More than 73 books published by AWC alumni and presenters in 2021!

Success comes in all shapes and sizes and for more than 62 of our alumni and presenters, it came in the size and shape of a published book.

That’s right, 51 alumni from the Australian Writers’ Centre community published more than 57 books in 2021! Of course, that’s no surprise when they are taught by our award-winning presenters, who have also had a phenomenal year – publishing 17 books between them.

Are you ready for some more numbers? Here we go.

That’s:

• 23 picture books
• 11 contemporary novels
• 9 crime and thriller novels
• 7 non–fiction books
• 6 YA books
• 6 memoirs
• 6 books for young readers
• 4 historical fiction books
• And 1 fantasy in a pear tree.

Quite a sack full of success! We’re sure you’ll forgive us if we sit here with big grins on our faces saying, “Our students are simply the best.”

Here are some of the books our truly lovely graduates published in 2021:

• Ali Berg (and Michelle Kalus) – Fancy Meeting You Here
• Alison David – Finding myself in lockdown in Italy: Musings from my year ‘home alone’ in Milan
• Amy Suiter Clarke – Girl 11
• Amy Adeney – Turning Cartwheels, Tilda Teaches Drawing and Tilda Teaches Francais
• Anika Molesworth – Our Sunburnt Country
• Anna Weatherly – The Widow’s Follower: 1919 A Sydney Mystery
• Carolyn Alfonzetti – Trudie Cooper, Super Foodie Series
• CJ Fentiman – The Cat with Three Passports
• Craig Sheather – The Incredible True Story of Sparky the Wonder Puppy
• Chelsea Davies – Where I Love to Be
• Fiona Murphy – The Shape of Sound
• Freda Chiu – A Trip to the Hospital
• Gabriella Kelly-Davies – Breaking Through the Pain Barrier
• Gaby Purchase – The Permit
• Gaiti Rabbani – Curious about Culture
• Gary Nunn – The Psychic Tests
• Graci Kim – The Last Fallen Star
• Inda Ahmad Zahri – Salih and Night Lights
• Jacinta Froud – Jingle Belly
• Joanna Nell – The Tea Ladies of St Jude’s Hospital
• Jenna Guillaume – The Deep End
• Jenny Canty – Number One Baby Dragon
• June Yu – Miscreation?
• Karen Kepert – Scruffy and Silk
• Kerrie Hudson – Constant Fear
• Kiara Phethean – Serpent Moon Voyages: Isle of Witches’ Lava
• Larissa Collins – Be Brave Beatrice
• Linda King – The Smart Travelista Guide: How to protect your travel health & safety
• M.A. Hughes – Never Too Late To Tell
• Maggie Hutchings – The Book for Happy Hearts
• Magnolia Cardona – When the Time Comes
• Mandy Foot – Lucy and Copper
• Pat Simmons – The Cat Thief
• Penelope Janu – Starting from Scratch
• Rachel Givney – Secrets My Father Kept
• Rebekah Campbell – 138 Dates
• Bellebird James – The Art of Loving Libby Green 
• Sam Buckerfield – Generation Alpha
• Sandhya Parappukkaran – The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name
• Sandie Docker – The Wattle Island Book Club
• Sandie Jessamine – Borderline
• Sandy Barker – The Dating Game
• Sarah Bailey – The Housemate
• Sarah Epstein – Sugarcoated and Small Spaces
• Sarah Lightfoot – Down the Road, Little Bee
• Selma Kaasinen – Araukaria 
• Sharita Russell – Original Sinner
• Stef Gemmill – Toy Mountain
• Stefania Woodward – Learn Italian with Max & Mini
• Susannah Hardy – Loving Lizzie March
• Sylvia Petter – All the Beautiful Liars
• Tania Blanchard – Echoes of War
• Valerie Clifford – Fijian Shadows. Living through the coup of 2000
• Victoria Mackinlay – The Lion Who Came To Stay and The Bark Book
• Vikki Conley – Amira’s Suitcase and Tomorrow Girl

Basically, that’s your reading list for the next year sorted. And if that’s not quite a large enough TBR pile for you, then there are also all the books published by our presenters and staff.

• A. L. Tait – The Wolf’s Howl (A Maven and Reeve Mystery Book 2)
• Angela Slatter – No Good Deed: A Sourdough Tale and All the Murmuring Bones
• Candice Fox – 2 Sisters Detective Agency and The Chase
• L.A. Larkin – The Safe Place and Widow’s Island
• Louisa Bennet (a.k.a. L.A. Larkin) – The Bone Ranger: Monty Dog Detective
• Lesley Gibbes – Dinosaur Dads
• Nat Amoore – The Right Way to Rock
• Nat Newman – The Office of Dead Letters
• Natasha Lester – The Riviera House
• Nicole Hayes – The Missing Cup (AFL Little Legends Australia Reads Special Edition)
• Pamela Hart – Digging Up Dirt and Eleven Pipers Piping
• Zanni Louise – Florence and Fox and Priya the Swan Queen

Congratulations to all of our published alumni and presenters.

And we hope that you – as part of our AWC family – enjoyed your own success this year, whether it was in the form of a book, a story, a course, a poem, an article, a notebook full of ideas, a writing buddy – or a reconnection to your creative life.