Let us introduce you to our team

Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1 and
How to Write a Business Book

Valerie Khoo is an award-winning feature writer who has been writing for Fairfax for the past 12 years. Her articles appear regularly in The Sydney Morning Herald. Before becoming a freelance writer 12 years ago, she was features director of CLEO. Valerie is also the journalist behind the popular Enterprise blog on smh.com.au and theage.com.au, brisbanetimes.com.au, watoday.com.au, canberratimes.com.au and businessday.com.au. Valerie is also editor of Latte magazine, Australia's leading magazine for businesswomen.

She has worked at the three publishing giants – ACP Magazines, Pacific Magazines and EMAP – and currently works as a freelance editor for several consumer and corporate publications. Her work has also appeared in publications such as Vogue, SHE, Australian Financial Review and The Age.

Valerie is author of six books. Her latest book is Power Stories: The 8 Stories You MUST Tell to Build an Epic Business. She is a former accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers but switched careers many years ago when she finally gave in to her passion for writing. She hasn't looked back. Many of Valerie's students end up successfully publishing their work and carving out careers as successful writers.

Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1

Marina Go has a total of 25 years media experience with 21 years dedicated to the editorial, production and publishing of magazines. As Group Publisher at Private Media she is responsible for the P&L and strategy of the company’s largest brand Crikey, as well as The Power Index and Women’s Agenda.  For the previous three years she was focused on developing digital properties and related brand extensions as Publisher of The Hannan Group’s Independent Digital Media.

She began her media career as a newspaper journalist and worked in the news and features sections of The Daily Mirror for three years.

Marina was appointed editor of Dolly magazine at the age of 23. Since then she has been launch Editor of Australian Good Taste, Editor-in-chief of ELLE Australia, launch Editor of ELLE Cuisine, Editor of Sunday Life, Editor of Fashion for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, and launch Editor of PINNACLE magazine. She has also been the Managing Editor of Cosmopolitan, and Editor-in-chief of Pacific Publications, working on titles such as Girlfriend, Home Beautiful, Your Garden, New Idea and That's Life. 

Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1, Travel Writing Course and
Perfecting Your Pitch

Sue White is a freelance writer whose work has featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Vogue Australia, Travel + Leisure (Australia), Sun Herald Travel, Women’s Health, Vogue Entertaining + Travel, CNN Traveller, various ABC outlets, Green Living, Green Lifestyle magazine and numerous other publications in both Australia and overseas.

Despite delving into the world of freelancing as far back as her high school days, Sue wore a variety of writing-oriented career hats before deciding that she’d got it right at 17 after all. Eventually, she returned to freelancing, and today Sue uses her writing to explore issues around careers and productivity, wellbeing and the environment. Sue’s also chuffed she now gets paid to appease her continually itchy feet through travel writing: an indulgence that sees her regularly journeying to inspiring and interesting places across the globe in the name of a good story.

Sue is a member of the Foreign Correspondents Association. When she’s not on the road, she works from her home office near the beach in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.

www.suewhite.com.au

Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1

Holly Nott has always been passionate about writing, and has worked as a journalist for the past 20 years. She's spent time in regional, suburban and national newsrooms and has covered everything from the 2012 London Olympic Games, to federal elections, shark attacks, terrorism trials and luxury holidays.

For the past two years she has been focused on meeting the challenges of the digital news era, taking on the role of News Editor Multimedia at the national news agency, Australian Associated Press. Holly has held a number of senior roles at AAP over the past decade, and has also tutored and lectured journalism students at the University of Technology Sydney.

Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1

Allison Tait is a freelance writer with more than 20 years’ experience in magazines, newspapers and online publishing. During that time, her byline has been seen regularly in titles such as Madison, Marie Claire, CLEO, Cosmopolitan, Vogue Australia, Sunday Life,  Spectrum (SMH), Essential (SMH), Weight Watchers, Australian Women’s Health, Voyeur, the Qantas magazine, and Elle, as well as House & Garden, Belle, Vogue Living, Australian Country Style, and more.

Her writing online has included work for Ninemsn’s Finance and Careers websites, news.com.au, kidspot.com.au and her own blog Life In A Pink Fibro.

