This could be you | Australian Writers' Centre

Laura Waters’ trek into travel writing success

Laura Waters walked over 3000 kilometres across New Zealand to conquer her anxieties and find her true passion: writing. After finishing the Australian Writers’ Centre Travel Writing course, Laura turned her hobby into a profession and now writes travel articles fulltime. She is also a published author with Bewildered, the incredible story of her extraordinary hike, out now with Affirm Press.

Petronella McGovern’s book launch for ‘Six Minutes’

Congratulations to AWC alumna Petronella McGovern who launched her debut novel Six Minutes at Berkelouw Books in Mona Vale in Sydney last week. With over 160 people attending, it was so popular, the event had to relocate across the road to the Memorial Hall. Launched by bestselling author Liane Moriarty, it was a wonderful event […]

Sandy Barker: How her dedication and online presence led to published novels

Sandy Barker’s goal for her novels was always to get a publishing deal. Two self-published novels and years of determination later, her debut novel, One Summer in Santorini, has just been published by HarperCollins.

New York book launch for AWC alumna Astrid Scholte

Astrid Scholte’s dream of being published has come to fruition with the recent launch in New York of her debut novel, Four Dead Queens published by Putnam/Penguin Random House. “The launch was held at the Gold Bar in New York City. There were crowns, golden skulls, sparkling chandeliers, four gorgeous cakes – each fit for […]

Kaneana May: From TV scriptwriter to published author

When Kaneana May, a stay-at-home mother living in regional NSW, took a trip to Sydney to do Popular Women’s Fiction with the Australian Writers’ Centre she came away inspired, motivated with new ideas and a new direction. Today she is a published author and her debut novel The One, published by Harlequin hit the bookshelves in July 2019.

My top 10 interviews… out of one million downloads!

By Valerie Khoo Our podcast, So You Want to be a Writer, has now hit over one million downloads! When my co-host Allison Tait and I started out on this journey we never even considered this magic number. We were too busy loving the fact that we got to present this show each week, talk […]

2018 Australian Romance Readers Awards finalists announced

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 Category (sponsored by Hachette Australia) […]

Penelope Janu’s trifecta – published three times in one year

A huge congratulations to AWC’s creative writing graduate Penelope Janu on the publication of three books this year, including On the Same Page, which also won the prestigious 2017 XO Romance Prize. On the Same Page tells the story of Miles Franklin (named after the famous author), who is a successful lawyer. But by night […]

Frances Chapman’s successful transition from freelance writer to published author

The “loneliness of the solitary pursuit of fiction writing” led Frances Chapman to AWC’s Novel Writing Essentials course and her subsequently winning the Hardie Grant Egmont 2018 Ampersand Prize for her ‘vibrant’ debut YA novel, Stars Like Us, published by Hardie Grant Egmont.

AWC’s amazing creative writing team publish a whopping 43 books this year

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, is a list of just […]