In this issue:
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COVID-19
The Coronavirus is posing many challenges for many people and organisations including schools, libraries and teachers as well as Speakers Ink Speakers. To adapt to the new norm, we wanted to remind everyone of alternative ways that our Speakers are able to present what they do!
Perhaps a Virtual Visit from an author, poet, illustrator or other speaker could fit in well in this strange set of circumstances we now all face? Many of our speakers have successfully delivered wonderful presentations remotely via the technology available in classrooms and libraries. Please be sure to contact our office via a website enquiry, email or phone call to book a virtual session.
As a new initiative, we have also been exploring Video Recorded Sessions. These sessions would be customised to each client who made a booking - personalised intro, general author talk and final question and answer session (answering 10 questions provided in advance by the students). These sessions would either be 1-hour or 45-mins in length.
Each video recorded session would be made available for 1-week to enable it to be viewed by small groups or individual students from their homes. The client (school/council/conference etc) would be asked to agree not to download, copy or record the session (to protect the Intellectual Property of the speaker). Costs would be quoted based on the number of students who would view the presentation. This initiative may not be offered by all speakers, but if you are interested, please contact our office to make an enquiry.
Finally, our speakers are adapting very quickly to the changing circumstances we now all face, and many have started to offer free online snippets for all to enjoy. We are updating speaker profile pages on a daily basis with what they are offering. These range from free how to draw segments and exercises on developing a family story from photos to videos of animals in the wild - and the list goes on! If you would like to see what your favourite speaker is up to, be sure to check out their profile page on our website.
These are difficult times for all involved, and we are doing what we can to ensure that schools and speakers can adapt to new technologies moving forward.
If you would like to pursue a video recorded session, virtual visit or need to reschedule a current booking to a new date, please contact our office. Please also note that current bookings can be adapted to video recorded sessions or virtual visits if needed.
Therefore, I encourage you all to check out the wonderful speakers that we represent. All have something valuable to offer!
Congratulations! - Awards News
Congratulations to all the creators and publishers honoured in the latest round of awards.
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have announced their 2020 shortlist and Mr Chicken All Over Australia (Allen and Unwin), by Leigh Hobbs has been shortlisted in the award for Children's Picture Book of the Year. Detention (Penguin Random House, Puffin) by Tristan Bancks has been shortlisted in the Book of the Year for Older Children Award. We look forward to the winners' announcement on Wed 13 May, online at abiawards.com.au.
The NSW Premier's Literary Award includes two awards for younger readers: The Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature and the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature. This year, Tristan Bancks (Detention) was included on the shortlist for the Patricia Wrightson and Lian Tanner and Jonathan Bentley (Ella and the Ocean) have been declared the winners. Karen Foxlee (Lenny's Book of Everything) has won the Ethel Turner Prize, with Pip Harry (The Little Wave) being included on the shortlist for the award.
The Spotlight is on new Video Presentations
As noted previously, several of our speakers are now branching out, offering pre-recorded video presentations that are tailored to your needs. Two of our presenters now offering this are as follows:
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Tristan Bancks is offering General Author Talk pre-recorded video presentations. Presentations are tailored for either an upper primary school audience or a secondary school audience. The presentations are personalised for each school and at the end of the talk, Tristan answers up to 10 questions that have been provided by the students.
Be sure to check out Tristan's profile page for more details on these presentations. If you scroll to the bottom of his Bio, you can watch a small "trailer" on what these sessions include.
Tristan's presentations are available for one week, allowing students to watch the presentations in the classroom, in small groups or individually online from home.
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Nick Earls is offering two new pre-recorded video presentations - a Narrative Toolkit General Author Talk and a Narrative Toolkit Workshop. These videos are aimed at providing writing advice to secondary students.
Complete information on what the two different presentations cover, together with a link to a "trailer" advertising these presentations can be found under the "Narrative Toolkit Video Streaming" tab on his profile page.
Nick's presentations will be made available for varying amounts of time to allow students to watch the General Author Talk and then be able to refer back to that whilst working through the tasks set out in the Workshop session. Once the students have completed their writing, Nick is happy to receive questions and provide answers.
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To protect the Intellectual Property of our speakers, there are strict guidelines that need to be agreed to prior to these videos being made available. If you are interested in finding out more about these video presentations, please make sure to contact our office by website enquiry, phone or email.
Dates for your Diary
"We read to know we are not alone" - C.S. Lewis
Yours in promoting literacy from all at the Speakers Ink team,
Sandie, Margie, Jan, Lia, Rob, Matt and James
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