New website for OOTA - this is an archive

OOTA writers now have a new website For all relevant and up-to-date information please go to http://www.ootawriters.com 

Out of the Asylum (known as OOTA) is a writers’ group that has had close association with the Fremantle Arts Centre since 1996. The Arts Centre building was once an asylum, and the group’s name pays homage to that. The idea for a writing group arose from people who attended the Writing from the Centre classes, during the time when the State Literature office was located in the Arts Centre.  It was Incorporated in 2005 and since then, writers have met regularly in the courtyard of the FAC at lunchtimes on Fridays, and attend classes in poetry and prose on alternating Fridays. 

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Season's Greetings & Happy Holidays!

The management team of OOTA wishes all its members a very happy Christmas and a safe and healthy New Year. We hope to see many of you in 2016!

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OOTA Christmas Party, featuring Irish poet Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis

Helen Hagemann

OOTA CRISTMAS PARTY!

Friday 18^th December, 12.30 - 3.00

in the Pavilion at Fremantle Arts Centre

Please bring a plate to share

Prose reading by Helen Hagemann

Poetry reading by Tony Curtis

OOTA CHRISTMAS RAFFLE

Copies of Westerly for members

Tony Curtis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Curtis_%28Irish_poet%29

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OOTA's AGM 17th October 1.30pm

The Annual General Meeting for Out of the Asylum Writers' Group will be held on Saturday, 17th October, 2015 at 1.30 pm in Room 3 of the Fremantle Arts Centre. We hope you will be able to join us. If you are able to bring a plate of finger food to share for the occasion, please email Josephine Clarke at j.sephine.c@gmail.com.

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OOTA's Writing Marathon with Kevin Gillam

OOTA Writing Marathon with Kevin Gillam
10th October 1.00-4.00pm
@ Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs, Room 3 Cost $25

In the ‘Marathon’ on October 10th, participants will be asked to write to a number of stimuli, including 'cello music, tactile objects, starting lines and sensory imaginations. The idea behind the ‘marathon’ concept is that the longer we write for, the looser our thought processes and imagination become. It is hoped that class members will take at least 2 or 3 ideas away for further work and possible publication. The class is suitable for both poetry and prose writers. To book your place (max 20 people) please send an email to: Josephine Clarke j.sephine.c@gmail.com
Then you will need to pay to secure your place:
By direct debit (your name/marathon in the description)
BSB 306408 A/C 0462814 Or post a cheque to OOTA Writers’ PO Box 142, Fremantle, 6959.

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Book Launch: Thylacine by Jan Napier

OOTA warmly welcomes you to the book launch of
Thylacine 

a collection of poetry by Jan Napier

To be launched by Kevin Gillam

in the Pavlich Room of the

Fremantle Arts Centre,

Saturday, 12th of September,

2-4 pm.

RSVP  Jan Napier   yangjan10@gmail.com

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Aesthetica: Deadline 31st August

Enter the Creative Writing Award by 31 August

There is one week to go to enter the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award! Register by 31 August to be in with a chance of winning £500 plus publication in an inspiring anthology of new writing.
The Award is dedicated to supporting and championing creative talent from around the world, and is a celebration of outstanding poetry and short fiction. Judges include literary experts such as Arifa Akbar, Literary Editor of The Independent and inewspapers.
Prizes include:

• £500 Poetry winner courtesy of Aesthetica
• £500 Short Fiction winner courtesy of Aesthetica
• Publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology
• One year subscription to Granta
• Selection of books courtesy of Bloodaxe and Vintage

Categories: Poetry (up to 40 lines each) and Short Fiction (up to 2,000 words). Works previously published are accepted.
Visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/creativewriting

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OOTA Member Laurie Steed to judge the SALA Short Story Prize

The Arts Council of Mansfield is going national, with the SALA  Short Story Prize. And entries are now open, so polish up those short stories and send them in!
National prize
– $1000 plus a mixed pack of wine from Delatite Winery and publication in SALA Short Stories 2015
Local author prize
– $500 plus publication in SALA Short Stories 2015
Publication for up to 20 submissions
– we’ll offer publication in SALA Short Stories 2015 to up to 20 additional submissions. SALA Short Stories 2015 will be a gorgeous collection showcasing the best submissions we receive.
Entries close at midnight on Friday 18 Sept 2015 and must be submitted with an entry form

Judge for the SALA Short Story prize Laurie Steed will judge of the prize in 2015.
Laurie Steed is an author of award-winning literary fiction. His stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in Best Australian Stories, The Age, Meanjin, Westerly, Island, The Sleepers Almanac and elsewhere. He won the 2012 Patricia Hackett Prize for Fiction and is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from The University of Iowa, The Sozopol Fiction Seminars, Varuna, Writers Victoria, The Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre and The Fellowship of Writers (WA). – See more at: lauriesteed.com

