Indonesia residency builds writing connections

Three students have been selected as emerging writer fellows to take part in a collaborative residency in Indonesia.

Each year the Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange (WrICE) offers three Emerging Writer Fellowships to current RMIT writing students.

Students selected for 2018 are Fiona Murphy and Andy Butler in the Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing and Saaro Umar in the Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing).

in May, the fellows will take part in a 10-day intensive workshop in Jakarta and Yogyakarta with established and early career writers from across the Asia-Pacific.

They will also be involved in WrICE activities during the 2018 Melbourne Writers Festival in August.

RMIT's WrICE program aims to raise the professional profile of writers across the Asia-Pacific region and is an initiative of nonfictionLab, with support from The Copyright Agency.

Else Fitzgerald, a student in the Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing) and a 2017 WrICE fellow who travelled to The Philippines, said the experience made her feel connected to a community of writers.

“The project I've been working on over the past year explores landscapes and how they will change and shift, moving into a future affected by climate change, and it has been so humbling and eye-opening to spend time with writers from different countries and cultures and backgrounds, hearing their perspectives on the world we share,” she said.

“The legacy of WrICE for me is this sense of connectedness, of commonality, of community stretching beyond the typical borders – spending time with the other WrICE writers changed me and helped me grow as a writer and a person, and I will forever be grateful for their generosity and openness.”

Fitzgerald’s story Sheen was awarded second place in the Margaret River Short Story competition and was published in Joiner Bay & other stories.

Susan Thatcher, who is studying the Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing, and was also a fellow in 2017, said WrICE has been an exhilarating ride.

“In my year as an emerging fellow, I've experienced many career firsts: first international residency, first international reading, first time participating in the Melbourne Writers Festival, and most significantly, first opportunity to work with writers whose primary language isn't English,” she said.

“Language carries responsibility. That is the most important thing I've learned.”

Following the WrICE residency, Thatcher has continued to work on her debut novel Gardens of Stone, with the manuscript shortlisted for the 2016 Richell Prize for an Emerging Writer.

The third 2017 emerging WrICE fellow, Jennifer Porter, said workshopping alongside established and emerging writers was particularly useful to get insights about work habits, and the practicalities of being a career writer.

“All the writers there, both my fellow students and established writers, were writing at a high level so that feedback was consistently insightful,” she said.

Porter has won the Tasmanian Writers’ Prize for her short story, The Reverend, written on the WrICE residency, and it was published in the Tasmania 40°South magazine.

She was also shortlisted for the Alan Marshall Short Story Award.

Story: Wendy Little and Ali Barker

06 December 2017

Media & Communication

Engage

Contact RMIT News

Find an expert

Study with us

Related News

A person uses a large digital film camera.

New screen industry courses to address critical skills shortages

RMIT and the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) will deliver new short courses to address specific screen skills shortages in Victoria.

Australians confused about food date labels and storage advice, study finds

A new study has revealed Australians are wasting food because of unclear date labels and storage advice.

Aussie kids let down by streaming algorithms: research

Amid a complex landscape of streaming algorithms, new research shows kids struggle to find local content among the flood of international options.

Communication in the age of AI: A human story

Meet RMIT alum Monique Zytnik, an award-winning global internal communication expert and author of the newly released Internal Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

A group of people wearing colourful clothing use their phones in a circle. Their phone cases are also very colourful. Credit: Xavier Lorenzo, Adobe Stock

New research facility to uncover how internet algorithms and AI shape our world

A major new research facility will open the ‘black box’ of digital platforms and their algorithms so we can better understand how people are using search engines, social media, messaging systems, and other digital services.

The ABC’s first female news director receives honorary doctorate

RMIT Council has acknowledged Kate Torney OAM for her contribution to media, arts and culture in Australia.

A journalist is working on a computer at their workplace.

Australian media need generative AI policies to help navigate misinformation and disinformation

New research into generative AI images shows only over a third of media organisations surveyed at the time of research have an image-specific AI policy in place.

Fanposium puts the spotlight on Swifties

Last Sunday, RMIT had the pleasure of hosting the Taylor Swift Fanposium at The Capitol, in partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Swiftposium.

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

More information

Indonesia residency builds writing connections