Rebecca Jessen's Blog, page 7

ONE (angels in the outfield)

Following in the footsteps of the lovely and immensely talented Nike Sulway, I will be regularly posting 300 word snippets of memoir in order to push myself along with the writing of my next project which is a collection of short memoir.

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I was sheltered from death from a young age. When I was six I woke up one Saturday morning to find my mother gone. When I came out of my bedroom, my dad approached me slowly.

‘Sweetie,’ he said, ‘Pop died last night. Your Mum has gone over to the house to be w...

National Young Writers Festival 2014

I’m excited to announce that I will be performing at this year’s National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle. Now in its 17th year, the NYWF is a place of gathering for young writers working across all forms including zines, blogging, screenwriting, poetry, spoken word, journalism, comedy, prose and much more. Held over the NSW Labour Day long weekend in October, the festival features a diverse range of artists featured in panels, launches, workshops, readings and more. I’ve heard many stori...

Post QPF and Brisbane Writers Festival 2014

Over the weekend I attended theQueensland Poetry Festival held at The Judith Wright Centre in Fortitude Valley. As always, the festival was a wonderful, diverse occassion. This year, QPF mixed things up a bit and included some panel talks and in-conversations with visiting poets. This worked well to complement thewide array of readings by local and international poets. I read an excerpt from my verse novelGap yesterday in the Shopfront Space which is an intimate alternative to the Theatre Spa...

Queensland Poetry Festival

The Queensland Poetry Festival is on again this weekend and as always, there’s a fabulous lineup. I’ll be reading from my verse novelGap on Sunday 31 August at 11am at the Shopfront Space. You can find all the details here.

The festival is a great opportunity to see local and international poets and performers do their thing, and it’s free! This year the festival has been moved closer to BWF and the two festivals even share a few artists (myself included). This is particularly exciting because...

Gap Release and Launch Details

Today marks the release of my debut novelGap.From today onward you’ll be able to purchasea copy ofGapfrom all good bookstores. If your local bookstore doesn’t have it in stock be sure to ask them to order some copies. You can also purchaseGap online from several outlets including Avid Reader and Readings bookshops.

I will be having a Brisbane launch to celebrate the release ofGap on Friday August 8th at Avid Reader Bookshop in West End. Clickhereto register online for the event. The event runs...

Blog-Hopping via Bri Lee

Bri Lee is a final year law student, emerging writer and fashion freak – she blogs regularly hereabout these three things, sometimes separately – sometimes together – always beautifully compiled.Briand I have been following each other’s blogs for a little while now and Bri recently got in contact and asked if I’d like to participate in a blog-hop. I love finding out about the processes of other writers so of course I agreed. Bri is also entering this year’s SLQ Young Writers Award and I wish...

Riverbend Poetry Series 2014 QPF Program Launch

Next Tuesday night I have been invited to read at the 2014 Queensland Poetry Festival program launch which will be held in conjunction with the final Riverbend Poetry Series event for the year. The lineup includes:

Murri poet and long-time activistLionel Fogarty, the enigmatic stories ofThe Bell Divers, winner of the 2013 Queensland Literary Award for BestEmerging AuthorRebecca Jessen, local poetsVanessa Page & John Koenigdebuting a brand-new collaborative piece, andZenobia Frostreading from 2...

Gap Release Date and Post EWF Wrap Up

Last week Iarrived back home in Brisbane from The Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne. It was my first writers festival as a panelist and I couldn’t have asked for a better first experience. The festival has a wonderful supportive, friendly vibe that is not at all intimidating, and I met many lovely creative and interesting people during my stay.Sam Twyford-Moore the festival director and the whole EWF team did a fabulous job at making this year’s festival inclusive and stimulating on seve...

The Emerging Writers’ Festival

The Emerging Writers’ Festivalis on again this year in Melbourne from May 27 – June 6. This will be my first writers festival experience from the other side of the stage which is both terrifying and exciting.

I’ve been invited to participate in two panels: Poetry + which is part of The National Writers’ Conference at 12pm on Saturday May 31.

Poetry is no longer limited to the page, and often seems to thrive outside of its confines. Where can you find a living breathing poetry community and shar...

QWC Whispers Salon

This Saturday, April 12th I will be reading at the monthly QWC Whispers Salon event. The theme for this month’s event is Buried and Deep. The other featured writers are: Richard Newsome, Charmaine Clancy, Kate Eltham and Patrick Holland.

I will be reading an extract from a memoir piece titled Salt which can be read in full in the upcoming Issue 22 of The Lifted Brow, due to be released next month.

More information about Whispers can be found here http://www.qwc.asn.au/courses-and-events/whisper...