Write Around the Murray Festival

The Write around the Murray Festival, based at Albury, will be held from Wednesday 5 August to Sunday 6 August 2009 and leading up to the festival there are some great opportunities for writers including the AlburyCity Short Story Competition and Masterclass with Debra Adelaide. For the Short Story Competition the theme is open and length for the Open category is up to 3000 words, Secondary (Years 7 – 12) up to 2000 words and Primary (up to and including Grade 6) up to 1000 words. There is a registration fee of $10 and cash prizes to be won. Entires close on Friday 26 June. And applications close on Friday 29 May for the Masterclass with author Debra Adelaide. The program is designed for experienced writers who already have a substantial work in progress, fiction or non-fiction, and keen to explore ways to develop or complete their work. Cost of the program is $400 which includes the Masterclass and two night's accommodation at Month in the Country, breakfast and lunch Saturday and Sunday and a ticket to the festival dinner at 7pm on Saturday evening. Places are limited to six. Applicants are required to send a draft portion of their work with the application. This should be a chapter or an extract (3,000 – 5,000 words) accompanied by a half-page synopsis of the entire work. They would also need to bring a chapter or extract on the first day to circulate amongst participants. Please email writing@orange.nsw.gov.au if you would like a short story registration form or Masterclass Application Form or contact Festival Coordinator Robyne Young directly via email: ryoung@alburycity.nsw.gov.au. The full program of events is scheduled to be released on Wednesday 17 June, 2009 so visit the website http://www.writearoundthemurray.org.au/ then for event details.