Prizes for LiveJournal Entries Autumn 2006

Hi All: these are the prizes I have selected for contributors to the Poetry Community and the Review Community over the Summer Break. For Poetry, Les Murrays selection of “The Best Australian Poems 2005” is a great prize. Published by Blackincbooks (www.blackincbooks.com) this contains a fantastic line-up of poets publishing NOW. Whoever wins this prize MUST give us all some insights into the beauties of this collection: either by way of a mini-review or by giving us some quotes from the best poems in the book. For Reviews (Film/Book/Theatre) the prize is the fantastic new Bestseller by Tim Winton “The Turning”. Winton – who most of you do know (“Cloudstreet”) is one of those rare birds who has made it into the best-seller list WITHOUT selling his soul…. in fact his books are ALL soul! He studies human beings, their lives, sadnesses, hopes, aspirations and creates stories with a hugely satisfying underlying philosophy. Whoever wins this book will LOVE it… but again… whoever does… MUST tell us all about it… what did they like… why would they recommend it.. yah di yah di yah… so please a mini- review.. and/or some great extracts….

Now 2 important things… First of all… I don’t want to judge these 2 competitions on my own… I want some help… so who out there is willing to lend a hand. I guarantee you will learn A LOT in the process… about what makes good writing etc. Of course if you want to be a judge this time, then you can’t include your own work in the competition. So you may have to sacrifice your brilliant work this time round if you really want a turn at being judge. So please let me know who out there wishes to judge either or both of the competitions.

My plan was to judge them during orientation week, but I am open to suggestion on this one.

Secondly… you will by now have noticed that in the interests of simplicity and inclusiveness I have concentrated (for this coming year) all the creativity into one LiveJournal Community and all the criticical reviewing into another Community. It seems to me that it is worth keeping these two areas distinct. Reviewing is a definite skill that people can hone… it also provides us all with a great window on what we are all reading, watching, attending… etc. Creating is also a skill and can of course take many forms.. all related… and increasingly linked.. especially if you explore all the new hypertext stuff which is happening on line… and which I will be encouraging this year’s first year to explore…

So let me know what you think about all or any of this AND let me know if you want to be a judge!
Hope you have all been able to get into WebCT by now… if not then holler!
Cheers
Over and OUT
MG