40th Anniversary Celebration

Patti Miller (00:00:09):

As far as I recall, I think we, we were talking about the process and the difficulties of getting published and Druscilla Modjeska came up with the idea of an Anthology because she thought it would also be good training in editing and looking at other people's work critically.

Delia Falconer (00:00:31):

They choose the content, and that content is chosen without knowing the names of any of the contributors from a year's worth of work that students submit. They make all the editorial decisions. They come up with the title of the journal. They talk about covers with the designers. They edit the work and then they're responsible for the launch, and for multiple launches sometimes, they're really responsible for the full process.

Neysha Santos (00:01:05):

It was definitely more than I expected. It's not just being an editor in the committee. It's also taking on marketing, taking on social media PR, and working kind of throughout the whole year throughout the publishing process.

Talia Horiwitz (00:01:19):

It was, it was so fascinating to see the breadth of talent that UTS has and that's available for UTS students. And it was just absolutely fantastic to be able to read all of that and see that.

Jennifer Worgan (00:01:29):

Yeah, it was so exciting to find out that the work was, was accepted. I feel like with writing a lot of the time, you're kind of writing something by yourself in your room often. Not that many people read what you've written. So, the fact that I had written these stories that were gonna be published in a book was very exciting. Um, yeah, I can't wait to, for it to come out.

Debra Adelaide (00:01:54):

I do remember one memorable launch. It was this one, actually, I think, “What You Do and Don't Want”. One of the students who published a piece, Sam Twyford-Moore, had written a piece that referenced the author, Frank Moorehouse. So, I invited Frank Moorehouse to see if he'd come and launch it and thinking he absolutely wouldn't but he did.

New Books Reveal and multiple people.

Oh my god!

Oh, I thought this was only gonna be electronic. Oh my god! Oh, a present. Thank you. Oh, wow.

That’s you babes. That’s us. Amazing. Look at that. Look at this.

Bernard Cohen (00:02:41):

I ran writing workshops out at Eastwood Public School and a student enrolled in Year 4 I think, there and continued studying writing with me through to Year 12. And then came here to UTS. And where is she? And, in here she's “Late for Lunch”. What I'm seeing is that I am among friends, in this one. I feel connected with both of these, thank you.

Professor Alan Davison (00:03:23):

The UTS Writers’ Anthology continues to be one of the most exciting public displays of the outstanding student works that emerge from FASS’ world-class writing program. And I'm immensely proud to be here to witness the celebration of its 40 Year History.

Dr Anna Funder (00:03:58):

How great is that? It's fantastic! Um, good evening, everyone. Um, my name is Anna Funder and I'm your MC this evening. On behalf of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Creative Writing department at UTS, welcome. I'm thrilled and really honoured to be here as MC as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the UTS Writers’ Anthology and the important place of the UTS Creative Writing program and its journal in Australian writing history.

Tonight, we are launching not one but two additions of the anthology. “40” a collection of the best writing from four decades of the UTS anthology and “Bloom” the Journal's 35th edition. I'd also like to say just how thrilling it is to be here in a room in real life with real people. I think this might be the first, if not one of the first times that people have been able to gather like this since lockdown, so it's really lovely. I'd like call upon Aunty Glendra, UTS Elder-In-Residence, who's going to give the acknowledgement to country. Thank you Aunty Glendra.

Aunty Glendra (00:05:35):

Oh, this is really exciting to be here. Um, yesterday I was invited to the honours students’ celebration and I just assumed it was a zoom, so I didn't come in.

Aunty Glendra (00:05:54):

I can't tell you how I excited I am to be here. So poor little Charlotte that I'd given a lot of my mother's beautiful hand work to, and she's done an honours in fashion, was expecting me to, to be there, to show me some of her works. And, um, I said, “I’m looking for the zoom, I can't find the zoom Darling” and she goes, “Oh, it's an in-person one.” So, um, you're lucky I got here. So <laugh> so, um, um, I'm really honoured to be here and like, Anne? Anna said, um it is lovely to see people face-to-face. I just can't wait till I can start hugging people. <laugh> And um, congratulations, young one, I saw you in the video. Um yala madumarang Galindara. Yala madumarang is I'm welcome in my language and Galindra is my name that my father gave me.

Aunty Glendra (00:07:01):

I think I had an Aboriginal name before it was trendy to have an Aboriginal name. So Glendra is the English translation. Um, it's hard enough to get around Glendra. I have once been called “Slender”, which, um, now I might pass for, but never back then. Um, so yes I'm, I'm honoured to have an Aboriginal name. So, I am the um, Elder-In-Residence and I’m really honoured and privileged to, to be part of UTS. UTS is a very special place. It believes in diversity, it wraps its arms around everyone, and it gives people a really good chance to be the best people they can be. Um, so I'm honoured to be here.

Aunty Glendra (00:07:53):

I would like to acknowledge and pay respects to the traditional owners on, on the owners of the Gadigal people of the, Eora nation and say, thanks for allowing us to be here. It is upon their ancestral lands, that the University of Technology is built. As we share our knowledge, teaching, learning, and research practice within this university, may we all pay respects to the knowledge embedded forever within the Aboriginal custodianship of country. I also pay respects to elders past and acknowledge their struggles and strengths so that we can have opportunities not afforded to them. And one of those opportunities is higher education. Also on a, um, present elders and our young ones who are so proud and respectful, and they are sharing our hopes and dreams.

Aunty Glendra (00:08:55):

I can't, um, do an acknowledgement without thanking our non-indigenous brothers and sisters who walk beside us on this journey of collaboration, are supportive and respectful, social justice and equal partnerships with, with us all. They, I too share the hopes and dreams that Australia will work together. An inclusive country that looks after most vulnerable, our past and is recognized, and we walk together side by side. Um, I, um, had cataract surgery and I can't see very well anymore <affirmative>, but I can still write really crappily, really crappily. So, I've lost a lot of my skills and I can still sew just because I set that little machine into the, the path of the machine and it hums away, and you can't really miss it because it's stuck there. So, um, in this, um, unusual time, um, writing's played a really important part in my life, and I'm sure it's played a really important part in your life, ‘cause it's something that hasn't been taken away from me yet.

Aunty Glendra (00:10:14):

So, I, yes. Um, and like I said, I'm really honoured to be here, um, and you know, amongst such amazing young minds and, and some not so amazing, I mean, some amazing older minds <laugh> um, so yeah, so yeah, 40 years, it's amazing. You know, I, um, said to Andrew and welcome Andrew, and congratulations. We are in good hands with you. I've got a very good ------- detector. Ooh <laugh> um, so 40 years I've, I've, um, been supporting the stolen generations for 40 years and it's a long time and sometimes it's a, uh, a battle with a few bumps on the road. So, it's a, a credit, anything that's 40 years is a long time and, and it's a big journey. So, congratulations and welcome back everyone. And I'm so glad I remembered to come. Thank you. And, and, um, thank you to young young James for my gift. Um, where is he? He's got this fabulous pink suit on, oh, oh, thank you, darling. Did I get your name right? Thank you. Thanks everyone. Wait on, I'm lost.

 

Dr Anna Funder (00:11:50)

Thank you so much, Glendra.

Dr Anna Funder (00:11:53):

I would also like to pay my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people upon whose unceded ancestral lands this university stands and also acknowledge Elders both past and present as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands. Storytelling in the most vital and profound forms has been taking place here for millennia. It's such a pleasure to be back here. I extend also a warm welcome from the faculty to those joining us here in this room. Professor Vice Chancellor, Andrew Parfitt, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Glen Wightwick, and Glen Babington, and to the many writers’ staff supporters, um, and readers of the UTS Creative Writing Program here tonight. I think that's everyone <affirmative>. Um, also I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to those of you who are joining via our web link.