She has written four non-fiction books, including Credit Card Stressbusters (Wiley, 2009), Career Mums (Penguin Australia, January 2012) and two ghost-written memoir/biographies, and her first novel will be published by Pan Macmillan in 2013.

Having held on-staff roles, from sub-editor, to Features Editor, to Online Editor, at a range of publications, including Vogue Australia, CLEO, and House & Garden, across a range of publishing houses, Allison has a breadth of industry experience, which she now shares at the Australian Writers’ Centre.

Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1

Claire Halliday is a freelance writer and author whose feature articles have appeared in a variety of national and international newspapers and magazines, including The Age, Sunday Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Women's Weekly, Independent on Sunday (UK), Madison, Marie Claire and GQ, for over a decade. In that time, she has written features on a range of topics, including Geraldine Cox and her Cambodian orphanage, life inside a children’s mental health ward at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital, the life of an HIV-positive woman, the swingers’ party scene in Melbourne and many other observations on aspects of Australian sexuality.

Claire has previously published two books, Unsung Heroes and The World At Their Feet – both collections of interviews with important Australians. Her most recent book, Do you want sex with that? is a very personal account of her own attitudes to sex and also explores the place of sex throughout Australian life: from the pervasive sexualisation of advertising and its approach to children, to the more minority pursuits of swinging and porn-films, as well as the rise of the abstinence movement.

She lives in Melbourne with her husband and four children and is currently working on her new book.

Creative Writing Stage 1, Creative Writing Stage 2, Introduction to Novel Writing and Write Your Novel

Dr Pamela Freeman is the award-winning author of over 25 books, most recently the Princess Betony series published by Walker Books. In 2010, Full Circle (Book 3 of the Castings trilogy), was published in the US, UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany as well as Australia. Another children’s book, Victor’s Challenge, was published in 2009 in Australia and the UK and won the Aurealis Award for Best Children’s Fantasy.

Pamela started as a children’s writer, and many of her books have been shortlisted for the State Literary Awards, the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards, the Koala Awards and the Wilderness Society Environment Awards. Pamela – who is also an accomplished script writer – taught creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney for many years.

She has also been a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney and taught writing workshops around Australia for the National Book Council and various state libraries. Pamela has a Doctor of Creative Arts in Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. She is best known for her junior fantasy novels, Victor’s Quest and Victor’s Challenge, and an associated fantasy series, The Floramonde Books (The Willow Tree's Daughter, Windrider and The Centre of Magic), as well as for Pole to Pole, a non-fiction book about Arctic and Antarctic animals. Pamela is currently adapting Victor’s Quest as a children’s musical for Gooding Productions.

Pamela has published numerous short stories and has spoken at various writers' festivals around the country. Her most recent book for young people, The Black Dress, a fictional account of the childhood of Mary MacKillop in the Australia of the 1840s to 1860s, won the NSW History Prize for Young People.

You can visit Pamela’s websites here and here.

Creative Writing, Plotting and Planning

Kate Forsyth is the internationally bestselling author of more than twenty books for children and adults, including The Puzzle Ring, The Gypsy Crown, The Starthorn Tree, and the bestselling fantasy series 'The Witches of Eileanan' and 'Rhiannon’s Ride'.

Since her first novel was named a Best First Novel of 1998 by Locus Magazine, she has been shortlisted for numerous awards, including a CYBIL Award in the US. In 2007, Kate became the first author to win five Aurealis awards in a single year when Books 2-6 in the Chain of Charms series were jointly awarded the 2007 Aurealis Award for Children's Fiction. Book 5: The Lightning Bolt was also named a Notable Book for 2007 by the Children's Book Council of Australia.

Kate has a BA in Literature, majoring in Children's Literature, from Macquarie University, and a MA in Writing from UWS. Kate has taught creative writing from primary to tertiary levels for over ten years, including 'Writing for Children' at Sydney University. She mentors for the ASA Mentorship Program and the Central West Writers' Group.

She lives by the sea in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and three children, and many thousands of books.

