Manuscript sponsorship recipients
The manuscript sponsorship program offers support to eligible staff, students and graduates who have developed outstanding publishing projects through the Publishing Support Program. 21 sponsorships have been awarded since mid-2006, profiles of the recipients are below.
Round 4, 2007
| Deb Anderson | Dryland: Australian stories of drought & climate change "What does drought mean today for farm communities, and for this dry land in future?" |
| Louise Keogh | The body divided: understanding women's decisions about sex and fertility in contemporary Australia. "Contraceptive technology hasn't changed much since the sixties. What does this mean for young Australian women who are choosing to be sexually active but to delay motherhood?" |
| Martin Plowman | High strangeness: uncertain confessions of a UFOlogy-ologist Do you believe in UFOs? How do you talk about an object that's been identified as unidentified? Martin Plowman looks at the fascinating ways that people have tried to make sense of their encounters with the world of UFOs and alien beings. |
| Ruth Quibell | Precious things. "We all have belongings we treasure - from a favourite cup to a worn-out armchair. Why do we invest so much of ourselves in some objects?" |
| Damon Young | Gardens. "What are gardens, and what do they offer the good life?" |
Round 3, 2007
| Beth Driscoll | Series of articles on literary institutions and readers. "Who influences what books we read and the opinions we hold about them?" |
| Fincina Hopgood | 'Capturing the pain within', The Age looks at the ways film uses empathy to bridge the gap between the mentally ill and 'the rest of us'. |
| Meredith Nash | 'I'm not fat, I'm pregnant': the skinny on bumps, body image and the cultural shaping of motherhood. |
| Kirsty Sangster | Broken justice: listening to the voices of survivors. "The refugees believed that they were of no significance and that no one would be interested in their stories. They regarded themselves as the 'little people' and as 'dead bodies walking'. This belief only strengthened my own desire to write about the things that I had seen." |
Round 2, 2006
| Idan Ben- Barak | Small Wonders: How microbes rule our world. Scribe Publications. "An off-beat, entertaining and informative journey through the weird world of microbes." |
| Peter Bragge | The healthy musician. "Practical and easily understood injury prevention information for musicians, music teachers and music institutions." |
| Catherine Ingram | Article and manuscript on the cultural traditions of the Kam, an ethnic minority in China. "I spent eighteen months in Kam minority villages of Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces, PRC. There I not only took part in all aspects of daily village life - including planting and harvesting rice, collecting wild mountain foods and attending weddings - but was also privileged to be taught by Kam village 'song experts' to sing many styles of Kam songs." |
| Philippa Moylan | Article and manuscript on nerves and nervousness. "From nervous disorder to nervous excitement, from living in an age of anxiety to discovering the possibilities of nervousness for making our lives more creative and exhilarating." |
| Kirsty Sangster | Broken justice: listening to the voices of survivors. "The refugees believed that they were of no significance and that no one would be interested in their stories. They regarded themselves as the 'little people' and as 'dead bodies walking'. This belief only strengthened my own desire to write about the things that I had seen." |
| Emily Turner-Graham | Article on the German-Australian community and Nazism in Australia. "Nazis were not far-away monsters, safely on the other side of the world, but they had in fact been right here in Australia." |
| Danielle White | Sex & Mirrors: Men, Women, Vanity and Mirrors, Melbourne University Press. "For most of us, the mirror and the daily act of looking at ourselves in one is an unquestioned routine." |
Round 1, 2006
| Madeleine Hamilton | Manuscript on Australian pin-up girls, 1939-1960. "Who were these girls, why did they agree to have their photo taken, and what happened to them after the photo was published?" |
| Nicola Henry | Manuscript on sexual violence in wartime. "The book traces the failure of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials to adequately prosecute sex crimes, through to the international war crimes trials for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the hybrid international courts for East Timor and Sierra Leone, and the current proceedings at the world's first permanent International Criminal Court." |
| Fincina Hopgood | 'Capturing the pain within', The Age looks at the ways film uses empathy to bridge the gap between the mentally ill and 'the rest of us'. |
| Colleen Nordstrom | Dead Reckoning: Navigating the Lived Experience of Dying "I wanted to understand what my sister - and others - encountered in the experience of living with dying." |
| Gabrielle Wolf | 'Make it Australian!': The APG, the Pram Factory and New Wave Theatre, Currency Press. "What did the theatre show about how Australians saw themselves?" |
Deb Anderson
"What does drought mean today for farm communities, and for this dry land in future? Recollections of a golden age of agriculture loom large in Australian rural historiography. But I believe we need to look at culture more critically in the face of social-environmental problems.
