BUZZCUTS 2008
Applications are now open for volunteers for this year’s Buzzcuts. If you are under 25 and you would like to write reviews as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival (September 24 – October 12), this is for you.

VOLUNTEER ARTS REVIEWERS will have the chance to see the Melbourne Fringe show of their choice, write reviews and see them published on the Buzzcuts website. The best reviews will be published weekly throughout the Fringe in Beat Magazine. Participants will also be skilled up at a free workshop on writing critical arts reviews.

During the workshop industry professionals will tutor you in writing critical arts reviews for both major publications and street press. Successful applicants will be required to attend a four-hour training workshop and seminar to be held on a Sunday in August – date to be confirmed.

Exceptions from this workshop may only be granted on the basis of past involvement in the Buzzcuts program. If you feel you have significant reviewing experience and cannot attend the workshop, please include two examples of your best work in the application.

Applications for reviewers close WEDNESDAY 13TH AUGUST 2008 and must be received at the Express Media office or post-marked by this date to be considered. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU MUST BECOME AN EXPRESS MEDIA MEMBER OR BE A VOICEWORKS SUBSCRIBER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS PROGRAM. Membership costs only $10.

HOW TO APPLY

By the due date, submit:
• the Buzzcuts application form (available below)
• a covering letter explaining why you would like to be involved and any experience you have in the relevant area
Please do not forget to include your name, address, email address, and contact telephone numbers.

Submit your application by Wednesday the 13th of August 2008 via post:
Buzzcuts Reviewer
Express Media
247 Flinders Lane
Melbourne
3000

If you have any questions please phone Express Media Artistic Director, Bel Schenk, on 9663 4155 or e-mail questions to buzzcuts@expressmedia.org.au

Express Media presents Buzzcuts 2008 in partnership with: Melbourne Fringe, SYN Media, Beat, RRR and RMIT.

Poetry and prose writers are in with a chance to win a share of $4,500 in prize money. You can download the entry form here.

Inaugurated in 2005 to provide new opportunities for emerging visual arts writers, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces and Express Media's Emerging Writers Program provides the chance for participants to develop their writing practice, publish their work and gain further insight into the field of contemporary art writing.

The Emerging Writers Program partners four young visual arts writers with four experienced mentors, working together for 20 contact hours over a period of five months between May and December 2008.

The program contributes to the growth of a rich and insightful critical culture around contemporary art, providing participants with professional development opportunities and valuable technical expertise. As part of the project outcome each participant will produce a catalogue for Gertrude's Studio 12 exhibition program, and an exhibition review for publication in Artlink magazine.

The four mentors participating in the 2008 Emerging Writers Program are: Dr Anna Marsh, Dr Justin Clemens, Zara Stanhope and Lisa Byrne.

The Application Process:

Interested applicants to the mentorship program are asked to submit a relevant writing sample of no more than 500 words, together with a CV and a cover letter outlining what they hope to gain from participating in the program to:

The Emerging Writers Program

c/o Express Media

247 Flinders Lane

Melbourne 3000

The application deadline is MONDAY 31st March 2008, 5pm. Late applications will not be accepted.

For further information on the program please contact: Emily Cormack at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces on (tel) 03 9419 3406 or (email) emily@gertrude.org.au or Melissa Delaney at Express Media on (tel) 03 9326 8367 or (email) artisticdirector@expressmedia.org.au

TEXT CAMP, presented by Next Wave in association with Express Media and un Projects, provides an opportunity for emerging writers to work with and learn from established writers, to build networks and contribute to critical and creative discourse around the 2008 Next Wave Festival, and contemporary art practice more broadly. Comprising two parallel teaching streams which explore either creative writing or critical writing methods, TEXT CAMP will explore the many ways that artworks and performance projects can be responded to through writing.

TEXT CAMP is a three-stage program involving a workshop, a mentorship and a publication outcome. The program will be led by two prominent young Australian writers, Rosemary Forde and Nic Low.

Applications are due 5.00pm on Friday 14 March 2008 (post-mark date).

Please contact Next Wave should you require further information.

Office 4, 5 Blackwood St Ph: +61 3 9329 9422
North Melbourne Fax: +61 3 9329 8122
Victoria 3051 Email: click here
Australia www.nextwave.org.au

Express Media and VoiceWorks Magazine with the generous support of our Patron, John Marsden officially announced the winners of the 2007 John Marsden Prize at our end of year event at Trades Hall on Friday, 14 December.