Creative Writing

Melina Marchetta's first novel Looking For Alibrandi was published in 1992 and was released as a film in 2000 which she also wrote. She taught secondary school English and History for ten years during which time she released her second novel Saving Francesca followed by On the Jellicoe Road.  In 2006 she left teaching to become a full time writer. Her first fantasy novel, Finnikin of the Rock was published in 2008 and in 2010 The Piper's Son, a companion novel to Saving Francesca was released. She has written a children's book, The Gorgon in the Gully, as part of the Puffin Pocket Money series.

Her novels have been published in 17 languages. Melina lives in Sydney where she writes full time.

Creative Writing

Jeni Mawter, sometimes known as J.A. Mawter to disguise her true identity, is the children’s author of the hilarious ‘So’ series: So Gross!, So Feral!, So Sick!, So Festy!, So Grotty! and So Stinky! (HarperCollins) as well as the Freewheelers series: Unleashed!, Launched! and Extreme! (HarperCollins). Unleashed! was shortlisted for the WAYRBA Older Readers Award 2009. Other books include the junior novel Team Dream and the picture book There’s a Sun Fairy in Our Garden. 

Jeni has also published fiction, non-fiction, poetry and verse narrative for the education market. In 2007 she published ground-breaking work on Critical Thinking, Humour and Text for Macmillan Education. One of her most recent ventures was in co-writing the scripts for the interactive exhibition at The Powerhouse Museum, “The Magic Garden: MBF Foundation Healthy Kids Unit”.

With a Master of Arts in Children’s Literature and a Diploma in Book Editing and Publishing Jeni has taught creative writing for many years at Macquarie University and at writers centres. Her enthusiasm for words and books is infectious. She is a speaker for the Lateral Learning, Show & Tell and Speaker’s Ink speaker’s agencies and presents at numerous other schools, conferences and festivals. She has been a judge for the Stanton Library Creative Writing Competition and the Wakakirri National Storytelling competition.

To find out more about Jeni go to www.jenimawter.com

Creative Writing

James Roy was born in country NSW in 1968, and grew up in Papua New Guinea and Fiji. He fell in love with books and stories at a young age, and couldn't wait until he was old enough to write his own. Since his first novel was published in 1996, James has written some twenty books, including the Children's Book Council Honour Books Captain Mack and Billy Mack's War, as well as the 2008 NSW Premier's Award-winning Town.

A much sought-after presenter, James has appeared at a number of festivals, including the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth Writers Festivals, and most of the leading children's festivals. He has worked as a guest lecturer at Sydney and NSW Universities, and visits around seventy schools a year across the Asia-Pacific region, conducting workshops and speaking with students about the joys and trials of being a writer.

James is also the Creative Program Director for the Anglican Youthworks Writers in Residence camps. He lives with his family in the Blue Mountains, and enjoys playing the handmade guitar his father made for him. His latest books are Anonymity Jones and Edsel Grizzler: Rescue Mission.

Creative Writing

Kylie Ladd is a novelist and freelance writer. Her essays and articles have appeared in The Age, Griffith Review, O magazine, Kill Your Darlings, The Hoopla, MamaMia, Reader’s Digest and Good Weekend, among others. Kylie’s first novel, After The Fall, was published in Australia, the US and Turkey, while her second, Last Summer, was highly commended in the 2011 Federation of Australian Writers Christina Stead Award for fiction.

Her previous books are Naked: Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity and Living with Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias. Kylie's third novel, Into My Arms, will be released in mid-2013.

Creative Writing and Writing Picture Books

Cathie Tasker is a fiction editor with over 25 years experience. Her specialisations are in children’s and young adult fiction and genre and literary adult fiction. Cathie has mentored many manuscripts to publication and is experienced at guiding and motivating writers to improve their work.

She has a clear understanding of how to turn a raw manuscript into a compelling story that would attract the interest of a publisher. Cathie is a judge for the Aurealis Awards, fantasy novel section. Cathie trained as a librarian, in literature, and in marketing. Her academic qualifications are: libraries and literature (BA in Library Science & Literature), children’s literature (half of a Graduate Diploma in Children’s Literature), and marketing (Graduate Diploma of Marketing).

She worked in public libraries for seven years, and has spent over 25 years in book publishing, both in editorial and marketing, in children’s publishing, and in adult fiction and manuscript assessments. Her publishing background has been at Scholastic Australia, HarperCollins and Koala Books.