Dr Anna Funder (00:13:00):

Wherever you are in the world. Tonight, is a night of really great celebrations. I'd like to congratulate both the editorial teams. Of “Bloom” that is: Kismet Fawcett, Max Wild. I, um, Max Wild was a name around our dinner party last night. It was like voted the best writer's name ever. <laugh> Morna, sorry everybody else including me, uh, Morna Seres, Neysha Santos, Sarah Furlan and Talia Horwitz. And of “40”: Zohra Aly, Reilly Keir, Charle Malycon, Callan McNeilage, Cecilia Ritchie and Clare Shiu. Not only have these editorial teams produced publications, but they've also organised and produced tonight's event, so thank you. And tonight is really a total treat. We're going to hear Delia Forkner on the history of the anthology, two readings from “Bloom” and a panel discussion from some of the authors and mentors of “40”. At this point, I would like to invite the Vice Chancellor up to the stage to say a few words.

Vice Chancellor Andrew Parfitt (00:14:26):

Thank you very much, Anna, and, uh, to everybody welcome, welcome to a very special event. Uh, and, and, uh, thank you to Aunty Glendra for the Acknowledgement of Country. It's such an important thing for us to do. Uh, this is Aboriginal land. It always was, it always will be. Uh, and we acknowledge that we also celebrate indigenous knowledges. That's an integral part of what we are, uh, and are very being here, but there's an important other connection tonight and that of course is storytelling. Because storytelling, uh, is so important and I've heard it so many times from my, uh, indigenous colleagues about the, uh, the role that's telling stories has in preserving culture, in conveying culture and making us really aware of the place and connections that we have.  That storytelling, uh, is really an integral part as well of, uh, of the way in which we communicate our being in many so ways, uh, in, uh, uh, in our society these days.

Vice Chancellor Andrew Parfitt (00:15:35):

Sometimes we think we've lost the art of that but think how many times that a story has captured our imagination and drawn us to a conclusion that we might not have otherwise reached. That's why I think, um, when we talk about a University of Technology, we turn our minds initially to the technology component. But of course, technology is just an enabler. We do a lot of work here at UTS in, uh, uh, in developing new technologies, in deploying new technologies, but technologies are only as good as the way in which they're used. And if they're enabling anything, how wonderful is it that they're enabling innovation, creativity, thoughtful debate. The very essence of what a university is about is where ideas, clash, where ideas are tested, where ideas come bet through better than when they started in the debate. And storytelling is such an important part of that process as well.

Vice Chancellor Andrew Parfitt (00:16:34):

So, the place of this program in the University of Technology is absolutely critical. Preserving the capacity to be able to tell stories, to convey meaning, to challenge ideas is really at the heart of the university. And it's terrific that this program is so well regarded in the community more widely, uh, and is recognised as just a part of what we do. So, we're very proud of the writers who study with us, the writers who work here, the writers who form part of the wider community of connections that we have, uh, and the work that they do. It's an important art that we need to continue and will continue to have a fundamental place here, uh, at the university sitting alongside the many other things that we do, whether they're in engineering and science and business, uh, whether they're in, uh, creative industries more broadly. We're also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Writers' Anthology. And for those of you, um, even, uh, partially numerate, 40 years is longer than UTS has actually existed as a university.

Vice Chancellor Andrew Parfitt (00:17:44):

So, it's another important thing to remember tonight, and that is the importance of, uh, connections and our roots and our foundations and the antecedent organisations that brought UTS to the place that it is today. So, celebrating 40 years is a terrific achievement. It shows not only endurance, but the fact that this is a, uh, an activity, a, an artifact, um, a, uh, as collection of stories to be celebrated and regarded as, um, essentially, uh, a strand through UTS's history. The anthology itself, of course, is the work of many hard-working staff and students. And, uh, Anna has already acknowledged that and has acknowledged the, uh, the people who've worked on the, the production. These are terrific points of engagement for us, and really to, to launch this, to celebrate it in the, uh, in the Great Hall at this particular time, after a long period of not being able to get together, um, is such a gift. Uh, I hope you really do enjoy tonight's function. Congratulations again, to everybody who put the anthology together, let's look forward to the next 40 years.

Dr Anna Funder (00:19:08):

Thank you very much Vice Chancellor. And I love the idea of another 40 years. Sounds fantastic. I'm going to say of few words of my own about my association with the UTS and about writing. I can never pass up a kind of trapped audience, um, but I won't be too long. Um, it's a particular pleasure for me to be hosting this event because my own association with the Creative Writing process, um, program at UTS goes back of very long way. I have been haunting the halls here since 2004 when I began a doctorate that then became the novel, “All that I am”. I worked then in, uh, it was before the renovations, in literally a windowless broom cupboard in this tower building upstairs, which I was very grateful for and passionately loved. I think of myself then as a, a creature of this place, sort of like a Golum or maybe like a possum in the attic, in any event ineradicable because I'm still here. um, after a few periods of maternity leave and, and overseas affection, uh, I was proud to be named a UTS luminary.

Dr Anna Funder (00:20:23):

And while I was overseas, I was also proud to be able to represent the UTS's interests, uh, when I lived in the States. But even before moving here to Sydney and beginning to work with the UTS, I was aware and slightly in awe of the reputation of this writing program. It's such a place of energy and industry and serious engagement with both writing and with the world as we see here, I suppose, in these anthologies. And I'd seen the anthology reviewed nationally, and I was aware of how the program had been, had nurtured extraordinary writers – there’s way too many to name, but, um, one of them, I just saw out there, like the extraordinary Gillian Mears. Um, so tonight I'm just gonna say a couple of things about my own writing practices. I developed it in the cupboard upstairs. Um, and I suppose the first thing I wanted to talk about was getting over one’s sense of awe and finding your own voice.

Dr Anna Funder (00:21:24):

The second thing I'm gonna talk about is metaphorical thinking. So, when you start writing – I think this is quite a common experience – You've got no idea if your work will seem good to anyone apart from you. Though my early work is stuffed up in my own attic, and I can neither throw it away nor look at it. I know that it would never have made it, for instance, into these anthologies. Um, I hadn't yet found my voice. But thinking about learning how to write, made me think of how I did learn. One of the children I had while I was haunting the tower upstairs, is now learning to drive. So, most of my metaphors at the moment are driving metaphors. You have to forgive that. That's just what I've got lying around to hand. So, when learning to write, instructions like those for driving a car are possibly helpful.

Dr Anna Funder (00:22:21):

So, notes on point of view, framing the story or the moment, big picture and small picture detail and so on. But I don't think about those things anymore when I'm writing. I can drive a car without thinking or not very much. And even though I wouldn't go so far as to say, I can write without thinking, I can pretty much write without the instructions. And that is because there's something that I've been learning to do automatically, a bit like driving. But the most important thing that you learn is what's called “finding a voice”. This is something that happens in the process of doing the, the writing, because it's in writing that you uncover your particular slant on the world and the verbal tone that suits your point of view. You discover, in short, the writing you. So, in the 40 years of the UTS's writing anthology so far, the reader is really privileged to witness this process in emerging writers, finding their voice.

Dr Anna Funder (00:23:28):

I can remember being surprised at the voice I found was mine, which sounds counterintuitive, but we say finding a voice instead of choosing one, precisely because it's not totally a choice. The field is not as open as you might think you are you after all. You are – I’m talking about myself – the resources that you have to hand: personality, experience, verbal facility, heart, and ear. As much as me, we might write about things outside of us, it's our writing selves – once we find them, that we bring to the material. The UTS program has attracted a wide variety of diverse and talented writers to it. I think precisely because of the sophistication and depth of the teaching faculty. Here, there are no cookie cutters. There are no gurus. You can, and you will, and you do, and you probably have found your voice. The other thing I'd like to talk about is about the importance of metaphorical writing, because I think that metaphor is really at the heart of literary writing.

Dr Anna Funder (00:24:43):

We describe one thing in terms of another, in order to see each of the two things anew. David Mitchell, an author I admire, the author of “Cloud Atlas”, when asked what imagination is said, imagination is a metaphor generator that makes unobvious connections. And he described inspiration as a connection so unobvious, you don't know how you made it. Metaphor, large and small, is the start and the art of fiction writing. You can learn to drive a car to take you somewhere or here, you can learn to wield a point of view to take you somewhere else. Writing can hold things together like a mirror, holding them up to the world so differently. This afternoon, I held a mirror up to what I was thinking. I'm going to share it with you. So, I held it up to street sleepers and tech titans and brave Graces called Tame. To stolen children and newly discovered planets to pigmy peoples and human mules. To deforestation, while Villa Woods's bloom. To cloud seeding, to coke snorting racehorses, to islands drowning, and children being born. To being left, to being found, to stopping time. That is what a metaphor or metaphors can do.