For the past three years I've gathered oral histories of drought in the driest part of Victoria, the beguiling semi-arid Mallee. It was the fieldwork component for a doctoral project co-sponsored by the Australian Centre and Museum Victoria, which will house the oral history collection in perpetuity. That PhD fieldwork procured many a gripping tale of endurance, uncertainty and risk - and, as it turned out, fears for rural futures amid a remarkable shift in Australian public awareness of climate change.
That so dramatic a shift in debate on climate change came in the spring of 2006 was startling even for a scholar immersed in talk of local weather extremes. What interested me most was how people were interpreting ongoing drought as climate change in action, intensifying debates on Australian rural sustainability. On top of this, people spoke of feeling increasingly politically isolated. As one Mallee farmer implored, all Australians needed to know what was really happening in rural Australia. With the Writing Centre's support, I aim to engage more actively in that process.
I participated in the Writing Centre's Publishing Support Program in 2007. In short, the program opened the door to getting my research out there, to a broader audience - to making a larger contribution to Australian cultural ideas. I'd spent several years working with the news press, in Australia and abroad, before returning to university to pursue this interest in environment and rural culture. Now, making that daunting leap into producing a much larger body of social documentary-style work, for the general public, seems all the more possible."
Deb Anderson will receive a stipend and mentoring support through the Writing Centre to publish a book of rural Australians' stories on drought and climate change.
Peter Bragge
Dr Bragge will receive support through the Writing Centre for Scholars and Researchers to publish a guide for injury prevention aimed at musicians of every level. Dr Bragge was interviewed by Margaret Throsby on ABC Classic FM.
"My fascination with the world of music began at age four when I peered into a strange ledge of big white blocks of wood and discovered that they made really nice sounds when I pressed them down (imagine the thrill, as I grew taller, of discovering the even better sounding black blocks of wood nestled between the white ones!). I learned classical piano through my teens, drifting into the dark art of jazz in the later years, where I now firmly reside.On the advice of taxi-driving musicians, I studied physiotherapy, satisfying the never-ending lure of the piano by teaching, playing and performing part-time. One day, through my work as a physiotherapist, I stumbled upon some journal articles about musicians with injuries. Eureka! I realised there was a way to weave the threads of physiotherapy and music together. I became involved in academic teaching and subsequently enrolled in a PhD investigating playing-related injuries in tertiary and professional pianists. The project found that such injuries are very common in high-level pianists and have a range of physical, psychological and global impacts. Increased muscle tension, high levels of stress, poor posture and 'playing through the pain' were identified as risk factors strongly associated with injuries in pianists. The Writing Centre's three-stage non-academic writing course was the perfect vehicle for translating my PhD findings into practical and easily understood injury prevention information for musicians, music teachers and music institutions. Like-minded individuals, constructive criticism from those in the know, good catering, humour - the program has all the ingredients a writer needs. I am thrilled that the Writing Centre is able to assist me in writing my book by providing me with a living allowance and mentoring. The results of this collaboration will benefit block-pressers, string-pluckers, woodwind-blowers and drum-hitters alike. "
Beth Driscoll
"You can blame my lack of co-ordination and a sports-obsessed primary school if you like, but from the moment I stepped into my first English class in Year 7 I knew I'd found what I loved. I hit uni with an undiminished passion for reading and they way it can transport you to other worlds. The one thing I couldn't understand, though, was studying dusty texts from the middle ages that no one read any more. The whole joy of English literature, for me, was watching the way it changed people and affected society. That's what my PhD thesis is about: a kind of cultural
sociology of the way books work in society. I'm especially interested in
what I call the mediators - the people and organisations that stand between literature and the public, who influence what books we read and the opinions we hold about them. The person reading next to you on the tram is connected by a thousand invisible strings to newspaper reviewers, publishers, PR teams, teachers, friends, prize committees and probably Oprah to boot. It's this world that my research aims to understand and make visible.