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One free Copy of Westerly (NOVEMBER ISSUE) for OOTA Members

OOTA advises that membership renewal is now due for July-June 2015. You can download the form in pdf or doc or why not take advantage of our direct debit system? Included in your membership is one free copy of Westerly Magazine.(November issue)  Download membership form here

Westerly 60.1

The launch will be held on Friday the 17th of July, at the UWA Boat Shed, from 6pm. The issue will be launched by the wonderful Susan Midalia, and drinks and nibbles will be on offer. The Boat Shed is accessed via the Hackett Drive car park, just off the Stirling Hwy/Mounts Bay Rd. We hope to see you all there!>br< The issue features a wonderful array of works, new fiction and poetry, and some fascinating essays. Highlights include previously unpublished work from Dorothy Hewett, and photography from Randolph Stow compiled in a beautiful essay from Kate Rendell


The Editors look forward to welcoming this issue into the world!

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OOTA Writers take out most major prizes at PCWC for the Patron's Poetry Prize

Congratulations are in order to all OOTA writers who took out (nearly all) of the major prizes for the PCWC Patron's Poetry Prize 2015.  Shane McCauley (Tutor at Writing at the Centre, FAC) 1st prize, for ‘Shape Shifter’, Second Prize was awarded to Christopher Konrad for ‘East Gippsland and other Enoch Anecdotes’, and Third Prize was awarded to Julie Watts for ‘Chyna’, Carolyn Abbs received a Highly Commended for ‘Girl at Bus Stop’ and Rose van Son for ‘History Lesson'. Christ Konrad also received a Commended for 'Warri & Yatungka'.

NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO JOIN OOTA (Out of the Asylum Writers Inc) and position yourself amongst the top poets and writers in Fremantle.  Membership runs from July to June each year and a membership copy of Westerly is also in the offer. You can download a membership form here or write to ootawriters@gmail.com

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Two Great Workshops in June @ The Fremantle Arts Centre

Laurie Steed will conduct a workshop on Friday 12^th June @ 1pm at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Room 3, Upstairs in the North Wing

Guy Salvidge will run the following class on Friday 26th June at 1pm. Both classes will be in Room 3 as usual.  

Please Note: the class fee remains at $20 for OOTA members - $25.00 Non-OOTA Members.

Laurie Steed is an author and Ph.D Candidate at the University of Western Australia. His work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in Best Australian Stories, The Age, the Review of Australian Fiction, Australian Book Review and elsewhere. He is a member of the Margaret River Press Editorial Board, the winner of the 2012 Patricia Hackett Prize, and a past recipient of fellowships from The University of Iowa, The Sozopol Fiction Seminars and Varuna The Writers House. He lives in Perth and is a member of Out of the Asylum Writers Group, Fremantle: Western Australia. 

Guy Salvidge was born in England in 1981 and moved to Western Australia in 1990. In 1996, he won the Roy Grace English Scholarship for short fiction, which motivated him to pursue a writing career. Guy studied English at Curtin University, majoring in Literature and Creative Writing, and graduated in 2002 with Honours. Completing a Graduate Diploma in Education in 2005, Guy embarked on a career as a high-school English teacher. He lives in the Avon Valley with his wife and children. Guy's first novel to see print, The Kingdom of Four Rivers, was published in 2009 by Equilibrium Books. His second, Yellowcake Springs, won the 2011 IP Picks Best Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the 2012 Norma K Hemming Award. The sequel, Yellowcake Summer was published in 2013. Guy is currently working on a crime novel Thirsty Work (which he started in 2013 while Writer-in-Residence at the KSP Writers' Centre) and he is the co-editor (with Andrez Bergen) of The Tobacco Stained Sky: An Anthology of Post Apocalyptic Noir. In 2013, his short stories were published in Alien Sky, The Tobacco-Stained Sky, Tincture Journal and The Great Unknown.

All inquiries (to 5th June) to Helen Hagemann @ ootawriters@gmail.com

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Launch of Shane McCauley's "Trickster"

OOTA Writers Group Inc.

invites you to the launch party of

tRICKSTER by Shane McCauley

Walleah Press (Tasmania)

To be launched by Andrew Lansdown

Saturday, 6 June 2015 @ 2pm

Pavlich Room

Fremantle Arts Centre

Please RSVP by 29 May

shnmccly@gmail.com

SMS- 0432983310

Book sales $ 20 (no credit card facilities)

Drinks, finger foods & a trick or two

** The launch will be concluded with raffle and door prize draws.**

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