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The Faculty of Creative Arts is pleased to announce that Creative Writing lecturer Shady Cosgrove was nominated for The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.

This coveted annual prize has launched the careers of some of Australia's most successful writers and is given to an author under 35 years of age for an original unpublished manuscript of fiction or Australian history or biography.

The prize money of $20,000 is currently the richest and most prestigious writing award for an unpublished manuscript in Australia. The prize was first initiated in 1979 in a collaboration between The Australian newspaper and publisher Allen & Unwin. Sponsored by Vogel's Bread, the winner was announced Thursday 13 September during a reception at the offices of Allen and Unwin.

This year's five finalists from NSW, VIC ranged in age from 28 to 34 and were chosen from nearly 150 applicants. Judge Marlee Day, said the young authors are no longer trying to write the Great Australian Novel, just great novels (The Weekend Australian's Review)

To be eligible for the award, manuscripts must be at least 30,000 words and the winner's work will be published by Allen and Unwin.

Dr Shady Cosgrove of the School of Journalism and Creative Writing, was been nominated for her work 'She Played Elvis'. This piece of creative non-fiction tracks her journey across the United States with her Australian partner to visit Graceland. The 75,000 word memoir about pilgrimage, family and nationhood shares her experience of re-acquaintance with America.

Dr Cosgrove graduated from Vassar College, New York in 1996 and completed her doctorate at the Australian National University in 2002. She has a background in Journalism working with the Sydney Morning Herald and Illawarra Mercury before joining the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong in 2004.

The Australian, September 8 2007
Shady Cosgrove (33, NSW; She Played Elvis): With the solid companionship of her Australian boyfriend, Shady embarks on a timely journey to Graceland via her American heritage. This unusual Elvis narrative casts an intriguing spotlight on Americana, but is also a moving, witty and original meditation on the idea of pilgrimage, family, home and loss. It has an eccentric sensibility, sharply observed characters, and an emotional undercurrent suggesting greater depth. Cosgrove is a classy, intelligent writer with a clear eye for the telling detail.

Initiated by AMC in 1988, the Classical Music Awards have been running in their present form since 2001, honouring the achievements and creativity of many within the Australian contemporary classical music industry.

In addition to highlighting the talent and dedication of organisations and individuals in the new music scene, this event also aims to raise public awareness of outstanding new classical composition over the past year.

Eleven national awards along with several state prizes will be presented in categories including composition, performance, music education and music in a regional area. The finalists will be judged by a panel of leading composers, performers, musicologists, educators and critics with winners announced at the Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay, on Wednesday 12 September 2007.

The Faculty of Creative Arts is proud to congratulate 2007 finalists in the prestigious Work of the Year category for Vocal or Choral Bruce Crossman, Merlinda Bobis and Lotte Latukefu.

Nominated for their collaborative opera Daragang Magayon Cantata, Bruce completed is Doctorate of Creative Arts in Music Composition with the University of Wollongong (UOW) in 2000 under the supervision of Professor Andrew Schultz, Dean Faculty of Creative Arts. Merlinda is a respected author and current Senior Lecturer in the School of Journalism & Creative Writing with the Faculty at UOW.

This piece of Filipino-jazz inspired music theatre, was written for mezzo-soprano and piano - music by Bruce Crossman with text adapted from the epic-poem by Merlinda Bobis, Cantata of the warrior woman Daragang Magayon.

Daragang Magayon Cantata was performed live at the 2006 Aurora Festival by Faculty of Creative Arts Lecturer in Voice, Lotte Latukefu (singer) accompanied by Ian Munro (pianist) and Merlinda Bobis (dancer-chanter).

I was very surprised at the announcement, said Bruce Crossman, You work on things for a long time and it's great to receive this kind of recognition.

Lotte and Merlinda did a fantastic performance for the Aurora Festival last year and I'm very glad that they are being acknowledged in this award UOW is privileged to have such talented staff, said Bruce. This work was designed specifically for them both and working with Merlinda has opened my ears to the music of Asia and changed the way I write.

Bruce says he has been misquoted before as saying that his introduction to the sounds of Filipino music had reinvented his voice and in a way that's true. It has changed my musical language and is a direction that a lot of my music has taken. That includes a piece due to be performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington around the same time as the Classical Music Awards ceremony.

I am definitely planning on future collaborations with Merlinda and also hoping to work in film next year.

The first performances of this visually stunning piece will be launched by the Sydney Opera House Kids in the House school program in July 2007. This adaptation from an original story by CATHERINE FARGHER is a Jessica Wilson production.

Through puppetry, projected animation, original music and performance, this
extraordinary tale playfully explores the ethical dilemmas society faces as new developments are made in genetics and cloning. Dr Egg and The Man With No Ear is produced by Performing Lines and was commissioned with the support of Sydney Opera House.

