Here's a chance to learn from someone who knows the business of writing for children. Author Paul Stafford will host a second workshop, titled "Writing Children's Books",Saturday 31 July, 10am - 4pm at WPCC, Kurrajong Room, Community Arts Centre, in Dubbo. Paul's workshop covers all aspects of creating children's books, including brainstorming, developing ideas, collaboration, shortcuts, pathways to publication and overcoming obstacles to creativity. Paul is the author of 13 novels including the Pants On Fire series for Crawford Publishing and is also a literacy consultant with a focus on developing literacy in reluctant boy readers. This workshop will give direct access to a published author and allow participants to discuss and overcome any particular problems they are experiencing with their own work. New ideas generated in the previous workshop can be refined. This session will follow on from the first and look at works in progress. If you did not attend the first workshop, you will still find this one highly informative. Cost is $35 including lunch. Contact Peter Dargin on 02 6882 8880.

Imagine it's just you and your words for two minutes with a mic in the spotlight. Orange City Library is calling all poets, hip-hop artists and other outspoken wordsmiths to polish their rhymes and lyrics for the Australian Poetry Slam.

On Thursday 22 July - at 6pm for poets to sign up and from 6.30pm to perform - Orange will host one of 8 slam heats planned across the state. Winners from the Orange heat will go on to perform at the regional final and a chance to perform in the State final.

Host Tug Dumbly (pictured) is one of Australia's greatest spoken-word artists and he will host this electric live event.

An initiative of the non-profit literary arts association, Word Travels and State Libraries, the Australian Poetry Slam is the nation's largest and richest poetry slam with cash and a gig at Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali up for grabs.

The Orange heat offers a $100 prize for the winner. And four heat finalists will go on to perform at the regional heat to be held in Bathurst on Saturday 7 August at 8pm as part of Cabaret Kite at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre.

All contestants have just two minutes to impress the judges (selected at random at each heat) with their spoken word, poetry, hip hop, monologues and stories. We need people to get up and have a go and for others to be in the audience - so come along for a fun night out.

Do you dream of being a published writer? Enter Australia's most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript. The Australian/Vogel Literary Award is one of Australia's richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five. Offering publication by Allen & Unwin and prize money totalling $20,000, the Vogel Award has launched the careers of some of its most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan. Vogel-winning authors have gone on to win or be shortlisted for other major awards, such as the Miles Franklin Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Booker Prize.

Entry forms for the 2010 Australian/Vogel Literary Award are now available from the Allen and Unwin website: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=442 This year is the 30th anniversary of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and some exciting changes are afoot. After the judges make their final decision, the winner will be contacted by Allen & Unwin and work will begin on the winning manuscript. However, it won't be until May 2011, that the winner's name will be made public simultaneous with publication of their winning book

Oberon Writers' Workshop, Friends of Oberon Library & Burraga Ag Bureau present the 2nd Oberon Young Writers' Competition for Young Writers (18 years & under at 30/06/10: NARRATIVE: 1st $50, 2nd $20 An original piece of narrative writing of 100 to 1500 words, not previously published. Theme: Water. No entry fee, limit of two entries per section. POETRY: 1st $50, 2nd $20 An original poem or suite of poems in any style, 50 lines or less in total, not previously published. Theme: Water. No entry fee, limit of two entries per section. Conditions of Entry Entries close 30th June 2010. Winners will be announced at 51st Burraga Sheep Show & Country Fair on Saturday 28th August, 2010. Each entry must be accompanied by a separate cover sheet, with title of entry, writer's name, date of birth and contact details. Writer's name must not appear on item submitted. Entries to: Ms A Russell, 1303 Isabella Rd, Isabella, NSW. 2795. For further detail phone: 02 6337 0363 or email everanne@activ8.net.au. (Prizes donated by Burraga Ag Bureau, Friends of Oberon Library & Oberon Writers' Workshop). Good Luck.

Grenfell's Henry Lawson Festival of Arts June Long Weekend (starts Tuesday June 8 to Monday June 14)and includes Poetry - Performance, Exhibitions, Heritage, Street Parade, Music, Circus, Sport and Community events. A full program of events is available from: www.grenfell.org.au/henrylawsonfestival

Festival highlights this year are: Poetry by Firelight, Tuesday June 8, 7.30pm, Dramatic Society Rooms.

Wallangreen Sculpture Garden Open Thursday-Monday, afternoons.

Art Exhibition Opens Thursday June 10, 7.30pm, Grenfell Art Gallery.

Photography Exhibition Friday-Monday, Upper Main Street Grenfell.

