This month the Writing NSW team has been devouring poetry, fiction and non-fiction, read on for what we’ve been enjoying!

‘The interplay between the desire for brevity and longer forms has always been something poets have been able to play with…poetry is infinitely flexible, it gives us so many ways to reach out to the reader.’

‘Process, for me, is a compound and an evolution of the known and unknown. Eventually I wound up here as a poet obsessed with this ineffable substance I hear in the storytelling of my Elders. I don’t know if should call it poetics or spirit but it exists in just about everything …’

‘When a piece is going to exist off the page there is a beautiful invitation to consider an additional form and function in that new medium.’

Take a look at what we’ve read in February – a recent Victorian Premier’s award-winner, a moving literary novel, a bestseller soon to be translated for the stage, a charming Aussie kids book and more!

‘This workshop is about giving yourself permission to slow down, think about what is going on somatically and how you interact with the world, and find ways to surprise yourself – to play, to rest, to think, to seek pleasure…that’s all part of poetry.’

‘So much of writing happens entirely alone and entirely inside our own brains … it can be very easy to lose perspective. Collaboration and community are so important because of that: they keep me sane, and often stop me from despairing.’

Take a look at our favourite reads of 2022 – a haunting Aussie novel, a collection of books exploring Western farming practices, a heartbreaking memoir, a political page-turner, a reflection on fatherhood and more.

Take a look at what we’ve read in November – a gripping Aussie crime, a Miles Franklin winner, a mental health anthology and more!