News  Congratulations to Associate Professor Diana Wood Conroy who received the Distinguished Research Award from the Australian Council of University Art & Design Schools (ACUADS) at their annual conference held in Perth on Thursday 29 September 2005. Diana is one of three senior Australian researchers to receive this national award. The Distinguished Research Award recognises Diana’s outstanding achievement in the tertiary art and design education research environment for more than ten years. Her recent achievements encompass gaining nationally competitive research and exhibition grants, which have provided models of cross-disciplinary collaborative research; an extraordinary track record of success in mentoring postgraduate students and bringing to completion research higher degrees as well as negotiation of an international career as an archaeologist, artist and writer. Short Story Project
Congratulations to Julie Keys, current MCA creative writing student on having her work selected for the short story project as part of the ABC Radio Regional Production Fund. The Fund commissions work from experienced radio producers and talented content providers who live outside the major capital cities, with residents of Darwin and Hobart eligible to apply. Creative work considered includes documentary features or series, music segments, drama, comedy, serials, short stories, history, poetry, discussion programs or creative broadcast events. Julie's story "My Mother's New Boyfriend" was one of 26 selected in the short story project. Julie's work is now to be produced for radio. View Julie's story >
http://www.abc.net.au/shortstories/stories/s1390945.htm View other stories >
http://www.abc.net.au/shortstories/
 Merlinda adds first novel to string of literary achievements
Faculty of Creative Arts senior lecturer, Dr Merlinda Bobis, the winner of more than a dozen literary awards and fellowships for her writing has launched her first novel, Banana Heart Summer, at the Sydney Writers' Festival. The myth of the banana heart inspires 12-year-old Nenita, growing up in the 1960s in a small, impoverished Filipino town under the shadow of an active volcano. She will appease her family's hunger and win her violent and disappointed mother's affection. She will find the balance between anger and love. And as she cooks, eats and dreams, other love stories unfold in her street as it swelters in the summer heat and pulses to the music of Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and the Beatles. Dr Bobis, a Filipino-Australian, has won more than a dozen literary awards and fellowships. She has published five poetry books, a collection of short stories and a monograph on writing fiction. Her theatre works have been performed in Australia, France, Philippines and China. A Doctor of Creative Arts graduate (1994) from the University of Wollongong, Dr Bobis' range of literary awards, prizes and fellowships include: * Judges' Choice Award, Bumbershoot Bookfair, Seattle Arts Festival 2001 for The Kissing (Aunt Lute, San Francisco, 2000). Published as White Turtle in Australia and the Philippines * Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award (For the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories) 2000 for White Turtle (Spinifex Press, Melbourne, 1999) * Philippine National Book Award for Fiction 2000 for White Turtle (De La Salle University Press, Manila, 2000) * NSW Ministry for the Arts Writer's Fellowship 2000 for Fish-Hair Woman (a novel in progress) * The Canberra Universities' Writing Fellowship 2000 for Fish-Hair Woman * Prix Italia (won over entries from 30 countries) 1998 for radio play Rita's Lullaby produced by ABC Radio * Australian Writers' Guild Award (AWGIE) 1998 for Rita's Lullaby * Pamana Philippine Presidential Award for achievement in the arts, 1998 * Winner, Out of the Ashes Trans-Tasman Short Story Competition for White Turtle, 1998 * Winner of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National's 'Books & Writing Short Story Competition' for The Parable of Illawarra Street, 1997 * Winner of Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Ian Reed Foundation Prize for Radio Drama, for Rita's Lullaby, 1996 * Carlos Palanca Memorial Award in Literature, Honourable Mention for Ms Serena Serenata, one-act play, Philippines, 1995 * Gawad Award Cultural Centre of the Philippines for Poetry in Filipino for Mula Dulo Hanggang Kanto (From End to Corner), collection of poems, 1990 * Likhaan Award for Daragang Magayon and other poems University of the Philippines Writers' Workshop, 1990 * Carlos Palanca Memorial Award in Literature, Second Prize for Lupang di Hinirang: Kuwento at Sikreto (Land Not Dearest: Story and Secret), collection of poems in Filipino, Philippines, 1989 * Carlos Palanca Memorial Award in Literature, First Prize for Peopleness, collection of poems in English, Philippines, 1987 * Caracoa Award for Outstanding Contributions, Philippines, 1987 Banana Heart Summer, by Merlinda Bobis, published by Murdoch Books, hardback, recommended retail price $29.95.
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