TEXT is published by the Australasian Association of Writing Programs

Full information about AAWP can be found at AAWP's website http://www.aawp.org.au/
See also The AAWP Guide to Australian and New Zealand university writing programs available online at the AAWP website.

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The Next Conference

2011 AAWP conference:
Southern Cross University at Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
23-25 November 2011
Ethical Imaginations: Writing Worlds

History of AAWP
The Australian Association of Writing Programs was established in 1996 with its first conference, a gathering of teachers and students of creative and professional writing at the University of Technology, Sydney and organised by Graham Williams and Dr Jan Hutchinson. Since then it has grown, holding annual conferences at campuses around Australia. The annual AAWP Conference is now the most important forum in Australia for the discussion of all aspects of teaching creative and professional writing and for debating current theories on creativity and writing.

In 1996 members of AAWP established the online journal TEXT, an independent refereed journal which publishes a wide range of research, reviews and debates on creative and professional writing and the teaching of writing in academic and industry contexts. The first 21 issues of TEXT were hosted on the Griffith University website. In 2009 there are more than 1200 subcribers to TEXT, approximately 350 of them accessing the journal from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Asia, and 850 in North America.

In 1999-2002 the editors of TEXT compiled the first database of its kind on tertiary institutions and courses offered Australia-wide and in New Zealand. (The Guide is now available online at the AAWP website.) This was the beginning of a compilation of basic statistics on writing teaching in Australasia, an area which has grown rapidly. This growth might be gauged by the fact that in 1999 there were 8 PhD courses in creative writing offered around Australia; in 2009 researcher Nicola Boyd in her TEXT article in the April issue identified 31 doctorates on offer.

In 2000 AAWP initiated a program of State-based Seminars, the first of which were held in Adelaide and Melbourne. These seminars involved many of the teachers of writing in a given state, from both the TAFE and University sectors. Topics under discussion included publishability and publishable standard; exegesis; and examination procedures and practices.

In 2010 the association voted to change its name to The Australasian Association of Writing Programs, to reflect its representation of writing programs across a broader region, including New Zealand and Asia.

National conferences of AAWP have been held at:

1996 University of Technology, Sydney
1997 Deakin University and RMIT University, Melbourne
1998 University of Adelaide
1999 Edith Cowan University, Perth
2000 Griffith University, Gold Coast
2001 University of Canberra
2002 University of Melbourne
2003 University of New South Wales
2004 Flinders University, Adelaide
2005 Curtin University of Technology, Perth
2006 Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
2007 University of Canberra
2008 University of Technology, Sydney
2009 Waikato Institute of Technology, Hamilton, NZ
2010 RMIT University, Melbourne

The association will hold its 16th conference at Southern Cross University at Byron Bay, NSW on 23-25 November 2011.

An electronic quarterly newsletter of general news for AAWP members began in March 2003 and is currently edited by Dr Lynda Hawryluk at CQ University. The newsletter is available at http://www.aawp.org.au/aawp-newsletters

Past-Presidents of AAWP include Judith Rodriguez, Professor Tom Shapcott, Dr Eva Sallis, Professor Jeri Kroll, Associate Professor Donna Lee Brien and Dr Marcelle Freiman. Professor Jen Webb of University of Canberra currently presides. She can be contacted at Jen.Webb@canberra.edu.au

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