Express Media works closely with John Marsen throughout the selection process to shortlist and finalise the winners from a large pool of very talented young writers from all over Australia. Each year the prize attracts more and more entries.

First place winners of both the Poetry Prizes and the Short Story Prize: Under 18 receive $500 each, while the first place winner of the Short story prize: 18 - 14 wins $2,000. First place winners are also published in this issue of Voiceworks while second and third place winners, as well as those with honourable mentions are published on the Express Media website.

The first place winners have been published in Issues: Voiceworks #71 which is available to select stockists and through Express Media and you can read some of the winners on Express Media's website.

The 2007 winners are:

SHORT STORY AND FIRST CHAPTER OF A NOVEL PRIZE: 18 - 24 YEARS OLD
First Place: Your Pockets Are Full – Erin Kelly (age 21, VIC)
Second Place: Pearl – Nicola Threthowan (age 20, VIC) page
Third Place: The Cool Cloth of Night - Ben Mylius (age 19, SA)

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Lena Anusha Kenny (21, VIC)

SHORT STORY AND FIRST CHAPTER OF A NOVEL PRIZE:: UNDER 18
First Place: Water - Marley Berry-Pearce (age 15, NSW)
Second Place: More Than 200 – Mert Korkusuz (age 15, NSW) page
Third Place: December - Alenna Diaz-Wood (age 13, VIC)

POETRY PRIZE: 18 – 24 YEARS OLD
First Place: Hero and Leander: a Modern Spoof – D Mischlewski (age 24 TAS)
Second Place: Astronauts – Geoff Lemon (age 24, VIC)
Third Place: Testing - Louise Carter –(age 20, VIC)
Honourable Mention: The Doctor – Josephine Rowe (age 24, NSW)

POETRY PRIZE: UNDER 18
First Place:A Blazing Light – Georgia Walters (age 15, VIC)
Second Place: The Garbage Truck – Miranda Healy (age 14, NSW)
Third Place: As For the World – Ella Loeffler (age 13, VIC)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: The Desert - Liam Dacey (age 10, QLD)

Express Media supported by CAL (Copyright Agency Limited) present NEWS 2008, a gathering of student media representatives from Universities Australia wide.

Over two days (31 January and 1 February), and with special panel discussions and opportunities to mix it up, this program gives participants practical and relevant information and invaluable connections and networks.

The winners or the John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers were announced on Thursday 7 December at the Melbourne launch of Zero: Voiceworks magazine #67. John Marsden made the announcements with the help of Ella Holcombe, last year's John Marsden poetry prize winner.

It was great that many winners were able to come to the launch with their families and friends to receive their certificates and prizes in person from John Marsden. It was a lovely evening and John made an inspiring speech.

The second annual John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers attracted over 300 entries by the closing date of 31 August 2006 from young writers all around Australia. John Marsden, Patron of Express Media and bestselling young adult fiction author, has selected the winners as well as donating a total of $3,500 prize money.

This year Express Media, in consultation with John Marsden, expanded competition to four categories so that young writers under 18 are judged separately from writers who are over 18. John Marsden also advocated for the short story categories to be opened up to include the first chapter of a novel. In judging the competition John Marsden noted that the standard of entries was very high this year.

Frist place winners of both the Poetry Prizes and the Short Story Prize: Under 18 receive $500 each, while the first place winner of the Short story prize: 18 - 14 wins $2,000. First place winners are also published in this issue of Voiceworks while second and third place winners, as well as those with honourable mentions are published on the Express Media website.

The first place winners have been published in Zero: Voiceworks #67. You can read all the winning entries right here by opening the PDF.

