Best-selling author Mark Brandi reflects on the best things about a Varuna residency, after receiving the Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship.

Back in January, I set myself a goal: to get published on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Partly I wanted to prove I was funny, and having a piece nestling alongside classics such as ‘Hamlet (Facebook News Feed Edition)’ seemed like definitive evidence. Also, I wanted to test a theory about confidence. Writing takes confidence – in […]

Norm Neill’s poetry has appeared in journals including Five Bells, Blue Dog and Social Alternatives, and in edited anthologies. The Robin Gibson Gallery exhibited 16 of his poems responding to paintings by Jacqueline Balassa in 2010. His poem World Cup Final came second in the 2009 Inner City Life competition. Norm has had more than […]

In my yoga class, the teacher repeats a phrase during the meditation that I have always found poetic. She says, “observe how inhales arise out of stillness, and how exhales dissolve back into stillness.” If there was ever a book that is a literal interpretation of that sensation, The Life of Houses must surely be […]

This September & October edition of Writing on Our Calendar is jam-packed with pearler literary & cultural happenings! NSW Writers’ Centre staff share the things they’ve got highlighted in their diaries. Find out what’s happening and keep your finger on NSW’s social literary pulse. We will present a listing of new and established events so […]

Our first What We’re Reading post ended up containing plenty of awesome fiction by Australian women. A month on, what are we up to reading wise? A whole bunch of different stuff!

What would a child care worker, a filmmaker, a public servant, a passionate blogger and a singer/ songwriter have in common? Not much, you would think. But when five very diverse individuals — Janite Barker, Kodie Bedford, Nardi Simpson, Siv Parker and Robyn Ridgeway — came together for a Mentorship Program for Emerging Indigenous writers […]

The best sentences use a minimum of words to achieve their purpose. They slip easily into the minds of your audience and don’t give them the verbal equivalent of atherosclerosis. As Truman Capote said: “I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.” Here are five ways good editors cut the clutter: […]