Last year we set out to identify a set of eight books, which together describe what it's like to live in, be from, visit or in some other way connect with the eight different states and territories. We wanted to create a collection of books which, if read together, articulates the Australian experience - remote, regional, suburban and metropolitan.
Now take part in Australia's biggest book group, based on the Our Story collection.
Is a fun, educational activity for under 12s and their families. It's based on award winning author and illustrator Alison Lester's book Are We There Yet?, which tells the story of her family's journey around Australia in a camper van. Now it's your turn to tell us about your home town or a special place you have visited in Australia. We've organised a national competition for children from ages 2-12 to tell us about their home town or a special place they have visited in Australia. Just send us a short story or a letter or a drawing of your favourite place (get your parents or a teacher to help) and you could win a fabulous prize. The competition will move around the country on a month by month basis, beginning in the Northern Territory on the 14 February 2012 and ending in Victoria.
And Are We There Yet? provides all kinds of opportunities for creative reading events at a local level, in addition to the national competition.
Alison Lester's artwork from her book Are We There Yet? will also be part of a beautiful exhibition. The exhibition shows both the original illustrations as well as the preliminary and developmental stages in the making of the book - from Alison's children's actual travel diaries, through text, illustration and design drafts, to the final published book - including a number of folios of developmental drawings. The tour will move around the country throughout 2012 starting in Darwin on the 1 - 22 February and ending in Victoria in December 2012.
It's never too late … to learn to read" is a short story competition for unpublished, new, emerging and established Australian writers in Adult Learners Week.
Click here to see the winners!
$40,000-worth of prizes!
Your favourite book's 'the best', but can you convince your friends? Here's your chance to get really creative. Produce a film trailer, draw a picture, write a song, print a T-shirt - whatever works for you.
Enter your creation in our competition and you could win one of our amazing prizes.
We've partnered with insideadog.com.au, spineout.com.au and Madman Entertainment to create this fantastic competition.
During 2012, eight writers will be 'in residence' in workplaces around the country. Our first writer-in-residence was poet and short story writer Kaye Aldenhoven in the Northern Territory during August 2011. She spent a week at Mary River National Park and another week at Garig Gunak Barlk National Park (Coburg Peninsular). She was working closely with park rangers to help them tell their stories about the unique, challenging, and sometimes downright dangerous work that they carry out. Parks and Wildlife is a division of the Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport. We will be publishing the results of her visits as soon as we can.
IAD festival in Alice Springs 8 September 2011. IAD Press hosts the first ever Sharing Our Stories – Anwerne-kenhe Ayeye Festival to celebrate national Indigenous Literacy Day. A feast for the eyes and ears! See and hear Indigenous storytellers from the heart of Australia share their culture through spoken word, art and song. For more information and to register for these workshops, contact IAD Press on 08 8951 1337.
One of our campaigns key ideas for 2012 is to support the excellent work already being done in Australia around reading and writing, and in particular by those organisations which work in some of the country's remotest territories and communities. We are grateful to have the opportunity to help these organisations in their valuable projects - please visit their sites to see how you can help.
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation aims to raise literacy levels and improve the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Australians living in remote and isolated regions. This is done by providing books and literacy resources to Indigenous communities and raising broad community awareness of Indigenous literacy issues. Visit the ILF website to see how you can contribute to their projects, and to find out how they'll be celebrating the National Year of Reading 2012. (Click here to visit)
The Smith Family is a national, independent children's charity helping disadvantaged Australians to get the most out of their education, so they can create better futures for themselves. The Smith Family's work in 95 Australian communities is extended and enhanced by the 20,000 members of VIEW Clubs of Australia together with nearly 6,800 volunteers from the community and its corporate partners, who volunteer their time and energy to ensure the organisation reaches children in need. Find out how you can get involved. (Click here to visit)
The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) is dedicated to raising language, literacy and numeracy standards in Australia and raises funds to develop, implement and sustain innovative projects for individuals, families and communities. We think the ALNF's Share a Book program is a perfect partner activity for the National Year of Reading. Find out more here. (Click here to visit)
We're hoping that people who have never been a library member will take a look, and that people who haven't been into a library since they left school or university will take a fresh look at what they have to offer.
The membership drive will be launched during Library & Information Week, 21- 27 May 2012, and will run for 12 weeks.
The Reading Hour will be our call to action for the National Year of Reading.
Our aim will be to establish the idea that everyone will benefit from reading for at least an hour a week and we will ask our National Year of Reading ambassadors to act as high profile role models.
We hope to hold this event in 2013 - watch this space.
There will be no further updates to the calendar at this time – please check back in 2013 for updates.
Access our free Love2Read app and use it to find your nearest library, check out all the events happening around Australia and celebrate reading with our Free Reads.
Check out our National Year of Reading report which highlights all our successes during 2012.
