30 August 2010
Getting the write career path
The audience enjoys a Big Ideas at RMIT Capitol Theatre session last year. Photos courtesy Melbourne Writers Festival.
Former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, is among many public figures who have spoken at the Capitol Theatre.
Related links
Related stories
- RMIT news in brief 12/09/2011
- Record entries for RMIT mobile poetry competition 13/09/2010
- A poem by any other name would be just as tweet 09/07/2010
- Writers bare their soul 28/08/2009
RMIT University alumnus, Steve Grimwade, is the man behind the Melbourne Writers Festival, one of the biggest of its kind in the world.
The festival, which opened on the weekend, showcases more than 300 events over 10 days, covering topics including sustainability, religion, politics and writing.
RMIT is a sponsor, hosting the festival’s Big Ideas series of talks in the Capitol Theatre in the city.
Mr Grimwade graduated from the Professional Writing and Editing program with an Associate Diploma in the late 1990s.
He told The Age last week that RMIT lecturer, Antoni Jach, had changed his life.
"Antoni Jach, who taught small press publishing, had a good breadth of knowledge across publishing and he helped many students in different fields of endeavour.
"He was open to our ideas rather than just telling us what to think. He also helped me to understand that I was not a short story writer."
RMIT’s involvement in the festival runs deep. Michael Webster, Program Director, Postgraduate Communication, in the School of Media and Communication, chairs the festival board.
And a significant proportion of the 450 or more speakers are RMIT lecturers or alumni.
"Every year our links with industry grow, so it's great to see so many of our graduates involved in such a festival", Discipline Head, Writing and Communication, Professor Catherine Cole, said.
RMIT is also running a mobile poetry competition, with more than 50 poems of 140 characters or less being published daily via electronic tickertape at Federation Square and through twitter.
The competition, which is in its third year, attracted a record entry of more than 300 works.
The festival runs until Sunday, 5 September.
RMIT is hosting a postgraduate information session on creative writing on Thursday, 14 October, at RMIT Info Corner, on the corner of Swanston and La Trobe streets.