The Writing for Readers course was a perfect fit for the kind of work I want to produce, work that connects ideas with readers in the world. In the first round of the course I listened furiously to publishers, editors and agents talk about what they were looking for in a non-fiction work.
There was a whole new vocabulary to learn, as well as a kind of publishing sensibility to be immersed in. The more advanced levels of the course pushed me further in developing my own ideas and culminated in the award of a funded mentorship through the manuscript sponsorship scheme. I plan to produce two feature articles on different aspects of the literary world, and am excited to be taking my ideas into a public forum. "
Madeleine Hamilton
"As an undergraduate history student I developed a strong fascination with post-World War II Australian history, particularly the stories of women from this period. Most interesting to me were women who bucked social conventions and did what they wanted, regardless of the consequences. After writing a first year essay on Dorothy Hewett's autobiography, Wild Card, I was determined to find out more about those who like Hewett, challenged ideas of how women should conduct their lives.
True to form, my fourth year thesis was an investigation of Australian female murderers of the 1950s. Each of the women I wrote about was perhaps the archetypal 'bad woman': the most memorable being the country housewife who, in order to commence a new life with her lover, poisoned her husband with an arsenic-laced fish paste sandwich. This research entailed much peering at mid-nineteenth century tabloid newspapers on microfilm, particularly the salacious Melbourne rag, the Truth. Consequently my next project was a Masters thesis entitled, Nude man confronted trim brunette! Sex and gender in the Melbourne 'Truth,' 1950-1959.
At times rather grim and depressing (the Truth favoured stories regarding violent sexual assaults), this research also unearthed the escapades of some truly ribald and unconventional women of the 1950s, including sassy prostitutes, sharp-tongued gangster's molls, and unrepentant female juvenile delinquents. Also appearing with some regularity in the Truth's pages were photographs of young women in swimsuits (often disturbingly placed right next to the sexual assault stories). These girls were frequently snapped on Melbourne's local beaches by Truth staff photographers. Who were these girls, I wondered. Why did they agree to have their photo taken, and what happened to them after the photo was published? Sounded like the basis of another potential research topic - this time a PhD! And so here I currently am, writing a history of the Australian pin-up girl between the years of 1939 and 1960.
The enthusiastic response I have received from many people I talked to about my research alerted me to the possibility of turning my thesis into a book. Fortuitously, the University of Melbourne established the Writing Centre for Scholars and Researchers just as I was realising that perhaps an audience existed for my work besides my supervisor and two thesis examiners. I took part in the Centre's workshops and came away with a good understanding of the world of non-fiction publishing, and how to transform academic arguments into language that engages the general reader. After submitting a book proposal, I became the recipient of the Writing Centre's Manuscript Sponsorship Program. I will receive a living allowance and be appointed a mentor to guide me in the process of converting the thesis into a book. I have much work ahead of me, but I am greatly heartened by the support and guidance the Writing Centre has provided me. "
Read more about Madeleine Hamilton's research in UniNews.
Nicola Henry
"I published my first book when I was five years old. It was a true story about a family outing from Loburn, a tiny rural area in New Zealand, to the big city of Christchurch. The book was published by the Loburn Bookworm Company, typed up by the school secretary, covered in attractive 1970s wallpaper and chaotically illustrated by myself. I'll never forget the satisfaction of seeing this in print; it was a very special moment indeed. There were many more books to follow, mostly fiction, but also a biography of a New Zealand rugby player, a number of books about dogs, and the legendary recipe book that has been the source of much family amusement over the years. When I first heard of the University of Melbourne Writing Centre twenty or so years later, I was intrigued.