Festival Concert With local bands, folk musicians, Melissa Robertson,Miranda Foster and Bush Poet Geoffrey Graham. Friday June 11, 7.30pm, Henry Lawson High School, Book at Louisa's Locker 02 6343 1577.

Poetry on the Boards Saturday June 12, sign up from 9.30am, Railway Station.

Poetry Slam with Miles Merrill - come and compete in the heats of this state-wide comp on Saturday June 12, 3pm, Railway Station.

Grenfell Dramatic Society The Man in the Bowler Hat and The Dilemma of Deidre Dearheart, Sunday June 13, 7.30pm & Monday June 14, 2pm, Rose St Rooms tickets CJ Anderson 02 6343 1610.

Here's your chance to have your musical workshopped by one of Australia's leading musical theatre producers and presented at Melbourne's iconic Comedy Theatre. In November 2010 Magnormos will present its annual gala concert, OZMADE MUSICALS, showcasing the best of Australian written musical theatre; past, present and future. Submissions are now open for new Australian-written musicals. If selected, your work will be performed at the Comedy Theatre in a fifteen minute fusion of scene and song, in front of an audience of peers, industry professionals and adoring public! This performance follows a workshopping period, facilitated by Magnormos, that includes access to in-house contacts, personnel and resources. If you are interested in submitting a work for consideration for OzMade Musicals 2010 please visit www.magnormos.com for more information.

Presented by the Australian Writers' Foundation (AWF), the $30,000 Kit Denton Fellowship is sponsored by Zapruder's Other Films together with Animal Logic, FremantleMedia Australia, GNWTV, Hopscotch Films, Princess Pictures, Shine Australia and TressCox Lawyers. For the fourth year running the prestigious fellowship will be presented to a writer who has shown courage in their work and demonstrated a willingness to challenge the status quo with their performance writing. The $30,000 fellowship consists of a $25,000 cash prize and pro bono legal advice from TressCox Lawyers to the value of $5,000. Guidelines and application details online: www.awg.com.au Be quick - closing 7 May.

Scribe will be publishing another anthology of short stories, New Australian Stories 2.0, again edited by fiction acquisitions editor, Aviva Tuffield. New Australian Stories 2.0 will be published in February 2011. The anthology will feature established stars of the short-story firmament alongside new and emerging ones. Scribe are collaborating with two partners: Varuna, the Writers' House, will be running the Varuna/NAS national short story competition, with the winners (judged by Peter Bishop, Cate Kennedy and Aviva Tuffield) to be published in New Australian Stories 2.0, and/or to be awarded a week-long residency at Varuna to work with Cate Kennedy, one of Australia's finest writers of short stories. Submissions to the Varuna/NAS competition open on 1 June and close on 30 June. Visit the Varuna website for more details: www.varuna.com.au. And they are teaming up with the Ned Kelly Awards to publish the winner of the S.D. Harvey Short Story Award in New Australian Stories 2.0. This award was established in 2009 in honour of Sandra Harvey, a respected journalist who worked both for the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC's Four Corners program, and was fearless in her pursuit of the truth. The prize money for the S.D. Harvey Short Story Award will be in excess of $1000. Applications for the S.D. Harvey Award close on 31 May. For more information about entering the award, go to: www.nedkellyawards.com

Sweat trickles down your brow, only just missing your heavily mascara-ed eyes. Your heart vibrates through your chest with every beat and it feels strange that no one else can hear its drums. Stress consumes your muscles so much so that every step seems to be weighed down with stones. He reaches for the door handle before turning back to look you straight in the eyes. In a calm and concerned voice he says, "Are you ready?" but before you can answer, he has already opened the door and the light of the sun floods your vision. He steps through the threshold but your body is paralyzed with thought. Are you ready...? Vibewire is calling for submission with the theme Are you Ready? Your time and energy will be repaid by seeing your name in print in the Vibewire Quarterly Anthology, which comes out next month! There are now two options to submit your work: 1. submit directly onto the Portal dashboard when logged in or 2. simply email your work to post@vibewire.posterous.com Remember, the 1000 WORD LIMIT still applies. You have until APRIL 24 so get writing and check out: http://portal.vibewire.org/2010/04/april-theme-are-you-ready/

The Big Issue is calling for submissions to its annual fiction edition for 2010. Last year's edition virtually sold out and attracted contributions from the likes of Cate Kennedy, Debra Adelaide and Alice Pung, with two of its ten stories making the cut for Black Inc.'s Best Australian Stories 2009. To submit, send two printed (not electronic) copies of your entry (of up to 3000 words) to: Fiction Edition, The Big Issue, GPO Box 4911VV. Make sure your name and details are included on a removable coversheet. Closing date for entries is Monday 20 May 2010.