The winners are:

SHORT STORY AND FIRST CHAPTER OF A NOVEL PRIZE: 18 - 24 YEARS OLD
First Place: My Own Little Euphoria – Bryce Wolfgang Joiner (age 21, VIC)
Second Place: Letter – Josephine Rowe (age 21, VIC) page
Third Place: August and Loretta - Chloe Wilson (age 21, VIC)

SHORT STORY AND FIRST CHAPTER OF A NOVEL PRIZE:: UNDER 18
First Place: Before the End (Chapter 1) - Thomas Croger (age 16, TAS)
Second Place: Hello! – Jo Seto (age 16, NSW) page
Third Place: Mirror Mirror – Zenobia Frost (age 17, QLD)
Honourable Mention: Beyond – Abbey Risson (age 17, QLD)

POETRY PRIZE: 18 – 24 YEARS OLD
First Place: Juno and the Cow – Chloe Wilson (age 21, VIC)
Second Place: Nicholas – Alethea Kinsela (age 24, VIC)
Third Place: In the Glass Box – Wanyima Wighton (age 20, VIC)
Honourable Mention: The Doctor – Josephine Rowe (age 21,VIC)

POETRY PRIZE: UNDER 18
First Place: In the Belly of a Flea – Aksel Dadswell (age 16, WA)
Second Place: Apotheosis – Sophia Nugent-Siegal (age 15, QLD)
Third Place: Urn Burial – Alex Lewis (age 17, VIC)
Honourable Mention: Discovering Poetry – Holly Sievers (age 10, VIC)

Congratulations to all of this year's winners - well done.

We look forward to reading hundreds more original high quality entries from around Australia in next year's competition - stay tuned.

  
John and Ella announce prizes.JPG (image/jpeg)

INCOMMUNICADO is a collection of writing from young Commonwealth writers, published in a unique foldable book-map format. Incommunicado combines confused cartography with super short fiction to create a visually stunning, deliciously awkward literary treat.

READ:

Jo Randerson: New Zealand: Report on Experience
… Transmitter Unknown … Infinite and specific: You alone. I do Believe you saw me Look that Way …

Thir Riz: Pakistan: Earthquake is Coming
… Crying earthquake is coming, to my father and horribles, dead body, dead body, very horribles. I was in school at the time. Our roof is very telling …

READ:

Fifteen writers from eleven commonwealth countries. Writing beyond the clichι.

Only two bucks fifty from Express Media! Order form's right over there.

Tiny Epics is the culmination of a two year project by Express Media to unearth the next generation of Australian artists and writers. A national call for submissions in 1999 invited young and emerging artists and writers to respond to the book's three themes: Anatomy, Junk, and Rhythm. Work flooded in from across Australia, predominantly from secondary and tertiary students. Contributions came from such regional areas as Portland (VIC), Broome (WA) and Wagga Wagga (NSW) as well as from capital cities.

Project coordinator Sarah Ernst says, "Tiny Epics has been an exercise in open expression and style, with the themes the only boundaries to guide the content. This anthology has provided a unique and all too rare opportunity for developing writers, poets and visual artists from an incredibly broad range of ages, backgrounds and locations across Australia."

"Electic, lively and full of potential… Buy this book and support the next generation of Australian writing." Lucy Sussex, The Sunday Age

To get you copy just download this order form and mail it with payment to Express Media.

Express Media's first book for 2002 was produced in conjunction with the Next Wave festival. Silent Army is a 100 page anthology which collects the work of 20 young Australian comic artists, all of whom are aged under 30. The book was published with the financial assistance of the Australia Council's Young & Emerging Writers' Initiative.

"Many young writers nowadays are working in fields not traditionally considered literature, such as spoken word and comics; forms of writing which are part of a largely underground youth subculture," says the Artistic Director of Express Media, Richard Watts. "The Silent Army anthology doesn't so much bring the underground into the light of day, as provide the mainstream with a means of accessing these independent and original artists and their artforms."

Edited by Coburg- based artists Michael Fikaris, Kieran Mangan, and Gregory Mackay (each of whom is active in the Australian comic field) Silent Army unites artists from every state and territory in the one volume. The book incorporates digital art as well as traditional hand-drawn comic strips, with subject matter which ranges from the moving to the macabre, and the shockingly honest to the strangely real.

To get you copy just download the above order form and mail it with payment to Express Media.

link:
Silent Army website

Come celebrate the launch of Voiceworks #74 (Innuendo) - featuring contributor readings, burlesque performance, cheap subscriptions and back issues, and a door prize of a stencilled vintage cherry... >> read more

BUZZCUTS 2008
Applications are now open for volunteers for this year’s Buzzcuts. If you are under 25 and you would like to write reviews as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival (September 24 –... >> read more

Wednesday September 24th, 6-8pm.

Cost: $22 for E(x)_m members or $25 for non-members.

This workshop will cover the process of editing your own work, from first draft through to working with... >> read more