A project by Alysha Herrmann and friends.
Betwixt River and Stars is an ambitious multi-year speculative fiction project in and from the Riverland region of South Australia. Initiated in 2021 through my Regional Arts Australia Fellowship, Betwixt River and Stars is a container for interconnected stories, theatre projects, literature, visual art exhibitions, games, screen projects, installations, cosplay, LARP and other creative things unfolding over the next twenty years.
The foundation of Betwixt River and Stars is a co-created fantasy universe developed by Riverlanders and allies aged 7 – 60+.
My 2040 vision is to create an experience that is something like a cross between Sleep No More, Sovereign Hill, Evermore Park and a Renaissance Fair with a uniquely South Australian and Riverland flavour.
I spent so much of my adolescence escaping into fantasy novels and I still love reading fantasy as an adult. The thing about fantasy, or at least the fantasy I love, is that fantasy might happen on imaginary worlds with imaginary creatures and heightened action, but the stories, always, are ultimately about what it means to be human. What it means to struggle and question. What it means to love and to lose. What it means to grieve and betray and be betrayed. What it means to belong and to not belong. What it means to forgive and accept and make space. What it means to heal and to hope. What it means to hurt in every fibre of your skin. What it means to journey through all the unknowns of what makes a life. What it means to hold on and what it means to let go.
I love fantasy because it allows us a little space (through fantastical settings and creatures) to really look and see. See who we are, see who we have been and see who we could choose to be.
I want Betwixt River and Stars to be something fun and enriching and welcoming for me and my community, but that doesn’t mean it’s fluff or without substance. The stories we tell in this world are about exploring the real world around us. Who we are, who we have been and who we might become.
We are always in the stories we tell.
Activity So Far
- Alysha Herrmann’s Regional Arts Australia Fellowship (2021), including month-long residency Novel November:
- 2 day world-building workshop to co-create the bones of the lands of the river
- 7 full-day workshops for Riverland community members in short story writing, poetry, script writing, graphic storytelling and other writing forms
- 4weeks “live-writing” Monday-Friday into a visible google-doc exploring the lands of the river
- series of illustrations by Samuel Wannan responding to Alysha’s live-writing
- Ruby Altschwager commissioned to produce 3 hand-made plushie characters
- SALA exhibition of Sam’s illustrations (2022) at Part of Things
- Kirste Jade delivered the first Portal (fantasy writing festival) in the Riverland under the umbrella of Writers SA (2022)
- Alysha completed Graduate Certificate of Creative Business (2022) with Compton School and University of Canberra focused on the business planning and possible structures to support Betwixt River and Stars.
- Alysha developed pitch document and pilot episode of The Five, an animated children’s TV show set in the lands of the river, through Lost Kittens program (2023 – 2024)
- Kirste delivered the second Portal (2024) independently with Part of Things, including a workshop by Alysha set in Betwixt River and Stars.
- Sam working on the bones of a tabletop roleplaying game.
- Behind the scenes writing, illustrating, planning and scheming continues.
Alysha Herrmann 