University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 2008 Mapping literature infrastructure in Australia Wenche Ommundsen University of Wollongong, [email protected] Michael Jacklin University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Ommundsen, Wenche and Jacklin, Michael, Mapping literature infrastructure in Australia 2008. https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/236 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Australia Council for the Arts Mapping literature infrastructure in Australia A report to the Australia Council for the Arts’ literature board By Professor Wenche Ommundsen and Dr Michael Jacklin University of Wollongong July 2008 Australia Council for the Arts 1 Ministerial briefing Contents Executive Summary.............................................................................................................3 Introduction..........................................................................................................................9 Key Organisations..............................................................................................................12 ACT Writers Centre...............................................................................................12 Eleanor Dark Foundation / Varuna – The Writers’ House.....................................17 NSW Writers’ Centre.............................................................................................23 NT Writers’ Centre.................................................................................................29 Queensland Writers’ Centre...................................................................................34 SA Writers’ Centre.................................................................................................39 Victorian Writers’ Centre.......................................................................................45 writingWA.............................................................................................................50 Australian Society of Authors................................................................................56 Literary Magazines............................................................................................................63 Meanjin..................................................................................................................63 Overland................................................................................................................69 Island.....................................................................................................................74 HEAT.....................................................................................................................79 Australian Book Review.........................................................................................86 Specialist or Genre-based Groups......................................................................................92 Poets Union............................................................................................................92 The Red Room Company.......................................................................................98 Australian Poetry Centre......................................................................................103 Centre for Youth Literature.................................................................................108 Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre...............................................................114 Express Media......................................................................................................120 Writers’ Festivals.............................................................................................................126 Melbourne Writers’ Festival................................................................................126 Brisbane Writers Festival.....................................................................................131 Adelaide Writers’ Week.......................................................................................138 Sydney Writers’ Festival......................................................................................142 Concluding Observations.................................................................................................150 Appendix..........................................................................................................................155 2 Executive Summary This report, a partnership project co-funded by the University of Wollongong and the Australia Council for the Arts, presents findings from research into the literature infrastructure of Australia. ‘Literature infrastructure’ refers to the organisations within the literature sector that actively support writers and their work: state writers’ centres, Varuna – The Writers’ Centre, the Australian Society of Authors, literary journals, genre- based organisations, and writers’ festivals. The study aims to determine where each organisation sits in the ‘supply chain’ of support and what contribution it makes to the literature sector as a whole: what services and opportunities are offered to writers, how it contributes to the training and development of writers, whether it contributes to readership/audience development or community engagement, the extent of its national/international reach and how well it is served by its operational, financial and governance model. The research also seeks to identify trends in the sector as well as gaps in the support currently available to Australian writers. The study draws on both quantitative and qualitative data with regard to each organisation. Quantitative data has been supplied by the Australia Council and by the respective organisations. Qualitative material derives from one-hour interviews conducted with the directors, chairs and editors of twenty-four literature organisations. Together these provide comprehensive representation of the state of literature infrastructure in Australia today. The report is structured in five parts with each of the first four devoted to a particular area of literature infrastructure. The fifth part offers observations of broad relevance across the literature sector and points towards possible measures for both the Literature Board and literature organisations to consider. The four areas within the literature sector examined by this study are: 1) Key organisations 2) Literary magazines 3) Specialist or genre-based organisations 4) Writers’ Festivals The following outline draws attention to significant points emerging with regard to particular organisations within each of the four areas: 1) Key Organisations The most salient points with regard to current key organisations are: • Career-long support for writers: all key organisations demonstrate through a range of programs opportunities for training, professional development and employment for new and emerging, mid-career and established writers. 3 • Advocacy: both professional associations and writers’ centres aim to advance the interests of writers and support writers’ efforts to gain a livelihood from their work. • Diversity of audience development initiatives: writers’ centres are engaged in diverse activities, both large and small scale, from literary readings at embassies to writers’ festivals to book launches, promoting Australian literature and contributing to audience development. • Partnerships with publishers: while not formalised by all key organisations, many have established programs in partnership with publishers aimed at manuscript assessment and development, with publications resulting. These partnerships are a significant contribution to the literature infrastructure. • Self-identification as ‘peak bodies’ for writers and writing: a number of key organisations identify themselves (in their documents and on their websites) as peak bodies; others that do not explicitly claim peak body status nevertheless may perceive themselves as such. • Tensions between geographically proximate literature organisations: claiming peak body status has economic repercussions for other geographically proximate literature organisations, due to competition over limited funding sources (state, federal, corporate and philanthropic). • Regionalism: some key organisations located outside the Sydney-Melbourne regions consider themselves disadvantaged by their distance from major aspects of the literature sector. Not only do they perceive their access to publishing houses (concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne) as restricted, but they also see contact with the Australia Council as limited. 2) Literary Magazines Points of significance with regard to literary magazines include: • Springboard for emerging literary talent: all literary magazines covered in this study demonstrate their capacity to identify new literary talent and provide emerging writers with opportunities to publish. • Support for the literary: all editors interviewed make the point that literary work – short fiction, poetry, literary essays – has lost ground to non-fiction, in terms of both readership and the material rewards for writers. Literary magazines, however,