National Bookshop Day

We’re sure you don’t need an excuse to support your local bookshop, but we have a great excuse anyway. Saturday 8th of August is National

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Our top 10 podcast episodes for 2015 (…so far!)

We’re on a break this week while Valerie moves house and argues with a certain telco provider about promised installation dates… but in the meantime, we thought we’d share your top 10 podcast episodes for 2015 (…so far!) 1. Ep 45 – Lisa Heidke Our first episode back for the year! We

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Man Booker Prize 2015 longlist announced!

We waited with bated breath all day long… only to remember that the announcement happens at 12pm British Standard Time. Finally, the clocks have ticked over in the UK, and the longlist is here! From the official announcement: The longlist, or ‘Man Booker Dozen’, for the £50,000 Man Booker Prize is

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VU Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers

Are you a new or emerging writer? Check out Overland‘s short story competition: From Overland‘s website: The Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers is now open. This annual competition encourages excellent and original short fiction by new writers of up to 3000 words in length.

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Matt Nable on why writing is better than acting

If you’ve ever heard the term “someone who wears many hats” to describe a multi-skilled person, then you may need to be an expert milliner to fathom Matt Nable. Notably he has played top level rugby league for Manly and earned his keep as an actor in a number of high

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COMP CLOSED: Win Thea Astley’s biography!

We’re getting all biographical this week, with two copies of Inventing Her Own Weather – Karen Lamb’s balanced account of the life of one of Australia’s beloved authors, Thea Astley – to be won. Astley had a career that spanned half a century, and she was quite the pioneer of

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22nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards

Ladies of crime (writing), here’s a competition just for you! The 22nd Scarlett Stiletto Awards are now open and, thanks to Every Cloud Productions, the prize pool has increased to $9350! Woah! From the Sisters in Crime website: Every Cloud Productions, the producers of the internationally-acclaimed crime drama, Miss Fisher’s Murder

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"I got published!": Lilani Goonesena

We love hearing from our students no matter what they have to say, but when we hear of a student being published, we just want to shout it from the rooftops! We’re a little scared of heights, so we’ll go with a blog post instead. Lilani says:  Thrilled to get

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National Bookshop Day

We’re sure you don’t need an excuse to support your local bookshop, but we have a great excuse anyway. Saturday 8th of August is National Bookshop Day! Hundreds of bookshops will be holding events and having activities, and more. From the press release: On Saturday, August 8th, bookshops throughout Australia will

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Victorian Community History Awards 2015

Hey history buffs! Do you love your Victorian history? Australian Victorian history, that is! Entries for the Victorian Community History Awards are now open. From the Public Record Office of Victoria: The Victorian Community History Awards recognise excellence in historical storytelling. The range of award categories reflects the variety of formats

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Kim Wilkins reminds us to slow down and smell the…trees

We love this quote from a 2014 interview we did with author Kim Wilkins (who also writes as Kimberley Freeman). It’s such an important thing to remember in this ‘busy’ world we live in. Thanks Kim! “If you’ve ever found yourself waiting for five minutes somewhere, just five minutes, just

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COMP CLOSED: Win this picture book about dugongs!

This week, we’re shifting gears here at Competition Central, with four copies of children’s picture book, The Bravest Dugong to give away – written by Alec Trost and beautifully illustrated by Graham Compton. Alec completed our Writing Picture Books course back when it first began in 2011, and he (ironically)

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88 Australian authors to follow on Twitter

You’ve often heard us bang on about how social media can help your build your author platform and help you connect with other people in the industry. Well, if you’re an emerging or established writer, who should connect with? Apart from your friends, family and fans, here are 88 Australian

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Are you hopeless at working from home? Try these 5 solutions.

This post is by Sue White, successful freelance writer and Australian Writers’ Centre presenter. This last fortnight at least half a dozen friends – mostly of the journo and/or blogger variety – have complained to me about their absolute lack of ability to work effectively from home.  One friend started

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Why freelancers need friends (and how to find some!)

This post is by Sue White, successful freelance writer and Australian Writers’ Centre presenter. It’s a freelancing paradox. On one hand, if you’re self employed, existing friends pop out of the woodwork at all hours of the (traditional) work day. “I’m having a day off, want to hang out?” or

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Rachel Power on creative motherhood

Mums need medals, right? We certainly think so, and that’s without contemplating another job (on top of the full-time one at home) or a creative pursuit. Our ‘Writer in Residence’ interview in episode 57 of our So you want to be a writer podcast saw writer/mum Allison Tait chat with

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Q&A: Percentages: Is it fewer than or less than?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. And this week, we are 100% sure that would like to know about percentages and fewer/less… Q: Hi AWC, I was wondering if we’d ever discussed the whole fewer vs less thing? A: We sure have –

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COMP CLOSED: Win Sophie Kinsella’s Finding Audrey

This week we’ve spun the wheel of prizes and have landed on the latest book from bestselling British author Sophie Kinsella – called Finding Audrey. This is actually Sophie’s first YA (young adult) book, and it’s here where we meet the title character Audrey – an ordinary teenager with not

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"I got published!": Catherine Rodie

We spotted Catherine recently in MiNDFOOD magazine! Congratulations Catherine! If you have a success story to share with us, you can do so right here. We’ll share it with the world! For more success stories, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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"I got published!": Zohra Aly

We spotted Zohra recently in MiNDFOOD magazine! Congratulations Zohra! If you have a success story to share with us, you can do so right here. We’ll share it with the world! For more success stories, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Black, Red, Blue and Yellow

This post is by Pamela Freeman, author of more than 30 books and director of the creative writing faculty at the Australian Writers’ Centre. After a recent class where I discussed my ‘four-colour printing process’ approach to writing scenes, one of my students asked me to do a blog post

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