Writing Books for Children and Young Adults

Judith Ridge is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s leading experts on writing for children and young adults. In a highly specialised career spanning more than 20 years, Judith has worked as an editor, community arts coordinator, writer and critic. Her experience as an editor encompasses more than six years at the NSW School Magazine, in-house at ABC Children’s Books and as a freelancer for Random House, Penguin, Walker Books Australia and O’Brien Publishers Ireland. She has taught children’s literature at Macquarie University and established the Writing for Children and Young Adults course in the MA of Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney.

Judith has written about children’s and youth literature for journals such as Viewpoint and Magpies, The Horn Book (US) and The Melbourne Age. She has been invited on numerous occasions to speak at conferences and seminars in Australia, Ireland, the UK and the USA. She has twice been a judge on the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, is a Churchill Fellow and has an MA in children’s literature. She is currently project officer on WestWords: the Western Sydney Young People’s Literature Project.

She blogs at www.misrule.com.au/s9y

Writing Books for Children and Young Adults

Nicola Robinson has worked in the children’s book industry for more than 20 years - as an editor, manuscript assessor, reviewer, writer and community arts organiser. She has freelanced for publishing companies like Penguin Australia, Pan Macmillan and Allen & Unwin, and is now managing editor at Laguna Bay Publishing, where she oversees the production of fiction and non-fiction titles for the primary school market.

Nicola says, “One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received was from an author who described me as ‘the editor from heaven’. My goal is always to help authors tell their own story, in their own voice, in their own way.”

Nicola’s own short stories and non-fiction articles for children have appeared in anthologies and magazines, and in 2000 she received an emerging writers grant from the Australia Council. She is also widely published as a journalist and reviewer, in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Times Educational Supplement (UK), Australian Way, Australian Bookseller & Publisher and The New Zealand Herald. She has a BA (Communications) and a Diploma in Book Editing and Publishing.

Thriller Writing

Thriller author, L.A. Larkin, has been likened to Michael Crichton and John Grisham. Her latest novel, The Genesis Flaw, received glowing reviews and has been nominated for four crime writing awards. Her next thriller, Thirst, set on an isolated Antarctic station, will be released in 2012. She appeared in Australia’s leading current affairs program, Today Tonight, along with her hacker source, with whom she worked to create the mesmerising hacking scenes.

This British-born author studied literature at Royal Holloway College, The University of London, graduating with honours. Whilst travelling the world, she fell in love with Sydney and emigrated to Australia in 1998. After a successful career in magazine publishing, where she became publisher, L.A. Larkin returned to university to study corporate responsibility, sustainability and strategic public relations at The University  of Sydney. She was awarded a merit scholarship for academic excellence. She went on to work for one of Australia’s leading climate change consultancies.

She now divides her time between writing thrillers, her public speaking engagements and running thriller writing courses. She has been invited to speak at numerous writers’ festival both in Australia and in the UK and has run thriller writing workshops in England. She is a member of the Australian Society of Authors and Sisters In Crime, as well as the UK’s Crime Writers’ Association.

Writing About Food

Carli Ratcliff is a freelance food writer based in Sydney. Carli’s writing appears regularly in newspapers, magazines, food guides and online. She contributes features to The Sydney Morning Herald (Good Living), The Australian Financial Review (Life + Leisure) and The Age (Epicure).

She writes regularly for international magazines including, Monocle (UK) and DestinAsian (Jakarta), and online at TheRamblingEpicure.com and SBSFood.com.au. She has sub edited and contributed to guides including Cheap Eats (Sydney) and Fairfax’s Good Food Shopping Guide: Sydney. Her food-based travel stories appear regularly in SBS Feast magazine and The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age (Traveller). In 2010 Carli was honoured at The Australian Food Media Awards.

Write a Chick-lit novel

Lisa Heidke writes contemporary women’s fiction. Lucy Springer Gets Even (Allen & Unwin, 2009), her first book, was quickly followed by What Kate Did Next (2010).

