Week 8 Newsletter

Greetings Symposiasts!

It’s the last week before the mid-semester break and I’m eyeing off all the chocolates that are building up in the grocery stores; I foresee a lot of chocolate goodies being consumed at Symposium after the holidays!

Calendar & Updates

This Thursday (NOT Friday!) is the Symposium Pizza & Movie night! We’re going to be watching Bright Star, a take on John Keats’ later years, and a breathtaking one at that. But please note, the movie night is being held in the Hartley Teakle building (83), room S301. Please don’t come to the wrong room on the wrong day!

Last week the theme was music and, thus, the remainder of this weeks’ newsletter is dedicated largely to music recommendations; go and have a listen, you mind find something new to keep you grooving.

Entertainment Corner

What We're Hearing

Here's what we're all listening to at the moment—

Thames:

Some sad songs:

·         Gary Juels—‘Mad World’

·         Barbarossa—‘Stones’

A happy number:

·         Elemental—‘Cup of Brown Joy’

Brian:

·         Jimmy Wong—‘The Face Behind Me’

·         Alan Lastufka & Luke Conrad ft. Kristina Horner—‘Mirror Song’

·         His very own youtube channel!

Geraldine

·         Elvis Perkins—‘While You Were Sleeping’ 

Josh

·         Patrick Wolf—‘The Magic Position’

·       Sigur Rós—‘Gobbledigook’

Lan

·         The Band Perry—‘If I Die Young’

Michael

·         Joshua Kadison—‘Sanctuary’

What We're Reading

This week, I would like to direct you all to some of Lan’s famous Harry Potter fanfics! She has both Draco/Hermione and Harry/Pansy fanfiction works and her website looks like a great place to hang if you’re getting sick of making flash cards and eating chocolates this holidays!

Once you’ve gone back to your Harry Potter days—a nostalgic journey for many—my aunt and I are tag-team writing the sequel to her first novel! A comedy crime about an overzealous blonde whose not all too handy with weaponry as she solves crime on the Sunshine Coast, the novel will appear piece-by-piece on her blog.

Writing Challenge

If you’re still looking for a bit of fun over the break, here’s some more writing challenges to keep you busy (and don’t forget to email us your entry for last week’s!)

·         In contrast to our first challenge, write a poem describing a woman as an item of weaponry.

·         In light of last week’s theme, write to the phrase they fought with music.

·         This has happened to me many times this semester so answer the question why does it always rain when I wear my red shoes?

·          A bit of romance: write a poem from the point of view of a historic character you admire to their lover.

·         For those into Sci-Fi: A scientists mutates worms to have clover-shaped DNA. What happens to them?

·         Write a poem describing your favourite meal.

·         Answer the question: what is one piece of advice you wished you’d listened to?

·         In the flavour of Easter, describe the world from the point of view of a rabbit.

·         Again, also in the flavour of Easter, describe the world from the point of view of a Lindt Chocolate Rabbit, in either prose or poetry.

·         Finally, write a poem to that person. You know who they are.

POETICA GRATIA POETICAE

Sincerely,

Katelyn

 

Week 7 Newsletter

Greetings Symposiasts!

Our diaries are red with due dates and our textbooks a rainbow of sticky notes as we round the corner of the semester; but as always, Symposium brings a little tranquillity and reflection to our busy lives. What a better way to end the week than with friends, poetry, laughter and, in the case of last week’s meeting, some well-enjoyed prose.

Calendar & Updates

With Josh—Sym-prose-ium president—threatening to overthrow rule once again, we shared not poetry but stories in the first Sym-prose-ium event of the year. We enjoyed works from a plethora of authors including Virgina Wolf, Thomas Hardy, Rosamond Lehman and even some fan fiction from Lan, our treasurer! The week prior we read narrative and dramatised poetry, with Caitlin and Josh giving us a lovely rendition of Gondala by Robert Browning.

Having already had our original works meeting for the semester, we saw the highest attendance ever at Symposium several weeks ago and we got the chance to hear many lovely poems from old and new members alike. After the success of the member’s own poetry night, there was much talk of hosting our own poetry performance night to raise money for this year’s anthology.

Coming up on the 22nd of April we are also having the Symposium movie night (any literature-related movie recommendations are welcome--just email us!) and there's even been whispers of an end of semester get-together involving music, dancing and unfathomably delicious food!

Entertainment Corner

What We’re Reading

This week, I would like to recommend to you all the second novel of Jackson Pearce—a YA fantasy author whose blog I have been following for the past year or so. Her novel Sister’s Red is a modern take of little red riding hood and explores the nuances of sisterly relationships. Pearce’s prose is beautiful and breathtaking and impossible to put down. I was entirely captured by the story and I can’t wait to read Sweetly, a companion novel to Sister’s Red based on the fable of Hansel and Gretel. You can hear her reading my favourite lines from the novel here.

What We’re Hearing

We have two music recommendations this week, the first from Josh and the second from Felicity. Josh recommends to us band you might not have heard before, their music coming to us all the way from Iceland. Here’s what Josh had to say:

Album: Ágætis byrjun
Artist: Sigur Ros
The breakout second album by Icelandic post-rock band, released in 1999, it is slow, melodic, and beautiful. Lead vocalist Jonsi uses his high falsetto almost as an instrument to combine well with piano, strings, guitar, bass, and drums to create beautiful music.

Felicity has highlighted the Queen song ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ as one we should be uploading to our iPods.

Writing Challenge

The winner’s of the last writing challenge will be announced officially at the next meeting!

This week’s writing challenge is:

in the spirit of Sym-prose-ium, answer the question what happens when the dark horse takes control?

 

POETICA GRATIA POETICAE

Sincerely,

Katelyn

 

Ps. I apologise for the non-fornightly-ness of the newsletter, but assure you that the newsletters will be weekly from now til the end of semester; I’m even planning some fun writing challenges to keep you busy over the holidays!