By Donna Ward A poem is an epiphany in words, a journal note in the soul’s high adventure, a gem cut brillante so all life’s glory gleams through. In days filled with lists, and jobs, and deadlines we forget we are part of something intriguing and mysterious. Epiphanies remind us. Epiphanies occur when we are […]

By Libby Parker I’m a huge fan of Astrid’s work and her workshops so it was an easy decision to make to book her Write with Spice workshop on Sunday 18 August at SA Writers’ Centre. Astrid has an aura about her. She is warm, disarming, engaging and a wealth of knowledge! She gives practical advice to writers of all […]

By Malcolm Walker Shakespeare asks, ‘What’s in a name?’ and answers by telling us roses smell sweet whatever they are called. But Tim Winton’s character Rose Pickles out of Cloudstreet is anything but sweet: her character comes fully armed with thorns for most of the story – even though she softens towards the end of […]

By Malcolm Walker Believe it or not one of the books I find most useful is the Macquarie Dictionary. When looking for a spelling I’ll often come across a word I’ve never encountered before and that can begin the process of interrogating ideas and relationships I hadn’t thought about before. I usually just jot the […]

By Dorothy Shorne ‘How long had you known him?’  A common question I am asked after I have delivered a eulogy. In most cases I have not had the pleasure of meeting the deceased. What I have done is listened carefully to his nearest and dearest as they relate to me their memories and experiences. […]

By Vanessa Jones This year I really had no excuse not to go to the 10th Emerging Writers Festival at the end of May. I was invited to be part of a panel, my Adelaide and Melbourne writing buddies would be there and I could go to represent the SA Writers Centre. So far, this has been one […]

By Liz Harfull I have just returned from an extraordinary few weeks, travelling more than 6000 kilometres to meet some of the show cooks that will feature in a national version of the Blue Ribbon Cookbook, due out in March 2014. The wonderful conversations and cooking sessions that I shared with these talented men and women […]

By Danae Sinclair Great content never asks readers to work for what they want to know.  Great content meets reader expectations, helps them toward their information-gathering goals and it gets your message across clearly.  To break it down further, here are three things to be mindful of when creating web content: 1. Provide pathways to […]

by Kerryn Goldsworthy JOIN KERRYN FOR THE WORD FOR WORD WORKSHOP IN JANUARY. * Remember that ‘place’ is an elastic term: it could mean ‘Australia’ or  ‘Adelaide’ or ‘the Beehive Corner’ or ‘the place I came off my bike when I was ten’. * When describing a place, try to emphasise the features that are […]

By Stephen Atkinson About a quarter of the way through his workshop on creative non-fiction, renowned writer and teacher of writing Robin Hemley revealed the six questions he gets all of his students to ask of their work: 1)    What is it about? 2)    What is it really about? 3)    What is it about? 4)    […]

 By Jillian Schedneck Robin Hemley approached this masterclass by giving the nine experienced nonfiction writing students specific and applicable advice on their nonfiction projects. In various stages of conception and completion, each class member spoke in turn about their projects, from a family’s experience organic farming in Italy to an errant expatriate writing from but […]

Hi peeps, Cassandra Dean here, with a few hints and tips for online promotion and marketing as a writer! 1. Have a website. Make the design of it simple and easy to use. Update it regularly. 2. Blog. Blog regularly. Blog often. Blog about random shizz you’re convinced no one wants to read about – […]

By Stephen Lord Our regular volunteer, Stephen Lord, discusses his most valuable resources for writing. The most important resource I have is my writing group. Writing is a wretched, solitary and miserable business even on good days, and I couldn’t be without a support network of like-minded souls. They are beta testers, fact checkers, idea […]

By Lucy Clark 1. If you don’t write your story, who will? 2. Procrastinate… but then write. 3. You make time to go to the gym, work, sleep, socialise, so why not make time to write? 4. Research is MASSIVE and time consuming and from all the info you collate, you’ll condense it to two […]

By Ben Brooker One of our recent Writers in Residence, Ben Brooker, discusses his residency. In the first two decades of the 20th century, James Joyce used one of the upstairs rooms at the now legendary Shakespeare and Company bookshop on Paris’s Left Bank as his personal office. There, he wrote Ulysses, universally regarded as […]