Claudia’s Big Break, was published in January 2011 and the following month was listed in The Sydney Morning Herald as one of the Top 10 Australian Best Sellers. In 2012, Claudia’s Big Break was a finalist in the Favourite Contemporary Romance category of the Australian Romance Readers Awards.

Lisa’s fourth novel, Stella Does Good, was released in January 2012.

Find out more about Lisa and read her sporadic weekly blog, at www.lisaheidke.com

Screenwriting Stage 1

Tim Gooding writes for stage, film and television. He is also a musician and songwriter. Tim’s feature film credits include “Heatwave” and “On the Loose”. He is the recipient of a “Distinctly Australian” Writer’s Fellowship from the Australian Film Commission. He devised and co-wrote the ABC TV series “Sweet and Sour”, the soundtrack of which achieved platinum sales and was a nationwide hit.

He has written television comedy – The Aunty Jack Show, The Norman Gunston Show, Wollongong The Brave, Ratbags – and drama – Rafferty’s Rules, Blue Heelers, Stingers, Water Rats, All Saints – plus numerous other series involving doctors, lawyers, and police officers, or a blend of the three, on land, sea, and in the air. For younger viewers, he has contributed scripts to Mortified, Time Trackers, Heartbreak High, CJ the DJ, Penelope K By The Way, and others. Tim’s episode 6 of Mortified, “The Talk”, won First Prize at the 2007 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, and the Theme Prize at 2008 Prix Jeunesse in Munich.

His theatre productions include the musical plays “King Of Country” and “Rock-Ola”, “Tentshow Pagliacci”, “The Astounding Optimissimos”, and a new translation of Molière’s “The Miser”. The Sydney Theatre Company production of his comedy “Drums Along The Diamantina” featured Mel Gibson as Wayne from Queensland.

Travel Writing

Julietta Jameson is a regular contributor to Fairfax Travel, travelling for and writing destination features as well as consumer columns, among them, the airline and airports news-related Sky Report.

She is former Travel Editor for The Sun Herald and now freelances, writing travel stories and doing as many travel-related assignments as she can! In 2009 she lived in Italy to write her most successful book to date, another travel memoir, Me, Myself and Lord Byron.

In 2000, Julietta she spent several months in the NSW outback to write the travel memoir, Tibooburra and the Legend of the Tree of Knowledge, and a couple of years later, planted herself on Christmas Island for another titled Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. In between times she wrote a novel and a collection of travel-related biographies.

She first completed her journalism cadetship at ABC Radio in Melbourne in the mid-1980s, and since, has worked for News Ltd and Fairfax newspapers in Melbourne, Sydney, London and Los Angeles, as well as in TV and radio and for many magazines, both in a staff and contributing capacity.

Julietta travelled extensively as a reporter and foreign correspondent, on assignments that ranged from covering the Asian tsunami out of Banda Aceh to interviewing celebrities on set in Hollywood.
 

Travel Memoir

Claire Scobie is author of Last Seen in Lhasa, winner of the Dolman Best Travel Book Award. So far, it has been translated into German, Dutch and Korean. She writes for numerous publications including the Daily Telegraph and the Observer Magazine in the UK, and is a contributor to The Sydney Morning Herald, Sun-Herald, Marie Claire Australia and the Qantas in-flight magazine, The Australian Way. She’s gone on the trail of rhino poachers in Assam, done heli-fishing in Patagonia and crossed the Tanami Track in Australia.

Claire started her career as a journalist working for London’s Telegraph Magazine. In 1997, after winning a national award as Best Young Woman Journalist of the Year, Claire went to Tibet in search of a rare red lily. Six more journeys to Tibet followed, resulting in her acclaimed travel memoir Last Seen in Lhasa, published by Random House, about her friendship with a wandering Tibetan nun.

She teaches writing workshops across Australia, mentors writers, and appears at international literary festivals as a speaker and facilitator. In September 2010 she appeared on ABC TV’s First Tuesday Book Club in ‘On the Road’, a special show dedicated to travel writing.

Claire has taught journalism at Macquarie University in Sydney and been a judge in the Australian Society of Travel Writers Travel Journalism Awards. Since 2008 she has been a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers. Currently working on two new books, a novel and a second travel memoir, she is completing a Doctor of Creative Arts.