Dr Anna Funder (00:26:15):

I'm not alone in feeling the wonder of hearing voices quicken and steady in these anthologies. Writers, such as Nam Lee, James Bradley, Malcolm Knox, Fiona McGregor, Debra Adelaide, Alison Whittaker, Ceridwen Dovey, Mirae Toshow, and Melissa Lucashenko in her introduction to 40, have each found the same sense of excitement and wonder in looking at the voices that are contained in these anthologies. So, in fact, have reviewers. The eminent reviewer, Karen Goldsworthy, notes that “the quality of the journal has always been high”. Jordy Williamson writing in the Australian says that one of the virtues of a journal like this the equivalent of an artistic group show if you like, is that in his words, “we have a stake in the text as it proceeds”. I think that's because we all, as Australians and as readers, have a stake in the development of new Australian voices. I'd like to finish by quoting Melissa Lucashenko’s wonderful introduction to “40”.

Dr Anna Funder (00:27:29):

She says, growing up in Brisbane in the early seventies, I scarcely even realised in my youth that Australians could be authors. There was the remarkable Alan Marshall, who I loved and also Kath Walker, but Dick and bloody Dora definitely ruled the classroom, she writes. And of the thousands of texts in the narrow long rectangle that was the Mt Gravatt Central Public Library, only a tiny minority were by Australians. I'll never forget, she writes, the distinct physical shock I felt as a child, when I first read a sentence about Acacia Ridge, a nearby suburb, in a book. Collections like this one, she says, from UTS students who know they can be authors and who set out to become writers in a very deliberate way, are part of why the literary landscape is so different to that of 50 years ago. So different and so much more wonderful.

Dr Anna Funder (00:28:35):

It's now my pleasure to introduce you, Dr. Delia Falconer, senior lecturer at UTS. Delia is one of Australia's most admired writers, the author of four books, including this year, the truly brilliant essay collection sparked by her response to living through this age of the Anthropocene. It's called “Signs and Wonders: Dispatches from a Time of Beauty and Loss.” We are so fortunate to have Delia here at UTS. In addition to her writing and teaching, Delia has also worked as the academic lead on numerous anthologies. Tonight, she's going to speak about the history of the anthology and its vital place in the Australian literary landscape. Thank you, Delia.

Dr Delia Falconer (00:29:30):

Thanks Anna.

Dr Delia Falconer (00:29:34):

At the risk of being repetitious, um, it's wonderful to be celebrating here tonight in real life. And to see so many people here from the UTS family, past and present, who have contributed to the writer's anthology over 40 years. The anthology first issue “Pink cakes” appeared in 1982 when the University of Technology Sydney was still the New South Wales Institute of Technology. It has appeared with a few small gaps almost every year since and has established itself as one critic wrote in the Australian as “an integral part of our literary ecology.” The editors of that first issue wrote that it was born out of a reluctance to accept the bleak situation of fiction publishing with its small markets, high costs and the domination by international companies unwilling to gamble with new and untried writers. They noted - this is a quote, “the satisfaction of controlling all the decisions that are made in every phase of production right down to the type face.”

Dr Delia Falconer (00:30:39):

Now, while the fortunes of Australian publishing have risen and fallen and risen, I hope, over the decades, these satisfactions continue for our current editors. The UTS Writer’s Anthology played its part in creating big changes to the local and national writing scene from the beginning. Editors of the early volumes contributed to the legendary Writers in the Park, a platform for live readings at the Harold Park Hotel which many of you will remember in Glebe, that predates even the Sydney Writers’ Festival, which didn't begin until 1997. Realism was still the dominant flavour of Australian writing as the anthology began. But from the earliest days, its loyalties pointed towards the new and iconoclastic, on the flow between academic and creative work. In his introduction to the 1987 issue, Creative Writing lecturer Steven Mueke observed that there were two paths available to local writers: to study literature at Sydney university and publish with venerable houses like Angus & Robinson or to read work at the Harold Park Hotel in the spirit of the Balmain Push. In its early additions, and especially in the eighties, when international luminaries like Jean Baudrillard were coming into town as part of Sydney's big theory moment, postmodernism and playful postmodernism inflects the writing. By 1991, UTS Creative Writing graduate, the late and wonderful Gillian Mears, would note in her introduction to the anthology, “That what also seems remarkable is the willingness of these writers to leapfrog over many of the normal literary conventions. Some put a few double twists into their leap.”

Dr Delia Falconer (00:32:19):

Reading the stories from 35 issues is like opening a sequence of time capsules from which the compressed atmosphere of a time and place bursts back out. Heroin washes through those eighties and nineties stories. So do beer, seaview champagne, inner city doorsteps, wicker chairs in share houses and cigarette butts in the monstera deliciosa. E-commerce and emails appear for the first time in 2004, along with designer underwear and emails, veganism in 2005. And how things change. In a story published in 2000, someone asks for a double decaf soy latte in a cafe, and the waiter says, “Certainly not” <laugh>. And of course, more traditional writing never went away either. With so many accomplished works of realism in the journal over the years, along with the occasional short film script and of course poetry. The compass of the early stories, especially those about war migration points to Europe. Around the turn of the millennium, you can watch it swing closer to home.

Dr Delia Falconer (00:33:32):

As pieces begin to be set in South America, Vietnam, Japan, the Pacific islands, India, South Africa, and East Timor as Australia itself becomes more open and dynamic. Nonfiction becomes a regular part of the anthology around 2013 as creative nonfiction starts to boom around the world. The alumni of the anthology are impressive, and I can see some of those, many of those faces actually in the audience. Now they've included Beth Yahp, MTC Cronan, Toby Fitch, Isabelle Li, Alison Whittaker, John Connell, Rachel Ward, Ashley sin, and Damien love not Lovelock to name just a handful. And then there are the rising stars. Emily Brigman selected for the 2000 anthology will publish her Vogel Award shortly to novel “The Islands” next year. And you'll meet more of these past contributors later tonight. But not all writers, even those who are well established today, come out of the gates fully fledged or filled with confidence.

Dr Delia Falconer (00:34:36):

When I was a student in the early eighties UTS, I lived my edge in my life on the edge of fright. Gillian Mears, who had won the wrote she'd won the Vogel Award the year before and had been invited to contribute the introduction to the 1991 edition featuring star alumni. “Many fears ruled me,” she writes, “perhaps my most abiding apprehension grew out of the sense of writing talent all around and correspondingly, of drowning beneath that quality. Of never surfacing, of lingering too long in that that comfortable, but untimely fr- ultimately frustrating cocoon of the Potential Writer.” capital P capital W. But the point of the UTS writer's anthology has always been about something bigger as Nam Lee would point out in his introduction to the 2010 edition “I can see my house from here”. Writing and reading are are so essentially private. There is a place for celebration and community like tonight.

Dr Delia Falconer (00:35:37):

There's also a place for finding your voice, that difficult process that Anne has spoken about so beautifully tonight. There is a public perception, I think, that Creative Writing courses are about creating cookie cutter writers who all write to some kind of agenda of sameness. Whereas the process is actually very much the opposite. In her introduction to the 2012 edition, novelist and nonfiction writer Fiona McGregor would write, “Testament to the teaching at UTS is the willingness and ability of all these writers to apply themselves to such a variety of form and voice as well as the fact that the writing is not blurred with polish into sameness, genericised by an over-emphasis on craft.” Anna has mentioned the spectacular range of writers who've been unhappy who've been happy to endorse the UTS Writers Anthology in their introductions, including of course, Anna herself, while all acknowledge the vivid talents on display.

