Catchfire Press is pleased to announce a new competition for prose and poetry.

ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS

Hardworking farm animals, pampered pets, beautuful birds, biting bull ants, pesky possums or slithering snakes all have a story to tell. We want your poem, article or story about animals large or small. Tell us about your favourite feline or rats in the roof. Your entry can be happy or sad, factual or fictional but it must at least be about a non-human animal. (People can be in it too.)

Send your stories and poems, fact or fiction, about animals in your life or any other encounter you have had with them to the competition. Catchfire press invites you to write for possible inclusion in ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS in the following categories:
* Prose (200 – 2500 word limit)
* Poetry (up to 100 words)

In each category:
First Place – $300
Second Place – $200
Commendations will be awarded

Send in your entries by 29th Februrary 2012 with entry fee of $10 per entry and completed entry form to ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS, Catchfire Press, PO Box 2101, DANGAR, NSW, 2309

Download an entry form click here

Catchfire Press invites you to the launch of our new book, ‘Wood, Brick & Stone’, at
Newcastle Museum on Wednesday 9 November at 6pm.
(The venue has changed from Newcastle Art Gallery due to circumstances beyond our control.)
There is parking at Honeysuckle near the museum. Catching the train is also another convenient to way arrive just alight at Civic Station.

The guest speaker will be Brian Suters, and competition winners will be giving a short reading.
Light refreshments will be provided. There will be a one off special price on the night of $30.
Details and entry form for the next Catchfire competition,’Animal Encounters’, will be available.

Wood, Brick and Stone – basic building materials that can be used in so many ways, from garden sheds to imposing public buildings, sagging fences or heroic historical statues.

We read about iconic places like the Ocean Baths, James Fletcher Hospital, Customs House and the Bogey Hole and, reaching up into the valley, the Putty Road and Barrington House.

This is a fascinating collection of stories and poems; some funny, some sad, some factual, some fantasy, but all explore how man interacts with his environment.

Catchfire Press is pleased to announce a new competition for prose and poetry,
Wood, Brick & Stone: The Making of the Hunter
Wood, brick and stone – basic building materials that help people make their mark upon our environment. Roads, bridges, jetties, dams, buildings where we live, work and worship. From the time the first stones are quarried or timber felled, there are stories – stories about bark humpies to modern skyscrapers and the people involved. Has a particular structure inspired you? Is there a building you love or hate? Send your stories and poems, fact or fiction, about how our constructions have affected the landscape of the Hunter. Catchfire Press invites you to write for possible inclusion in WOOD, BRICK & STONE, in the following categories:
• Prose (200 – 2500 word limit)
• Poetry (up to 100 lines)
In each category:
First place – $300
Second place – $200
Commendations will be awarded

Send your entries by 30 September 2010 with entry fee ($10.00 per entry) and completed entry form to:  WOOD, BRICK & STONE, Catchfire Press, PO Box 2101, DANGAR, NSW, 2309.

Download the application form here

OUR MOST RECENT PUBLICATION – SELLING NOW!
From ballerinas to boxers, the famous to humble heroes, this book tells of many who have helped make this valley a vibrant, stimulating community. Rich or poor, soldiers, sailors, teachers, clergy, convicts, doctors, nurses and the couple next door, all these and many more are the People of the Valley.

These stories and poems explore the variety of figures, past and present, who have come to make the Hunter Valley the place it is today. There are stories about descendants of the original inhabitants trying to live in a changing world, also of modern migrants struggling to adapt.

The writers are a diverse group both young and old, some in print for the first time, others well known names, including Sharyn Munro, Gail Hennessy, Jan Dean, Greg Ray, Jean Kent, Patrick Cullen and Zeny Giles.

‘From the Earth to the Table’ (2008)
by Marion Halligan, Zeny Giles, Craig Manhood, Andrew Slattery and many more local Hunter Writers.