Life Writing

Patti Miller has taught creative writing, with a particular focus on autobiographical writing, for 20 years. At the Australian Writers' Centre, you learn from the best – and we believe Patti is the best life writing teacher in Australia.

She is the author of Australia 's best-selling autobiographical writing text, Writing Your Life and of The Last One Who Remembers (life-writing), Child (novel) and Whatever The Gods Do. Her latest book, The Mind of a Thief, will be released late April 2012.

She is published regularly in newspapers and magazines including essay pieces in the Good Weekend, SMH and is available for speaking engagements to clubs and other groups. She has a BA (Communications) and MA (Writing) from UTS. Many of her former students have been successfully published. Her latest writing book, The Memoir Book was released by Allen & Unwin in May 2007.

Your Story Structure

Dr Kathryn Heyman is the author of four novels, all published internationally and in translation. She's been nominated for the Edinburgh Fringe Critics Awards, the Orange Prize, Scottish Writer of the Year Award, the Kibble Prize, the West Australian Premiers Prize. The Accomplice won the Arts Council of England Writers Award and Captain Starlight's Apprentice was serialised on BBC Radio and is now in development as a feature film.

Kathryn has been a Royal Literary Fellow and the Writing Fellow for the University of Glasgow. She has taught Creative Writing for the University of Oxford, and mentors writers in Australia and the UK. 

Writing About Interiors, Style and Design

Nigel Bartlett is a freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years’ experience in magazines. He has written and edited interior design features for Belle, Inside Out, Real Living and other magazines. His work has included house and apartment stories, before-and-after pieces, kitchen and bathroom supplements and interviews with architects, interior designers, furniture makers and store owners.

From Blog to Book and Build Your Profile Using Twitter

Kerri Sackville is an Australian author, columnist, social media addict and mother of three. Her blog Life And Other Crises details the daily dramas of her life as a 40-something wife, mum, chaos wrangler and owner of an improbably white house.

Kerri has written extensively for mainstream media and online publications, including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne Age, The Telegraph, Sunday Life magazine, and Mamamia.com. She is a columnist for the Fairfax website Daily Life, and for the magazine Practical Parenting.
 
Kerri appears regularly as a commentator on television and radio, and is an accomplished public speaker.

Kerri’s first book When My Husband Does the Dishes: A Memoir of Marriage and Motherhood is a funny, honest expose of what marriage looks like after 150 years of togetherness and three children. Her second book The Little Book Of Anxiety - Confessions From A Worried Life is a highly personal account of living with an anxiety disorder.

Blogging for Beginners

Jen Bishop is an award-winning journalist and editor with 13 years' experience across newspapers, magazines and online. Her passions are interior design and homewares and social media.

She is editor of her own blog, Interiors Addict, which has almost 40,000 visitors per month. It has been featured in Belle, Real Living, The Sydney Morning Herald, Luxury Home Design, Cleo and more. Neale Whitaker, editor in chief of Belle and judge on the reality TV show The Block, says: “Interiors Addict is an entertaining, well-navigated, informed and credible new voice in Australian interior design.”

Last year, Interiors Addict was on Problogger's list of blogs to watch in 2012 and a finalist in the Best Australian Blogs Competition. She also made it onto the Decorex 100 Most Influential Interior Design Twitter Accounts. She has more than 7,000 fans on Facebook and more than 4,000 Instagram followers.

Prior to taking Interiors Addict full-time, Jen was editor of Australian business magazine Dynamic Business for almost five years.

As well as blogging, Jen does contract writing and social media consulting work within the interiors industry. She has a column on digital business in trade magazine Design Quarterly.

Blogging for Beginners

Karen Andrews is an award-winning writer, author and publisher. She has been successfully blogging since August 2006 at her personal blog 'Miscellaneous Mum', which has been a two-time finalist in the Best Australian Blog Competition, and is in the Top 10 of the Top 50 Australian Writing Blogs. Karen, her blog and her writing has been mentioned in such publications as Notebook magazine, Sunday Life, The Age and other metropolitan newspapers.

She has spoken about her blogging journey at many conferences and festivals.

