KSP Writers' Centre Retreats in Greenmount, Western Australia, Australia | Hotel and B&B

KSP Writers' Centre Retreats

Locality: Greenmount, Western Australia, Australia

Phone: +61 8 9294 1872

Address: 11 Old York Road 6056 Greenmount, WA, Australia

Website: www.kspwriterscentre.com/#!stay-at-ksp/vtk4t

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21.01.2022 By Bill Wilkie A Home Among the Gum Trees For two weeks at the end of May, I called the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writer’s Centre in the Perth Hills home. I travelled about as far as it is possible to travel across Australia to be there. The thing that I first noticed was the gum trees: the smell and the shifting grey-green colours that change with the time of day. It’s very different from the tropical rainforests around my home in far north Queensland. ... Of course, the most important thing about taking up a writing residency is the time to write. I’m currently working on my second book. Cedar Bay: Australia’s Hippie Hideaway tells the story of a hippie community that lived at a secluded beach in far north Queensland. The community was subjected to an (in)famous police raid in 1976, during Queensland’s Bjelke-Petersen years. As well as work on the early chapters of the manuscript, I had hundreds of scanned newspaper articles to assess and transcribe. I tend to be an early riser. Most days at KSP I was up before the sun. This is my favourite part of the day, before the rest of the world is awake. The mornings were crisp and fresh and twice a week I took the opportunity to go for a long early walk. With the leafy streets of the Perth hills on the doorstep and a National Park not too far way, the walks were a welcome way to get the creative thinking flowing. I planned my days around three or four main tasks. Crossing something off the list is its own reward. When lapses of concentration occurred, as they do, I walked around the garden catching some sunlight. During the day I would often bump into Adele Dumont or Peta Shaw, two other nonfiction writers that I was blessed to be able to spent the two weeks interacting with. Back at the desk, the next job on the list got some time. In the evening I regrouped with Peta Shaw and Adele Dumont at the kitchen of the main house. Two weeks away from family it's important to have other people to talk to and share experiences with. One of the great things about a residency is having people who are going through similar challenges and doubts as you. Even after a tough day, when productivity was low, there was always a reminder that there would be a chance for redemption the next day. Until there were no ‘next days’. Leaving is hard: there is always that feeling that more could have been accomplished, even though real progress has been made. And while I looked forward to seeing my family there is the knowledge that life will return to our version of normal and opportunities to write will be scarce. Still, the time at KSP was a chance for me to reset on a project that had begun to doubt. Think about some poor writing habits, come up with a plan that might work given the pressures/inconveniences of non-writers residency life. That other 50 weeks of the year. So, I came to KSP with a plan, and I left with a new plan. And left my little home among the gum trees, energy restored, motivation renewed.

19.01.2022 For our visitors, here's the hot tips on touristy gems :) https://soperth.com.au/perth-secrets-12-secret-places-nobod

16.01.2022 By Peta Shaw Space Created In order to compose one must think. In order to think one must make space for thinking. I forget where I read it, but it sprang to mind when I arrived at Phillips cabin with a feeling of optimism and a fortnight of unadulterated precious time ahead. Upon settling at the desk my first thought was: space created. Literally, as in a vast desk and an open view to let the thoughts come through, also as in space in mind and schedule: no distractions or...Continue reading

13.01.2022 By Les Wicks The only complaint I have about my KSP residency is that it had to end! Time to write is one of the most precious gifts that can be given to a writer. I can honestly say that I treasured and made full use of that gift. While the stay for a poor novelist might’ve been sitting chained to his or her desk for eight hours, the poet’s productivity is a little more free range. I read Perth writers’ poems, books on poetics, cranked up the music or went on long hikes arou...Continue reading

13.01.2022 The night shift. By Kathy Sharpe Stories live here. They start off shuttered inside cabins, but make their way out, sitting down at the dinner table, exhaling along verandahs, drifting out into the night garden. We come here, propelled by our own story and drawn to the stories of others. Words are untangled, in the night over glasses of wine, in the mornings over sunshine and coffee, in the quiet of the golden afternoons. ...Continue reading

12.01.2022 The Value of Empty Time By Penny Gibson I spent two whole weeks in July, devoted to my collection of short stories, at the KSP Writing Centre, courtesy of a Fellowship which I was fortunate enough to have been awarded.Too often at home I don’t privilege my writing, because there is so much Stuff to be done bill paying, volunteer work, family time, friends time; social media time, including the worst time waster, Words with Friends; workshopping time, shopping, organising fo...r things to be done at home, Art time, housework ( nearly forgot that) all of which are essential or enjoyable, but take me away from writing. I rediscovered the Golden Hour, the first hour of the day, writing in bed, or in a chair, with a cup of tea, setting down early morning thoughts and ideas which can sometimes lead in new and surprising directions. I rediscovered the pleasure of making stuff up, the joy of writing that was the reason I first began to write. I allowed myself ‘down time’, empty time, for dreaming and thinking or not thinking. Listening to music, and allowing ideas to form and coalesce and become bright bubbles. Purposeful reading, exploring the ways in which other writers have treated the problems I am faced with. I had a meeting with my mentor, Laurie Steed who, as always, encouraged me, and made suggestions for the task of putting the stories in my collection in order. I found this inspiring and exciting, a new way of looking at the stories and the ways in which they do or do not speak to each other. I am so grateful to the KSP Writing Centre for this gift of time and a beautiful place to write, and to Laurie, as always for his kind and wise advice. Penny Gibson

