Wagga writing group goes into recess after government funding dries up

The Wagga-based centre was denied funding after two applications they sent to Create NSW, the state government funding body for arts and culture, failed and now the future of the centre is uncertain.

Booranga president David Gilbey faces the daunting task of finding funding elsewhere, while also having to tell staff the coffers had dried up.

"The genius in the funding, the grant to support the continuance of the writers centres, was that it paid the salary of the part-time workers, the infrastructure that made the whole organisation viable," Mr Gilbey said.

"When the grant was not awarded it meant that we couldn't pay staff, basically gutting the employment that makes the writers centre not viable."

Kathryn Halliwell lost her job as the creative director of the Booranga Writers Centre due to the funding cuts, which have been slowly dwindling away for the last few years.

"It was $46,500 when I first started seven-and-a-half years ago and then it gradually went down to $35,000, we managed to get $40,000 last year," Ms Halliwell said.

"I've enjoyed the work and I've put a lot of effort into it... there are a lot of things I'm going to have to hand over to the committee in the next few weeks."

Of the $29 million requested from the government for funding this year, but only $7 million was allocated, with only a fraction of that money going to writing in regional areas.

A key part of the government funding pays for resident writers to stay in Wagga, to give readings across the region, provide workshops for local writers and to be available for the writing community.

For local writer Maurice Corlette, this access to published writers gave him the inspiration and confidence to create his own works.

"It's been crucial to me, the last seven years," Mr Corlette said.

"I've really developed with my writing through coming here and being in monthly workshops, going to the visiting writers workshops and readings downtown."

The centre has a history spanning over 30 years and each year the centre releases a collection of stories and poems called FourW. This year's 35^th edition has stalled due to lack of funds.

Senior lecturer in English at CSU and vice-president of Booranga, Lachlan Brown, has noticed that regional areas don't get nearly as much funding as metropolitan areas - a sentiment shared by fellow committee members.

"I left Western Sydney in 2011 to come to Wagga to teach at the university and since them, I've seen the funding to Western Sydney writing and arts organisations just increase and increase, and the funding to regional arts and writing organisations almost non-existent," Mr Brown said.

"There's been 34 issues [of FourW] in a row, no other regional literary journal has run that long."

"This is what is about to stop... because we can't fund it."