“If I waited till I felt like writing, I’d never write at all” – Anne Tyler Writing can bring you incredible joy – but it can sometimes feel like a chore. It depends on your mood, what’s gone on that day, and whether you got out on the right side
Above: CEO of AWC Valerie Khoo with AWC presenter Patti Miller at the book launch. AWC presenter and Australia’s most renown teacher of memoir and life writing Patti Miller has released her latest memoir The Joy of High Places. Launched by Mark Tredinnick at Better Read Than Dead bookshop in
“The worst thing you write is better than the best thing you did not write” For so many of us, writing is a creative urge that simply must be brought to the surface. To live a life having never expressed yourself in this way, simply unthinkable. Your favourite authors –
“There is no greater tragedy than bearing an untold story inside you.” So goes the quote (attributed to Maya Angelou), summing up the curious compulsion that so many people on this planet have to WRITE. To tell a story – any kind of story – and continuing a verbal tradition
There are loads of books out there about writing and it can be hard to find one that really connects with you. They can offer advice or exercises, rules or suggestions, or just provide inspiration. We’ve brought together recommendations from some top authors, writers and publishers on what they believe
First-time author Vicki Laveau-Harvie is the winner of 2019 The Stella Prize for her memoir The Erratics. This is the first time in its seven-year history that a memoir has won the Stella Prize and the second time it’s been awarded to a debut author. The Erratics from The Stella
When writer, blogger and traveller Lisa Fleetwood’s family lost their dog, it led to her to self-publishing her first book – Destination Dachshund: Three Months, Three Generations & Sixty Dachshunds – a travel memoir that reached ‘bestseller’ status on Amazon. So today we’ve sat Lisa in an ornate wooden chair
Writing a travel memoir involves having a unique experience to share with your readers. And in this regard, Australian author Brett Pierce had no shortage of material when he came to writing about his adventures as an aid worker around the globe. Hi Brett. So, your book is called Beyond
Women are some of the pickiest people to buy gifts for on your Christmas list. But they are also some of the most demanding – there’s no way you’d get away with not buying them a present! So to help you out, take a look at our selection of the top
Through our writing courses, we have helped thousands of Australians achieve their dreams of becoming better writers and even published authors. As anyone who has picked up a pen will know, writing is not an easy thing to do, so many people avoid it, even though they may dream of
“This is the book about immigration detention all Australians need to read.” So says the press about the recently released memoir, No Man Is an Island by Adele Dumont. It tells of her time working as a young English teacher in Australia’s detention centres. It’s such an important topic in
Nicholas Lee worked for Channel 9 as a 60 Minutes cameraman for three decades, before retiring in 2012. And now he’s released a book. It has been described as a ‘deliciously gossipy and humorous memoir’, as he shares his tales from that time. This all sounded worthy of a story,
Today we’re chatting with author Leigh Hopkinson about her new memoir Two Decades Naked. Now, we’re pretty sure even the staunchest of naturalists would struggle to spend that long starkers, so we thought we’d get to the bottom of this. (Pun absolutely intended.) Hi Leigh, for those readers who haven’t
Writing a memoir can certainly be a soul searching endeavour – a fact that Rebecca Poulson knows only too well. Rebecca did the Life Writing course at the Australian Writers’ Centre and has since been published. In her book Killing Love, published by Simon & Schuster last year, she recounts
If there was ever an author that DIDN’T need a leg up, it would be athlete, motivational speaker and amputee Don Elgin. His story of disabled boy turned elite athlete has been brought to the page through his memoir, One Foot on the Podium. And we recently asked him all
Sarah Hepola is the personal essays editor at Salon.com, where she reads other people’s stories for a living. But now she has published her own memoir – the raw, powerful and honest Blackout: Remembering the things I drank to forget, confronting and sharing with readers her struggle with alcohol over
Back in 2005, around the same time as the Australian Writers’ Centre was first opening its doors, Gwen Wilson, then 50, was making the first scribblings for what would become her debut memoir, I Belong to No One. “I can trace its beginning to 2005, and it evolved through numerous
With a recent announcement that Truce Films had acquired the rights to make “Reservoir Dad – the movie”, we thought it was timely to open up the Vault and revisit the interview we did last year for the So you want to be a writer podcast with the daddy blogger
When many hear about someone writing their memoir, they often think of a famous person at the end of their life. But the truth is that anyone can write one at any stage. In fact, as memoir expert Patti Miller explains, they can write many. We spoke with her recently
Lex Marinos is an actor and Australian icon, appearing through the decades on the iconic Kingswood Country, Embassy, and more recently The Slap. He has also directed shows, written episodes for TV (notably the Bodyline mini-series), and last year penned a memoir entitled Blood and Circuses: An Irresponsible Memoir. During
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