12.01.2022 By Tracey Gregory For a few years I had wanted to apply for a fellowship at KSP Writer’s Centre, but I never did. Fellowships were for ‘real’ writers, not someone like me - an unpublished writer who was struggling to finish her first novel. Last year I decided to apply. I had zero expectations when I sent off the application. I was shocked and excited to be given a First Edition Fellowship and to be included by KSP in the Four Centres Emerging Writers Programme. Turns out, fe...Continue reading

09.01.2022 Permission to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ By Amanda Gardiner My two weeks as a KSP Resident was a productive and interesting experience for me. I wonder if one of the important benefits of a residency, in addition to time (which is, of course, key) is the permission to say ‘no’ to the demands and expectations of everyday life and to privilege your creative practice for a sustained period.... As someone who has to work to pay my bills, being awarded the residency allowed me to clearly state the boundaries of my creative energy and attention for two weeks. It gave me space to immerse myself in another world. I found out things about myself and the ways that I think and remembered others. I went in with a set plan and clear goals of what I wanted to achieve and it did not turn out like that for me. The residency helped me contemplate the obstacles and rules I have put around my writing. As a result of the sustained thinking about the story, I found I would dream about my novel, wake up in the middle of the night, or early in the morning, unable to go back to sleep until I had written down newly-imagined plot twists. During the two weeks, I reworked the structure of my entire novel and also generated multiple new ideas regarding the plot. I also created a new character, who in turn has influenced the existing draft. My daily, early morning walks (weather permitting) in the national park were spectacular and gave me time to mull over my work. I found I needed this physical activity to counteract the sustained hours sitting in front of a computer. It was lovely to meet with Louise and Penny, my fellow writers in residence. We would often meet at the end of the day to work through a writerly puzzle and have general chats about life.

08.01.2022 Cabin Fever Fuels the Soul By Kelly Van Nelson I never knew the deafening sound of silence until arriving at KSP to complete a two-week residency as a First Edition Fellow. My ears have somehow adapted over the years to the dog barking, the electric guitar at full throttle, the theme tune of friends blaring all at the same time. They’ve acclimatised to life’s madness that loudly whirrs along. I’ve learned to work anytime, anyplace, anywhere, pushing the noise into a backgr...Continue reading

05.01.2022 Thanks Emma Young for this wonderfully inspiring blog post. It's comforting to know that accomplished authors who win publishing contracts have moments of self-doubt - and not only that, are willing to share tips on how to overcome them. For more posts from Emma, visit her website: https://damagecatastrophic.com/ From pitiful draft to a publishing contract: meet my mentor in shining armour...Continue reading

03.01.2022 Arriving by @Adele Dumont I will admit that in my first couple of days at KSP some things annoyed me: the inescapable sound of the highway; the overly-chlorinated tap water; being stuck in outer suburbia without my bike. I felt hazy with jetlag even though the gap between Sydney and Perth is actually only two hours, and I dreaded bumping into anyone and having to studiously evade their inevitable questions about my ‘writing’. At the desk I had been given, I found myself resi...sting the work that I had come to do. And along with this resistance, guilt: that I had come all this way to not write. I managed to take my self-administered prescriptions (2000 words a day, 2 hours of reading, 2 hours of editing) but I did so with the enthusiasm of someone who has trouble swallowing tablets. My resistance was not only in mind but in body too: under the pretext of seeking out decent coffee, I escaped the centre at every opportunity, telling myself that since I had after all flown all this way to be here, then it would be a waste not to explore the city. That to compensate for my lack of inspiration the least I could do was pay a visit to some art galleries and beaches and bookshops * At some imperceptible point things shifted in my little cabin instead of the Spotify Discovery Weekly playlist I’d been bribing myself with, I switched to Storm Sounds, and then two days after that to Rain Sounds. And by the second week I was able to brave facing my manuscript alone, unaccompanied by anything but the highway sounds, but curiously these appeared to have faded, and instead I could hear black cockatoos out my window. And instead of itching to escape my little cabin, even when I was only as far away as Katharine’s kitchen I started to miss its cosiness. Or more specifically, I started to miss being in the company of my manuscript: like a new lover, it felt good just to be in the same room; to be in its presence. At one point on one of the last days, one of the fellows took the three of us for a drive to an un-wet waterfall and when we got back in the car, she asked: what do you guys wanna do now? Did you feel like doing something else, or shall we just go home? And I thought: yes, it is curious how very quickly a place can come to feel like home.