The Emerging Writers Festival is happening in Melbourne, Australia next month.
The Emerging Writers’ Festival is a not-for-profit organisation whose foundations are built on supporting emerging writers. They are a place where creativity and innovation is celebrated, where new talent is nurtured and where diverse voices from across Australia are represented.
For all sessions and workshops check out their website here:
Thanks to the required reading in year 8 English for introducing me to science-fiction through Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”. It was the first novel which made me think outside the lacking literature which was around me at the time and made me delve deeper into the genre which I found fascinating.
Thanks also to JG for introducing me to sci-fantasy in my early 20’s through Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts “Empire Trilogy”. This imaginative genre has definitely inspired my creativity and is one I am drawn to.
These two avenues of discovering new genres changed the way I read and write and for that I am thankful.
One of the first female poets I came across as a teen whom I connected with deeply was Maya Angelou. Her words spoke to me then and they speak to me now….
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
by Maya Angelou
This surrealist’s art has always made me wonder at the “characters” within his art. They speak to me of places I’m too wary to travel to, whilst giving me insight into the complex nature of his perception of life.
This is my favourite Dali piece which is titled “Woman Aflame” .
It helps me momentary escape and explore infinite possibilities as a woman as I compartmentalize my responsibilities and dreams…I might be held up to society’s standards but that is just a crutch which I use to propel myself forward.
I truly believe that whatever you write will have an affect on others so this quote rings true with me…
“the only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life or better to endure it.” Dr Samuel Johnson
Love Wordsworth and this sonnet which to me sings of a writers freedom yet being trapped…
Nuns fret not
Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room;
And hermits are contented with their cells;
And students with their pensive citadels;
Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,
Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
In truth the prison, into which we doom
Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me,
In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be bound
Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground;
Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
Should find brief solace there, as I have found.
W. Wordsworth
Something which I have a great love for is: reading.
Being born to immigrant parents, I learned to speak English in school. I used reading anything I could get my hands on from the local library, to help me conquer the language.
My passion for reading increased as a teen, where I started to write my own stories, after being inspired by authors like Robin Klein, S.E. Hinton and Lucy Maud Montgomery. As I got older, my tastes broadened and I fell in love with classical literature, horror and science fiction. Authors like Steven King, Paulo Coelho, Christian Jacq, Anne Rice, Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts encouraged me to get back to writing because their words touched me and reignited the creative spark I had been suppressing.
I’m always reading several books at a time and love to open my inspiration to new ideas whether they be fiction or non fiction. This is why I have been puzzled when I meet people who say they never read. I find that weird…mainly because I love to read for fun as well as for knowledge. I find reading a great self educator and feel it can help writers hone their craft or encourage them to try our new genres or styles of writing.
Whatever I am reading all I want is to get “something” out of it and even if I dislike the book itself – at least I learned that!
I am working on a short story retelling of a classic fairy-tale, but from an ancient world mythological point of view and a woman’s perspective.
Therefore, I have been re-familiarizing myself with Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales for inspiration.
After rereading a few volumes of said fairy tales I was reminded why I became a feminist at age 4.
Those tales are full of so much sexism that it hurts my brain.
If I was one of the female fairy tale characters set in the 17th -19th century I would of ended up like this:
Once upon a time in a land far far away there lived…
An outspoken girl with no titles yet was educated and self assured regarding her own opinion.
She didn’t live happily ever after, as she was promptly executed (or excommunicated) for being a feminist.
The End
Suffice to say my re imagined fairy tale is going to come from a feminist point of view…or so I envision it that way…lets see how she fairs 😉
People have always assumed that I’m an extrovert due to my friendly nature. Truth be told – those who know me on a deeper level, know I’m actually an ambivert (an ambivert is a combination of a extrovert and introvert personality). However, when I am in the writing zone I become very introverted and live in my own world.
I spend lot of time on my own – imagining my story lines and characters, jotting down random strings of words which come to me and observing the world around me whilst remaining detached.
Thing is, I have to come out of my self imposed exile and connect to people when I want to get my writing out there and communicate it to the world.
For me writing means living in two separate worlds and hopefully my ambivert personality can continue to have a foothold in each, as for me that is the perfect balance needed for my creativity.
Putting yourself out there, through your words – takes courage!
BE BRAVE!
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