Dr Delia Falconer (00:36:38):

One rings loudly, the importance of such courses and anthologies as nurturing spaces for writers. In her introduction to the 1994 edition, Jan Hutchinson would note that “When I was first of bewildered writing student at UTS, I was struck and still am, by the care that is shown towards new writers and their writing. It's a consideration that exists outside preciousness, and yet within the confines of something almost as old-fashioned as respect, as part of the program for, I think, 16 years now, I can only add that this has been my experience too. Of endless delight and surprise at the inventiveness, goodwill, and bravery of the writers I've worked with. Who, no matter what they've gone on to do after UTS, have left with a sense of the importance of creative communities and their own powers of invention. As a teacher, I'm also very aware of those past writing staff who contributed to the program and the success of the anthology over the years. To Drusilla Modjeska, Steven Mueke, Jan Hutchinson, Amanda Laurie, Judith Beveridge, the lake Graham Williams and Glen and Lakeland, Glen Adams, Gabrielle Carey, Anthony Macris, John Dale, who I can see in the audience here tonight and Tony, I can see and Debra Adelaide who'll speak later and Claire Corbett, the anthology remains as we all pass through.

Dr Delia Falconer (00:38:06):

So, thank you to our wonderful volunteer editors for your, your hard work and dedication. And I'm going to join everyone else in saying here's to the next 40 years. Thank you.

Dr Anna Funder (00:38:25):

Thank you so much, Delia. It's great to have that overview. And I mean, we could be here all night with a roll call of extraordinary writers and teachers. Um, I know we're only mentioning some of them, but now we're going to hear from some of the very newest ones. Two readers from this year's anthology “Bloom”, who will be introduced by members of this year's editorial committee, Neysha Santos and Max Wild. Neysha is in the final year of her Creative Writing degree at UTS she's word-obsessed and loves poetry in all forms. Max wild enjoys editing film and written works, but he's not quite sure what he wants to do after he leaves UTS. At the moment, his tentative career plan is to be simultaneously a famous film editor, a great book editor and a psychologist. Please welcome Neysha and Max.

Neysha Santos (00:39:38):

Hi, my name is Neysha and I'm thrilled to be announcing the first reader from the 2021 Anthology “Bloom”. This creative nonfiction piece is filled with stunning prose and inspired our committee to read all of the books referenced. Lily Cameron is a writer and editor based in Sydney's inner west. She is a UTS Master of Arts student, recipient of the Allen & Unwin Creative Writing grant and winner of the inner west council, 2020 young writer award. Please welcome Lily reading from her piece, “Finding meaning in the in-between”.

Lily Cameron (00:40:26):

Thank you, Neysha. This is just the beginning of the essay, “Finding meaning in the in-between.” When I dissect my body, pull apart layers of skin and sinew, tear limb from limb and place each specimen under the light, I see I'm made of many gendered parts. My legs have hair on them, dark and thin blonde at the tips. Skin may be made up and definitely sunscreened. Fingernails short for sex, music, maybe sport. Long limbs and slightly hunched shoulders. The formation of gender is societal arbitrary, fabricated. This is why Frankenstein- Frankenstein's monster engages me so. These many gendered body parts and many gendered words can help us explore the constraints and limitations of language when it comes to the construction of meaning on issues of gender and sexuality. Mary Shelley knew Frankenstein would ring true with readers writing in the preface of a republication, “What terrified me will terrify others.”

Lily Cameron (00:41:29):

This fear of being misunderstood, misrepresented, incorrectly stitched together - this is why these new words and new ways of speaking captivate us. In her book, “The Argonauts” Maggie Nelson says the answer doesn't lie in creating new language, although she acknowledges the power and pragmatism in, in doing so. She says that there is no cure. For what? Dysphoria, disgust, confusion. In a queer utopia, would we have a word for every iteration of gender or none. After all, there are a limitless number of words for gender diverse identities around the world. When placed side by side, all these words form something like a quilt, threaded by protest or prayer. Boy, running stitch, skip -----, running stitch, sister girl, loop on, two spirit. Is it some quilt or rather a poem? A travesty, a warrior, faʻafafine, femminiello. I know it's possible. Sotho created her own language to explore her love and lust, so much so that the love was named after her.

Lily Cameron (00:42:34):

This mortal muse, a myth weaver, honey voiced, who lived and died over 2000 years ago. Only one of her poems remains in its entirety. The rest of her words lost, eaten away. In, if not winter, poet and essayist, Anne Carson has collected the fragments that remain and called attention to the missing pieces. Using squared quotes to connote the ambiguity and absence that comes with illegibility. This silent space between brackets creates a new poem entirely. One where the reader can imagine all that is left unsaid or forgotten. A new language that is not Greek or English or even anything in between. When Anne Carson created a frame for Sotho’s words and slotted them in carefully, intentionally, she created a share language that spans lost books, exiles, and death. Reading these fragments, I remember Sotho like a many-gendered mother and I don't feel so alone. I don't want to be buried.

Lily Cameron (00:43:32):

Thinking of burial makes my throat tight like the taste of lychees. But if I imagine my gravestone, I imagine it reading “Daughter sister dot dot dot” I call my not woman lover “my queen” when they do something worthy of an accolade. I remember girlhood fondly with all its quick growing limbs and late nights and love the feeling of the word woman in my mouth. How can I decry the end gender while also loving mine? Bodies are not simply made up of blood and bone and organs. They historically, socially and even linguistically formed. If, as Monica Whittick suggests, the language you speak is made up of words that are killing you, womanhood and queerhood are indeed limited by language that was not designed with us in mind. While we think of dictionaries as holders of all linguistic truths, they were written by people, men with their own biases.

Lily Cameron (00:44:25):

This is perhaps most easily illustrated with the definition of “suffragette” originally defined by men who opposed its very existence with the quote, “Screeching, childless and husbandless sisterhood”. Consider also pederasty, sexual inversion, tribadism, similar asexualism, terms used to belittle or criticise a range of non-hegemonic sexualities. The language we speak is made up of words that are killing us. I sometimes feel I am playing a woman. A person with hair, just so and a kind of shivering frustration deep in my veins. And more than that, playing queer woman. Femme, but not femme enough. Not quite spoken into existence.

Lily Cameron (00:45:12):

SM Gilbert asks of women “Is ‘her body’ a linguistic term in male language? Does ‘her body’ express or oppress a female language of its own”? I wonder what that language would sound like if we could listen to it. I think it would sound like feminists in Spain, rejecting grammatical gender and creating words out of symbols instead of letters. It would sound like Virginia Woolf calling her body a monster and miracle in one breath, writing Orlando, a whole book where her lover morphs from man to woman to hero or heroine in between. It would sound like the voices of femme fatales, wicked witches, jealous goddesses and ------. It would sound like the space in between words, silent and still and full. Thank you.

Max Wild (00:46:12):

Hello. I'm Max. The one with Wild as my last name and I'm so glad it was a topic of conversation for you last night. That's really great. Um, I'm really excited to be announcing Morna as our next reader from “Bloom”. Um, Morna has been writing since late 2017 and nothing has stopped her since. In 2018, Morna was awarded the Varuna Residency Fellowship and in 2020, she was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize. On top of these achievements, Morna has been an absolute joy to work with alongside in the, uh, both a writer as an editor on “Bloom”. And her piece of fiction has an incredibly unique voice and I think many people will find it hits close to home. So please welcome Morna reading from her piece, “The Sleeping Giant”.

Morna Seres (00:47:15):

The Sleeping Giant. Once upon a time I lay on a cat. No, I lay on the mat with a cat. Oh, come on the cat, lay on the mat. I did not lie on the mat. Now there is a dog. A dog I lie on the mat with or rather I lie on the bed with a dog for there is no mat. Anyway, I lie on the bed with a dog and a man knocks on the door. Actually, it is a man and a woman. They knock on my door and ask to see my dog. I call my dog and because he is my dog, the dog comes running. “Hello,” I say to my dog. “Woof woof,” says the dog, wagging his tail for the man and the woman standing at the door. “This is my dog,” I say. The man and the woman begin to cry.

