Literary Friday June 2025

Poetry has a metaphysical, or spiritual, dimension that is unique to it; it is also the most technically complex form of any writing. What is perhaps surprising – and probably only practitioners are aware of it – is that the two elements are closely related. The most fundamental element of poetic technique is one that is rarely discussed and often completely overlooked: punctuation! Changes in punctuation can create profound differences in the way a poem is perceived, as the editors of Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and others could tell you. I think that the most important elements of poetic punctuation are line breaks and stanza breaks but an age of free verse and more recently of prose poetry has generated a great deal of uncertainty about them.

In the workshop we will focus on this apparently mechanical but actually more profound aspect of poetic craft. I would like you to bring along one of your poems –no more than a page long – typed up as prose; we will use this in the writing part of the day. (And I hope you’ve noticed that I’ve used lots of different punctuation in this blurb!)

 Dennis Haskell 

This workshop will be held on Friday June 20th, 10am-12pm at the Seed Room, Fremantle Arts Centre. $10 Case. Members only.

The remaining Literary Friday 2025 dates for your diary are:

July 18th, August 15th, September 19th, October 17th, November 21st

OOTA AGM Saturday 19 October 2024

The OOTA AGM will be held on Saturday 19 October 2024

 

We very much encourage you to consider nominating for the 2024-25 OOTA Committee

and invite you to contact Committee members if you would like to discuss this.

 

We are seeking nominations for the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary, and Ordinary Committee Members.

 

Written nominations from financial OOTA members who wish to be considered for election for one of the above positions are essential and must be sent to the OOTA Secretary by or before 20 September 2024

 

Please complete the  attached form and return to Rita Tognini by or before the due date via Email: rtognini@bigpond.com or 

Post: PO Box 529, Fremantle, WA 6959.

 

As required by the Out of the Asylum Incorporated Rules (p.18, Part 4, Division 3, 31 & 32), nominations for the positions of Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and Ordinary Committee Members (at least 6) are open. Elections will be held at the

the Annual General Meeting is on Saturday 19 October 2024 

at The Grove Library, 1 Leake St/Cnr Stirling Hwy, Peppermint Grove, 1.30-3.30pm.

WRITING WA EMERGING WRITERS PROGRAM

OOTA is honoured to announce that four of its members are among the 20 writers selected to participte in the 2024/2025 Emerging Writers Program.

The four OOTA members are:

  • Alison Davis

  • Lucy Czerwiec

  • Jennifer Hetherington

  • Nicole Roslon

The Emerging Writers’ Program is a new one-year professional development program for up to 20 emerging writers in Perth working on a debut full-length manuscript. In its first year under Writing WA management, this was a highly competitive round with an unprecedented number of 86 applications received and only 20 placements available. The judging team were impressed with the overall quality of the applications which made the assessment process extremely difficult.

The participants will be supported by Writing WA, a mentor and OOTA to develop a debut manuscript-in-progress. We are proud to be partnering with Writing WA, KSP Writers’ Centre, WA Poets Inc, Peter Cowan Writers’ Centre and the Fellowship of Australian Writers WA to assist all of the participants to achieve their goals.

The program is generously funded by the State of Western Australia through the Department of Local Government, Sport, and Cultural Industries.

LUCY CZERWIEC

ALISON DAVIS

Alison Davis is a Perth short story and flash fiction writer. Her stories have appeared in various publications including OOTA anthologies, Night Parrot Press anthologies, the Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology, the Newcastle Short Story Award Anthology and Award Winning Australian Writing. She is a previous winner of the Stuart and Hadow Short Story Prize and the Now and Then Writing Prize, and she has won prizes in the Love to Read Local flash fiction competition, Aniko Press flash fiction competition and the OOTA Spilt Ink competition. She has been selected as a participant in Writing WA’s 2024/2025 Emerging Writers Program to develop her collection of short stories and flash fiction. When she is not writing, she works as a copyright lawyer in the education sector. She lives with her husband, three daughters and two dogs in organised chaos. You can find her at www.alisondaviswriter.com.