I came over to Australia from New Zealand in 2001 to begin my PhD in the Department of Criminology at Melbourne University. My research examined the prosecution of rape at international war crimes trials. I remember giving a draft to my friend Harriet to read. She said she 'couldn't put it down'. Although she probably gave me a biased and lovingly untruthful appraisal, I was determined to write a thesis that could be read by both academic and non-academic audiences. Academic writing can be like a cryptic crossword: when you get it, you are wise, but when you don't, it can make you feel the opposite. I liked the idea of writing a non-fiction book for an intelligent audience. This motivated me to get into contact with Simon Clews at the Writing Centre. The next thing you know, I was signed up to do the Writing for Readers workshop.
I was unsure about whether I had a good idea for a book during the first workshop. I led myself to believe that a book about 'international' issues would not be very well received by an Australian audience. But I found that nearly everyone else at the workshop felt the same way. The experience fuelled my hopes, gave me much needed encouragement and from there I started buying, borrowing and reading many non-fiction books. I attended the second workshop in May 2006 and was soon after given a mentorship award to guide me through the process of writing and publishing my book.
The experience of writing outside of the academy has been liberating and exciting. It has helped with my writing for academic journals and my post-doctorate application. It has been particularly useful for another non-academic book that I am currently co-writing. The Writing Centre has invited me in to a whole different world. I have met publishers, spoken with successful Australian writers, bonded with other budding writers and most of all, a new world outside of academia has opened up and may accept me in. "
Dr Henry's project has also been featured in The University of Melbourne's Research Review.
Fincina Hopgood
"Completing my PhD was only the beginning of my research into representations of mental illness in movies. No sooner was the thesis bound in leather and my head adorned with a floppy velvet bonnet, when two new Australian films once again raised the issue of portraying madness sympathetically. Romulus, My Father, adapted from Raimond Gaita's memoir, and The Home Song Stories, based on director Tony Ayres' childhood, presented the ideal opportunity to update my research and to share my ideas with the wider community. Both films told the story of a mentally unstable mother through the eyes of a young boy; both dealt with the themes of migration and memoir.
With the support of a manuscript sponsorship from the Writing Centre (Round One), I wrote a feature article on the portrayal of mental illness in Australian films, using The Home Song Stories and Romulus, My Father as the 'hook'. The Writing Centre teamed me with Philippa Hawker, film writer for The Age, as my mentor. We discussed how best to shape my research into an article for the general public and we agreed that 'A2', the 'Culture and Life' section of The Saturday Age, was the ideal forum for my ideas. Philippa provided encouragement and feedback throughout the writing and redrafting process, and the article was published in September.
Writing this article presented an opportunity to interview the filmmakers, and I was delighted to find they were enthusiastic about my research and willing to share their thoughts on the challenges of portraying mental illness with sensitivity and compassion. Their comments added a sense of 'dialogue' to my research, which I often felt was missing from the dry language of my thesis.
Now that my PhD research is 'out there' in the wider world beyond academia, I intend to capitalise on this opportunity by approaching publishers with my book proposal. I am grateful for The Writing Centre's continuing support and guidance in this journey. "
Catherine Ingram
"I have spent most of the last six years working and studying in various locations in central and southwestern China. In 2004 I began postgraduate studies at the University of Melbourne, and my PhD (through the Department of Ethnomusicology (Faculty of Music) and the Asia Institute (Faculty of Arts) is entitled Rice still feeds the body, but does song still feed the heart? An ethnography of the Kam 'big song' tradition in contemporary China. As part of my research, I spent eighteen months in Kam minority villages of Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces, PRC. There I not only took part in all aspects of daily village life - including planting and harvesting rice, collecting wild mountain foods and attending weddings - but was also privileged to be taught by Kam village 'song experts' to sing many styles of Kam songs. Kam 'big song' - the particular focus of my research - is one of these styles. It plays a central role in the lives of about 100,000 Kam speakers, and application for its protection by UNESCO as World Intangible Heritage is still pending. As a result of being invited by Kam people to learn and study their musical traditions, I became the first non-Chinese to conduct detailed research of Kam song and the first Westerner to sing and perform in the Kam 'big song' tradition. I also undertook extensive documentation of Kam music making, and am in the process of archiving over 100 hours of recently recorded audio and video with PARADISEC digital online archive.
