What’s New

Kirsten Tranter

Friday 5th March, 5.30pm - 7.30pm

Kirsten will be in conversation with Dr Patricia Pender from the University of Newcastle’s Writing Cultures Research Group about publishing her first novel. Meet Kirsten and buy a signed copy of The Legacy at the Lockup on Friday 5^th March, 5.30pm – 7.30pm. Refreshments provided.

Getting Started and Getting an Agent - Saturday 6th March 10am - 3pm

Kirsten will run our first workshop, first week in March about her first book. Kirsten has valuable experience working for a literary agency and can pass on lots of advice about submitting your first project to an agent. You will also learn about merging stories and hear about the process of writing and editing The Legacy. Call Katharine at the office on

49263485 to book your place.

New look office!

The HWC office has had a spring clean and a re-paint so free to drop in to pay your memberships and have a look!

New partnership with the University of Newcastle.

This semester, the University of Newcastle postgraduate creative writing students will have their weekly workshops at the HWC. We think it’s a great way to strengthen our partnership and keep up to date with everything that’s going on with the Archipelago Writers’ Group, the Writing Cultures Research Group and SWAMP Creative Writing Journal all University of Newcastle initiatives. We have already organised two exciting events with the uni so read on to find out what’s happening…

New Unpublished Manuscript Prize

As you know, the HWC runs the prestigious Newcastle Poetry Prize, one of the largest poetry prizes in the country. In 2010 we are launching the Newcastle Poetry Prize Unpublished Manuscript Award and Varuna Poetry

Fellowships in collaboration with Picaro Press and Varuna. This is an exciting venture for the HWC and we look forward to working with Picaro Press and Varuna on this new project. More details in the next newsletter…

New Youth Writing workshops

The HWC are running an after-school writing club for kids aged 10-14. All budding young writers are welcome on Tuesday afternoons from 3.30 – 5.30pm so they can learn about character, narrative, clarity of writing, poetry and language from the HWC’s director Brian Joyce. The workshops start the first Tuesday in March and will run for 5 weeks, culminating in a full day workshop in the Easter holidays. The full package costs $150 for 5 weeks and the workshop or it’s $20 a class. Brian has years of experience running workshops for kids so this is a great opportunity. Call Katharine on 49263485 to book. In term two we’ll be running youth writing workshops for 15-18-year-olds, so if you know anyone who’s interested, let us know!

New online writers’ group – Critical Friends

Critical Friends, the new peer-manuscript assessment writers’ group will start in March. If you would like some feedback on your manuscript and are will to return the favour to others in the group, please register your interest or email the first chapter of your project to criticalfriends.hwc@gmail.com This group will be managed online. We’ll let you know more once we see how many manuscripts we receive and who is interested in being a reader. This should be a great on-going group for the HWC and a way for you to gain feedback and learn about manuscript assessment along the way.

New Writers-in-residence

The HWC is welcoming two writers-in-residence to the Lockup’s Artist-in-Residence scheme this year. Cate Kennedy, who is the author of the highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath and an award-winning short-story writer who has twice won The Age short story competition will be staying for three weeks in May. Cate will run a short story workshop as well as limited manuscript assessments for members. Keep an eye out for more info nearer the time. Jason Nelson, the NPP New Media judge in 2009, will be staying for three weeks in April. Jason will run a series of New Media workshops and offer on-going feedback for members. Just in time for you to enter the NPP 2010!

Ongoing Projects

In addition to these new projects, the HWC is committed to its ongoing ventures such as the Newcastle Poetry Prize, regular writers’ groups, mentorships, 150.com, workshops and events.

Please remember to renew your membership fees. We rely on the income generated from the fees so drop into the office, pay online, or download a form from www.hwcentre.com and send it in with a cheque or postal order today.