The High Country Writers group is an informal gathering of wordsmiths who started meeting at The Makers Shed in Glen Innes. Now, the results of their labour are set to be launched by a new publishing imprint.
The group initially started meeting in mid-2019 at the original Makers Shed, a small corrugated-iron shop at the southern end of the high street of Glen Innes. In 2024, the group moved with the business to a century-old former butcher shop on the New England Highway at Deepwater, at the heart of the traditional lands of the Ngarrabul people.
Participants from Glen Innes, Inverell, Bingara, Grafton, Ashford and Deepwater regularly discussed the art of writing until one member suggested the group start to write 300-word responses to a prompt, one word or a short phrase selected at random from the High Country Books shelves in the lounge area where we meet.
This ‘homework’ was then read out to the group at the next session, leading to many wonderful listening experiences for all those within earshot.
Somewhere along the line, my partner Richard Moon and I decided we needed to create a new publishing company – High Country Books – to ensure these moments weren’t left hanging invisible in the air, and offered to publish the work with each writer’s permission.
The result – ‘Diving Into Deep Water: 2-minute plunges for time-poor literary lovers’ – captures an incredible breadth of storytelling by Narelle Fernance (Grafton), D’Arcy Lloyd (Inverell), Barbara Maxwell (Glen Innes), Chris McIntosh (Deepwater), Kris Nissam (Bingara), Brydie O’Shea (Ashford) and Anna Russell (Glen Innes).
According to Russell, writing to a prompt was freeing.
“I could write anything, any genre, any style, with no preconceptions,” she said.
“The stories themselves aren’t autobiographical, but my lived experience and the 300-word limit allowed me an immediacy that is not always present in my writing.”
McIntosh said the project has been a rewarding experience, and the discipline of reading the work to the group helped keep him focussed.
“It was also great to hear the wide range of responses from other writers to the same prompts,” he said.
“This project has been the final kick in the pants I needed to get serious about my writing.
“I’ve had ideas going around in my head for years that I never got around to doing anything with. Now I’ve started work on my first novel.”
Journalist Kristy Reading of ABC New England North West’s Thursday Book Club called ‘Diving Into Deep Water’, “the dream of many writers”.
“Long may regional and rural writers have a place to come together, be inspired and supported,” she said.
“Here’s to that creativity being given the outlet and spotlight it deserves, and for readers to have more opportunities to read stories from beyond the cities.”
‘Diving Into Deep Water’ includes almost eighty stories covering multiple genres: crime, horror, historical fiction, humour, fantasy, poetry, experimental fiction and non-fiction.
Dive in … and keep an eye out other titles from High Country Books.
‘Diving Into Deep Water’ will be launched by Kristy Reading of ABC New England North West on Saturday July 19, from 2pm as part of Winter at the Shed, a free afternoon of art and words at The Makers Shed on the New England Highway in Deepwater. A new exhibition of works by Inverell artist Peter Champion will also be opened. 10% of all sales at this event will be donated to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service. Head to www.themakersshed.org/high-country-books/ for more information.