During 2006 I participated in two stages of workshops with the Writing Centre - these were a useful source of information and professional expertise. Additional benefits of the workshops included a sense of 'enlivening' of academic writing (through the process of writing about the same material in a different format) and the opportunity to share an interest in Kam singing traditions (in particular) and Chinese culture (in general) with a wider audience. "
Ms Ingram will receive a stipend and mentorship to write an article on the effects of the west on minority traditions and Chinese culture.
Louise Keogh
"Let's talk about sex ...
On average, women begin having sex at age 17, and do not have their first child until they are 30 - the years that women expect to be free from concerns about their fertility are now the longest ever. Yet the contraceptive technology available to women to achieve this is remarkably similar to what it was in 1960. The two most commonly used methods are the pill and condoms.
One in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime.
And there is a brand new type of infertility called 'social infertility'.
What has led us to this point? How are young women coping? How can we support women to make the best choices about sex and fertility in contemporary society?"
Dr Louise Keogh's PhD on emergency contraception explored these issues, and with support from the Writing Centre, Louise will turn her thesis into a mainstream book about how women make decisions about sex and fertility in contemporary Australia.
Dr Keogh is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Key Centre for Women's Health in Society in the School of Population Health. Louise is a health sociologist and conducts research into perceptions of risk and health decision-making. Dr Keogh's current research is in the area of genetic testing and screening for breast and colorectal cancer.
Philippa Moylan
"By chance I came across the book reviews of the early New Zealand twentieth-century writer G.B. Lancaster (pseudonym for Edith Lyttleton), and my research on nerves and nervousness began! Until this time I hadn't liked the sound of Lancaster. When I wrote my Masters thesis at the University of Auckland, I was on the look-out for women writers with strong feminist principles. Lancaster's tales of shearers and shepherds in colonial New Zealand and Australia just didn't cut it - as one feminist critic pointed out, she was imperialist and lacking in racial awareness. By the time I was thinking about a thesis topic for my PhD, which I undertook at the Department of English with Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne, I had second thoughts about Lancaster. This was after reading what contemporary reviewers had to say about her 'tremendously virile' fiction which was burningly and passionately told, with 'full blood and tingling nerves'. Lured by such reports, I was intrigued to discover the nervy language in her books. There were pine-trees in one of her novels that 'swayed and shivered, with their myriad little needles'. This made my own body shiver with the pleasure you get when a book really takes a hold of you! I discovered there was a kind of nervousness running not only though Lancaster's fiction but through that of her contemporaries, for example, Kipling. Tingling writing, nervy characters and nervous times ... all these things offered a new way of looking at the fiction of my selected authors and the age in which they lived.
I was writing Chapter 6 on September 11, and that event catapulted the term nervousness into our vocabulary - on TV, in the newspapers and in everyday conversations. I started to think about the book that could be written for general readers that addressed the role of nervousness in people's lives, and which traced a history of nervousness, ranging from nervous disorder to nervous excitement, from living in an age of anxiety to discovering the possibilities of nervousness for making our lives more creative and exhilarating. Thanks to the Writing Centre I have taken a leap from thinking inside the academic framework of the PhD thesis to seeing how a book on nervousness could be developed for a general readership. I have received ideas and advice from guest publishers and editors in the Writing Centre's Writing for Readers and the Publication Support programs that have been both inspiring and practical. As a result of my manuscript sponsorship, what was once a nice idea now has the opportunity to turn into something exciting and real. "
Colleen Nordstrom
"Death and dying is my research interest, which, in part, is an extension of my professional experience in health care. More influentially though, was my year-long experience of caring for my 38-year-old sister as she lived and died with cancer. With time, and as part of my own healing, I wanted to understand what my sister - and others - encountered in the experience of living with dying. My doctoral research focused on capturing the dying person's perspective, and combining that with my scholarly interest in measuring health outcomes. I was particularly interested in how individuals with advanced cancer thought about and assessed their own quality of life.
