Creative Writings

 I enjoy writing. One of the pleasures of my retirement years has been finding the time to write more expansively. While most of the posts in this blog are narratives based on research or recollection, the posts below are of two types : narratives which are fictional in varying degrees, or creative writing, often in poetic form.

Frank 1941

This was a story I submitted in the "E M Fletcher Writing Competition" in 2020, a competition sponsored by Family History ACT. The judges deemed it worthy of shortlisting. It is 95% factual but with  "creative flair" to make it a more interesting story for competition purposes.

Donny

Another story also shortlisted in the Fletcher Writing Competition in 2020. Entirely fictional, based on real persons in my extended family.


Lucretia, 1915

A third story from the 2020 Fletcher Writing Competition.. Not shortlisted. The facts, as known, are woven into an invented narrative. The characters are real, and Lucretia is my maternal grandmother.

3 poems

Around 2001, I enrolled in an adult education course at Sydney Uni, in creative writing. Our course leader was Kate Llewellyn, an acclaimed Australian poet and writer, but I knew none of this at the time. Kate's approach was not to teach us how to write, she simply provided a  stimulating and encouraging environment. I had expected I would write prose, and it was a surprise to find an ease in constructing poetry. These are some of my better efforts. I was chuffed that Kate suggested I might look to publish them.

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