Category Archives: Books

Writers’ Festival Gems

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Karen Whitelaw

Every writers’ festival has its own personality. Sydney Writers Festival is big, brash and busy. The speakers are the top of the literary game nationally and internationally, as well as including promising new authors. But it’s so huge now you … Continue reading →

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Generating Writing Ideas

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Karen Whitelaw

One of the questions writers are asked most often is, where do you get your ideas? At the Newcastle Writers’ Festival I went to a great session on Microfiction where author Susan McCreery talked about her New Year’s resolution to … Continue reading →

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Man Booker Winner 2016

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Karen Whitelaw

I heard Paul Beatty talking about his novel The Sellout on Radio National’s Books and Arts . It’s an insightful interview by Sky Kirkham. The Australian Independent Bookseller had this to say about the novel that won this year’s Man … Continue reading →

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Award Winning Australian Writing 2016

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Karen Whitelaw

                Last Thursday I got the exciting news my story ‘Koi’, which won the Inaugural Newcastle Writers’s Festival Microlit Competition has been selected for the Award Winning Australian Writing 2016 anthology! And to top it off … Continue reading →

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Short Story Competition

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

  The Newcastle Short Story Award is now open to Australian residents. You’ve got until midnight on 31st January 2016 to polish up your best story under 2,000 words. The shortlisted stories from the inaugural competition in 2012, including one of mine, … Continue reading →

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Living a Dream – Day 18

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

The morning started with an overcast sky and clear light. There was no mist in the Luberon and the overexposured sky was bought down a stop or two to grey. Daylight saving has ended. The sun and I now got … Continue reading →

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In Your Wake by Anna Lundmark

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

Sometimes you come across a short story that is so well-crafted, so packed with emotion, so brilliantly layered, and so creatively imagined it haunts you. Anna Lundmark’s astonishingly short 500 word story, In Your Wake, in the 2015 Grieve anthology … Continue reading →

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Characters in Place

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

Jon Snow from Game of Thrones was invited to a swish New York dinner party. Incongruous? Absolutely. Watch the video clip of the dinner. It’s hilarious. I laugh out loud every time I think of it, yet something about it … Continue reading →

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Sydney Writers’ Festival 2015 – On Home and Exile

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

It’s pouring. We wait outside the Philharmonic Studio on the wharf for the session On Exile and Home where an organiser pokes the bulge full of water in the canvas roof and a waterfall cascades over the edge. The water … Continue reading →

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Catchfire Press Competition

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

Catchfire Press is at it again! They’re asking for stories (fiction or non-fiction), poems and essays for their latest competition: Theme – ‘Home is the Hunter.’ This community-based publishing house will not only publish the winners but also select the … Continue reading →

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