I was thrilled to be accepted into the Writing Centre's inaugural Writing for Readers program. At the time, I was unsure how to convey the topic of death in a manner that would be engaging for a readership outside the academy. My fear was that the topic itself would be off-putting. Attending the workshops was enormously helpful. I garnered glimpses into the literary world and started to see how the art of writing joined with the business of commercial publishing. We were encouraged to write passionately and to bring ourselves into our writing. I struggled with this, believing that writing passionately about death was a tall order, even for the best of writers. Reading widely, including books on 'how-to-write-fiction', helped me believe that there was indeed a way forward for my work.
Preparing a book proposal and later pitching it to four publishers in the Advanced Workshop was unnerving but also exceptionally motivating - I received terrific feedback from my colleagues and the publishers! Finally, I could see a way of bringing myself into the text. I did this by weaving my own experiences into the larger story. Publishers, I've learnt, aren't just looking for books; they're looking for authors who are passionate about their work. For me, that was the easy part.
A Manuscript Sponsorship has enabled mentoring by Dr Helen MacDonald, an author with first-hand experience of converting a PhD into a prize-winning book. The award also includes working with an editor to produce a manuscript aimed at an international market. The support offered through the Writing Centre has been instrumental in providing me with the skill and encouragement to write this book. Simon Clews has helped me to see that this story is one worth telling. My book is entitled, Dead Reckoning: Navigating the Lived Experience of Dying."
Martin Plowman
Do you believe in UFOs? How do you talk about an object that's been identified as unidentified? Whether UFOs are real or not, people have been making reports of strange objects seen in the sky for centuries. In High Strangeness: Uncertain Confessions of a UFOlogy-ologist, Martin Plowman looks at the fascinating ways that people have tried to make sense of their encounters with the world of UFOs and alien beings.
High Strangeness traces the history of ufology - the study and belief in Unidentified Flying Objects - from its beginnings in postwar America to its spread to every corner of the globe. Based upon researches undertaken during the author's PhD thesis and seven years in the making, High Strangeness follows the author's travels into the far-flung lands of the UFO subculture, from Roswell's alleged UFO crash site to the highlands of Peru, from Mexico City to the crop circles of Wiltshire, from the catacombs beneath Rome and back to Australia. Unlike most writers in the field, Dr Plowman takes a serious look at one of the past century's most enduring popular movements without trying to prove or disprove the existence of UFOs. Instead, High Strangeness shows how ufology has borrowed and reimagined narratives from science, religion, and popular culture in its attempt to make sense of UFOs. The results of looking closer at UFOs are as surprising as they are intriguing, and have provocative ramifications for the nature of meaning in our lives in general. Do UFOs come to mean something only because they are mysterious and unknown objects? And does an object cease to be a "UFO" once it is identified - as a UFO? High Strangeness offers readers a glimpse of a reality few have seen before, but without asking them to believe or disbelieve in anything - only to remain curious.
Ruth Quibell
"I've always been a 'thing' person, someone who loves objects. I blame my parents for this. It was in their dusty antique auction that I first became fascinated by old, curious and beautiful objects, and the people who buy them. I loved watching the intrigue of bidders at antique auctions, and fossicking for my own garage-sale treasures. I was always trying to fathom why people - myself included - wanted these rare, old or eccentric things. Why do we invest so much of ourselves in some objects?
When I became a sociologist, I kept this interest in the 'inner lives' of people. Writing the Living History Project, a major study of disability in Victoria, I recorded the complex, diverse and hidden life stories of people with disabilities and their families. My further research looked at the other side of the story - exploring how everyday Australians' understand of disability.
I'm now a Fellow in the Melbourne Law School, looking into the experiences of people who appeal Centrelink decisions. I'm asking: Is it simple, quick and easy to appeal? Is justice achieved? And, what exactly do we mean by 'just' and 'fair'? My research is grounded in the belief that everyday life offers rich and unique insights, often missed in narrow statistical studies.
