Williamstown Literary Festival

VU have a close association with the Williamstown Literary Festival as sponsors, but also through associations with various courses, ours being one of these. Each year we encourage our students to attend the festival, and indeed this forms part of our Industry Overview subject for our on-campus students. (We also run this subject online, but as many of the students who do it online are remote, we can't use this festival as part of our coursework for these students.) I know last year's students had a great time, and many will be returning again. Our Novel 2 class work as shortlisting judges for the Ada Cambridge competition, and past students have worked on placements with the festival committee or as volunteers. It's a great festival -- and I know feedback has often been about how friendly it is compared to some of the other festivals that are around.

For more information about the festival, including the program, have a look at their website -- you can download entries there for the Seagull Poetry Prize and for the Ada Cambridge Prize for short biographical writing. Entering competitions is a great way of beginning to build your writing CV -- you never know what you might win. Last year three of our students -- Lucia Nardo, Hugh Deacon and Denise Hughes -- either won prizes or were shortlisted (and published) in these competitions. (Remember, we have competition entry forms for both competitions in the office (10.248). Closing date is 1 March, so if you're interested, you'd better get onto it quickly.

Tracey Rolfe

Plenty happening in PWE

Welcome back to all our existing students, and a big welcome to all of our new students. All the staff at PWE hope you'll have a productive, exciting and challenging year studying here with us.

Whew! Is it only Week 2? Classes are under way, and already my head is spinning with all the different things that are happening, especially in the office. Our online classes are beginning this week, or in some cases (Picture Books) began last week. Bruno's got Rotunda up and rolling. Students are settling in to their new classes. News is coming in of current and past student successes: Tarryn Reid, Fiona Browning and Remo Pitisano are the new editors of SEED magazine and are calling for contributions; Matthew Naqvi has been appointed editor of Offset. Well done, everyone. It's really exciting for us to see you all doing so well.

In the meantime, six members of our Novel 2 class have just volunteered to be part of this year's Ada Cambridge Prize (for a short biographical or autobiographical piece of information), which is part of the Williamstown Literary Festival. Past students who have done this will tell them what a rich and rewarding experience this will be. (And if you'd like to enter either the Ada Cambridge or the Seagull Poetry Prize, we have entry forms in the office.)

All I can say is that I'm excited to be here as part of such a dynamic course!

Tracey Rolfe