A fable for the 21st Century family.
After a man loses his ear in a freak accident with a snappy bull terrier, a mysterious scientist called Dr Egg offers to grow the man a new one. But there's a catch: the doctor needs a piece of flesh from the man's precious daughter. The man refuses to harm her, but his daughter finds her way to Dr Egg's laboratory anyway. And instead of just an ear an entire new person grows... Now she's bound to get an earful when her dad finds out!

Director: Jessica Wilson
Designer: Jonathon Oxlade
Writer: Catherine Fargher
Produced by: Performing Lines

RUNNING TIME: 60 minutes (approx.)
SUITABILITY: Ages 12 and over

NSW VENUE: The Studio, Sydney Opera House (season sold out)
DATES: 25 - 28 July 2007
TIMES: Wed - Sat, 10.00am & 12.30pm daily
COST: $24 / Groups $21 each for 4 or more

VIC VENUE: Fairfax Studio, The Arts Centre, Melbourne
DATES: 31 July - 3 August 2007
TIMES: Tues - Fri, 10.00am & 12.30pm daily
COST: $12

QLD dates to be advised.

The Beginning & the End of the Snow

Music: David Chisholm
Words: Yves Bonnefoy

The Beginning & the End of the Snow is an epic song cycle setting for soprano and boutique orchestra by composer and UOW Alumnus David Chisholm (BCA), after Yves Bonnefoy's poetry cycle "debut et fin de la neige".

Acclaimed Australian soprano Miriam Gordon-Stewart (principal soprano since 2005 at Hamburg Stadtsoper under Simone Young) is joined by 2003 Symphony Australia young performer of the year clarinettist Richard Haynes; internationally acclaimed harpist Alice Giles; rising star Peter Dumsday on piano, harpsichord and celeste; and the lower half of celebrated Silo String Quartet, Ceridwen Davies and Caerwen Martin on viola and cello respectively. Conductor Timothy Phillips.

This premiere presentation of the complete cycle is the latest offering from the multi-award winning composer.

From Thursday 2 August to Sunday 5 August 2007 at Collins Street Baptist Church, 174 Collins Street, Melbourne.
Tickets: Full $28.50, Concession $22.50, Groups 10+ $24.50
Tickets available at Easytix counter at Melbourne Town Hall or online

This year sixteen new playwrights and their works will be in the spotlight at the Theatre Row Complex on 42nd Street. The festival commences on 10 July and will feature Badham’s play The Gabriels, from 17 -22 July at the Beckett Theatre.

The play is set over the Easter weekend when an unconventional family awaits the arrival of their children. The reunion makes for a surprising holiday as bridges are burned and rebuilt and all face beliefs very different from their own.

Every year The Summer Play Festival (SPF) gives emerging writers, directors and producers an opportunity to work on their material in an environment guided by established professionals. The Festival was founded in 2004 and is now managed through a non-profit organization called The Living Room for Artists which was established to help working theatrical artists. Every July, SPF showcases new writers selected by Broadway luminaries from a pool of over 1000 applications. Under the guidance of producer and founder Arielle Tepper (Spamalot, Pillowman, A Raisin in the Sun, De la Guarda), these emerging writers have their plays produced by professionals within the theatre community.

As part of a revitalized West 42nd Street, Theatre Row provides state-of-the-art theatres for commercial and non-profit productions for Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. Opened in 2002, the new complex houses five very different theatres aimed at the varying ambitions of Off Broadway companies.

For more information see: http://www.spfnyc.com/festival/

US Fulbright Senior Scholar Timothy Nohe

Associate Professor Nohe was one of six American academics awarded a prestigious Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to visit Australia in 2006. He has been in residence with the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong since July last year while working on his Fulbright research.

Timothy Nohe is an Associate Professor with the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He has been joined in Australia by his wife and fellow Fulbright alumnus Lisa Moren and their two children, Amalie and Ruskin.

A/Prof Timothy Nohe is an artist and educator engaging traditional and electronic media in public life and public places. He is internationally renowned for his performance and academic works and during his visit to UOW he has worked in the Schools of Art and Design and Music and Drama to introduce specific technological and conceptual methods to sonic art.

At the University of Wollongong I have completed two visual investigations courses that surveyed interdisciplinary approaches to sonic art. The student cohorts were drawn from a diverse group studying within new media, fibre, sculpture, photography, painting and design concentrations. I was thus challenged to introduce sonic art practices to students with a diverse range of conceptual and practical tools. The courses introduced a broad history of sonic practices, from Futurism to the present. says A/Prof Nohe. The courses offered practical workshops in kinetics, microphone and transducer fabrication, simple circuit development, field recording, postproduction synthesis and editing, electro-acoustic performance and improvisation, as well as distribution via concerts, radio and networked broadcasts.

An accomplished artist and composer and performer, Nohe's includes in his CV an impressive list of professional exhibitions and collaborations. In the spirit of the Fulbright program, during his stay at UOW, A/Prof Nohe united with fellow Art and Design staff members to send a joint exhibition to Capilano College, Canada, and performed two concerts of new works composed in Australia.

