Best Photographic Work – ‘Fewa Lake, Pokhara, Nepal’ by Katherine Seppings
I won ‘Best Photographic Work’ at the Rotary Castlemaine Art Show on 5 June, for a photograph I took of Fewa Lake, Pokhara, Nepal, at sunset, 1998, looking across at the Annapurna mountain range.
‘This quiet and serene work captures the atmosphere of the dusk over the water in this remote place so well. You can feel the sense of stillness and cripsness in the air that I felt to be quite meditative. I particularly liked the composition, the water in the foreground, and the subtle tonal shifts in the layers of mountainous landscape. I also like the energy of the cloud hovering across the snowy mountain peak that can be seen towering in the top corner.’ Judge Artist Greg Wood
My ‘Poem for Palestine’ was published in Meanjin 84.1 Autumn 2025 ‘Embrace Australia’s finest writers. This season, Meanjin’s writers are calling us to account. The inexorable labour of working toward the just. The work of desire, the work of identity, the work of standing still. The work of giving life, the work of telling truth, the work of making a home.’ https://meanjin.com.au/edition/84-1-autumn-2025/
Very pleased to see my article ‘‘Never Again’ but it is happening, again’ published in the journal Pearls & Irritations today, 3 Feb 2025.
‘Since the WW2 Holocaust, it is said genocide should ‘Never Happen Again’. But it is happening, again. The denial by governments, the press, and citizens, of atrocities committed under Israel’s occupation of and military assault on Palestine, is allowing genocide to happen again, now … We do not need to wait years to pay tribute to those who have resisted and survived, and are suffering unfathomable loss and hardship as their country, along with their pasts and futures, is stolen. We need to bring an end to UK/US/Israeli colonisation of the Middle East and to terminate our dependency on fossil fuels. We need our allied Western governments to cease waging wars against defenceless peoples, and profiteering from the rape and pillage of their lands. We need our politicians and media to cease gaslighting and pretending and forgetting. To call genocide out. Put an end to violence. To act on the rule of law. Make the world safe for us all.’ Read here: https://johnmenadue.com/never-again-but-it-is-happening-again/
Anthea Matley, author of Planting Memories launched in Castlemaine
Peter Wiseman, Katherine Seppings and Anthea Matley
Planting Memories by Anthea Matley was launched in Castlemaine by Peter Wiseman, Bendigo TAFE professional writing and editing teacher and coordinator. Katherine Seppings (Sevenpens) edited, designed and published this book.
Planting Memories follows the life of Culver Matley who left his drought-ravaged prairie home in Punnichy, Canada, in 1935, and sailed to an unknown life on the island of Samarai and then to the Sogeri Plateau of Papua New Guinea.
Culver lived and worked on rubber plantations in Papua for 33 years. During WW2, he served as a driver mechanic with the 68 Light Aid Detachment in the Middle East. He met his wife, Margaret, an Australian Air Force nurse in PNG and together they built a home and raised a family of five children on the Mororo and Eilogo plantations.
Based on family letters, photographs, and memories, Planting Memories recounts many incidents that made up daily life in the PNG mountains. But as their adopted country faced the political and economic challenges of the 1960s, Culver and Margaret reluctantly decided to leave their home and move to Australia.
‘Planting Memories is tightly edited and a pleasure to read. Anthea’s writing is a matchless evocation. The stories are told beautifully in the voices of her family members. I commend this book to anyone who enjoys intimate biographies and creative non-fiction, and those interested in the history of Papua. I congratulate Anthea on completing a mammoth task so well and her team for a truly professional publishing project.’ – Peter Wiseman
Author Bio –
Anthea Matley was born in Moresby and grew up on a rubber plantation on the Sogeri Plateau, Papua New Guinea, immigrating to Australia in 1968. She has a Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing and has assisted in producing and publishing Kidnapped by Time, a history of the Faraday area. Anthea has written short stories and poetry and Planting Memories is her first creative non-fiction book. She lives in Elphinstone.
