Tasmanian Writers’ Centre
It’s no surprise Tony Birch has an arsenal of good yarns up his sleeve. Growing up in a large inner-Melbourne family of Aboriginal, West Indian and Irish descent, he swung from “good boy” living as an altar boy and top student to an “off-the-rails” teen having run-ins with the police.
Luckily for us, these days the esteemed author prefers writing compelling stories than fighting. He uses his fiction to tell the tough tales that connect to his readers – even hard-to-reach types that tend to avoid books, like teenage boys. Even better is the news that he’ll be in Hobart come November 29 and 30 to show local writers, both aspiring and established, the ropes of writing stories that work.
If you’ve got a story inside you just screaming to be let out but you don’t know where to start, you’re in luck. Tony will be running two workshops in Hobart that offer a host of powerful techniques allowing you to tell your tales. For those looking to explore their fiction craft, Tony will teach character development, the “seed” of storytelling, and the general principles of learning to write well through practice, reading, observational work and “sketching”. For those of the factual bent, Tony’s non-fiction workshop will explore place and landscape, finding ways to tell “true” stories beyond the bare facts, and specialist areas like music writing and memoir.
Tony is the author of three short story collections – Shadowboxing (2006), Father’s Day (2009) and The Promise (2014). His novel, Blood (2011) was shortlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin award, and won the Civic Choice award for the Melbourne Literary Prize in 2012. Tony’s latest book The Promise is a collection of short stories bringing to life the stories of people really doing it tough.
Tony also publishes essays and is currently representing The Wheeler Centre for Writing on a global project dealing with Climate Change and Creativity. He teaches in the writing program in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.
Fiction: Saturday 29 November, 1pm-4pm
Non-Fiction: Sunday 30 November, 10am-1pm
Meeting Room, Salamanca Arts Centre, 77 Salamanca Place
Cost $55 TWC members, $77 non-members
Bookings: email [email protected] or phone (03) 6224 0029
www.tasmanianwriters.org