Visual Arts Program Coordinator at UOW, Jacky Redgate comments; Timothy Nohe's expertise has offered the students specific practical, technological and conceptual methods related to sonic art across a number of studios. From the outset Timothy engaged with the teaching program at the University and with the arts community and his professional experience on an international level in the United States and Europe has been of immeasurable benefit to the students. He has been extremely generous in imparting his knowledge of artists, theorists, publications and exhibitions.

While in Australia A/Prof Nohe's research focus has centered on his project Sounding Botany Bay/Sounding Gamay which explores the sonic environment of one of Australia's richest cultural and natural attractions. From recordings throughout the bay environs, Nohe aims to build an aural tapestry of the rich voices and sounds of Botany Bay that will heighten and contrast what is and has been there. Botany Bay is an iconic region of Australia's nationhood. In creating Sounding Botany Bay, I will record, edit and compose the unique sonic environment of this area. My aim is to produce an immersive surround-sound audio experience, which traces the forces of globalization through human use of Botany Bay.

A/Prof Nohe explains Human presence can be sonically traced in the description of indigenous rock engravings, readings from ships logs, botanical specimen findings, soundings of bay depths, exploitation of natural resources, etc. By interweaving the voices of past and current uses of the bay, I want to interpret the use of this land by humans of diverse histories and cultres through sound.

After twelve months in Australia, Nohe and his family will leave Helensburgh to return to Baltimore in the United States on 26 June 2007.

The Fulbright program is aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange and is the largest educational scholarship of its kind. Timothy Nohe is one of twenty distinguished American Fulbright Scholars who have been undertaking study and research in Australia during 2006/2007.

For more information on Timothy Nohe's research see:
Blog: http://mtod.tumblr.com
Research site: http://www.research.umbc.edu/~nohe/GAG/

Image: Tim Nohe gathering audio in the bush. Image courtesy of Jacky Redgate

It is published by Moufflon Publications in Cyprus http://www.moufflonpublications.com/ and is distributed in Europe. It is available in Australia through the Australian Book Group in Drouin, Victoria http://www.australianbookgroup.com.au/.

The current Australian High Commissioner in Cyprus, Mr Garth Hunt, has been warmly supportive of the Paphos Theatre excavation and the work of Professor Wood Conroy and was present at the launch.

In January 2007, Viking (Penguin Australia) published her first book in paperback A Curious Intimacy. Set in the 1870's, Jessica's novel is a story about love, resilience, independence and the courage of extraordinary women living in a difficult time.

A Curious Intimacy
In the 1870s two remarkable women meet in a remote country town in Western Australia. Ingrid is a botanist, fiercely independent and travelling alone as she collects botanical specimens. She's also trying to out-run a broken heart after her lover, Helena, was forced to marry.

Ingrid puts her own troubles aside on meeting Ellyn, a young woman living in stark isolation, and driven close to madness by the death of her baby daughter. Ellyn's husband is away indefinitely and she's had no word from him, while the small community has turned its back on her because of her 'unseemly' grieving.

When the two women meet, they forge a bond that grows ever deeper. But can their intimacy find acceptance in their conventional world?

A Curious Intimacy is a sensual and surprising novel about love and the sacrifices we make in the name of it.

Published by Viking (Penguin Group Australia) January 2007

http://www.penguin.com.au/

Prof. Amanda Lawson, Head, School of Art & Design: A group of artists work together, teaching, supervising, administering, assessing. Finding time, when they can, to create new works out on the patio, on the verandah, in the bush, on an archaeological dig, in studios and workshops, in computer labs. A joint exhibition of their work calls for a consideration of what might link these individuals. They've been brought into the academy because of the diversity of their skilss. There are 300 students to teach in the School of Art & Design at the Univeristy of Wollongong. Of necessity our team of scholar-artists covers a lot of ground. Then again, Australia is a big country and were used to that.

Works include: Digital Print, Giclee Print, Video, Photographic Digital Print, Bronze, Cibachrome Photograph, Plaster Casting and Beeswax, Painting and Printmaking, Oil Painting, Istallation, Graphite Rubbings and Sound Composition, Digital Print and Natural Dyes (Angophera)

Artists:
Gregor Cullen
Lecturer, Graphic Design
Dr Lisa Anderson
P/T Lecturer, Visual Arts
Brogan Bunt
Prog Co-ord & Lect. G/Design
Didier Balez
Sculptor, Studio Technician
Dr Penelope Harris
A/Sub Dean, Lecturer, Vis Arts
Jacky Redgate
Prog Co-ord & Lect, Vis Arts
Richard Hook
Lecturer, Vis Arts
Jelle Van Den Berg
Lecturer, Vis Arts
Prof Diana Wood Conroy
Lecturer, Vis Arts
Sue Blanchfield
Lecturer, Vis Arts
and guest Timothy Nohe
Fulbright Scholar

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Last reviewed: 15 April, 2008