The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award unites writers from around the world in a celebration of excellence in poetry and short fiction. Whether this is your first writing venture or you have published works previously, the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is an opportunity to showcase your writing to a wider audience. Finalists from the latest edition of the Award cover a broad range of topics reflecting upon contemporary life and culture through writing. We present a selection of finalists whose contributions to the literary world are great, and continue to impact upon new writing today.

Paul Hetherington, Angels at Nedlands Primary School, 1968
Shortlisted for the 2013 Montreal International Poetry Prize and the 2013 Newcastle Poetry Prize, Paul Hetherington has recently been writing poems about how we understand paintings. Stephen Edgar calls his eighth poetry collection, Six Different Windows (UWA Publishing 2013), “rewarding and memorable” and Vivienne Glance says it’s “a joy to read.” He is head of the International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI) at the University of Canberra and one of the founding editors of the international online journal Axon: Creative Explorations.

Michael Travisano, Orange Suns
Michael Travisano writes poems out of a fascination with language, what can be expressed in words, and what not; always intrigued by where poems come from and all they can be. His poetry saves an ordinary moment or tells a large story and, in a way, salvages permanently on paper some part of our lives. Orange Sun, published in the Aesthetic Creative Writing Annual is from a dark time, death close, love and a lover at a distance. Lastly, all the poems are because of Suzanne.

Paul Sutherland, Red Candle Holder
British-Canadian freelance author Paul Sutherland is founding editor of the Literary Journal, Dream Catcher, and has produced nine poetry collections. His grounded but visionary writing explores the earthly, human and spiritual. He’s a frequent performer of his poetry, creative writing tutor, mentor and writers’ retreat organiser. In July 2014 Poems on the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (saws), (Muslim Academic Trust) was published. A New and Selected Poems is planned from Valley Press, 2015.

Michael Casey, Clotho Learns to Knit
Educated in New Ross, Dublin and Cambridge where he was awarded a PhD, Michael Casey has published a novel, Come Home Robbie, and a book of non-fiction, Ireland’s Malaise. His poetry and short stories have appeared in literary journals, including anthologies, and have attracted several awards, domestic and international. Some of his short plays have been produced by The Umbrella Theatre Company. He has also published over a hundred articles in the Sunday Times, Irish Times and other newspapers.

Jessica Glover, Exposé
Jessica Glover teaches for the English department and the Gender and Women’s Studies programme at Oklahoma State University. Her work has appeared in American Literary Review, Magma Poetry, Comstock Review, Broad River Review, and Reed Magazine among others. She won the 2013 Mississippi Valley National Poetry Contest, the 2013 Rash Awards, the 2013 Hard Times Writing Contest for Creative Non-fiction, and the 2012 Edwin Markham Prize for Poetry. Her work is forthcoming in EDGE, Spillway, and the 2014 MuseWrite Anthology Shifts. Her first book Hunger House is currently a finalist in two national poetry competitions.

Entries close 31 August for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. For more information and to submit visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/creativewriting.

Pick up a copy of the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual to read these writers’ works along with other finalists’ selected pieces. Visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/shop.

Credits
1. Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual Cover Image: Lily Cheetham, 1957-1995 (2012).

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