A year of writing in review
Last year was full of busyness, change and many successes at You Need A Writer.
Stephen saw Legend, his memoir of daredevil Lawrence Ryan, published by Connor Court. (Lawrence is planning Harley-Davidson jumps over a running helicopter and a 48 class locomotive engine in March.)
And then he started working part-time as a communications coordinator with Settlement Services International, a not-for-profit organisation that provides a range of frontline services in the areas of refugee settlement, asylum seeker assistance, housing, foster care, disability support and employment services in NSW.
He still found time to work on a church website, do some photography for Waste Not Want Not and edit, photograph and help out with social media for publisher Spineless Wonders, football site Back of the Net, Bridge for Asylum Seekers Foundation and Eremos.
Marjorie continued to write in the loft in Balmain and is making good progress with her fiction, poetry and other creative projects. Along with garnering several more literary prizes last year, her:
award-winning story ‘We’re All Travellers Here’ was published in June as a digital eSingle by Spineless Wonders
poem ‘You Make It Now’ was published in Award Winning Australian Writing 2015
poem ‘Itchy As It Scratches’ was published on a postcard with a collage thanks to commendation in the Nillumbik Ekphrasis Poetry Award and
poem ‘Oyster Slip’ was published in Cordite poetry journal.
In June, Marjorie read an extract of ‘Walk Beside Me’ (her story that won the Lane Cove Literary Award in 2014) at the launch of the 2014 award anthology.
As she was traveling through the Faroe Islands and Iceland when The Michael McGirr Selects Series was launched in July, Spineless Wonders pre-recorded and showed her acceptance speech for the 2014 Carmel Bird Award. You can watch it here.
Marjorie’s freelance editorial work this year has included targeting web content for a Gladesville preschool, shaping blog posts for Matrix on Board Consulting, and writing and editing a commemorative book and an annual report for The Australian Nursing Home Foundation (ANHF). ANHF CEO, Ada Cheng, said, ‘This is the most professional annual report we’ve had in the past 35 years! Our corporate performance and information is translated in a unique and creative way and is presented in a beautiful design template. A big thank you for your great collaborative efforts.’
Marjorie and Stephen edit and design the regular Spineless Wonders newsletter and love working with Publisher Bronwyn Mehan to make sure it’s packed with interesting items.
Marjorie also did some interesting interviews this year for her literary blog A Bigger Brighter World, including a Q&A with Australian literary legend, Carmel Bird, about her new short story collection My Hearts Are Your Hearts. Marjorie blogged about some fabulous books in 2015 including: The Golden Age by Joan London, H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald, The Green Road by Anne Enright, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The All Saints’ Day Lovers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Small Acts of Disappearance by Fiona Wright, The Iceberg by Marion Coutts and Deep Lane by Mark Doty to name just a few.
