Voting has opened for the 2018 Australian Romance Readers Awards and we are delighted to announce that Pamela Hart (aka Pamela Freeman, AWC’s Director of Creativity) and AWC creative writing alumni Penelope Janu and Joanna Nell are amongst the finalists. Pamela is a finalist in the Favourite Historical Romance
There’s nothing like the convenience of online learning to help you fit personal projects around your busy schedule. And if you’ve had the same writing resolutions popping up on your list again after again – why not make 2019 YOUR year to make them happen. Your future self will high
Now in its third year, The Woollahra Digital Literary Award is a national literary award supporting innovation in Australian literature and publishing, encouraging writers producing work in a digital medium. From the Woollahra Municipal Council website: The award seeks submissions of a literary nature that are digitally born – published
AWC presenter of How to Write for Children and Young Adults, Sue Whiting has had two books published this year, Beware the Deep Dark Forest for 3-6-year-olds and Missing, a middle-grade contemporary mystery novel, both published by Walker Books Australia. Sue is author of more than 60 children’s non-fiction, picture books,
Back in February 2018, the Australian Writers’ Centre introduced Furious Fiction – a brand new short story writing competition where your 500-word story could win $500AU cash every month – with no entry fee whatsoever! Needless to say, the competition (open to anyone 17 years and over, anywhere on the
2018 has been a bumper year for our team of creative writing presenters and alumni, publishing a whopping total of 43 books, including books of fiction and non-fiction in the genres of romance, historical fiction, fantasy, crime and mystery, thriller and suspense, Australiana and children. Here, in no particular order,
We are thrilled to announce that Judith’s long-awaited thrilling and magical conclusion to her multi-award-winning Stella Montgomery Intrigue series is here. Wakestone Hall (published by ABC Books) is Book 3 in Judith’s trilogy of Victorian fantasy-adventure novels for young readers from eight years old. In this book, Stella Montgomery is in
If you are an unagented author with a work of fiction, then this is for you. Ebury Press (an imprint of Penguin Books Limited) is open for fiction submissions. From the Ebury Press website: This open submissions period is a chance for unagented authors to get their manuscript to us. If you have
Penguin Random House Australia is delighted to announce that the Penguin Literary Prize for 2018 is now open for submissions. From the Penguin website: “Established in 2017 in conjunction with Leading Edge Books, the Prize offers aspiring authors the opportunity to get their work into the hands of booksellers and
Pamela Freeman, Director of Creative Writing Faculty at AWC has been busy and published another book this year, a children’s book, Amazing Australian Women (Hachette Australia). This bright and colourful book looks at 12 incredible Australian women who have helped shape our country, from politics and the arts, to Indigenous
A HUGE congratulations to AWC Creative Writing Stage 1 graduate, Sarah Bailey who has won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel, The Dark Lake (2017 Allen & Unwin). The Dark Lake was a bestseller around the world and her suspenseful storytelling about a police procedural set in country
The National Young Writers’ Festival has given us a sneak peek at their 2018 artist lineup and it’s exciting! Guests for the festival, which runs from 27-30 September 2018 in Newcastle, NSW, include: Alison Evans, author of Ida, (who we interviewed) Hella Ibrahim, Egyptian-Australian Muslim editor and founder of Djed
Do you have a fantasy manuscript gathering dust in a drawer? Or maybe you’re currently working on a manuscript and are wondering how on earth you’re ever going to get it published. Well we’ve got great news for you! Fantasy fiction publisher, Talem Press, an imprint of Writer’s Edit Press, is currently
The hottest date in a romance writer’s calendar is fast approaching – the Romance Writers of Australia Conference from 17-19 August 2018. This year the conference is in Sydney’s Sofitel Wentworth Hotel and registrations are open to the public. With workshops from bestselling author Rachel Bailey on The Anatomy of
To celebrate the recent Shortest Day of the Year (21 June 2018), we asked you to write us a story in 21 words or fewer. It simply had to contain the words “short” and “day” in it. On the day, we received nearly one thousand stories! What follows is a
Giuseppe Poli began his career in the picture book industry as an illustrator. However, with a keen interest in writing the words as well as creating the images, he’s now released his first book Young MacDonald as an author. Tell us what Young MacDonald is about If Old MacDonald has
Prolific children’s author Shelly Unwin is blasting onto bookshelves with her new picture book Blast Off!, which rockets through the solar system in a funny, fact-filled space trip around the planets.
April 17 was International Haiku Poetry Day and in our recent AWC newsletter, we threw out a challenge for our community have a go at writing one, on the subject of AUTUMN. What is a “haiku”? Well, there are many forms and they have a lot of complexities – but
Congratulations to all the wonderful authors who have made it onto the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s list of Notable books for 2018. Huge accolades to these Australian Writers’ Centre presenters: Nicole Hayes for A Shadow’s Breath Zanni Louise for Archie and the Bear Judith Rossell for A Garden
Writing fiction is one of the most fulfilling and demanding things you can commit to, and at every stage you will have questions – about the process and about yourself! We understand that it can be both exciting and exasperating, and sometimes you want to just have a cup of
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