My new book combines these interests in beloved objects and interior life. With support and mentoring (and encouragement!) from the Writing Centre, I'm writing Precious Things, which explores our entanglements with beloved objects. We all have belongings we treasure - from a favourite cup to a worn-out armchair. But in an age when so much is bought then quickly thrown away, it's easy to lose sight of what our possessions can do for us. This book is about rediscovering what precious things are indispensable, and why."
Kirsty Sangster
Through the manuscript sponsorship program, Dr Sangster will receive support from a mentor to produce a manuscript from her research on justice from the perspective of survivors of human rights abuse.
"My life as a researcher, and the directions I have taken, began more than ten years ago when I was working in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border. There I gained an appreciation of the everyday struggles that refugees experience. I wanted somehow to write about this. The refugees believed that they were of no significance and that no one would be interested in their stories. They regarded themselves as the 'little people' and as 'dead bodies walking'. This belief only strengthened my own desire to write about the things that I had seen.
I went on to compete a post-graduate fellowship at Oxford University in the area of refugee studies including international law and international relations. It was here that I became really interested in how mechanisms like human rights tribunals, the International Criminal Court and war tribunals could benefit refugees and survivors of human rights abuse. Questions formed in my mind: could people tell their stories in these courts? Did the victims feel that justice was achieved? What was justice anyway? I wrote my PhD thesis on these questions and interviewed survivors of human rights abuse about their personal understandings of justice and the law.
Since finishing the thesis, I have wanted to re-write it as a book that a general audience would be interested in. But I had no idea of where to start or how to approach a publisher. The centre has provided me with valuable advice on how to construct and revise a book proposal and advice as to whether the book concept is one that would interest a wider audience. Through the workshops conducted by the centre, I have learnt to express my ideas in language that a non-academic could read and understand. Importantly, I have also gained a more realistic idea of just how much the writing of a book depends on the marketplace and whether my topics and writing actually have a place there."
Emily Turner-Graham
"While I was at still at school, I watched a documentary about the Nazis with wrapt attention. Who were these people, flickering across the screen before me in black and white, these comic book bad guys with absurd moustaches, who had nevertheless somehow managed to drag much of the world into the abyss? The fascination stayed with me through my own studying and later teaching of undergraduate European history courses, a graduate research project on Unity Mitford, the English aristocrat who fell in love with Hitler, and a Masters thesis on British Fascism until I discovered, completely by accident, that the Nazis were not far-away monsters, safely on the other side of the world, but they had in fact been right here in Australia, spreading their ideology through a newspaper, Die Brucke, which was published in Sydney during the 1930s. As luck would have it, there was a complete collection of Die Brucke at the University of Melbourne's library. I began my doctoral thesis analysing Die Brucke in 2002 and completed it in 2005. During the writing of it, I realised how many people were unaware of but fascinated by how close Nazism had come to Australia and also by the story of the eccentric man at the centre of it, Arnold von Skerst.
When I participated in the Writing for Readers course at the Writing Centre, I became aware that although I found my thesis fascinating, I needed to look at it differently to share that enthusiasm with others. I discovered that there was a variety of outlets for this enthusiasm: newspapers, fiction and non-fiction writing, as well as receiving valuable suggestions from those who would help me to bring my topic out of academia and into the wider world: journalists, editors and publishers. The advice, encouragement and enthusiasm which I have received from the Writing Centre during my involvement with them has greatly bolstered my own belief in the possibility of turning my thesis into a book. The grant awarded to me through the Manuscript Scholarship Program has firmly set me on the path to achieving this goal."
Danielle White
Danielle is a freelance writer/social commentator whose work includes feature articles for The Age and regular copy writing/editing for The University of Melbourne and private clients, including on-line copy.
Danielle's first book Sex & Mirrors (working title), to be published by Melbourne University Press, is based on her PhD research. Inspired by Judith Wright's poem, Naked Girl and Mirror, which she first read during her English Honours year in 1991, Danielle has spent the past sixteen years researching mirrors from a multi-disciplinary perspective.
