BOOK LAUNCH OF OLIVE MURIEL PINK WITH PROFESSOR EMERITA ANNE BOYD AM

 

Great news . . .  we are on our way to Alice Springs for a week of events  including the above launch of my Poetic Journey with Olive Pink

It will be a celebration  of the life of a  little know Australian  woman , visionary for the Indigenous people in her day, Anthropologist, Gardener and curator of the first Arid Botanical Garden in the world.

Dinner under the stars with Professor Emerita Boyd and Olive Pink

Dinner under the stars

with

Professor Emerita Anne Boyd AM and Olive Pink

ABOUT

Dinner under the stars at Olive Pink Botanic Garden

with leading lights in Olive Pink’s journey

‘From obscurity to centre stage’.

Featuring Professor Emerita Anne Boyd AM,

Gillian Ward,

Cheryl Kensett,

and Colleen Keating,

authors and artists who have been inspired by Olive Pink, and helped take her life to centre stage. What was it about Olive Pink that inspired them? Why is she relevant today? Questions panel compare and Olive Pink Opera Producer Claire Kilgariff will be posing. Ticket is for event only. Purchase dinner from the Bean Tree Cafe’s new dinner menu.

DATE

Saturday 1 October 2022 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM (UTC+09:30)

LOCATION

Olive Pink Botanic Garden
27 Tuncks Road , Alice Springs NT 0870

IN-STORE POETRY READING AT RED KANGA by Colleen Keating

   

 

   IN-STORE POETRY READING
with the author of
   Olive Muriel Pink: Her radical and idealistic life 
Colleen Keating
Friday 7th October, 12noon – 1pm

Bring your lunch!

A rare opportunity: an in-store poetry reading from Colleen Keating

One of the great joys we have at Red Kangaroo Books is the opportunity to host writers on behalf of our readers—and this is a special event!
Colleen Keating, author of Olive Muriel Pink: her radical and idealistic life, will be here at Red Kanga to read with us some of her work from the book. This is fabulous timing in conjunction with the Olive Pink Opera, a key highlight of the. Desert Song Festival.

Olive Pink’s life floats off the page – very much the character I’ve come to know and admire while translating her experience into music across this past decade.  Colleen Keating gives us a seriously beautiful work based on research that brings Olive vividly to life.  It is wonderful to see the astonishing story of this Australian woman Olive Pink, given the attention she so deserves.
Such a visionary
.

Emeritus Professor Anne Boyd AM  Composer of the Olive Pink Opera

Troublesome Women of Central Australia: An event in Alice Springs

                  

                                  Troublesome Women of Central Australia
Thursday 6th October, 5.30 – 7.00 pm

Central Australian Aviation Museum 6 Memorial Ave, Gillen
Free event, no bookings required

Who were Olive Pink, Annie Lock, Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates?

Join authors Cath Bishop, Eleanor Hogan and Colleen Keating for a lively evening of conversation and readings from their books about these complex white women who thought Aboriginal lives mattered and challenged boundaries of female behaviour.

And visit Olive Pink’s grave

                in the cemetery next door

                                     if you haven’t already!

“Celebrating women who write ” Newsletter of Society of Women Writers.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL SHORT LISTED. I FEEL PROUD TO BE NAMED AMONGST SUCH A GREAT GROUP OF WOMEN. THANK YOU. I AM HAPPY FOR OLIVE PINK THAT HER STORY IS OUT THERE FOR ALL TO KNOW THIS WOMAN WHO WAS LOST TO HISTORY FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS 

MEMBERS’ BOOK AWARD

CELEBRATING WOMEN WHO WRITE

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Members’ Book Awards 2022.
Congratulations to the authors involved and thank you to our judges.
Alphabetical by author

FICTION JUDGED BY MARGARET WICK 

Maureene Fries   Stones. Bones and Hollyhocks
Helen Lyne   Disappointment and Other Joys of Life
Catherine McCullagh   Secrets and Showgirls
Susan Steggall   The Heritage We Leave Behind
Julie Thorndyke   Divertimento
Kelly Van Nelson    The Pinstripe Prisoner

NON FICTION JUDGED BY SYBIL JACK

Valerie Clifford  Fijian Shadows
Jan Conway   Skimming the Surface – Expats in Kiribati
Robyn Elliott   Sing the Burnt Mountain
Kate Forsyth & Belinda Murrell   Searching For Charlotte
Colleen Keating   Olive Muriel Pink
Christine Sykes   Gough and Me

POETRY JUDGED BY CARMEL BENDON   

Anne Casey   Portrait of a woman walking Home
Anne Casey   the light we cannot see
Antoinette M. Diorio   Attachments
Pip Griffin   Virginia and Catherine, the Secret Diaries
Colleen Keating   Olive Muriel Pink. Her radical and idealistic life. A poetic journey
Denise O’Hagan   The Beating Heart

