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Writers SA offers a year-round program of literary workshops, events, and courses, both in person and online.
Writers SA members receive a discount to all ticketed workshops, members log in here to access discount prices. Not a member yet? You can join us here.
For information about our cancellation and refund policy, please read our terms and conditions before you register for a workshop.
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Writers SA believes in fostering writers of all ages, and encouraging young writers to express their creativity and build their skills in a supportive, safe, fun and engaging environment.
We hold kids writing workshops and writing clubs for young people regularly throughout the year and in the school holidays.
If you are from a school or organisation we can also develop young people’s writing workshops, one-off talks and events, and other programs with and for you, please contact us at [email protected] or call on 08 8223 7662 to find out more.
Looking for a writing workshop, community event, performance or literary showcase in regional South Australia?
Our No Limits: Young Regional Writers program offers a diverse range of online and in-person writing workshops and events in three regional SA locations: Riverland, Eyre Peninsula and Limestone Coast.
This project is supported by Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative, and Arts South Australia.
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Matilda Bookshop, in partnership with Writers SA, and association with Ultimo Press, are offering an annual residency fellowship to a South Australian writer. The fellowship provides support (time, writing space and mentoring) to work on a writing project of literary merit. As there are currently no SA residency fellowships offered to SA writers, the fellowship aims to remedy a gap in the literary community. Applications will be assessed by Writers SA staff, with the shortlist judged by Writers SA and Matilda Bookshop. Ultimo Press will provide consultation and manuscript assessment to the recipient.
The residency is for one week (seven nights) and includes the following:
Applications will open Wednesday February 1st 2023, and must be submitted to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/deepcreekres by 11:59pm Saturday 1 April 2023. The successful recipients will be notified by June 30 2023.
The week-long residency will take place October 16-23, 2023. There is no application fee, and no program fees apply. Regional writers may apply for a higher travel/living subsidy at the time of application and will depend on the location they are travelling from.
Selection Criteria:
Applications will be considered according to:
To apply:
Please follow this link where you can also upload your documents.
Terms and conditions
By entering this application process, you agree to the following terms and conditions:
1. You must be a writer with a work in progress (the submission can be in early stages of development, but we want to see that you have a viable and dynamic project in mind).
2. You must be a South Australian resident for at least 12 months.
3. You must be 18 years or older.
4. You must be able to take up the residency between October 16 and 23, 2023, and if circumstances beyond your control prevent you from attending during this time, you must notify Writers SA of this immediately so another applicant can be offered the fellowship.
5. The successful applicant will need to make their own way to and from the residency at Grass Tree Gully in Deep Creek, South Australia.
6. The final recipient will be chosen at the discretion of Writers SA and Matilda Bookshop. The decision will be final, and no discussion will be entered into with applicants. Previous applicants may reapply with the same or a different literary project. Previous winners can not reapply even if the project is new.
Additional Information
The house is reasonably accessible however the property is mostly rugged terrain. Please contact [email protected] if you need to discuss any accessibility queries or options in relation to the residency.
Undertaking the residency is not a guarantee of publication. Ultimo Press will consider the final manuscript at their discretion.
Writers SA’s Writers in Schools Program embeds professional practising writers in outer suburban and regional public high schools in South Australia to teach writing skills, provide literary career pathways, and inspire a love of writing and reading in students. The program provides employment to the writers to undertake two or four-week residencies where they will work on personal creative projects. The writers will also work with teachers to provide writing workshops, author talks and other activities with students in alignment with the curriculum, and has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
Jude will be based at Penola High School for two weeks from the 20th February 2023.
Jude Aquilina is an award-winning poet and author whose work is published in literary journals, newspapers and anthologies across Australia and abroad. She has published and edited many books. Her Wakefield Press titles include Knifing the Ice, On a moon spiced night and Tadpoles in the Torrens: poems for young readers. Jude is a freelance writer, editor, mentor and educator. She has taught creative writing to a wide sector of the community, at schools, libraries, community centres, university, TAFE, and in a prison.
Jude was the 2018 recipient of the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship. Her works in progress include a poetry collection about the outback, titled Big Backyard, a novel based on her opal-mining grandmother, and a book of South Australian ghost stories.
