Mentoring
In a single conversation, she gave me the courage and clarity I needed to move towards my novel’s completion – Courtney Collins, Author, Sidney Myer Creative Fellow
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Mary Anne will read 2,000-3,000 words of your writing, followed by a one-hour meeting [zoom or face-to-face] about the work and your broader needs. This will help ascertain:
-What you seek from the mentorship
-The potential length and meeting frequency of the mentorship
-Compatibility between mentor and mentee
-Suggested resources to continue your writing journey
In some cases, this initial session offers enough feedback for the writer to move ahead on their own. There is no pressure to continue with a mentorship
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Four ninety-minute meetings over three months. Exact timing is flexible, this can be condensed or drawn out.
Up to 30,000 words read and discussed in-depth
Resources to develop your craft skills, as applicable to your work
Each mentoring session will incorporate:
-Pre-reading of your work [up to 8,000 words per session]
-In-depth discussion of your work in progress, including any specific issues you’re wrestling with
-Exercises and resources for you to further develop the work at hand
-Exercises and resources for you to continue your writing journey
-Proactive suggestions for the path ahead, for you and your work
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Eight ninety-minute meetings over six months. Exact timing is flexible, this can be condensed or drawn out.
Up to 60,000 words read and discussed in-depth
Resources to develop your craft skills, as applicable to your work
Each mentoring session will incorporate:
-Pre-reading of your work [up to 8,000 words per session]
-In-depth discussion of your work in progress, including any specific issues you’re wrestling with
-Exercises and resources for you to further develop the work at hand
-Exercises and resources for you to continue your writing journey
-Proactive suggestions for the path ahead, for you and your work
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Mary Anne’s deep listening and active questioning skills support writers to articulate the core, or heart of their writing – helping them to move forward with confidence and clarity of vision. She specifically works with writers to hone in on the central question of their work, offering relevant craft tools as required to help guide the work and writer forward.
Mary Anne is an experienced mentor, one of the three mentors employed by Varuna – The National Writers’ House – to work with their Flagship and Fellowship recipients, and a seasoned dramaturg employed as a mentor by a range of organisations including ATYP, the NT Writer’s Centre and Arts SA. She holds a Masters in Arts Education and a Masters in Creative Writing. She has taught at University, TAFE and High School levels, and has for the last decade has mentored across a range of genres including prose, poetry, plays, screenwriting, memoir, non-fiction and academic/essay writing.
As a writer, Mary Anne’s plays have received the Victorian Prize for Literature, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Drama, Shane and Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting, a stage AWGIE and two NT Chief Minister’s Book of the Year Awards. She is a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow, Winston Churchill Fellow, Regional Arts Fellow and an Asialink Fellow. She lives in Naarm – Melbourne.
What People Are Saying
“Mary Anne jolts together the connections in a work that are waiting to happen. It feels like a revelation, the joining of cords to a power grid. She achieves this with a mode of deep listening and inquiry that is generous and precise. In a single conversation, she gave me the courage and clarity I needed to move towards my novel’s completion.”
Courtney Collins, Author, Sidney Myer Creative Fellow, shortlisted for the Vogel, NSW Premier's Literary Award for New Writing and Stella Prize.
“Mary Anne has the ability to look deeply into the writing. She is a brilliant teacher who asks key questions that can take me into the core of my work. Her close reading and insights into my poetry have helped to bring clarity and tightness to my work. Working with Mary Anne, I never stop learning about the craft of writing.”
Dr Leni Shilton, author of verse novels Walking with Camels and Malcolm. Recipient Varuna Dorothy Hewett Fellowship for poetry. Shortlist Canberra Poetry Prize. Judge of the 2020 Stella Prize.
“Mary Anne Butler’s mentoring sessions offer a unique opportunity to develop work and build your writing muscles, with the guidance of a superbly experienced writer and teacher. Her comprehensive depth of knowledge and respect for the writing process and writers is inspiring. Practical writing exercises, discussion and feedback in a supportive environment, builds confidence and encourages writers to take creative leaps, opening up a delicious world of possibilities for their work”
Alison Mann, playwright, The Surgeon’s Hands [Playlab Press]