius Claudius Namatianus (fl. 5th century)  

De reditu suo (Concerning His Return, c. 416) – the poet describes his voyage along the Mediterranean seacoast from Rome to Gaul.

·  Xuanzang (602–664)

Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (646) – narrative of the Buddhist monk’s journey from China to India.

More recent examples would include:

  • Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck (1962)
  • The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain(1869)
  • Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1939)
  • The Sea to Sardinia by D H Lawrence (1923)
  • On the Road is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States.
  • The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson (2015)

Want more travel writing? Check out this event with Tamara Sheward, being hosted by Ballarat Libraries on 16 April!

event details at trybooking

Travel writing takes many different forms, they might more readily be described as follows:

  • Destination pieces
  • Special interest for types of travel, e.g., hiking, cycling, caravanning, backpacking or something more quirky.
  • Holidays and events – family vacation
  • festivals.
  • Personal adventures
  • Travel blogging
  • Itineraries
  • Travel guides
  • Memoir of personal travel.

Questions to help kick off your thoughts:

  • Why do you want to write about travel?
  • Do you have a collection of tips for other travellers going to a particular destination?
  • Is the travel just a backdrop to another adventure or drama, a setting for a romance?
  • Could Murder on the Orient Express be thought of as writing with a travel theme?
  • How to transport your reader to a new place?
  • Travelling during pandemics?
  • Places to publish – do you have suggestions?

Where, when and what to bring

Bunch of Grapes Hotel, 401 Pleasant St, Ballarat, on the first Tuesday in April: that’s the 6th, at 2pm; the bar will be open. Come along for a relaxed, loosely moderated discussion about the topic. It would be useful to bring a pen and paper in case we decide to get creative.

Click for the Facebook event

Email publicity AT ballaratwriters.com with queries

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