Young poets get published with peers

Brenton Stacey

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Brenton Stacey

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Brenton is Avondale University’s Public Relations and Philanthropy Officer. He brings to the role experience as a communicator in publishing, media relations, public relations, radio and television, mostly within the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific and its entities.

Anthology connects creatives at Avondale to those in Perth

A new creative writing anthology features not only the voices of students at Avondale but also their peers at another provider in Perth and professionals.

Standing Still In A Hurricane is a collection of poetry and short stories by creative writing students in and young alumni of the communication and English strands. Also invited to write: students from the Sheridan Institute of Higher Education and published poets.

The connection with Sheridan came at an Australasian Association of Writing Programs conference. Co-editor Dr Lynnette Lounsbury presented a paper at the conference about poetry workshops in small universities. She wrote the paper with colleague Associate Professor Carolyn Rickett who has co-edited five previous anthologies in which students had work published alongside that of high-profile poets. The paper interested Miriam Wei Wei Lo, who invited Lynnette to submit a piece for her anthology and then read it at the launch at Sheridan.

The two now moderate each other’s programs and invite their students to contribute to each other’s anthologies, which makes the reading an even “fresher journey.” “Our students get to see how others not in their class interpret the theme,” says Lynnette.

Pieces in Standing Still In A Hurricane reflect the “innate ability” of writers to “stand still in the hurricane of life and observe,” to “capture the truth so we can all understand, just a little more, about each other and ourselves.”

Helping students at Avondale “to See”: workshop presenters Thomas Simpson, a poet and artist whose PhD combines poetry, walking and soundscape ecology, and Carolyn, who has received an Australian Learning and Teaching Council citation for her contribution to student learning.

Lynnette and her young alum collaborators, Bailee McLeod and Ashley Jankiewicz, dedicate the anthology to their high school English teachers. “I wouldn’t have graduated, let alone even considered going to university, if it weren’t for my English teachers,” says Bailee. “They are still great mentors and friends.”