To Purchase – Planting Memories is available through the author’s website Here
Top: Katherine Seppings, Lynette Silver AM, Tim Bowden AM, Pamela Wells (Photo by Lt-Col Anthony Lias) Bottom: Katherine Seppings, Pamela Wells (Photo by Kaye Watson)
Lynette Silver AM (military advisor), Katherine Seppings (publisher), Tim Bowden AM (book launcher)
A fantastic launch of The Tiger has Many Lives: The Story of Rod Wells by Pamela Wells at Victory Hall, Tatura, Vic; released on Anzac Day. It was an honour to edit, design and publish (Sevenpens) this biography of a POW survivor and to have worked with military advisor Lynette Silver AM.
From an early age in the Goulburn Valley, Rod Wells had a passion for wireless technology. He served in Malaya and Singapore as an officer with 8 Division Signals. As a prisoner of war in Borneo’s Sandakan, he used his ingenuity and skill to build a wireless radio and a transmitter virtually from scratch. Arrested by the Kempeitai, Rod was subjected to brutal torture before being tried and sent to the notorious Outram Road Gaol. After the war Rod became a world expert in electronics and neuclonics.
“The story of Rod Wells is a remarkable tale of determination, endurance and survival in WW2. As one of the few first-hand accounts of POW life in Borneo’s Sandakan Camp and the equally infamous Outram Road Gaol in Singapore, this book will be a valuable addition to the nation’s military heritage.” Lynette Silver AM, military historian
The 40th Anniversary of the first exhibition held at ‘The Bricky’ is being celebrated with a ‘Historical Show’ at the Castlemaine Brickworks Gallery this December. It was an honour and a joy to curate it. Of the twenty artists selected from Castlemaine Artists Co-Op/Inc (1980-1992) – painters, printmakers, photographers, potters, sculptors – many are recognised nationally and internationally. Castlemaine Artists Co-Operative was a group of 30 artists and craftspeople who came to the district in the 1960s and 70s. They held their shows at the old brickworks in 1981, 82 and 83. In 1986, with more artists in the area, the group became Castlemaine Artists Incorporated. In 1992 the group folded and merged into the fledgling Castlemaine Fringe. I am recording, archiving and writing the History of Castlemaine Arts (1960-90).
The ‘Willesee’ (Ch 9) report on Katherine Seppings’ black and white photographic exhibition ‘Characters of Castlemaine’ held at the Wallace Bros Gallery, Castlemaine, 1986. The images captured 53 local characters of the region at that time.
Words in Winter, Newstead (Photo by Michelle Leber)
Dan Poets Anthology launch Dan O’Connell Hotel (photo by Maya Rose)
Words in Winter, Newstead (photo by Michelle Leber)
Dan Poets Anthology launch, Dan O’Connell Hotel (photo by Maya Rose)
Spent a lovely afternoon of poetry in August, featuring at Words in Winter with Michelle Leber, Robbie Coburn and Ken Smeaton in the Blackbird Cafe, Newstead.
I was one of 19 poets included in the beautiful Dan Poets Anthology of poetry and works of art from Firestation Print Studio, to celebrate Melbourne’s longest running weekly poetry venue – The Dan.
Honoured to have a poem in The Sky Falls Down, a compelling collection of eighty-nine writers, including Behrous Boochani, Deb Westbury, Janet Galbraith, Pete Hay … traversing their particular territory of loss and bringing back travellers’ tales. ‘Their skilfully crafted accounts are insightful, inspiring, amusing, heart-breaking, resilient and, above all, damn good reading.’
“This beautiful collection of writings explores the landscape of loss. You’ll find yourself reaching for particular pieces that somehow articulate how you’re feeling, even before you’ve found words to express it yourself.” – Petrea King
Great article in Clipped TV including an interview with my daughter Maya Rose and the premiere of the music video of her debut single ‘See You Again’!
Very proud of Maya Rose, and this video I co-directed with her, bringing in my experience of working on music videos in London in the 80s and 90s.
Excellent filming by Aidan Fryer!
Katherine E. Seppings 