Skywriters Anthology 2019

Dark Sky Dreamings: an Inland Skywriters Anthology, was published by  Interactive Publications Pty Ltd (IP) and launched in Tamworth, northern NSW, on 31 October, 2019, with the Tamworth Regional Astronomy Club. Since then, it has been celebrated at multiple other launches along our Inland Astro-Trail.
Meet our 50 contributors here >>
Preview the anthology on Google Books  here >>
Read the Foreword here >>
Read the press release here >>
ORDER copies here >>

Writers responses to Australia’s night sky by Steven Cavanagh, Western Advocate, 12 Nov. 2019.

What other people have said about the book.

In the company of these stargazing storytellers, under a night sky so exuberant and immense, it’s possible to loosen yourself from the world of cities and forebodings and experience again that childhood sense of being an enchanted guest in a majestic and marvelous world.
– Peter Bishop
Writers’ Advocate

This anthology beautifully tells the stories from the perspective of people who live on the land, and their connection to Space in this most important of astronomical areas. From behind the scenes of some of the biggest astronomical events, to stories of viewing parts of our galaxy—views that billions of people across the world can no longer see—we gain an insight into a new universal reality as humans on our planet Earth, orbiting around our star, the Sun, in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

– Brad Tucker
Research Fellow, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University

The many voices of Dark Sky Dreaming speak to the canopy of stars that web our memories, carbon cells and spirit, reminding us that we share the same wide sky. Though each Skywriter charts a different astral track, this celestial compendium connects us to something numinous, inviting us to see the universe anew.

– Tamryn Bennett
Artist Director, Red Room Poetry

The Skywriters Project‘s first anthology, Dark Sky Dreamings, is published as a royalty title in print and eBook formats (pdf, ePub and Kindle versions) and is distributed under a global license held by the publisher.

In 2018 we invited creative writers to submit prose or poetry about their own or other people’s (or other beings?) relationships with celestial phenomena, as experienced from within the fuzzy borders of the region we’ve defined as the 700 Kilometre Array (700KA) of inland New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.  Our curatorial team blind-selected the work of more than fifty of these writers for publication.

Authors retain copyright on work included in the anthology, but reprint rights will be subject to subsidiary rights stipulated in the initial contract.

Royalties will be paid by IP to the managing editor, Merrill Findlay, who will then disperse earned royalties to contributors. Royalties will be earned at 10% of the GST-exclusive recommended retail price (RRP) where the Publisher sells at 50% or more of the RRP, and at 10% of net revenue where the Publisher sells at a discount higher than 50% for print copies and for all eBook sales. Statements of Account will be issued by the Publisher twice per year for periods ending on 30 June and 31 December.

All contributors received one free copy of the anthology and could order additional copies at a discount of 40% off recommended retail price ( e.g. $18/book for a book that retails for $30).

Our curating editors and managing editor

Dr Suzie Gibson is a Senior Lecturer in English in the School of Humanities and Social Science, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, where she teaches literature and writing.

Suzie’s research analyses the relationship between literature and philosophy. Her work has been published in distinguished national and international journals in the areas of literature, film, television, feminist theory and continental philosophy; in peer-reviewed books, in The Conversation, ArtsHub, in literary journals, such as Overland; and, more locally, in The Western Advocate and Bathurst Western Times.

Val Clark is an award-winning storyteller and visual artist based in a rural community near Dubbo. Her Young Adult fantasy novel, Lost, will be launched in August. Val has judged the prose section of Dubbo’s Boldrewood Literary Awards, which honour novelist Rolf Boldrewood, and for the Northern Territory Writers’ Centre. She is also a prime mover at Dubbo’s Outback Writers Centre

Val is addicted to reading, particularly YA, and writes across genres and ages. She loves teaching creative writing, chatting with fellow writers, and helping them achieve their dreams. She holds teaching qualifications in Fine Arts, a Masters in Creative Writing, and is a self-confessed writing workshop junkie. She is also learning to play the penny whistle. 

Gai Lander is now based in Grenfell but, for many years, lived on her family’s nearby farm. She has worked professionally throughout regional NSW in the health, welfare and aged care sectors as a nurse, caseworker, adult educator and project manager, so is very familiar with rural communities within our 700KA region, including along the Inland Astro-Trail.

These days Gai is more engaged in arts activities, including creative writing, and has served several terms as President of Grenfell’s Henry Lawson Festival committee. For the Festival’s 50th anniversary she combined several of her interests to establish a cultural exchange between quilting groups in Grenfell and on Tromøy Island, off the south-east coast of Norway where Henry Lawson’s father, Niels Hertzberg Larson (aka Peter Lawson), was born and raised. The Tromøy Quilt hangs in Grenfell Art Gallery. Gai is now wondering what international exchanges our Skywriters Project can catalyse.

Dr Merrill Findlay is based in Forbes but has lived and travelled in many other places and accumulated decades of experience as an author, journalist, multimedia producer, scholar, cultural entrepreneur, social innovator, gardener, stargazer, dreamer and…

Her creative works include the critically acclaimed novel Republic of Women; a multimedia project, Redreaming the Plains; The Kate Kelly Project and libretto for The Kate Kelly Song Cycle; plus many feature articles for the mainstream press, including The Age, Good Weekend, and Canberra Times. She has also published articles in scholarly journals, guest-edited a special double Australian issue of the international peer-reviewed journal Futures (39:2-3), spoken at the United Nations, and taught at both RMIT University, Melbourne, and the University of Canberra, where, for a while, she was also a Professional Associate with the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research.

In 2010/11 Merrill founded the Kalari-Lachlan River Arts Festival in Forbes, and later received a Regional Arts Australia award for her ‘outstanding contribution to the arts in regional Australia’. She established Big Skies Collaboration in around 2016. She is now a Big Skies Collaborator.

Page created by Merrill Findlay on 7 July 2018. Last updated 4 June 2022.

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