In news just to hand (I've always wanted to write that) Minister Assisting the Premier on the Arts, Virginia Judge today congratulated Sydney author Margo Lanagan, who has been awarded the 2008 NSW Writer's Fellowship. Ms Lanagan will use the $20,000 fellowship to write a literary fantasy novel set in colonial northern NSW. Ms Judge said "the Rees Government is committed to supporting our writers and encouraging the creative industries. Margo Lanagan is a well-respected writer and deserving winner of this prestigious award. Over a 17-year career, Ms Lanagan has published novels for a diverse range of readers, including children, young people and adults". Ms Lanagan won the 2007 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award (older readers) for Red Spikes. The 2008 selection committee of Anne Brewster (Chair), Stephen Measday and Mark Tredinnick also commended authors Georgia Blain, Chris Mansell and Mandy Sayer.

Nominations are invited for the New South Wales Premier's Translation Prize, presented every two years with the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. The prize is offered by the NSW Government through Arts NSW and the Community Relations Commission for a multicultural NSW in association with Sydney PEN. Valued at $30,000 the prize is open only to literary translators who translate from other languages into English. Translators should be able to demonstrate a body of literary work which has been published or performed in recent years. This work can include poetry, stage and radio plays, and fiction and non-fiction works of literary merit. Translators may nominate themselves, or be nominated by authors, agents, publishers, translation and literary associations, theatre companies or radio broadcasters. The closing date for nominations is Friday 5 December 2008. The winner will be announced in May 2009. Guidelines and nomination forms may be obtained from Awards Staff, Arts NSW PO Box A226, SYDNEY SOUTH NSW 1235 Ph (02) 9228 5533, Fax (02) 9228 4722 or Email: jean.moylan@arts.nsw.gov.au or download them from Website: www.arts.nsw.gov.au

And the NSW State winners are Greg North from Katoomba, and Andrew Riemer from Parramatta. The contest was close, sometimes only a decimal point the difference between the "slammers". Congrats to our finalists from the Central West - Josh Simpson and Shannon Elliott who were able to attend thanks to Orange Regional Arts Foundation. Read more about Poetry Slam finalist Josh Simpson in the Western Advocate http://www.westernadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/general/poet-wins-place-in-slam-finals/1365318.aspx. The State winners now go on to perform at the Sydney Opera House on 4 December 7pm.

The 2009 Interactive Press (IP) Picks Awards for Unpublished Manuscripts are open for submissions until 1 December. Now in its eighth year, this national competition invites submissions for Best Fiction, Best Creative Non-fiction, Best Poetry and Best First Book. The Awards are open to citizens/residents of Australia, and, for the first time, citizens/residents of New Zealand. The winners in each category and two of the Highly Commended entrants are being published by IP under royalty contracts. One of the winners and one of the highly commended were subsequently endorsed by the Literature Board of the Australia Council. The winner for Best Poetry 2007 was Mark O'Flynn for his work What can be Proven. For entry forms and conditions visit the website www.ipoz.biz or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to IP, Treetop Studio, 9 Kuhler Court, Carindale 4152.

Cutwater is an upcoming literary anthology that will collect the best in Australian writing from new and emerging authors. With the assistance of an Australia Council Write In Your Face grant, Cutwater is currently seeking work from around the nation - fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, zines, comics and anything in between - to be published in glorious book form in 2009. The theme of Cutwater's inaugural volume is 'Ratbags'. Writers are invited to send up to three submissions of 5,000 words or less, via post only by 30 November, to: Cutwater Literary Journal PO BOX 52 Toukley NSW 2263 For more details on submissions go to the blog at: http://www.cutwaterjournal.blogspot.com/ Let out the inner ratbag.

Vietnamese Australian author Nam Le has won the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize for his first short story collection titled The Boat. It is one of the richest literary prizes in the world ($140,000) and is awarded for the best writer in the English language aged under 30. Judges described Nam Le as a "phenomenal literary talent and said his work demonstrated "a rare brilliance that is breathtaking both in the scope of its subject matter and the quality of its writing". The chair of the Dylan Thomas Prize judging panel, Peter Florence, said Nam tackles his own background and circumstances as well as that of others with a clear eye, focused intelligence and wonderful use of words. "He is, in this panel's opinion, a phenomenal literary talent, and I look forward to following his career as it progresses." Nam Le has previously won the Pushcart Prize, the Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, and fellowships from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the Fine Arts Work Centre in Provincetown and Phillips Exeter Academy. Nam Le was one of six finalists. The other writers shortlisted for the prize, sponsored by Wales University, were British writers Ross Raisin (for God's Own Country), Edward Hogan (Blackmoor) and Caroline Bird (Trouble Came To The Turnip), and South African-born Ceridwen Dovey (Blood Kin) and Ethiopian Dinaw Mengestu (Children Of The Revolution).

Writers Link is a series of workshops designed to help people put pen to paper and write - whether it be for their personal records or a new career. A special Writers Link Workshop will be held at Gilgandra Shire Library on Wednesday 3 December from 9.30am. Titled Retool and Remix, this workshop aims to give you the skills to compose books which include multimedia elements (audio, video, animation, interactivity) as well as words. Retool and Remix will enable participants to create works for podcasts, blogs or CD/DVD distribution. The workshop facilitator will be Dr David Reiter, an award-winning poet and writer of fiction, and Director of Interactive Publishing, a print and digital publisher based in Brisbane. Cost of the Workshop is $25 per person. This includes all refreshments. For more information call 02 6817 8704 (Orana Arts) or 02 6817 8877 (Gilgandra Library) Please RSVP by Monday 1 December.

If you have signed up for National Novel Writing Month – how is it going? I'm at the pathetic total of 300 words which is really bad because the total by the end of today should be closer to 10,002! So I have some catching up to do. The aim is to get you writing quantity not quality and into that habit of writing. A good tip is keep a chart of your word totals each day alongside what you're aiming for, (which should be 1,667 words per day) then note the difference to see how you are faring. The goal is to write a 175 page novel (50,000 words) by midnight 30 November. This event encourages writers all over the world and of course a huge sense of satisfaction is yours for the taking if you make it. Writing is its own reward. NaNoWriMo has been going for 10 years and now attracts more than 100,000 participants. You can check it out at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ Bring on the coffee and chocolate and keep writing.

Hear author Banafsheh Serov talk about her memoir Under a Starless Sky about her family's escape from Iran on Wednesday 5 November at 5.30pm for a 6pm start at Orange City Library. At first her family was filled with hope as the Shah's rule collapsed and the Ayatollah Khomeini made his triumphant return. But they quickly came to realise that Iran had traded one dictator for another, more ruthless ruler. From the streets and bazaars of Tehran to the moonlit Turkish mountains, Under a Starless Sky is a detailed memoir about her family's extraordinary journey. The event is presented by Angus & Robertson, Central West Libraries and the Central West Writers' Centre and bookings are essential by calling the Library on 6393 8132. Everyone welcome.

Seriously fun that is. Poets on Wheels Mark O'Flynn, David Brooks and Marvis Sofield ham it up for the camera while they were in Orange after a marathon effort taking different sets of wheels - train, coach and hire car to arrive for the Public Poetry Reading and Wine Tasting with Rolling Wines event organised by the Poets Union, and supported by Arts NSW and the Central West Writers' Centre. Poetry workshop participants also learnt poetry has no rules and is more than words: it is music to the ears, about telling a story and visual like a painting. Congratulations to Dulcie Mclean who won the Poets Union award at the Public Poetry Reading and to all the performing poets who bravely read their works to an appreciative audience. Dulcie is pictured with poet Mark O'Flynn.