Morna Seres (00:47:59):

They cry an old grief; I understand from long ago. And before I know it, I cry too. I cry for them. I cry for myself. We're all crying and the dog begins howling. That's when they ask if they can have my dog. “Sure, you can have my dog,” I say. After all, they look like they could do with a cuddle. The man and the woman take my dog who happily follows them down the hallway and into the lift. I shut the door, walk into the bedroom and look at my bed. My dog is gone! I run to the door. I run down the hall. I run into the lift and I hit the ground button, thinking I will scream for my dog. No, I won't actually scream for my dog because it's not something I would do. But I do breathe erratically. I try to think what breathing, err, erratically might look like.

Morna Seres (00:48:46):

And as the lift descends, I observe myself in the mirror. I could have been an actor; I am so convincing. Anyway, the door opens and I run. I run through the lobby past an empty desk and through the automatic door into a day, one would describe as indescribable. Because the sun is shining, because there is no wind, because there is a flight of birds overhead, because I'm outside, because I am free. I could stop and think about this, about being free. But instead, I remember I am looking for my dog. But there is no dog! All I can think of is me lying on the mat with a dog, not on the bed with a dog. I look up and down the street and see a car idling up the light. The car is black. There is a number plate, AGR 365. And through the back window of the car with the number plate AGR 365, there he is, my dog.

Morna Seres (00:49:38):

And he's looking straight at me. And even though I cannot hear him – of course I can't, he's in a car, but the windows wound up, maybe 30 metres away – I see he is barking. My dog is barking. Help! Help! Help! I run. Yes, I run the fastest I have ever run in my life. I am a woman. I am an old woman. I have not run for years. And as I run my chest expands and I see possibility in this running, running for my life, running for the life of my dog. The car is driving off, turning to the right or, or is it the left? And as I think about this, the number plate precariously balanced on the tip of a brain cell, topples over and disappears. Is it ABR or AGD or CBD? No, CBD stands for something else. It stands for Central Business District. It is definitely not the Central Business District I am looking for. No, it is my dog. And my dog is in a car, a back, a black car with a number plate. And I, I cannot remember.

Morna Seres (00:50:39):

I look around trying to recall why I'm here. There must be a reason. There's always a reason. And it is probably a very good reason, probably. But then I see the park and oh my, isn't it a pretty park. Trees reaching into the sky so high, I cannot bend my head back far enough to see the top of them. Something in me aches. I need to go inside the park. So, I step on the road just as a car, makes a terrible noise and frightens me. The man in the car throws his arm out the window and shouts “Watch where you're going you stupid old woman.” “You watch where you're going yourself,” I say. I continue across the road and walk into the park. People are everywhere. There is a girl on her phone lying under the sun in only her swimwear. Eskimo white skin with goose bumples - no goose pimples - all over her and a group of friends, eating lunch, chicken legs, bread, cheese, and boys throwing around a football.

Morna Seres (00:51:35):

Not really boys, men. Burly, thick set, hairy legs, sweating, red faced. And there over there, there is a boy and girl necking. Necking? Is there such a word? Really, I mean kissing, but necking’s nice too. And love bites and french kissing and tongues down throats and so on and so forth. I did them all once. Although exactly when I, I'm not sure, but I still feel it. The warmth. The touching of someone else,. The touching of me. There is such happiness in this idea and being inside the park and when I'm halfway across the green expanse, spongy grass between my toes, a butterfly circles around my head and another and another. And before long, there are hundreds of butterflies, white, blue, tan, black spots, white spots, green trims. Oh, there is so much beauty in this world. Have I, have I forgotten this? I start spinning with the butterflies, reaching out my arms, closing my eyes so I am one of them. Spinning until I am dizzy, so dizzy, I have to lie down on the grass. I gaze up at the blue, reaching towards infinity and something touches me. Another sky. Another moment. Yes, there was such a sky in a park where I once lived. I'm sure of it. And there are other sounds, familiar sounds and a voice pouring honey over me, and fingers dragging a feather across my forehead. Only I can't quite see who and I want to. I want to. I want to! That's when the boy comes over. Thanks.

Morna Seres (00:53:18):

Um, I'm just gonna put on my editor’s cap for the, a moment. And I just wanna say thank you to Dr. Claire Corbett, for her incredible saw support. On behalf of the editorial committee, she taught us a great deal and she was a great support. And you know, I now know where commas go - kind of, semi colons, never. And I do know the difference between lie and lay.

Dr Anna Funder (00:53:48):

Thank you. Neysha, Lily, Max, and Morna. That was wonderful. I'm now going to hand over to UTS alumnus and author Sam Twyford-Moore, who's going to lead our panelists who are: UTS honorary associate Dr. Debra Adelaide and contributors from “40”, Patti Miller, Zahid Gamielden and sydney khoo. So, San Twyford-Moore is the author of “The Rapids: Ways of Looking at Mania” published by New South in Australia and the University of Toronto Press internationally. He's a former former Festival Director and CEO of the Emerging Writers Festival. And he currently programs the Faber Writing Academy for Allen & Unwin. His second book, “A popular history of Australian actors” will be out next year. His story, “Phimosis” - not sure I say that correctly - appeared in the 2007 anthology and is also included in “40”, Forty Years of the UTS Writers’ Anthology.

Dr Anna Funder (00:54:53):

Sam.

Sam Twyford-Moore (00:55:10):

I'm just gonna put on a stopwatch because we have half an hour. And, um, I think this is the first time in human history that a panel of five has been attempted in half an hour, but I think we can, I think we can achieve it.

Sam Twyford-Moore (00:55:34):

Um, so thank you to Anna. Um, I too would just like to acknowledge that we are here on unceded Gadigal land of the Eora nations. Country that has a 65,000 a year history of art, culture and storytelling. I pay my respects to elders past and present, and thank you to Auntie Glendra for that wonderful Acknowledgement of Country. I am thrilled to be joined tonight for a panel discussion by four writers, closely connected to the history of the UTS Anthology. I'm just gonna introduce them and maybe if you can put up your hand, cause you're not in the order of my notes, but, uh. Patti Miller, uh, whose story “Pink Cakes” was adopted as the name of the first anthology in 1982, uh, Zahid Gamielden, whose story “Looking into a Beech Wood Shack” was featured in the 2007 anthology, “What you do and don't want”. And of course, Zahid and I were cohorts. Uh, sydney khoo whose work “I'm (Not) Lovin’ It”

Sam Twyford-Moore (00:56:31):

was featured in the 2018 anthology “Light borrowers”, and they also had a piece appear in the 2019 anthology. And of course, for years, Debra Adelaide, now Honorary Associate Professor at UTS, mentored students as they worked to put together the anthology each year. So, this beautiful 40th anniversary edition is an elegant book in many senses, marking the passing of a significant period of time. There are quite a few writers included within its pages who are sadly no longer with us. Amongst them is of course, the iconic brilliant Gillian Mears, who is included in this anniversary edition with a story “Midnight shift”, which she published in 2000. I was like, uh, many readers I'm sure, absolutely flawed by Bernadette Brennan's outstanding, recent biography of Mears and was delighted to find a description of Mears studying Creative Writing at UTS within its pages. Her then teacher Drusilla Modjeska, provided the clearest descriptions of what Mears brought to her classes in those early years. Modjeska suggested to Brennan that Mears came to class with something like an erotic aura going on to say it was visceral, erotic,

Sam Twyford-Moore (00:57:41):

It was unsettling. It touched something anarchic in this self. Now I'm not suggesting we'll get anywhere near close to creating that aura tonight. And perhaps we shouldn't, but it was incredible to read the shared history, which everyone on the stage shares tonight and has in common. And I'm sure many in the audience do too. We are, alas, becoming history. But speaking of history, I would love, love to start at the very start, um, because we are so lucky to have Patti here tonight, um, because your story “Pink Cakes” was used as the title for the first UTS anthology in 1982. And you were also on the editorial committee that year. Um, as Delia noted in her excellent history of the anthology, you and the other editorial team wrote that the anthology came out of a reluctance to accept the bleak situation of fiction publishing at the time. I'm wondering if you could talk about what it was like to work on that first collection and your experiences of that bleak situation in 1982?

