The Australian Association of Writing Programs

Someone handed me a pamphlet about the Walkley Award for Best Non-Fiction Book as I came into this session. It said the entry fee of $260 is waived if you are a member of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance.
I was interested in this one because (a) I'm writing a non-fiction book and (b) three days earlier I'd accepted a part-time job with my local paper.
The facilitator, Jenny Tabakoff, (a journalist herself) breezily ran down the profession, quoting the line from Truman Capote - 'that's not writing, that's typing'. She said it is odd that journalists who regularly write 1000 words which will be read by 100,000 people aspire to be 'a proper writer' by producing a 60,000 word book that may only be read by a few hundred people.
There were two panellists, both contenders for this year's award, I think. The first was a seasoned rural affairs journalist with the Australian, Asa Whalquist, who wrote "Thirsty Country" after being challenged by Peter Cullen to see if she could produce a book to alleviate Australia's water illiteracy. She took long service leave and had five months to finish it. First she emailed Allen & Unwin and met with the editor to get the idea approved and then sat down to write one 6,000 word chapter every two weeks. The longest piece she'd written previously in 25 yrs as a journalist was 1,500 words but she said she works well to a deadline. She also likes research - for a 600 word piece she said she'd normally produce 6000 words of research notes. Doing the book was enormously intellectually satisfying and challenging. There's a different level of respect for authors - now that she has done a book she is regarded as an expert; previously she was not asked to comment even though she probably knew more than most of her interviewees as she's written about water issues for so long.
The other author was Maureen Hellen - not a journo but a former community nurse who did a writing PhD through ECU, investigating "whether a culture-shocked person can write an honest story?" She was totally unprepared for nursing in a remote aboriginal community. She hadn't been told what it would be like (though some friends did try to say it would be dangerous, which turned out to be true) and certainly hadn't known that the nurse who was currently there would be leaving two days after her arrival. She found the responsibility and her own vulnerability highly stressful and was angry when she began writing the book because she saw so many failings - her own, the dept, the aboriginal community, the wider cultures. She said she had to find 'a compassionate heart' to write it from.
Both books deal with complex, intractable problems that are poorly understood. There are no simple solutions, even though these are regularly proffered by the ill-informed.