From the Earth to the Table is a collection of poems, stories, recipes and articles about beautiful food grown and produced locally. Authors unearth memories of taste and smell, and share their favourite seasonal recipes and tips about sustainable living. From the simple act of picking home-grown olives to working in a community garden or revisiting the first taste of a watermelon in summer, this book is about the people who live in the Hunter Valley and their passion for food.

From the Earth to the Table was produced with the support of a grant from the Newcastle City Council’s Community Assistance Program

ISBN: 978 0 9757926 3 6
90 pages
Cost: $20

* SOLD OUT

‘Through the Valley: Writings from the Hunter’ (2007)
Donald Cohen, Michael Jameson, Jo Tregellis (eds)

Through the Valley presents poems, stories, memoirs and images spanning almost two centuries of Hunter Valley life.

Experienced authors and new contributors highlight the unique and the universal, from the female artists of colonial Newcastle to a Lake Macquarie childhood between the world wars, from the modern cityscape and busy working harbour to ballooning and skywatching in the upper Hunter.  Through the Valley explores this key Australian region with a multiplicity of voices including Les Murray, Patrice Newell, Jan Dean, Jean Kent and Julian Croft.

ISBN: 978 0 9757926 2 9
288 pages

‘Stories for a Long Summer’ (2006)
by Col Maybury, Andrew Slattery, Wendy Alexander, the winners of the SFLS Student competition and many more local Hunter Writers.

“With its combination of poetry, fiction and memoir, Catchfire Press’s latest offering Stories for a Long Summer not only conjures up all of the things that make for a great summer—Christmas and cicadas, sunsets and storms—but it also proves, like summer itself, to be well worth the wait.”
— Patrick Cullen, award winning Newcastle writer.

Full of warmth, laughter, sadness and hope, Stories for a Long summer is a book that celebrates the stories and poems that Australian summers birth. In it we have compiled a collection of writings that give the reader a place to escape from the summer heat. You can travel to the arctic and play with the penguins, or travel across the Stockton ferry. You can go back in time to a perilous journey in Broken Hill, and go forward in time to an orwelian future. And of course, you can share the cheers and jeers of christmas memories. No matter where you may go this summer it is the perfect companion for any summer adventure.

ISBN: 0 9757926 1 X
128 pages
Cost: $20

* SOLD OUT

‘Beneath the Valley’ (2005)
by Justice Michael Kirby, Jim Comerford, Zeny Giles, Jan Dean, Jack Delaney et.al.

“Beneath the Valley is a people’s history in the most powerful and personal sense. We’re taken straight into the rich seam of people’s lives through their unforgettable voices. A humbling experience to read.”
— Mark Mordue, author of Dastgah: Diary of a Headtrip.

These stories, memoirs, poems and photographs explore the tight bonds that weave families and communities together: their loyalties and violent clashes, their passion for music, their camaraderie and wicked humour, and the dread and horror of disaster.
Justice Michael Kirby, Jim Comerford, Zeny Giles, Jan Dean and Jack Delaney are among the contributors who bring to life the richness and variety of a fading era.

Beneath the Valley unearths the unexpected treasures of a mining community – straight from the soul of its people.

ISBN: 0 9757926 0 1
160 pages
Cost: $28

* SOLD OUT

SEAMARK PAMPHLETS #5 (2002)
by Marion Halligan et al.
’The Christmas I’ll Never Forget’
Cover by Angela Cowan.
Illustrations by Sophia Montefiore and Angela Cowan.
Layout by Anna Kaemmerling.
Many people have feelings for the festive season which mingle celebration with poignant memories. This delightful anthology of memoirs, stories and poetry was selected by Karen Whitelaw and Don Cohen from work submitted by members and friends of Catchfire Press. The featured memoir by the patron of the Press, Marion Halligan, is especially evocative of the mixed emotions of mortals at this season. Other writers included are Angela Cockburn, Zeny Giles, David Kibble, Rina Robinson, Alice Sinclair, Margaret Steinberger, John Stokes, Jean Talbot, Norman Talbot, Ron Vickress and Margaret Watts.

32 pages, r.r.p. $10