Writers Victoria

This workshop invites participants to explore journalling as a space for play, reflection, meditation and artistic experimentation.

Inspired by artists' books, zines, comics and visual journals, participants will learn to combine words and images to tell stories in new ways. Participants will experiment with short form writing, collage, sketching, mapping, lists and fragments.  

No prior artistic experience is required – the emphasis of this workshop is on creativity, experimentation and personal expression. 

About keeping journals: journalling is a practice in both senses: a ritual that is repeated and a tool for growth. By copying down passages that pique, provoke or inspire curiosity, we can study the rhythms of other writers while cultivating our own rhythm and voice. Journalling allows us to reflect and respond to others’ words (and art). Later, journals can become archives and artifacts, time capsules of the period in which they were kept. 

You Will Learn:

• How to develop journaling both as a ritual and a tool for growth
• How to weave visual elements (collage, sketching, mapping) and words
• How to use journals as a time capsule or archive for writing projects

About the Tutor:

Simmone Howell is a highly awarded author. Her debut, Notes from the Teenage Underground, claimed the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and her co-authored novel Take Three Girls (with Fiona Wood and Cath Crowley) won the 2017 CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers and earned a spot in the White Ravens International Youth Library Catalogue. Simmone has received grants from Creative Victoria and Creative Australia, and her non-fiction on adolescence has been featured in The Age Spectrum, The Conversation, Island, Overland and Kill Your Darlings. She holds a PhD in creative writing from La Trobe University and has taught at RMIT, Melbourne University, Writers Victoria and Faber Academy. Visit her website: simmonehowell.com.au