She is currently Program Manager and Online Editor at the Emerging Writers' Festival. You can find her on twitter at @miscmum

Blogging for Beginners

Kim Berry jumped on the blogging bandwagon in 2003 and settled in at allconsuming.com.au in 2006. She writes about her life in urban oblivion raising four boys, cooking all the time and trying to be fit by 40. She has been a finalist two years running in the Sydney Writers' Centre Best Australian Blog Competition and has a weekly radio spot on ABC Mid North Coast talking food.

Her blogging and social media obsession means she is often a panellist or chair at conferences on the topic and occasionally her dulcet tones can be heard on the airwaves on the topic.

How to create and sell your eBook

Anna Maguire is a Sydney-based consultant and blogger specialising in digital training and strategy. She advises on digital publishing and crowdfunding through her consultancy Digireado.

Anna has worked in book publishing and digital content for 25 years. She is a former head of production and interactive at Random House Australia and is a passionate advocate for digital developments in the book industry and the emerging Australian ebook and app market. She is a graduate of the Yale Publishing Course and has appeared at the Sydney Writers’ Festival and Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

Anna regularly conducts training for editing and publishing students at Macleay College and has presented to Master of Publishing students at Sydney University. She has also trained authors in their digital publishing options for over two years.

In September 2012 Anna published her first ebook with digital-first publishing start-up Editia Books. Crowdfund it! is the first Australian book about the $1.5 billion crowdfunding phenomenon.

Anna blogs on the Digireado website, www.digireado.com.au, and at www.crowdfundit.com.au. She is also on Twitter (@digireado and @crowdfunditnow) and Facebook (facebook.com/digireado).

Introduction to Travel Writing, How to Get Your Book Published, and Self-publishing

Geoff Bartlett is an author, journalist, actor and producer. He has filed articles and interviews for over 20 major newspapers and magazines around the country, including The Sydney Morning Herald, Courier Mail, Canberra Times, West Australian and Australian Style.

Geoff has worked as a freelance travel writer and photographer for magazines and websites for the last six years. His current areas of focus are the islands of the South Pacific and Asia. He is a regular contributor to Pacific Island Paradises and Asian Paradises.

In 1999, Geoff's first book, was published in Australia and New Zealand through Harper Collins. Comedians in the Mist was a series of interviews with top Australian comedians.

In the electronic media, Geoff has written for Good News Week, Backberner, Life Support, The Comedy Channel and 2MMM. He also writes regularly for the finance and travel industries. His latest books are Cattitude, released in 2006 and Mutterings which was published in 2007.

www.lhaproductions.com.au

Grammar and Punctuation and Editing Essentials

Deb Doyle is an experienced editorial-training consultant and publication editor. She specialises in publication editing and in training company and government employees to improve their skills in grammar and punctuation, writing, editing, proofreading and plain English. Deb has conducted courses for the Productivity Commission, AMP, Wizard Home Loans and the RTA as well as many other corporate and government entities located in Sydney or Melbourne. Deb's courses are interactive and fun.

She is passionate about enabling writers and editors to prevent embarrassing errors from occurring in print and online publications and to bring any type of document to an acceptable standard for publication. She bases her teaching methods on the belief that education and entertainment don’t have to be mutually exclusive!

You'll be amazed at how engaging and interesting workshops in grammar and punctuation, writing letters and emails, and editing can be.

Business Writing Essentials

Tony Spencer-Smith is a corporate writer, editor and trainer, an award-winning novelist and former Editor-in-Chief of Reader’s Digest magazine.

Over the last eight years he has delivered writing training courses to many hundreds of people from numerous organisations including the ABC, Allianz, Austrade, AMP, Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Macquarie Bank, Optus, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children and the Wesley Mission.

Tony is managing partner at one of Sydney's leading corporate editorial consultancies. He has written and edited speeches for top executives, thought leadership pieces, brochures, case studies and many other documents for blue-chip clients including ASIC, the COAG reform council, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the University of Newcastle and Westpac.

Trainees benefit not only from his wealth of writing and editing experience, but also his enthusiasm for words and the power of language.

Business Writing Essentials

Kate Hennessy is a professional writer who splits her time between corporate writing, journalism, editing and communications consulting.

