BRW Blog
Susan Johnson
"My experience of the Burdekin Readers and Writers Festival was a moving one. People at panels were open and intimately involved with the ideas behind books, with the writers who wrote them. Remote or rural Australians often miss out on experiences common to city...
Morris Gleitzman
In 2016 I was a guest of the Ignite Your Mind Burdekin Readers and Writers Festival. In a few days I met a broad cross-section of local residents and several hundred local school students. These readers, young and old, embraced everything I offered them to enrich...
John Marsden
Having been a visiting writer at the Ignite Your Mind Festival, I have to say I was quite astonished by the fervour of the audiences to which I spoke. The audiences ranged from primary school children through secondary school students to adults, and represented...
Dr Ruth Armstrong & Helen Fielder-Gill
It was writer, Nick Earls’ twitter feed that got us to the Burdekin. The tweet, which appeared in his timeline in about April, said something like this: “It’s confirmed! Going to the Burdekin Readers and Writers Festival. Ignite your mind!” We travelled from NSW to...
Nick Earls
"From the start, the team behind the Ignite Your Mind Burdekin Readers and Writers Festival have got a great deal right. At the first festival, attending writers were unanimous in feeling that this was a festival that was well organised and running smoothly, with none...
Nicole Alexander
‘Ignite Your Mind 2015 was a fabulous festival to be a part of. This was a ‘readers festival’ in the truest sense, with a fascinating weekend program that included a mix of well-known authors as well as great entertainment. The intimacy of the event allowed a level of...
An Evening with Dame Quentin Bryce
As Australia’s first female Governor-General, Quentin Bryce handwrote fifty or so letters each week. They were to people she had met and connected with as her role took her from palaces to outback schools, from war zones to memorials, from intimate audiences to lavish...
FERRIS WHEELS AND FAIRY FLOSS
by Leanne Green “Flairy Floss and Flerris Wheels are my favourite things at the show” Billy told his class when it was his turn to answer the teacher’s question about the show. “OK” said the teacher, “but say it again slowly and think about the words, as saying it too...
Never Again by Mickey McKellar
Never Again – What a topic! What to write about? What is it about my life that I have no real regrets and I am struggling to recall something that I would never repeat? Over the past month I have wracked my brain trying to recall something to put on paper. Nothing...
SCRATCHY SCRIBBLERS APRIL MEETING
The third meeting of BRW Scratchy Scribblers Writing Group was held this week on Tuesday, April 18th. Twelve ‘would be writers’ were in attendance with apologies received from seven who have attended previously but were unable to make this month’s meeting. For...