Patti Miller (00:58:37):

Well, that's a long time ago. Um, but I think the class was actually in 1980 as, as I recall, cause that was the last year of the degree for me. But I, I think it really was, um, Drusilla Modjeska creating and driving that for us. And, and, um, we were, I guess, just really excited to be part of that side of things. You know, the, the editing side of things. Um, we, we had a kind of policy where, um, uh, even though we were allowed to submit, um, we, we weren't allowed to select or vote for our own, um, our own stories. And everyone was just excited at that process of being able to be published, um, in, in a collection. But look looking at it now and looking at the production, um, that, that is, um, achieved now I mean, we looked so amateur, I think, but <laugh>,

Sam Twyford-Moore (00:59:32):

It was, we got a quick shot of it and it looked like punk, like,

Patti Miller (00:59:35):

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I mean, I didn't even know it was going to be called “Pink cakes” until, until I saw it, you know, and I was, I was really excited for it, um, that it was that it was called “Pink cakes”, but it, it, it turned now it had a, um, you know, it's so sophisticated now and, and there wasn't the same kind of technology then to produce those things. But, but it was the same enthusiasm and the, and the love of the process as well. And the range of things too. It's really interesting to see the range of, um, work even then,

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:00:08):

Um, Zahid your piece, uh, was just so ahead of its time, it's been a real privilege to get to revisit it after all these years. Um, you said you finished it at the end of 2006, and it was obviously published in 2007, which was really the end of the Howard era. Uh, and both of you and I, both you and I were studying under the last days of Howard. I think your piece really captures that time really well. And I'm wondering what brought it about and whether you had a sense of things ending, um, at that time,

 

Zahid Gamielden (01:00:36):

I'm not sure how the sense of things ending at that time. I had the hope of things ending at that time, but it still felt far away when I was writing that piece. I think it was, you know, in, in the aftermath of the Cronulla riots and the Iraq war protests and all of that sort of stuff.

Zahid Gamielden (01:00:51):

So, it feels in some ways like ancient history. But, uh, you know, as I was saying to you earlier, I kind of, there's a part of me that longs for those days. Because even though I didn't agree with much of what Howard was doing, I could see that he was driven by ideology in this, you know, nation-building quest. And I didn't like the nation that he was building, but if you look at politics now it's much blunter. And if you were to say something like Scott Morrison has a nation-building project, I think you'd probably, I elicit laughs from a lot of people. So, you know, in some ways it feels like a relic, that story. Um, but you know, I hope that it still has some relevance since it's being republished at this time.

 

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:01:36):

Yeah, definitely. Um, to bring us right to the contemporary moment, sydney, your story is so wonderful and powerful and feels very alive in this current moment. Um, you're also obviously the most recent graduate amongst us. Uh, and you appeared in two anthologies right before the world went into a series of lockdowns. I'm wondering if you could talk about your experience with these more recent anthologies and, um, whether your fellow students knew of this history of the anthology and yeah, just your experience.

sydney khoo (01:02:03):

I didn't know about this history until like five minutes ago. Um, but I, I don’t know if the experience would be the experience I had in the editing process would be very different to how it is now, because most of what we did was by email and we, I didn't meet my editor in person until one of these opening nights. So, I think it would be quite a similar experience. I think it would be very different for the editors though, on the editorial committee.

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:02:31):

Yeah, definitely. Did you get a launch or did-

sydney khoo (01:02:34)

Yes we did get a launch

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:02:35):

Okay, you got that launch. You didn’t go into lockdown.

sydney khoo (01:02:37):

Were we the last year?

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:02:39):

So, so yeah, lucky last, um, Debra, you have played such a central role in the anthology for years. I'm wondering if you can first talk about where you think it sits, um, in the wider industry, you know, Delia has, um, referenced that Australian critic mentioning it's an integral part of the literary ecology. Certainly, it seemed to me at the time that, you know, it's the rare student anthology that would be pretty regularly reviewed, um, by the major newspapers. And I believe you actually reviewed it before you came on board to, um, help, help it out. Um, can you talk a bit about where it's, where it stands?

Debra Adelaide (01:03:13):

Yeah, I used to do, um, funnily enough, the, the team from Fairfax is here tonight and I used to work with someone called Fiona who's here. Who's working here at UTS now, who is my sub editor for this book review column that I did every week, which still still goes in Sydney Morning Herald. And I did this for four, four and a half years mainly thanks to Susan Wyndham, who's also here. And that was my very first introduction to the UTS Writing Program apart from some, some inconsequential moments. But I, I think I reviewed three anthologies and it was really clear from the, the first that I read that this was, was, was an outstanding kind of publication. And the, the actual quality, as Patti's mentioned, of the paper is better, the typefaces are better. Um, the proofreading is vastly improved. So, the, the, the physical books were still a little bit amateurish, but the quality of the writing was so outstanding. And I've,I’ve , I've, you know, came to work to UTS and, and was involved in various capacities until I got to coordinate the one that I think you and Zahid were in, in 2007.

Debra Adelaide (01:04:36):

And I think I got to do that because I was the only warm body in the room, so I got to be it. But I found it was the most wonderful experience. And I've thought over the years, I've often thought, “Why is the UTS anthology, um, such an outstandingly quality and a student anthology, and why has it persisted? Why are we celebrating, you know, the 40 years as it were. So, and I think the answer to that - well, there are many answers to that - but I think the thing that stood out to me was the authenticity of the entire process. Everything about the process is totally authentic. The rigor. And I guess the other thing that is, has always intrigued me is student anthologies come and go from various universities. And there's usually a theme, but there's never been a theme for the UTS anthology ever. And year after year, students would say to me, you know, “What's the theme this year, so we know what to submit.” And I said,” There’s no theme,” And the other academic staff have answered the same questions I think, and the theme is, is, is irrelevant, but there are themes that emerge. And you, you know, you've actually kind of talked a little bit about the, some of the political context from back in the day. So, I, I'm not sure that I actually answered your question.

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:06:07):

No, you did. I actually had two questions in there and you answered both brilliantly. So, thank you. Do I think I know what you're gonna ask?

 

Zahid Gamielden (01:06:18):

Well, I was just saying, just as a side note, it's kind of terrifying that my piece is referred to as back in the day <laugh> at this point.

Debra Adelaide (01:06:26):

Cause I, I read that again recently and I was struck by how fresh it is and how very much, um, of the moment in all sorts of ways.

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:06:38):

Yeah, it incredible. It's just, it's in the anthology. You've got a copy. You've gotta read it. Um, I just did wanna talk about the stories and, and the context around them. Um, cause it's such a beautiful opportunity to get to do this. Um Patti, “Pink Cakes” is such an intricate and ornate story. I just want to know; do you remember what you were reading at the time that would've shaped it? And also, just if there was the sense that fiction was the, was the real driving impetus in that, in those early years, because you've become such a leader of nonfiction, both in teaching and publishing work in that area.

Patti Miller (01:07:09):

You've done a double, another double question there. Um, no, I, I, I can't remember what I was reading, but it, it was most likely, you know, people like Doris Lessing, I would, I would say, um, around that time and, and, um, probably Patrick White. Um and um, so hence a little ornateness, um, in it. And when I read it, that's what I thought. When I read it again after 40 years or whatever, that, that's what I thought. But I also thought, you know, the, the themes were the, the theme of the kind of gap between your kind of one's idea or ideal about something and the reality of it was still there. And that's still something that fascinates me, the huge gap there is between our, um, idea of something and, and what it's, what it's really like was, was, um, uh, really kind of something that still fascinates me.

Patti Miller (01:07:59):

And I certainly will, was wanting to, to get to your second part of your question to be writing, um, to be writing fiction, um, then, um, but really my first book, which, um, uh, came out probably in the early nineties, it was a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, and it was actually, it came out of that story of, of that was about one of my great aunts. And all I knew about her was that she had wanted to be a nun once and, and wasn't. So, um, in, in the book, um, the last one who remembers it explored the kind of imaginary lives of those, um, great aunts, none of whom married, they were very unmarrying women. And I was just fascinated about what their lives were like. So, the book came out of that story at, um, UTS.

