THE WRITERS' CONFERENCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1052, 23 October 1959, Page 11

THE WRITERS' CONFERENCE

Sir,-As a former executive member otf the parent branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers in Sydney, I was interested in your report of the recent Writers’ Conference in Wellington and also in Mrs Elsie Locke’s reference in your issue of October 2 to a suggestion, made at that conference, that "something equivalent to the F.A.W. in Australia" might usefully serve writers in this country. As a national institution with branches in all mainland States and Canberra, able to speak for Australian writers as a whole, including those associated in group organisations, the F.A.W. has been in many ways of considerable value to Australian writers and Australian literature, On the one hand, it has developed a sense of community in writers in diverse fields; from those who endeavour to practise writing as an art to those who frankly use their pens to earn an extra ten bob. On the other hand it has made available to writers (a notoriously unbusinesslike sector of the community) reliable guidance through the many snares and pitfalls laid for them-in contract clauses and otherwise-by a certain type of publisher. Another service the F.A.W. has pro-vided-in this case to native literature as well as to writers-is to bring together writers and, through associate membership, those interested in AustraYian literature, using for this purpose talks and discussions, led usually by a Fellow, and social occasions such as birthday parties for Australian literary works on publication. At such parties and most of such talks "friends" as well as Fellows and Associates are welcomed. One realises that the development of a strong Fellowship of Writers in New Zealand would probably be slow and difficult. In Australia, the Fellowship developed slowly, and often painfully, from occasional meetings some 30-odd years ago of a small group of established writers who discussed their work and its problems over a cup of coffee (six o’clock closing!). Today, most State branches-or Fellowships, as they prefer to call themselves, having complete autonomy under a common Constitution -have their own club-rooms, a strong membership of both Fellows and Associates and a considerable audience at all "open" gatherings. Membership and audience combined give the F.A.W., acting as a national federation of writers, considerable influence when action at the national level is necessary. In New Zealand there appears to be scope and, one feels, need for a Fellowship of New Zealand Writers: (a) to bring writers and their audience together as a means of enlarging the latter and (b) to co-ordinate at the national level the activities-the non-literary but essential subsidiary activities of writers and, on a federal basis, those of the existing groups. Under New Zealand conditions, however, it might be desirable to reverse the Australian procedure and commence at the top, as a national federation, and from there to work towards the establishment of previncial, and even regional, branches more or less on the lines of the State branches of the F.A.W.

L. G.

ASHTON

(Whangarei).