JENNIFER HETHERINGTON

Jenifer Hetherington lives on Wadjuk Boodjar, Fremantle, Western Australia. She writes short fiction and poetry.  Her work had been published in various journals including Cuttlefish 1, 2 and 3, Poetry D'Amour, Brushstrokes, Creatrix, Enchanted Verses, Westerly (long ago!) and Indigo. South Beach is a source of inspiration and joy. She is a member of OOTA and was delighted to win the Spilt Ink competition in 2021 and highly commended in 2023.

NICOLE ROSLON

Like others before her, Nicole Roslon is a lifelong reader. Her writing journey began later than most though. It kicked off during COVID, when she was in her forties. Everyone was talking about the hobbies they started. Except her! She was still teaching in primary school while the world around her came to a standstill. So, Nicole decided to write about people who weren't represented in fiction. Women who chose not to have children. Before she began writing, Nicole researched novel writing the only way possible at the time; Google. When the world started turning again, she attended face to face courses run by Brooke Dunnell, Laurie Steed, Natasha Lester and Joanna Morrison. In 2023 Nicole was accepted into Sasha Wasley's Page To Published Course and in 2024, the advanced course. She is looking forward to being a part of Holly Craig's The Write Club.  

Double Book Launch

OOTA is proud to announce the launch of two poetry collections, Rita Tognini’s Almost Like Home and Ross Jackson’s Suited to Grey.

“The tantalising title of Rita Tognini’s collection points to a poet exploring many questions about Australia and her place in it. The poems provide an intricate search for the subtleties of personal identity, stretched between her birth country of Italy with its wealth of family connections and memories, and modern Western Australia which has long become more than ‘the land of upside down’. This process is complicated but enriched by the thinking of a person for whom language is not just a means of communication but something in which she lives, as elemental as the weather. Italian and English help determine the way she experiences both inner life and the outside world, and give her a point of subtlety from which to view subjects as diverse as Emily Dickinson, scientific thought, the animal world, and Aboriginal culture.”

 Almost Like Home is a poised collection of intelligence, sensory vivacity and ongoing curiosity.

Dennis Haskell
Emeritus Professor
Poet and Literary Essayist

“Suited to Grey is a collection which achieves a remarkable balance: ‘looking at cauliflower clouds / hoping to see a blood moon’, Ross Jackson brings us poems which encompass both the greying, down to earth realities of existence witnessed through ageing eyes and a pervasive wonder at the world. He has a sharp artist’s eye, as well as a keen desire to understand how people manage to survive in their everyday, ordinary lives. With nicely acerbic humour, he observes the ‘zombie moments’, whilst also noticing how ‘light from a streetlamp / lacquer’s silvery plants’. The ‘lounge room imaginations’ of suburbia, contemporary life in the city ‘renting rats’ rooms at the top of Escher stairs’, and the open landscape of the Outback, camping with spinifex under ‘stinging stars’, are all here, described affectingly. His empathetic ponderings about the need for human connection are very recognizable and moving and will strike chords for many readers.”

Jean Kent

The collections will be launched on Sunday, 2 June from 2pm to 4pm at Mt Lawley Bowling Club, Cnr Storthes and Rookwood Street, Mount Lawley.

OOTA Poets Rose Van Son and Kevin Gillam will be the keynote speakers and Rita and Ross will read from their collections.

Book Sales $25 each, EFTPOS available. Snacks provided and available for purchases.

OOTA Christmas Party

OOTA members gathered in the courtyard of the Fremantle Arts Centre Cafe on Friday, 15 December, to celebrate their annual Christmas party. With a delicious selection of food and drinks, the party was well attended, with members also enjoying the pleasure of readings by Taya Reid, Laurie Smith, Lucy Czerwiec, Jenny Hetherington, Jennifer Jones, Kevin Gillam and Josephine Clarke.

The OOTA committee extends their best wishes to all members and their families for a safe, healthy and happy Christmas and New Year.