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:08:49):

In fact, amazing, um, double questions, aren't trip anyone up they're just to try and compact as much as possible within the, within the time space. Um Zahid, the great, great Melissa Lucashenko seems to have agreed at least with my assessment of the lasting quality of your story. She's highlighted in her brilliant forward and, and to quote directly from Melissa, “You write about a woman being attacked, in this case, openly on a Sydney train. It's hard to convey the utter joy of discovering a character, a female character at that, who refuses to be cowered by those telling her to go back where she came from.” I'm sort of directing you back to that time again, but can you talk about the kind of political urgency that seems to be driving this piece?

 

Zahid Gamielden (01:09:28):

Um, I suppose to me back then, it felt very personal. And I, you know, I actually avoided reading this piece because I wrote it so long ago and reading the early work, uh, really gives you a feeling of terror and the pit of your gut, but, but I went back to it this afternoon and, um, I remembered the, the events that kind of led up to it.

Zahid Gamielden (01:09:50):

And that section is actually based on something that happened. And it surprised me how personal a lot of this was and, and how the personal was also political for me at that particular time, I guess it, I suppose it still is, but it was more urgent at that moment in time. And I felt it, um, more, more personally that yearning to, to find an identity, to, to determine what it meant to be Australian. Uh, and to, to be honest, I'm not sure that I'm still capable of, you know, divesting or, or, um, divulging that much of myself at the moment on the page. So, it was a really interesting thing to go back and experience kind of as a new reader to, to connect with my younger self in that way.

 

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:10:35):

Yeah. I get that sense of amnesia of, you know, going back to stuff. um, sydney, “I'm (not) lovin’ it” is so great at exploring concepts of identity, whether cultural or based around sexuality, um, and which I'm actually sure is true of many of the pieces in this, um, 40-year anniversary edition. Can you talk about what you were particularly looking to explore in that piece, and how that came about?

sydney khoo (01:11:00):

I actually wrote this piece in Delia's class, uh, creative non-fiction and I hadn't written any creative non-fiction or non-fiction really before this. Um, and I didn't think I could, until Delia told us “Write about something that you're an expert in,” and I remember sitting there thinking, “There is nothing that I'm an expert in”. I don't know anything fully, I know like little bits or pieces, but I don't know anything fully. And she just kept weaving these little bits out of us. And I realized, well, I know about my sexuality really well. I don't know about all sexualities really well, but I know about mine. And it's interesting that you mentioned the cultural aspect of it, because I never think about the cultural aspects of my writing. It just appears in work and people tend to comment on it, which I find really interesting. But yeah, I wouldn't have written this piece of it weren't for Delia's class. So, thank you, Delia.

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:11:55):

It's such a great piece. Um, I have to thank Delia as well, cause I've gotta keep on throwing to a brilliant introduction. Um, everyone's gonna have a great time reading that and I hope people seek out the anthology, you know, almost just for that fantastic history. It's such a precise and, um, textured job of tracing the influences across the decades, um, on the various anthologies, um. Whether it's Sydney having that big, uh, theory moment in the 1980s or external forces, um, like the double decaf soy latte in 2000. Um Debra, I'm wondering whether you could see during your time working on the anthology, you know, a bearing of what was being taught to the students or those kind of bigger external, um, things that were out in the world. Um, and perhaps that's a question that the group could follow up on as well.

Debra Adelaide (01:12:39):

Um, I'm not entirely sure what you're asking me.

Sam Twyford-Moore (01:12:44):

Uh, was that that was a bit of word soup, but I see, I see themes, I think, I think in terms of like, you know, that it sits separately to, um, what is taught in individual subjects. Um, but you know, it, then it comes out and can you see what is being taught? Because you also teach the, the subjects and teach reading and introduce people to reading and styles of writing, whether you could see that influence then going into the anthology or people just kind of doing their own thing.

Speaker 6 (01:13:10):

No, I think it's fair to say that most of the pieces submitted have been produced in a class at some point and, and workshopped in, in class. So, one of the reasons we have had the timetable we've had for the anthology, which anyone who's been involved will know it's very tight, is it's it's the submissions come at the end of the year after students have finished all their work, because that's where the, the content of the anthology is always generated. So that's why we've, we've always had a really tight production schedule. Um, essentially for those of you who may not be aware of this, um, this book is produced in six months. So, in the industry, a book will take at least a year and that's done by professionals. So, our UTS anthology has, has always taken six months from the start to its launch, which used to be at the Sydney Writers’ Festival in May and done by a, a, a panel of basically amateurs who suddenly become thrown in at the deep end, um, editors. So, um, now I've got off the track here, Sam, sorry. <laugh> I did say have really simple questions, so <laugh>

Speaker 15 (01:14:28):

Never, it's not possible. Not when you're trying to get-in stuff, I guess. Yeah, I suppose it could be a question that could open up to the, um, well, one

Speaker 6 (01:14:35):

Thing I just would like to say is we've, we've been really conscious and I think, um, the other academics who've been supervising this process have, have, um, are also conscious of this too, that we're, we're using the anthology to showcase what we do in the Creative Writing program. So, while we've, we've been very hands-off as super as academic supervisors, we've always encouraged the editorial teams to look for creative nonfiction, for example, ‘cause students tend to want to write fiction and, and poetry and, um, script writing and scripts are very hard to put in an anthology cause they're usually far too long. But we've always tried really hard to encourage the editorial committee to look for scripts that could be, um, there in the book again, you know, to help showcase to the world what it is we do here in the Creative Writing program.

Speaker 15 (01:15:28):

No, definitely. And it does a great job at that. Um, for the writers on the panel, I'd love to know what your experience was or your memories of, um, being in the anthology. Was it, was it a first publication, um, did it, did it lead to anything just that kind of personal history that you might have had with your experiences?

Speaker 16 (01:15:45):

Um, so for me it's actually quite personal the way it was for you Zahid. So, I dunno if you've read my piece, but it's kind of like a coming out letter. And I remember when I had to workshop it in Delia's class, it was absolutely petrifying. I remember reading it and thinking, “What if someone from high school reads this? What if someone from primary school reads this? What happens when my parents have to read this?” My dad is here tonight. Um, but it was absolutely terrifying and doing the workshop actually really helps because people laugh when I didn't realize it was funny and people would say this part is really great. And I think I ended up publishing it very closely to how I workshopped it in Delia’s class. And I hope that answered your question. <laugh>

Speaker 15 (01:16:26):

Perfect. Yeah. For you, Patti, was there,

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):

Um

Speaker 15 (01:16:32):

The first publication?

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):

Well, yes. Um, there was the student magazine, um, newspaper called Newswit, and I think there was three or four, um, stories that I had in, in that as well. But there was um, in “Pink Cakes”, there was the book “Pink Cakes” and there was another one which was a bit more sort of post-modern, um kind of thing, um with various levels of kind of interrogation of the idea of of messages. Um, you very wisely picked them the more straightforward “Pink cakes” one, I think. But as I said before, you know, the the whole first book came out of that particular story. So, it it was, um, you know, a very kind of a shaping kind of influence, um, for me. Um and as, as sydney said, having, having your stories sort of workshopped and I mean, it seems odd to me now, you know, that it sort of young woman in her early twenties was writing about kind of a great aunts from the early kind of probably they would've been young in the, in the, you know, 1920s. It seems odd now, but, um, I think I was, I was just fascinated by what kind of imaginary lives they must have had because, you know, the, the last one remembers was the name of the book. And I thought when they die, um, and the last one who remembers them dies, then no one will know they even existed. So, it's kind of about that possibility of, of recreating people's lives, I guess, which is what I went on to do, um, more in non-fiction.

Speaker 15 (01:18:09):

Yeah, definitely. Zahid, you've published a lot of stories after the anthology. Was, was that experience formative and help you go on to, uh, to work those other stories?

 

Speaker 16 (01:18:20): Zahid

Yeah, I think so. I think I I'd published a couple of things maybe in the, uh, you know, the UTS newspaper prior to this, but this was the first, you know, real publication that I think I'd had. And I’d actually wrote the story in a subject called Fictocritical Writing, which I don't know if that still exists, but, um, yeah, which, which I loved, cuz I'm the laziest writer in the world and I thought, fantastic I don't have to do as much research cuz it can be 50% fiction and 50% essay. Uh, and that's what this came out of. Uh, and actually reading it, one of the things I remembered is that, I mean, this is again back in the old days, I worked at a video store and I, I, we didn't have any customers.

