2000 School Magazine

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WRITER IN RESIDENCE 2000

Our Writer in Residence for the year of our 125th Birthday celebrations was the internationally recognised writer HeIen Garner, one of Australia's most highly regarded contemporary authors. HeIen Garner's experiences as a writer includejournalism, film and television scriptwriting, and fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. The nature of her various awards attest to the diversity and scope of her writing talents. These accolades include those from the National Book Council, Premier's Awards and the Walkley Award for Journalism. in 1995 her first book of nonfiction The Fitst Stone became an instant bestseller and won Australian Book of the Year. A cocktail function was held in the Library on Sunday 8 May to officially welcome HeIen Garner to the school. The refreshing honesty and candour that characterises the woman and the writer was evidenced in her entertaining address to the assembled guests, who included the Principal, members of the Board, staff, parents and student writers.

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The latter attended the week-long Writers' Camp at the Imbil Memorial Outdoor Education Centre, a week filled with rich and varied experiences, both literary and non-literary, including a canoeing expedition to Lake Borumba, where our Guest Writer demonstrated that she could wield a paddle as well as a pen. The Camp was very productive in the opportunities it afforded for students to hone and refine their writing talents and skills under the expert eye and with the guidance of He Ien Garner, and the impressive outcomes of the student's literary efforts were later published in a collection entitled jinbillmagimhgs. This volume encapsulates the personal standards and ideals with which HeIen Garner imbued the writers, as, in the words of one student, "she guided us on a quest to find our own "voices"in our writing. " The students were privileged to be able to work with and to learn from a writer of He Ien Garner's stature and ability an opportunity made possible by the bequest of another writer and Old Girl, Doris WarekerTownsend.

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