Jude believes that everyone can write and enjoys assisting people on their writing journeys as a mentor and editor. She conducts workshops on the topics of poetry, memoir, short stories and general creative writing.
Jude says: “Everyone should have a chance to try creative writing. I am thrilled to be working with the Penola High School students. It is so important to bridge the gap for under-served public high schools. Such students are of the age where imaginative and creative skills are heightened.
Many high school students don’t have the opportunity to try creative writing, meet published authors or discuss writing careers and opportunities. I look forward to sharing my knowledge, offering my support and running some inspiring workshops.”
Allayne will be based at Roma Mitchell Secondary College March 13-24, 2023.
Allayne writes Children’s and Young Adult literature. She’s a Premier’s Reading Challenge Ambassador, multiple arts grants winner, she sings and plays guitar, and sometimes she illustrates.
Paper Planes (Scholastic) was a 2016 CBCA Notable, shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Awards, and is included with the Australian Heritage Untapped Project. A Cardboard Palace (MidnightSun), a 2018 CBCA Notable, was published in Sweden. Our Little Secret (Scholastic) was listed for the Golden Inkys and has recently been republished (Ligature Press.) The Centre of My Everything (PenguinRandomHouse) was shortlisted in the 2019 Davitt Awards (crime) and the 2020 Adelaide Festival Awards. Sensitive (UQP) is published in Russia, was shortlisted in the 2020 Australian Speech Pathology Awards, and is an IBBY Outstanding Book for Young People with Disabilities. That Thing I Did (YA – Wakefield Press) was out March 2022 and Selfie (YA -Text Publishing) is out April 2023. Allayne continues to write for children and young adults.
Allayne says: “I’ve been a member of Writers SA for many years and during that time my membership has provided me with a myriad of wonderful opportunities – and now I can add a residency at Roma Mitchell Secondary College to the list! Writing for children and teenagers is my life’s passion, so to get to work intensively with students and staff over a two week period is a dream come true. Normally I would be visiting a school for one or two days, but this residency means I have a greater timeframe in which to share knowledge, build skills, and deliver real community impact. I’m very excited!”
Jennifer will be based at Heathfield High School May 1-14, 2023.
Jennifer Mills is the author of the novels The Airways (Picador, 2021), Dyschronia (Picador, 2018), Gone (UQP, 2011) and The Diamond Anchor (UQP, 2009) and a collection of short stories, The Rest is Weight (UQP, 2012). In 2019 Dyschronia was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious prize for literary fiction, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and the Aurealis Awards for science fiction. The Rest is Weight was shortlisted for the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards Steele Rudd Award for an Australian Short Story Collection and longlisted for the 2013 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.
If you are interested in including a writer in your school, please contact [email protected]
Subscribe to Writers SA for news about the latest updates of the Writers in Schools project.
As a freelancer, Karen writes trade book reviews for Books + Publishing and has op-eds published in NITV, Meanjin, Al Jazeera, Guardian Australia and Indigenous X. She has a piece in the Spring issue of Meanjin, which is a fictional telling of four girls in Western Australia, who were part of the Stolen Generations. Her debut novel, When Rosa Came Home, was shortlisted for a SA Readers & Writers People’s Choice Award in 2015. Her draft manuscript, Where the Fruit Falls, was shortlisted for the Richell Prize in 2017. Karen was a participant of Hardcopy in 2018, after being awarded the inaugural ACT Writers & First Nations Australia Writers Network Indigenous Writers Scholarship.
Karen spent a month in Ceduna for her residency, where she edited her novel, Where the Fruit Falls, which she worked on during the Hardcopy professional development program for writers. She also commenced her next project, Bestiarium Terra Nullius: peculiar beings of uninhabited southern lands, which is a series of three novellas. Following the journeys of maritime explorers, such as Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders, some of this work is based in the Great Australian Bight.
While in Ceduna Karen was hosted by the Ceduna School Community Library, and presented writing workshops with readers from the wider community, the Ceduna Area School, and met with community at Arts Ceduna and Far West Languages Centre.
