AHWA NEWS DIGEST [18.01.10-31.01.10]

The following digest of recent horror news is compiled from pieces published to HorrorScope and the Australian Horror Writers' Association website.

Blood, Boggarts and Battlestars: An Introduction to Speculative Fiction with Margo LanaganCome to the New South Wales Writers Centre, and dig around in the three genres that make up spec fic today: science fiction, fantasy and horror. Tutor Margo Lanagan is passionate about genre fiction, and keen to impart this love of the fabulous to her students. Lanagan explains how she has crafted a hands-on course to get students writing in genre right away. "This workshop will be a learn-by-doing experience. There won’t be a lot of theory; instead I’ll send you off into space, or the dark forest, or into the murderer’s arms, to see what you encounter, to see what you find and bring back." New South Wales Writers Centre, Saturday 6 March, 10am – 4pm.

Writing Imaginary Worlds with Richard HarlandDo you have ideas for invented worlds and alternative realms? Perhaps you should be writing in the imaginative genres of speculative fiction. The New South Wales Writers' Centre has just the course for you! Fantasy, science fiction and horror not only demand more imagination than other genres but also a high level of narrative technique. This workshop shows how to turn your imaginative ideas into a fully fleshed-out story – strategies for involving the reader in another world, conveying foreground and background at the same time, ‘defining’ a mystery, building to a climax … and not forgetting the very important art of pitching to a publisher! New South Wales Writers Centre, Sunday 9 May, 10am – 4pm.

Eclecticism #11
Eclecticism #11 is up and running, and ready to download for free from the website. Issue #11 features the haunting theme 'Ghost Story' and the work of: Keith Nunes, Myra King, Mark Smith-Briggs , Trost, Lynley Stace, Nicholas Deigman, Allan Wilson, E. Armanious, Chantel Schott, and featured artist Katie Ryan.

Aurealis Awards Winners
The Aurealis Award winners for 2009 were announced at the thirteenth annual Aurealis Awards ceremony at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane on Saturday 24 January 2010. Click through to view a complete list of winners in all categories, and links to down-loadable Judges Reports.

Continuum 6 - Future Tense
The killer robots are beating down the front door while the mutant hordes gather at the back; your emotional inhibitor is on the fritz again and your computer has started calling you "Dave"; the world outside is a burning wasteland, but that's OK, there's an ice age right around the corner; so climb into your nutrient tank and get comfy - it's going to be a lovely apocalypse. This year’s guests of honour include: futurist writer and virtual reality pioneer Mark Pesce (Hyperpeople, ABC’s New Inventors) and Aurealis-award winning author Kim Westwood (The Oracle, The Daughters of Moab). Panel discussions, workshops, readings and more. Continuum 6 are host to the awards night for the Chronos Awards for excellence in Victorian science fiction, fantasy and horror in 2009. ether Convention Space, 26-28 February.

Victorian Writers Centre Upcoming Events & Year-Long Programs
The Victorian Writers Centre are offering a range of professional development and creative writing courses and workshops. Select highlights include Hook a Publisher with a Great Proposal Masterclass with Sheila Hollingworth; Inside Publishing & Editing – A Head Start weekend workshop with Christine Nagel; Year of SF & Fantasy with Paul Collins; Year of the Novel – Advanced with Andrea Goldsmith. For the full program, see www.vwc.org.au.

JUMP National Mentoring Program for Young and Emerging ArtistsAre you a creative, young Australian on the cusp of a great artistic career? You’ve got the talent, the vision and the drive it’s going to take – but do you have the professional skill set, one on one support and national network to match? JUMP can make sure that you do. Applications to be a mentee or mentor in the inaugural JUMP program in 2010 must be submitted to Youth Arts Queensland by 5pm (Brisbane time), Friday 26 February.

Hugo Awards NominationsThe Hugo Awards are awards for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. They were first awarded in 1953, and have been awarded every year since 1955. The 2010 Hugo Awards will be presented in Melbourne, Australia during Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention. Members of Aussiecon 4 who joined before February 1, and members of Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention, are eligible to nominate people or works from 2009 in various categories. Nominations for the 2010 Hugo Awards will close 13 March.

Submitting News

If you have news about Australian and New Zealand Horror publishing and film, or news of professional development opportunities in the field, feel free to submit news to Talie Helene, AHWA News Editor. Just visit HorrorScope, and click on the convenient email link. (International news is not unwelcome, although relevance to Antipodean literary arts practitioners is strongly preferred.)

For information on the Australian Horror Writers' Association, visit australianhorror.com.

This AHWA NEWS DIGEST has been compiled, written, and republished in select Australian horror haunts by Talie Helene. Currently archived at the AHWA MySpace page, and Southern Horror; hosted at the social networking sites Darklands and A Writer Goes On A Journey; and hosted by AHWA members Felicity Dowker, Brenton Tomlinson, Scott Wilson, and Jeff Ritchie (Scary Minds: Horror's Last Colonial Outpost).

If you would like to support the AHWA News effort by hosting a copy of the AHWA News Digest on your blog or website, contact Talie to receive a fully formatted HTML edition of the digest by email.