home salon writing writers university of adelaide contact May 2008 The May 2008 Wordfire salon was held on Monday 5th May 2008. As usual the venue was the Red Room, Crown & Sceptre, 308 King William Street, Adelaide. Details of the readers appear below. Nicholas Jose Nicholas Jose grew up in Adelaide. He is the author of several acclaimed novels, including Nicholas Jose 'The Rose Crossing', ' The Custodians' and 'Original Face', as well as short stories, essays and a recent memoir, 'Black Sheep: Journey to Borroloola'. He has lived in various parts of Australia and around the world, including China, where he worked for five years. His books have been widely published and translated. He was president of Sydney PEN, 2002-2005, and is active as a teacher, editor and mentor of new writing. His book Paper Nautilus, which has sold over 60,000 copies, has just been reissued by Wakefield Press, and is the Adelaide Big Book Club's book of the month for December. To visit Nicholas's website click here. Cathoel Jorss Cathoel Jorss recently left this book (right) on a Qantas flight between Brisbane and Adelaide. If anyone has picked it up, she would be delighted to have it back - it's a thought-provoking read and, also, was densely scribbled over with notes towards a terribly witty philosophical novel she plans to write someday. Her first novel From the Moon might find a publisher if Cathoel could bring herself to submit it anywhere. Meantime the 2001 collection Going for the Eggs in the Middle of the Night continues to sell in the thrillions, more perhaps for the cartoons than the poetry. Rob Parry Rob Parry is 23, scribbles on the back of receipts at parties, writes poetry at work while he should be Facebooking, and must learn to stop viewing love as primarily a catalyst for verse. His shoes all look the same, his cooking skills are improving and he would like to thank you for listening to his stuff. Alice Sladdin Alice Sladdin A M Sladdin, a Friendly Street Poet, won Adelaide University's 2005 Bundey Prize for one of her M A poems and is undertaking a Phd novel. She operates a gallery-bookshop in Saddleworth, en route to the Clare wine district. Daniel Watson Daniel Watson runs hard edge label Paroxysm Press. He has been publishing, writing, organising gigs, doing festivals, performing spoken word and touring Australia for nearly a decade. He was the MC / poet co-ordinator for the SA leg of the first National Poetry Slam in 2007 and is currently writing an educational comic for the South Australian government. Loves poetry and blood sports. The story to be read at the May Wordfire was his contribution to the 'Blood' anthology (Sunday Drivers Press) which was the eighth highest selling book at the 2007 Melbourne Writers' Festival. Rachel Hennessy Rachel Hennessy was born in Canberra in 1973. She has lived and worked in Newcastle, Brisbane, Sydney, London and Adelaide. Her first novel The Quakers won the Adelaide Festival Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, receiving $10,000 and publication by Wakefield Press. It was launched at Adelaide Writers' Week in February 2008. The manuscript was also long-listed for the 2005 Australian/Vogel Award, short-listed for the Varuna Writers' Centre Manuscript Development program and won the ArtsSA prize for Creative Writing. Her short stories have been published in the anthologies Emerge: New Australian Writing, On Edge (which she also co-edited), The Body (Wakefield Press), Spiny Babbler and in the new writing magazines staples and Wet Ink. Her short film Not Waving, Drowning was screened at the Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and toured the international Gay and Lesbian film festival circuit. She has been a guest speaker in the Department of English at the University of Adelaide and is currently writing her second novel through their PhD program. Top