Speaker 16 (01:18:57):

It was the dying days of Howard and the dying days of DVD and I was sitting there and the last section I actually wrote in the video store and I remember the person, uh, about whom I wrote it. So yeah, it was fun.

 

Speaker 12 (01:19:11): Sam

Amazing, amazing. Um, a final question, uh, for everyone. Um, so it's incredible that this anthology has been around for 40 years now. Like absolutely astonishing really. Um, where would you like to see Australian writing go across the next 40 years? And if that's too ambitious, you can answer that by letting us know what you are working on now and where you'd like to see your writing go.

Speaker 15 (01:19:35):

Um, I suppose I'd like to see, uh, I think as everyone would, uh, you know, more diverse voices being represented in, in Australian fiction and uh, also, uh, more diverse stories being written. And I think we're seeing that at the moment coming through. So, so there is, it feels like we're in, we're in a state of, of flux and change and um, you know, I, I'm working on a, a novel at the moment that doesn't fit neatly into any category. So, part of my hope is a selfish one, that they'll find a slot where they can put this in. Uh, yeah, that's what I'd hope for.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):

I, I think I'd like to see more acknowledgement and maybe more prizes for, um, creative nonfiction because it's, it's an area quite, um, specific and um, you know, in the various premiers’ prizes, it's kind of lumped in with all the other, um, nonfiction, you know, about worthy kind of, um, uh, sort of prime ministers and, and um, all that kind of thing. So, I'd like there to be more kind of acknowledgement of, of creative nonfiction and again, like say it's, it's selfish because that's the area that I, that I'm working in. And, and my, um, latest book is coming out in March next year, which, which is about, um, uh, true friends supposedly.

Speaker 15 (01:20:56):

And that's the title too, “True Friends”. So, check it out. Debra or sydney.

Speaker 6 (01:21:01):

Well, I, I, looking through the anthologies over the years, it's clear that it has become much more diverse and inclusive and partly that's because UTS is, is a very inclusive, um, university or always has been. And I think that it would be wonderful if in years to come, there was no Anglo name in the anthology at all.

Speaker 16 (01:21:26):

I think it's interesting. You say that I have actually complained on Twitter about this before, but there were times at UTS during my masters where I was the only person of colour in the room, which would make me feel incredibly uncomfortable. And there were times where the entire reading list was all white males and the lecturer would just not notice that that was the case. So, I do think like a more divers.

Speaker 6 (01:21:48):

I hope that wasn’t me <laugh>

Speaker 16 (01:21:49):

But I do think a more diverse anthology would be incredible like with disabled writers and, but you need to see those students in the classroom to be able to get that. I mean, seeing indigenous works would be incredible. I don't think there were any in the anthologies I was published in anyway.

Speaker 15 (01:22:06):

No, definitely. And what are you working on Sydney? What's, what's next?

Speaker 16 (01:22:09):

I got a fellowship with Penguin Random House about a year and a half ago. And I'm writing a young adult story called “The spider and her demons”, which is about a Chinese spider demon, living above a dumping shop with her aunt and everything's going fine. Nobody knows who she is until she's caught eating a man by the most popular girl in school. <laugh> Everybody always laughs when I tell them that, but it's not a funny story. It's actually horrifying.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):

It's a masker for fear <laugh>

Speaker 16 (01:22:38): Zahid

Sounds fantastic.

 

Speaker 15 (01:22:40)

And it actually sounds like the future of Australian writing. So, um, I'm gonna hit stop and say I did it, we did it, uh, that was 27 minutes. So, uh, we get a Guinness World Record, I think. So please thank all of the panellists.

 

Speaker 16 (01:22:53) Zahid

Thanks Sam.

Dr Anna Funder (01:23:03):

Thank you so much panel and Sam, that was such a brilliant, um, representation of everything that the anthology is and has been. Just this sort of passionate connection between writing and workshopping and then actually seeing it in the world when we pick it up. It's lovely to have that behind-the-scenes view. Really extraordinary. Um, it's now time to announce next year's editorial com committee, uh, who again, will be so wisely, enthusiastically, and unstintingly led by Dr. Claire Corbett, author, and lecturer in creative writing. So over to you, Claire, thank you.

Dr Claire Corbett (01:23:45):

Thank you, Anna, um, sydney, I remember the spider demon novel very well <laugh> you did. You did. And it'll be great to see it when it comes out. Um, it's my very great pleasure and honour to select and then work with the, um, anthology committees, the annual ones over the last couple of years. And so, it's now my pleasure to announce our wonderful editors for 2022. And they are Sharl Malikan, Pierce Hedginicola, Erin Vincent, Ben Lee, Carly Bettucio and Nikki Byrne. So, congratulations to all of you. Um, I very much look forward to working with you and, um, a dear colleague of mine who shall remain nameless was not a fan of working with semicolons with UTS students, but I believe in you and I know that I can teach you how to use semicolons <laugh> so, um, sure

Speaker 9 (01:24:48):

So, Claire and I are doing a double act. Now, as the evening winds up, we are going to present the annual UTS anthology award, which is chosen by creative writing staff to honour the best work selected in each year's anthology, so that this is for this year. The awards are for “Bloom” and there are two highly commended ones and one winner's award, uh, all sponsored by the Dean's unit.

Speaker 11 (01:25:20):

Thank you, Anna. And I can promise you that none of the people whose names I'm about to read out, have any idea. And I am so excited about this I'm really, really excited. So, the two, um, highly commend, no particular order I would now like to call to the stage Hugh McGonagle for his short story, “The dinner party”.

Speaker 11 (01:26:11):

Next, I would like to call Neysha Santos for her poem sequence out, “Vivat Crescat Floreat: May it Live, Grow and Flourish”. Now drum roll the winner of the UTS writer's anthology prize for 2021 is, and how far it has come, a piece of creative nonfiction by Mike Dolan for his essay “Guiding light”. Uh, and now we have a couple of, oh, okay. We've got a couple of other presentations as well. You do? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I know that we have a couple of more small presentations. Yes. It's coming <laugh> And they're yes. So, there are flowers for Anna and also for our panellists, Ah, of, yeah. Oh, nice. Got something for the panel. And we also have something for the wonderful James Lew. Who's worked so hard all this year to make all of this happen. Thank you, James. Thank you.

Speaker 9 (01:29:29):

I tried to get rid of you with flowers, but it doesn't work. Um, yes. I'd like to say congratulations to, uh, the winners of those prizes. And in fact, to everybody published in those anthologies. On behalf of the editors and creative writing staff. There are some people to thank. So, I extend our thanks to all the supporters of the anthology and the writing program over these many, many years. And in particular tonight to David Henley and Alice Grundy and the team at Brio books, now part of Booktopia.  For, for not only designing such beautiful books, but also for their generous mentorship of our editors over the last decade, thank you. Also to this year's volunteer editorial teams, uh, I've never been on one of these, but I am getting a picture of the enormous amount of work in a short amount of time that goes on.

Speaker 9 (01:30:28):

So, thank you very much. To James again, James Lew, Business Development Manager and Marketing and Communications Manager, it couldn't happen without you, thank you. And also, to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for their sponsorship, both of the anthologies and of tonight's event. So, thanks to the faculty. Lastly, I'd like to thank all of you here and virtually on screen, um, for being here and celebrating with us. It's been a really wonderful evening. Um, in a moment I'm going to invite you to keep drinking and eating in the foyer. Like first, a couple of housekeeping things. If you would like to buy further copies of the anthology, they are available from Booktopia via a link provided on your invitations. Um, please also take your time outside to have a look at the exhibition for bloom, uh, which is in the great hall it's been put together by the UTS library. Um, so now it's a bit like launching a ship, I think. In conclusion, it's my pleasure to declare “Bloom” and “40”, Forty years of the UTS Writers Anthology launched. Thank you for joining us.