This could be you | Australian Writers' Centre

Physio-turned-author Megan White adds to her Anatomy series

Megan White is fast becoming a force in the world of fantasy – with her latest 2025 release of The Anatomy of Gods following hot on the heels of her breakout debut novel The Anatomy of Songs, both through New Dawn Publishing. Yet just a few short years ago, she was busy pursuing what seemed […]

AWC graduate Shelly Unwin celebrates new picture book release

Shelly Unwin was a stay-at-home mum with a young family when she decided to take the leap of faith and try her hand at writing picture books. “I was reading to my daughter one night and suddenly I knew 100% that was what I wanted to do,” recalls Shelly.

Alli Parker – sharing new Japanese-Australian stories

“I’d wanted to tell the story since I was eleven years old and even then I knew that I needed to wait until I was a better writer to do this story justice,” Alli told us. Although she had been writing for film and television for several years, she knew that she needed different skills to write Cherry’s story as a novel. That’s when she turned to the Australian Writers’ Centre.

How Richard Pritchard became a successful children’s author

Having worked for years in the visual effects and animation industry, Richard Pritchard knew a lot about storytelling. But when he wanted to write a middle grade novel, he felt that he needed solid guidance, so he turned to the Australian Writers’ Centre.

Bidding war as Emma Pei Yin publishes ‘When Sleeping Women Wake’

Emma Pei Yin has always loved stories, and she was constantly creating characters and worlds in her head. When she went looking for those stories on bookshelves, however, she discovered that there were hardly any Asian voices being published. So she decided to write her own – and the result is her debut novel, When Sleeping Women Wake – releasing in 2025 in Australia through publishers Hachette, in the UK via Quercus Books, and in the US through Ballantine.

Ali Berg’s successful publishing double act remains on track

When Ali (on the right above) gave up her job in advertising at the age of 24 to travel the world, little did she realise it would culminate in an innovative career built around books and a two-book deal with Simon and Schuster Australia and The Book Ninja (Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus, 2018) in bookstores around the world. Ali and Michelle’s second novel, While You Were Reading followed in 2019, and their latest book Fancy Meeting You Here launched with rave reviews.

Miranda Luby continues to shine as a YA fiction author

Miranda Luby was a confident copywriter in her professional career – but her dream of writing a novel remained elusive until she plunged into our writing courses. We were thrilled to hear that Miranda’s debut novel Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over has now been published by Text Publishing, so we chatted with the newly minted author of this wonderful young adult book to get all the juicy details about her writing life and success.

Millie Lewis builds on her picture book success

“Writing Picture Books showed me that I could learn to master something I knew very little about (and trust me, there are transferable lessons there when it comes to parenthood!) For the first time since having a baby, I felt competent at something, and that was truly transformative for me,” Millie says. “Of course, getting a picture book contract the same year was icing on the cake!”

Shankari Chandran: From lawyer to award-winning author

When Shankari Chandran took time out of her career as a lawyer to have her fourth child, she turned her hand to writing in between baby feeds and family demands. This pastime has turned into a new career and Shankari has now released her first novel The Barrier, a futuristic fast-paced thriller that has been compared to the works of Michael Crichton and Matthew Reilly.

Kell Woods finds international success as fantasy author

After studying a suite of courses, starting with Novel Writing Essentials, and including History, Mystery and Magic and Plotting and Planning, Kell’s publishing dream came true when she landed a two-book deal with publishing powerhouse Tor US. Kell’s debut novel, After the Forest, was published in 2023, with international publication by Titan Books in the UK and HarperCollins in Australia/New Zealand.