As part of 2022’s Flinders Festival of Creative Arts, Last Call: We’re Dying for a Drink, a collection of short stories by Flinders Creative Writing students, will be brought to life by Drama Centre students. A collaboration between the disciplines that so far hasn’t occurred in this form.
At this fun event in the Tav there will be a chance to meet the authors, buy the book, and listen to the creators discuss the creative process and the experience of studying at Flinders.
Bringing Last Call to the stage
Senior Lecturer Dr Amy Matthews is super excited about the Creative Writing event, “Last Call is where you get to see the end result of a degree in Creative Writing – a published book! This event is really special, because not only is it a book launch, but we also have the incredible Flinders Drama Centre students taking some of the stories and dramatizing them in a live performance. This event kicks off a series of anthologies our Creative Writing students will be publishing in coming years.”
Senior Lecturer Dr Sean Williams tells us more about how the collaboration came about, “The staff in Creative Arts are always collaborating, on performances, short films, podcasts, novels and more, and we love to get our students collaborating too. The anthology is such a cracking read that the Drama staff thought it would make great material for the Drama students to work on monologues.
“They’ve taken the book, and the background material the Creative Writing students produced, and adapted it into a series of monologues, which they’ve been rehearsing all semester. We’re incredibly excited to see the performance.“
left to right top: Abby Guy, Harrison Stewart, Tabby Knight. Second Row (seated): Tylah Anderson, Zoe Panteladis
The book and its authors
Last Call is an anthology of short stories devised, written, and edited by our Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing) students and published by our partner Glimmer Press. The collection follows a university astronomy club on an ill-fated pub crawl: there are werewolves, portals through time, mayhem, murder, and everything in between.
13 Creative Writing students worked on this project, mentored by Amy and by Lynnette Washington at Glimmer Press. The editorial team consisted of Abby Guy, Harrison Stewart, Tabby Knight, Tylah Anderson and Zoe Panteladis, who have since graduated from their Bachelor of Creative Arts in Creative Writing and are now completing their Honours degrees. Most are planning to apply for PhDs in Creative Writing at Flinders University after their Honours degrees.
Creative Writing student Harrison Stewart tells us more about the inspiration behind Last Call, “There was a lot of work pre-writing that really shaped Last Call into what it is today. We were all undergrads at the time, and we wanted a final ‘piece’ together to really solidify the end of our degrees and the time we had spent together.
“The simple answer, for what inspired Last Call, would be the collective desire to move into the publishing world post-degree, with a work of fiction that put our names out into the industry, boosted our profiles and helped us understand the breadth of work behind publishing a book.”
The creative process behind Last Call
“Each author presented their ideas to the collective group, pitching different stories, themes, focuses, and expectations. From there we voted on the idea that seemed the soundest, and the decision reached was a pub crawl setting, with a focus on multiperspectivity. From there we started working on our characters, plots, and character relationships”, Creative Writing student Abby tells us.
“Initially, our creative process was smooth. We set about our writing independently, focusing on characters we individually loved, and chose to work on the through line between each story later. Would we do it like that again? Probably not. But that’s all part of working with such a large group of authors in a collaborative setting, it’s not always easy.
“The style of anthology we chose to write is extremely interwoven, with all characters interacting together to a particular schedule of events, and choosing to write individually at first created more problems than we expected. Working through the inconsistencies between each story in the final edits was tough.
“But, despite it all, the book is in people’s hands now and the final product we’ve created is something we are very proud of. It was an incredible process to be involved in, working closely alongside our publisher, Lynette Washington, and it has taught us so much about the writing industry that we would otherwise never have known. Early reviews have been promising from family and friends, and hopefully, people enjoy the book as much as we have.”
The inaugural Flinders Festival of Creative Arts
Sean is not only excited about launching Last Call, but for the Festival week in general, “It’s beyond exciting to have the full breadth of Creative Arts at Flinders on show in a single week. I can’t think of anywhere else where you have so many different creative disciplines at work: creative writing, screen, performing arts (including drama and dance), costume and fashion, visual effects and entertainment design, and even the Flinders University Museum of Art. It’s a wonderful chance to step into the busy, sparkly, fun practice and scholarship of the Creative Arts at Flinders.
Amy and Sean find it hard to pick just one other event they want to see and are aiming to take part in as many as they can. “We’re keen to make the Assemblage presents THE FUTURE: 2022 and beyond event on the Wednesday. It will be a chance to see the research that happens in Creative Arts and to hear from the Artists in Residence that have been funded by the Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts.
“We’re lucky to be in a university that has a Centre devoted to the Creative Arts, and to have so many colleagues producing impactful art and world-changing scholarship. Assemblage is one of the places where our staff and students interact with the Creative Arts industries and with emerging and established artists – we think this will be a really thought-provoking and inspiring event.”
Why should you join in on the fun?
Creative Writing student Abby explains the importance of the Festival to the group, “Our event, the launch of Last Call, gives us the opportunity to share not only what our cohort has achieved, but also a little insight into what the Creative Writing degree looks like – an opportunity that doesn’t often arise.
“Celebrating the wins of up-and-coming students in the Creative Arts is so important as we tentatively dip our toes into the professional world. Not only do you get to be some of the first people to hold our book in your hands, but also the first to see the characters you’ll read about come to life in the Drama students’ performances.
“It will be so exciting to finally see our hard work hit the spotlight! And we will be attending the other events, too. We can’t wait to be surrounded by fellow Creative Arts cohorts and get to showcase what makes our degrees so irresistible. It’s a great chance to see what the other cohorts have been working hard on all year.
“Flinders University is so unique in its diversity within the Arts, and festivals like the Flinders Festival of Creative Arts give the wider community the opportunity to see that. There is such terrific work on display, work that’s taken dedicated students an enormous amount of time to complete, and like us, the vast majority of these students hold their work with such pride.
“These events are not something to miss if you understand that, not to mention these could be household names in the future! Visual artists, authors, dancers and actors that may just one day write your favourite book, and produce or act in your favourite TV show.
“Last Call will be available for purchase on the night at a discounted cost for launch attendees, with authors present to sign your copy. We would be absolutely grateful to share our work with you.”
Register for Launching Last Call
Save your spot at this Creative Writing and Drama Student Showcase now. You’ll be in for a treat.
Register here.