Prior to becoming a full-time freelancer, Kate's experience includes a role as senior writer and editor at writing agency, The Editor Group, and as internal communications manager at Cisco (Australia & New Zealand). Since going freelance, Kate has provided writing services and communications consulting to dozens of well-known organisations including Insurance Australia Group, Sydney Theatre Company, Channel 7, National Science Week, Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, MBF and E*TRADE Australia. She is experienced in a diverse range of business writing from intranet strategy, annual reports, case studies and corporate policy documents to shadow writing, website copy, brochures, media releases and marketing / publicity collateral.

As a journalist, Kate’s music reviews are published weekly in the Sydney Morning Herald (Spectrum and Metro sections). Her feature articles on business, travel, technology, sustainability and wellbeing have been published in newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and The Daily Telegraph, and in magazines including The Big Issue, Get Lost Adventure Travel, WellBeing Magazine, Cosmos, G Magazine and Smarter Business Ideas.

In addition to her blend of corporate writing and journalism, Kate is currently editing a children’s book and writing scripts and quiz questions for Channel 7 game show 'It’s Academic'. Kate is an enthusiastic, welcoming trainer who believes anyone can benefit from improving his or her writing skills and that everyone has something to learn.

Writing for the Web

Grant Doyle is an experienced copywriter, content manager and web editor. After many years as a print journalist and author, Grant began writing web content in the late 1990s. Since then, he's worked for many corporations, government departments, SMEs and Not-for-profit organisations in various online content roles.

Former and current clients include financial services, telecommunications, IT and healthcare companies as well as private educators and solo operators. Grant continues to initiate and teach many in-house web, tablet and mobile writing workshops, in addition to developing corporate writing style guides. He has recently completed a Master of Arts in Writing at UTS. Grant can be found online at grantdoyle.wordpress.com

PR and Media Releases that Get Results

Catriona Pollard is director of public relations consultancy, CP Communications. She has 17 years experience in developing and managing public relations and marketing programs. Prior to establishing CP Communications in 2001, Catriona set up the marketing communications department for a leading software company and managed a diverse range of accounts within PR agencies. She also has extensive experience in managing public affairs and marketing in federal and state governments.

She regularly authors articles on PR and marketing which are published in many business publications. Catriona has won an award in the Public Relations Institute Association Awards for Excellence and holds a BA and a Graduate Diploma in Professional Communication.

Catriona regularly provides comments to journalists on PR and marketing and she was labelled a leading public relations blogger in Enterprise and is listed as one of the top 100 PR people worldwide to follow on Twitter as well as on the Top 100 PR. The lists only include PR people who participate and contribute to their Twitter page, share valuable information, and contribute to the profession. The lists, consisting mainly of US PR directors, featured only three Australians.

Catriona's blog Public Relations Sydney was shortlisted for Mumbrella's media & marketing blog of the year 2009. She is a co-founder of Social Media Women, a formal online and in person networking group that encourages and assists women to participate more prominently in social media.

Catriona is actively involved in many business networks, is a Mentor in the NSW Government’s Women in Business Mentoring Program and a Professional Member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA).

Course Manager

Danielle Williams is the course manager at the Australian Writers' Centre. She has a long background in writing and adult education. Danielle coordinates our courses and workshops and is passionate about helping our students get the most out of their experience with us. She's formerly worked at the University of Sydney's Centre for Continuing Education and the NSW Writers' Centre.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New England and enjoys reading and writing.

New Media Manager

Tracy Tan is the new media manager at the Australian Writers' Centre. With a Bachelor of Science (Media and Communications) from the University of New South Wales under her belt, she coordinates the technological side of our online courses, blog, website, newsletter, podcasts and more.

She has been with the centre since it was founded and loves reading, writing, snowboarding – and technology!

Office Manager

Andrew Gillman is the office manager at the Australian Writers' Centre, feature writer for writingbar.com, and executive assistant to Valerie Khoo. His arts degree from Griffith University in Brisbane, and background in customer service, and office management has prepared him well for the busy environment of the Centre.

He is also a passionate blogger, avid consumer of pop culture and aspiring novelist who hopes to get published one day soon.