Most authors have to supplement their book income with other forms of writing, so here’s news of a conference that might be useful. The Bank of New Zealand Freelance 2007 conference will be held on Wednesday May 2 and Thursday May 3 in Auckland.
It’s the second national conference for New Zealand freelancers. Keynote speakers will be Kirsty Cameron (the editorial director of women's lifestyle titles at ACP Magazines, pictured), Kate Coughlan (editor and publisher of LeafSalon favourite Life and Leisure) and Julian Andrews, a director of Jones Publishing.
On the reporting bench will be David Cohen, a successful freelancer here and overseas; Karen Holdom, an Auckland-based freelance writer specialising in health; and Stacy Gregg, the fashion editor who sold the fashion website runwayreporter.co.nz to ACP.
Registrations, which can be made online, cost $75 for 'early birds' who register and pay between 1 Feb until 31 March - and $100 for registrations after 1 April.
Based on the number of registrations to date and last year's experience, places are likely to fill fast. So if the bank account is looking a bit threadbare, this might be the way to kickstart it.
Not your cup of tea? Maybe you should enter the 2007 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. This highly acclaimed international competition has launched renowned writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who went on to win the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Purple Hibiscus. The competition gives winners the chance to have their story broadcast around the world on the radio and offers a first prize of £2,000, plus other cash prizes.
The stories must be around 600 words in length, and may be on any theme or subject. Applicants must be citizens of one of the 53 member countries of the Commonwealth and entries will be accepted until 1 May 2007.
The winning stories – around 25, including an overall winner, regional winners and highly commended entries – will be professionally recorded and broadcast on radio stations around the Commonwealth.
For more information, head over to the Commonwealth Foundation website.
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Comment by Mark Hubbard ~ February 18, 2007 3:31 PM
Regarding the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, from their guidelines page:
"Although there is no restriction on theme, very often the stories address social questions, such as corruption, migration and the status of women. The competition therefore often raises important issues to Commonwealth people, and ones which different cultures have in common. A large proportion of entrants and winners tend to be women and young people."
Snort.
I suspect this middle aged white bloke may as well forget this one, unless I can punch out my story on the young immigrant Somali girl in Auckland who has contacted Hep C via a bad blood scandal, the symptom of a corrupt state funded health sector.
Seriously, don't the competition organisers risk packing Commonwealth writing down into a very small, stereotypical box which may not be relevant or representative, at all, of life in much of the Commonwealth? Why not just say the competition is only open to young female writers in Africa?
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