“Early on in my writing career, I wasn’t quite skilled enough to control a longer and more complex YA narrative. There’s a lot involved in writing strong and impactful stories for teens – their bullshit meter is finely tuned so we as writers have to make sure what our writing will resonate with their core truths and that takes a lot of practice and craft.”

“It allowed me to be more interrogative and a little more experimental with things like timelines and sequencing. Now I just can’t seem to stop writing essays, it’s the most enjoyable form of writing for me by far!”

Belinda Murrell shares valuable advice, a glimpse into her writing routine and how she’s navigated not being able to travel.

“I feel confident that our literary community, bolstered by such strong independent bookshops especially, will always find new and safe ways to celebrate new releases, generate conversations and host a crowd”

“We’re still not seeing enough First Nations stories written by our First Nations peoples; we’re still not getting enough Own Voices stories or intersectional stories in Australian published fiction.”

“I think the biggest is to believe that writing a short story is just like writing a chapter from a novel; nothing could be further from the truth.” Ryan O’Neill gives us insight into writing short stories.

“Let go of the need to tell the reader everything up front. Too much information kills tension.” Pamela Cook gives us insight into creating tension in your writing.

Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most successful writers for the anarchic books he writes with illustrator Terry Denton – for kids big and little. We asked him about the writer who has made the most impact on his life’s work and he chose Natalie Goldberg. Find out why …