It’s Banjo’s birthday (Sunday 17th February) and to celebrate we are announcing the call for entries in the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards.  Poet, solicitor, journalist, war correspondent and ballad writer Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson (1864 – 1941) was born near Orange and each year the Central West Writers’ Centre, in conjunction with Central West Libraries, The Central Western Daily and ABC Central West Radio announce the call for entries in the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards. 

There are four categories:  

         Short Story
         Open Poetry 
         Bush Poetry and
         ABC Central West Radio Children’s Writing Awards for writing by children aged 16 years and under 

2013 Banjo Paterson Writing Awards Entry Form 

Listen to ABC Local Radio for details about their Floriade Haiku Competition.

A “Haiku” is a short poem “that captures the essence of a brief, transient moment in one's life and the universe.”

Haiku is one of the oldest forms of poetry that started in Japan. Your challenge for this competition is to come up with the best choice of words to capture the essence of Spring.

Haiku poems follow a pattern. There are 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second and 5 again the last line.

Here is an example:

Birds hatched and chirping

Trees and flowers are blooming

New life is now here

This one is written by Bailey on the Creative Writing Now website.

Listen to ABC Local Radio in the mornings for all the competition details and email your entries by Friday 16 September to orange.regional@abc.net.au to be in the running for a great prize to Canberra's Floriade. Good Luck!

What a great way to start Poetry Week – with a Poetry Slam in Forbes! Congrats to
Keith Rawsthorne, of Forbes, and Ted Webber, of Young, (pictured wearing a hat) the two winners from the Australian Poetry Slam held at Forbes as part of the Kalari-Lachlan River Arts Festival on Sunday. Host Miles Merrill is pictured announcing Keith as the winner. Keith was quite modest in his acceptance speech joking that his grandchildren were judges in the audience.

Five poets performed their works on the Festival's Main Stage in front of large audience on the Lake Forbes Foreshore.

Judges, selected at random from the audience during the afternoon, scored Keith first place with Ted not far behind for their bush poet inspired performances.

The scores were very close for the other three contestants, Glenn Couchman, of Orange, Dulcie Mclean of Orange, and young Marisha Downey, of Forbes. Miles is pictured with Ted, Dulcie, Glenn, Marisha, and Keith.

Both winners now have the opportunity to compete in the Australian Poetry Slam State Final to be held at the Sydney Theatre Company, Walsh Bay, Sydney on Friday 4th November, 2011.

Host Miles Merrill also had a great time performing and was impressed by the poets and enthusiastic audience. And Ted did an encore performance of another bush poem about farm machinery (pictured). Stay tuned for more images from the Festival. Loud applause and cheers to all involved.

Imagine two minutes in the spotlight. No props. No music. Judged by the audience. Just you… and your story.

The Australian Poetry Slam is not a poetry reading. It's more like a howling literary campfire with verbal voodoo, breathless rhythms and sweat breaking nerves. Think Hilltop Hoods mashed with Obama, a line of Paul Kelly, a few pinches of Judith Lucy, and a test tube of Les Murray all vying for audience love.

Writers need to perform well in their regional heat and place in their state final. Two finalists from each state and territory will meet in Sydney to battle with their words on the main stage of the Sydney Theatre for the Australian Poetry Slam Final National Final. One will be crowned Australia's Slam Champion.

Come and find out what it is all about at the Australian Poetry Slam Workshop:

Kalari-Lachlan River Arts Festival,
Reading and Writing Tent,
Lake Forbes Foreshore along Buck Bentick Walk,
Sunday 4 September at 11am,
Please book your place at Forbes Library on 6852 1463.

Then perform your poem, story, hip hop or whatever at the Australian Poetry Slam Forbes Heat:

Kalari-Lachlan River Arts Festival,
Lake Forbes Foreshore along Buck Bentick Walk,
Sunday 4 September,
1pm on the main stage, please sign up from 12.30pm,
Hosted by Miles Merrill.

Check out these sites for more details:
www.australianpoetryslam.com and/or
www.riverartsfestival.org.au

We had a small but enthusiatic roll up to last night's Poetry Reading with Jane Williams and Digital Talk by David Reiter. Jane Williams read from her latest book of poetry City of Possibilities. Her work is mostly free verse poetry influenced by the Japanese style Haibun. She read the opening and closing poems in the book as well as one titled “Stars” about what she has learnt from her daughters, another about her mother evoking memories of Tupperware and school lunches and a clever poem about the local CWA shop located next to a tattoo parlour.

David Reiter is a cross-media artist and publisher with several digital works to his credit. He is also Director of Interactive Press, a Brisbane publisher and has released Your ebook survival guide. He spoke about the opportunities for writers to not ony publish books but to consider visual and audio elements as well. He answered many detailed questions from the audience as well as showcasing his own works including the Nullabor Song Cycle. For more details about IP go to the website (copy this link into your web browser):
http://www.ipoz.biz/IP/IP.htm