Danielle's Master's thesis 'The Jewel of Her Containment' (1993) looked at the history of the mirror and Western culture's representations of women, beauty, vanity and mirrors. During her research Danielle realised the enormous curiosity, appeal and relevance of mirrors in contemporary life. In 2002, she completed her PhD thesis 'Dialogues with the Looking Glass: An exploration of everyday mirror use and how it affects self-regard,' which was based on interviews with men and women about their private mirror use.
Danielle is also currently Story Consultant/Researcher for Circe Films on the documentary Mirrors (working title) funded by Film Victoria and works full-time at The University of Melbourne in Marketing & Communications.
Dr White has received a mentorship with Bryony Cosgrove and a stipend from the Writing Centre to support the writing of her book Sex & Mirrors.
Gabrielle Wolf
"For as long as I can remember, I have loved performing. I have also loved watching other people do it. My other passion is history. In 2000, my interests converged. Standing in the audience pit at London's Globe Theatre watching The Taming of the Shrew, the sensation of being transported back to Shakespeare's world was exhilarating. I was intrigued about how the first audiences responded to this representation of their society on stage. That year, I chose a PhD topic that allowed me to indulge my fascination with past theatre, and something close to home. My thesis looked at productions of Australian plays in Melbourne from the 1890s to the 1970s. It explored what that theatre showed about how Australians saw themselves, specifically, how they imagined their national community and identity.
In 2004, I participated in the Writing for Readers Course and Masterclass. Speakers included writers, journalists, publishers, literary agents and editors, and we completed writing exercises. I began to consider how I could transform my work for a general audience, and excite readers outside the academe about what theatre has said about us. The course also introduced me to the publishing world.
The opportunity to take part in the Advanced Workshop in 2006 came at the right time. I had just begun discussions with a publisher about a book on the history of the Australian Performing Group, a theatre company of the late 1960s and 1970s that I examined in my PhD. The editors' practical assistance about how to write a book for a general reader was invaluable. They focused my attention on changing from a formal to a personal voice in my writing, and transforming my thesis into a story with characters. When I pitched my book proposal to four publishers on the second day of the course, their feedback helped me understand the realities of the marketplace and what publishers are looking for.
A grant through the Manuscript Sponsorship Program has allowed me to reduce my hours working as a solicitor for a few months and realise my dream of writing this book."
Dr Wolf's 'Make it Australian!': The APG, the Pram Factory and New Wave Theatre was launched at Writers at the Convent in February 2008.
Damon Young
"I fell in love with philosophy from day one. But the affair was never jealous - I've always wanted to share philosophy with the world.
After finishing my BA and PhD (with some time off playing a mafia thug in a Jackie Chan film), I worked as a Fellow in Aesthetics at Melbourne University. My job was to make artworks more enjoyable for more people.
Meanwhile, I prepared a book proposal for Melbourne University Publishing, based on my doctoral thesis. This led to a meeting with one of their Associate Publishers, and a book contract. My 'pop' philosophy book Distraction (2008) explores the diversions and interruptions of modern life.
While writing Distraction I participated in the Writing Centre's excellent workshops. They sharpened my writing, and afforded a clearer idea of the publishing industry. They were at once sobering and inspiring.
The Writing Centre has now given me a stipend to support my next book, on the philosophy of gardens. Gardens are enjoying a boom time - millions of people spend their free time getting dirt under their fingernails, or romping in parks. Looking into the lives of artists, scholars, statesmen and everyday folk, my book asks: What are gardens, and what do they offer the good life?
I'm also interested in the philosophy of sport. I'm editing a book on philosophy and martial arts, with Professor Graham Priest. It will tackle big philosophical questions through arts like Karate, Kung-Fu, Brazilian Jujutsu and fencing. In 2007 I was the 'Footy Philosopher' on SEN 1116AM, with broadcaster Francis Leach. We're writing a book based on the segment, tentatively entitled Go in Hard and You Won't Get Hurt.
All these projects have the same ambition: to help philosophy enrich and illuminate life. The Writing Centre has greatly aided this endeavour."