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT JUDGED BY GAIL ERSKINE 
SPONSORED BY CHRISTMAS PRESS

Libby Hathorn   The Best Cat the Est Cat
Libby Hathorn & Lisa Hathorn Jarman   No! Never! A cautionary tale
Pamela Rushby   The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin’ Castle
Pamela Rushby   Interned

NATIONAL WRITING COMPETITION 2022

GIVING WOMEN A VOICE

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the National Writing Competition 2022. Congratulations to the authors involved and thank you to our judges.
Alphabetical by authorsSHORT STORY FICTION JUDGED BY JENNY STRACHAN   Alexandra Dunn   Violet
Paulette Gittins   Forget it Jake
Meira Gorcey   Looking for Peace
Felicia Henderson   Gardens in the Rain
Julie Howard   Recipes for Sisters and Wives
Judith O’Connor   The Past is a Dangerous FriendSHORT STORY NON -FICTION JUDGED BY PAULA McLEANCarmel Bendon   Birds of a Feather
Pippa Kay   Fear Itself
Stephanie Phillips   Here, There and Everywhere
Judy Rowley   The Only Way
Sally Jane Smith   Blood and Gratitude
Gwen Wilson   Living in the Shadow of Tito

POETRY JUDGED BY EILEEN CHONG
SPONSORED BY GINNINDERRA PRESS

Anne Casey   Architecture of Chronic Pain
Colleen Keating   petal by petal
Meira Kirkwood   Woman to Dog
Joanne Ruppin   Bright New Home
Josephine Shevchenko   Undying the Sea
Mocco Wallert   A Stranger in my house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Ginko with White Pebbles Haiku Group by Colleen Keating

Spring ginko

spring fever
paths for us to walk
bridges to cross

tinkling of water
from the bamboo pipe
magpie singing

white azaleas
bees bow to new buds
a buddha listens

sound of birds
warm sun on my back
azaleas blooming

teal ducks
float on pink azalea’s
reflection

magpies carolling
myriad of colours
nesting time

Saturday 10 September 2022

Thanks to White Pebbler, Gwen Bitti, for recording our Spring Ginko.

White Pebbles spring meeting was once again held at the Edogawa Commemorative Japanese Gardens and Regional Gallery, West Gosford. Present were Beverley George (convenor), Marilyn Humbert, Kent Robinson, Michael Thorley, Colleen Keating, Verna Rieschild and Gwen Bitti. First order of business, a casual catch-up over a hot beverage.

In sunshine and birdsong, surrounded by fragrant azaleas in all shades of pink, we headed off on our ginko. Each member decided on their own direction in which to muse — across an ornamental bridge to a roofed Japanese pavilion that overlooks a koi pond; along a paved pathway to sit under a budding wisteria vine; or down a gravel trail that runs alongside a dry-stone beach. Remaining in ikigai, each one composed a three or five haiku sequence.

A half hour later, we assembled at our indoor round table. In the weeks prior to our meeting, Beverley had sent out a worksheet. She requested that we complete a sequence of three haiku, on a topic of own choice, based on something we were experiencing, seeing or hearing in the now. Absent member, Samantha Sirimanne Hyde had sent in work. Beverley read it aloud and invited members to comment. Remarks were recorded and would be forwarded to Sam. Following that, we shared and workshopped delightful, creative and diverse sequences crafted during our ginko, and also the ones that we had completed at home.

Deb Robinson, our kind and regular photographer, was on hand as usual to capture the moment.

Photo of group members with azaleas
From left: Michael Thorley, Marilyn Humbert, Beverley George,
Kent Robinson, Gwen Bitti, Verna Rieschild, Collen Keating

Our next ginko is scheduled for summer, and regardless of how the weather chooses to present then, we will be there to enjoy nature.

Gwen Bitti

Pay attention: spring is peeping in. by Colleen Keating

Paying attention

With a smile I capture a rainbow bouquet–
for spring is peeping-in along the bush track *
but in my excitement to capture colour
maybe some might be classified weeds 

and that makes me laugh
and reminds me of Mary Olivers ponderings
it doesnt matter
as long as you are paying attention
to the world around you
and have the attitude of gratitude
to carry you forth.

 

 

 

The poem by Mary Oliver:

Praying

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

— Mary Oliver, Thirst

Pay attention, then patch a few words  together.

* Along  the north arm of Wyrrabalong NP  bush  track


 

 

 

Paper barks by Colleen Keating

 

Paper Barks

If they were teenagers
they could be called dishevelled
their shirts hanging out  half mast ties  hair ruffled 
some casually gathered   some laid back 
they could be noted as cool with rumpled attitudes

here on our track 
they generously shade our way
their  leaves startling with the sparkle
of sun catchers
their caopies a haven of birds

their ruffled bark   craggy  rough  uneven 
in tawny tones of toffee  taupe and tan
and like teens finally become adults 
they shed  their sheets of bark in growing

peeled off bark enough
for a poet to write words 
of inspiration for the journey.