Fran Graham Launches Poetry Collection

OOTA Member Fran Graham has launched her fabulous poetry collection, A Gentle Outward Breath. OOTA Members and friends gathered at Mattie Furphy House together with Fran and Rose van Son who officially launched the collection. A wonderful afternoon sharing poetry and time with friends.

OOTA Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Out of the Asylum Writer’s Association was held on 21 October at the Grove Library, Peppermint Grove between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.

The meeting received and approved reports from Chairperson Yvonne Patterson and Treasurer Jennifer Jones.

The chairperson’s report may be read here.

Following the approval of the reports, elections were conducted for the 2023/24 committee.

The following were elected:

Chairperson: Kevin Gillam

Deputy Chairperson: Richard Regan

Treasurer: Jennifer Jones

Committee Members: Julie Watts, Yvonne Patterson, Rita Tognini, Jan Napier, Josephine Clarke, Jennifer Hetherington, David Young and Laurie Smith.

No nominations were received for the office of Secretary, so that position remains temporarily unfilled.

The meeting expressed a vote of thanks and appreciation to Yvonne Patterson and Rita Tognini for their work as Chairperson and Secretary.

Following the meeting, the winners of Spilt Ink 2023 were announced and prizes awarded. Members present enjoyed readings by those prize winners present and afternoon tea.

The OOTA Committee expresses its thanks and appreciation to the Spilt Ink judges, Roland Leach and Brooke Dunnell; to the Spilt Ink organizers, Jennifer Jones and Julie Watts, to the Prize Winners and all those who entered Spilt Ink; and to those members who attended and participated in setting up the room and providing the afternoon tea.

OOTA Announces Results of Spilt Ink 2023

The OOTA Committee is delighted to congratulate the OOTA Spilt Ink Competition 2023 winners

Warmest wishes to you all for a wonderful selection of creative writing.

Special thanks to our Poetry Judge Roland Leach and our Short Fiction Judge Brooke Dunnell.

Short Fiction

First Place: ‘Leta’ by Taya Reid

Second Place: ‘The River Doesn’t Care’ by Judd Exley

Third Place: ‘Do Pigs Know Weather?’ by Laurie Smith

Highly Commended: ‘Chemistry Test’ by Liana Joy Christensen

Commended: ‘Miss Lilly’ by Jenifer Hetherington

The judge’s report may be found here.

Poetry

First place: ‘silent flights’ by Josephine Clarke

Second place: ‘Ritual’ by Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Third place: ‘Lost Art of Pastels’ by Kevin Gillam

Highly Commended:

‘Chopin’s Water Fountain’ by Lucy Czerwiec

‘South Beach Moonah’ by Jenifer Hetherington

The judge’s report may be found here.

Short Fiction First Place Winner Taya Reid

Short Fiction Second Place winner Judd Exley

Short fiction winners Jennifer Hetherington (Commended) and Laurie Smith (Third Place) with judge Brook Dunnell.

Short Fiction Highly Commended winner Liana Joy Christensen

Poetry winners Kevin Gillam, Josephine Clarke, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Jennifer Hetherington and Lucy Czerwiec with judge Roland Leach.

OOTA Member Laurie Smith launches poetry collection.

Congratulations to Laurie Smith on the Launch, by Shane McCauley, of his poetry collection 'Permission to Roam'. Friends and OOTA members enjoyed the celebrated with Laurie at Mattie Furphy House in the shade of native bush. Its available from WA Poets Publishing.

OOTA CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS AND THE LAUNCH OF TEMPUS

Friday, 16 December 2022: OOTA members and friends gathered in the cafe courtyard at the Fremantle Arts Centre to celebrate another twelve months of productive and engaging writing. In addition to lively literary discussion, good fellowship and a festive luncheon, members also celebrated the recent publication of Tempus, OOTA’s 2022 anthology of prose and poetry, inspired by the theme of Time.

Rob Manning, Alison Davis, Annie Robinson and Lucy Czerwiec read excerpts from their entries, which reflect the very high standard of writings that comprise the anthology.

The OOTA committee thanks all members for their efforts and contributions this year and wishes everyone all the very best for the festive season and for a happy and productive New Year.