Context Writers Festival is a free, three-day festival for writers to connect and share new conversations about story and truth.
Presented in partnership by Writers SA and City of Adelaide, the 2021 Context Festival features a diverse range of local and national authors to inspire new conversations, held on Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide), from 8–10 October. The program features Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Natalie Harkin, Soul Lounge poets Stevie Zhao, Manal Younus and Prosper, journalists Anisha Pillarisetty and Royce Kurmelovs, musician Corey Theatre, zine-maker Ruby Allegra, novelist Karen Wyld, and many more.
Context Writers Festival October 8-10 Adelaide City Library Auslan interpretation will be available on all sessions. Please see library accessibility information here.
An initiative of the City of Adelaide delivered in partnership by Writers SA
Submission period: 1 September–1 October, 2021
We are thrilled to announce that Writers SA is collaborating with Liminal magazine!
We are welcoming fiction and non-fiction pitches from both emerging and established Asian-Australian writers who live in South Australia. Selected works responding to the theme of Haunt will be published online, in a collection of Asian-Australian excellence that sees Liminal’s first South Australian series, to be published in 2022.
Alongside these commissions, Liminal will facilitate a mentorship for two emerging editors, who will work with editors Cher Tan and Elizabeth Flux for hands-on experience editing our South Australian series.
If your pitch is successful, the editorial mentorship and writing commissions will be remunerated.For more information, please see below.
Liminal x Writers SA Writing Commissions 2022
Call For Fiction & Non-Fiction Pitches
Led by Cher Tan & Elizabeth Flux, alongside two emerging editors.
What spectres linger? What superstitions appear in the day to day? Whether it be ghosts of people or ideas, experiences that cause ripples through lives and generations, places you return to again and again, we want to hear what ‘haunt’ means to you.
The Liminal writing commissions call for fiction and non-fiction writers to send through a pitch of their best ideas. We are looking for work that touches on the theme of Haunt, in the broadest ways possible; you are welcome to take the theme and split it apart, interrogate it, or turn it inside out. We welcome work from both emerging and established Asian-Australian writers.
Writers will be paid $600 each, for their piece in the Liminal x Writers SA series.
Liminal x Writers SA Editorial Mentorship
Call For Emerging Editors
Mentored by Cher Tan & Elizabeth Flux
The Liminal & Writers SA Editorial Mentorship invites emerging Asian-Australian editors based in South Australia to apply for an editorial mentorship. The mentorship will be conducted online, and involve working closely with Cher Tan (non-fiction) and Elizabeth Flux (fiction) to edit the Liminal x Writers SA series. Each selected mentee will learn how to edit and shape pieces for digital publication, as well as receive feedback and guidance throughout the entire editorial process.
Each emerging editor will be paid a stipend of $1600, which will support the upskilling and development of an emerging Asian-Australian editor based in South Australia.
THIS PROJECT IS PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LIMINAL MAGAZINE, AND IS SUPPORTED BY ARTS SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
Writers SA hosts a Teen Writers Club each term in-person. High school aged teens meet on Saturday mornings at City Library just off Rundle Mall for 8 weeks starting at the end of week 1.
Dan Thorsland is our 2021 group facilitator! Dan is an editor, writer, video and film producer, who contributed to Superwoman, Wonder Woman and Star Wars comic series when he worked for DC and Dark Horse. Dan has moved on from his position at video game producer Mighty Kingdom and now works for Flinders University.
Facilitators change term-to-term and provide structure and advice for the group with help on all forms and mediums related to creative writing. Sessions are casual and there are no hard outcomes, just a fun and inclusive atmosphere to build relationships with other writers and to learn to write or learn to write better.
The cost of participation for each term is $200 and while registrations are open, you can find the event link under the ‘Program’ tab. Places are limited to keep the group manageable and if Covid creates restrictions, we move to a Zoom or Groups online location.
If you’d like to find out more information or to be added to a mailing list when registrations are coming up, please email [email protected]
Writers SA does not currently have a program for primary school aged children but please ask your local council library if they have any workshops coming up.
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Events and Workshops - July
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