My students are awesome! Have I told you that lately? No? Hmmm … I think you are not listening to me. Let me explain. I have these students, and they are FABULOUS. Just read this story by Bronwyn Palmer, and you will see. Bronwyn is currently studying counselling part-time at USQ and hopes to have…
Category: Guest Posts
‘Celia’ by Ashlyn Butler
So many talented students! I am blessed with a great many talented writing students, and am really pleased when they’re brave enough to allow me to share their work with you. Today’s poem was produced after the first-run of the first half of a course that’s partly about writing poetry. Ash is a university student…
‘Owlbit’ by Maija Lindbergs
I just wanted to share this gorgeous little snippet Maija Lindbergs wrote in class today, when we were messing about with viewpoint and grammatical POV. Maija is a final-year student of Creative Media, and she’s AWESOME, as you’re about to find out … POV: Third Person Viewpoint Character: Owlbit Owlbit was a rabbit by day and an…
Women’s History Month
Gillian Polack, a historian and writer (can you be one and not the other?) has recently been celebrating Women’s History Month over at her blog/livejournal by inviting an impressive number of women writers to provide guest blogs about overcoming obstacles. My contribution is one of the last to go up, alongside an amazing plethora…
fifty-seven (Malurid)
This semester, I’m teaching a writing course called Fairytales & Other Forms. Every week, we read a fairytale in various variants, and the writers in the course are asked to write their own (new!) version. The students are second year undergraduates, who are totally amazing. Every week they surprise and delight me with insights into…
fifty-three (The girl who gets gifts from birds)
Today’s guest post is by Elizabeth Kasmer. I met Liz a few years ago, when she first started working on the manuscript of a beautiful Young Adult manuscript called ‘Aurora’. I’m still waiting (impatiently!) for her to finish the novel and find a publisher, but in the meantime I’m delighted to have the pleasure of reading…
SS Ming Hua
No 200 words today! That’s because, instead, I’ve written a guest post/piece of short memoir about my time aboard the SS Ming Hua, as a guest post on Rebecca Jessen’s blog. To read about the pleasures of cruising the Pacific aboard this wonder of the 1980s, take a trip back in time to Ming Hua memories…
forty-seven (howl)
Today’s guest post brought to you by the beautiful, and talented, Rebecca Jessen. As some of you know, Bec is very dear to me, so I won’t rave on about her talents as a writer, at the risk of appearing prejudiced. BUT, she’s an impressively alert, attentive and tender writer. After you’ve read this small…
forty-five (spirits of the earth)
Today’s guest post is brought to you by a young performance poet I first met at a strange little poetry gig at Rick’s Garage in Palmwoods. Indie Adams blew the rest of the poets off the stage with her combination of strength and vulnerability. This short piece was inspired by the lovely artwork by the Polish…








