Here at NSW Writers’ Centre we’re not just all about writing – we’re also about reading! Reading is how writers are born, it’s how they hone their craft, it’s what happens when the writing’s done. You can’t have one without the other. So starting today we’ll be intermittently sharing what some of us at the centre are reading – whether that be an eight book epic fantasy series, some fresh local literary fiction, or a blog post. It’s a chance for you to scope out some new reading material and get to know us through our taste in books.

Jane McCredie, Executive Director

I’m reading Evie Wyld’s All the Birds, Singing. It’s a beautiful, lyrical piece of writing but also gut-churning in its exposition of violence and exploitation.

Ellen Tyrrell, Program Officer

I’m on the cusp of two books. I just finished Emily Bitto’s Stella Prize winner, The Strays. It’s a mediation on belonging, and the inequality in states of belonging. It’s also a fantastic portrayal of childhood friendship – it’s acute closeness and inevitable upheaval. I’ve just started The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop, which follows the displacement of a young family from England to Perth in the winter of 1965. So far, I’ve been struck by Bishop’s evocation of place – the natural world, climate and weather are ever-present in the language and the prose glows.

Sherry Landow, Membership & Administration Officer

I’ve just finished reading He Wants by Alison Moore. It’s a patient, gentle story about ageing, desire and regret. Full of time jumps and changes in perspective, He Wants traces the ways in which a retired teacher’s daily routine is suddenly shaken up with the return of a childhood friend. Well worth a read.

Bridget Lutherborrow, Intern

My book club is reading Antonia Hayes’ Relativity at the moment, but I’m only 35% through. So far it’s immaculately put together. Every part of the book feels like a necessary building block to whatever elusive whole it’s building to. I also read Angela Meyer’s first piece as Kill Your Darlings’ literary columnist last week, Breathing In, Singing Out: Three notions of voice in writing, which is just a really great dissection of what it means to have voice as an author and the kinds of things that can develop or destroy a strong voice.