What’s on in April: Resident Organisation Round Up

As the centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, we are host to some fantastic arts and culture organisations within our walls.

Within the Wheeler Centre building on Lonsdale Street lives Australian Poetry, Blak & Bright, Melbourne City of Literature Office, Emerging Writers’ Festival, Express Media, Melbourne Writers Festival, PEN Melbourne, the Small Press Network and Writers Victoria. Discover what’s coming up in April 2023 for these organisations below.

Australian Poetry

Submissions are open now for Australian Poetry’s Anthology Vol. 10. There will be a focus on QLD poets, as there was on WA poets in 2021-2022, and ACT poets in 2020, but the Anthology is national. Submissions are open now and close at 11.59 pm on 17 April 2023. Head to the Australian Poetry website for full submission guidelines and further info.

The Melbourne City of Literature Office

The Green House is currently open for expressions of interest from Victoria-based writers. This is a 10-week online writers’ room consisting of nature writers from Heidelberg, Melbourne, Tartu, Slemani and Jakarta.

Led by prize-winning author Laura Jean Mckay, writers will exchange ‘natural wonders’ from their Cities of Literature. Writers will receive $1500, plus a separate commission. The 10 weeks start on 10 July 2023, and expressions of interest close 11.69pm, 1 May. 

Express Media

Express Media’s Toolkits 2023 program is open for applications until April 10! Toolkits is a 12-week program for writers aged 30 and under to develop their skills, workshop their work and connect with other writers. This season, Express Media is excited to present three streams: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Digital Storytelling. Learn more about the streams and apply over on Express Media’s website.

Melbourne Writers Festival

The Melbourne Writers Festival is back for 2023. Running from Thursday 4 May–Sunday 7 May, check out the fantastic line-up of writers, creators and thinkers from Australia and beyond in their I’ve Been Away For Awhile program.

PEN Melbourne

PEN Melbourne have released Impunity Reigns – Writers Resist 2022, a case list that documents 115 cases of writers facing harassment, arrest, violence and even death, worldwide. The writers featured in this report have put their lives on the frontline and made enormous sacrifices – risking their safety and liberty – to hold the powerful to account. Read the full 2022 PEN International Case List and find further information here.

Writers Victoria

Join Autumn Royal in this Response Poetry workshop 10am to 4pm on Saturday 29 April. There’s a long and rich tradition of response poetry, and this workshop will focus on how the poetic form can complement, interrogate or provide further understandings of artworks, archives, letters, current and/or historical events or simply be a reply to another writer.

Also coming up from Writers Victoria, their Writeability program Storming the City is continuing for 2023. They are inviting applications from writers with disability to be part of a ‘Train the Trainers’ program guided by industry professionals who will help you build a career as a writer. Learn how to chair a panel, pitch to festivals and develop workshop content. Sessions will be held ONLINE fortnightly on Fridays from May to August 2023.

Apply via their submittable link or email Jess at writeability@writersvictoria.org.au before April 21.