Learn from the best

With great courses comes great responsibility. Our amazing presenters not only possess truckloads of talent and experience, they’re also great at sharing!
Meet them now.

Dr Pamela Freeman is the award-winning author of more than 50 books. Pamela has a Doctorate in Creative Writing and is the Director of Creative Writing at the Australian Writers’ Centre. She has developed many highly regarded writing courses that have inspired and educated thousands of writers.

Her most recent novel as Pamela Hart is An A-List for Death. This follows Digging Up Dirt, the first in the Poppy McGowan mystery series. She also publishes Regency romance novellas with Escape Publishing. Prior to this, she’s published a number of historical novels, mostly set in the first part of the 20th century (WWI and the Roaring Twenties).

Writing Workout

Novel Writing Essentials

Write Your Novel

Edit Your Novel

Angela Slatter is the author of five novels, including The Path of Thorns and All the Murmuring Bones, and eleven short story collections, including The Bitterwood Bible and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales. She’s won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, two Australian Shadows Awards and seven Aurealis Awards. Her work has been translated into multiple languages. She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, teaches for the Australian Writers’ Centre.

Dark Horse Comics has recently announced her Hellboy Universe collaboration with Mike Mignola, Castle Full of Blackbirds.

She can be located on the internet at www.angelaslatter.com, @AngelaSlatter (Twitter) and angelaslatter (Instagram).

Writing Workout

Novel Writing Essentials

Write Your Novel

Cut, Shape, Polish: How to edit your own stories

Dr Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author, poet, and storyteller. Her most recent novel is The Crimson Thread, a reimagining of ‘The Minotaur in the Labyrinth’ myth, set in Crete during the Nazi invasion and occupation of World War II.

Kate's other historical novels include The Blue Rose, set against the backdrop of Imperial China and the French Revolution, published by Penguin Random House in 2019, and Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty set amongst the wild bohemian circle of Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets, which was published by Penguin Random House Books Australia in 2017. Kate is also a well-known writer of children's books, such as her fantasy adventure series, The Impossible Quest, and the Long-Lost Fairy-Tales collection, illustrated by Lorena Carrington.

Plotting and Planning

The Story Doctor

Dare to Dream

Cathie Tasker is a fiction editor with more than 25 years’ experience and has also been a judge of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Aurealis Awards. Cathie has worked for children’s publishers such as HarperCollins Publishers, Scholastic Australia and Koala Books. She has edited books by Mem Fox, Jackie French, Bruce Whatley, Judith Rossell, Sue Whiting, Pamela Freeman, Coral Vass, Craig Smith, Dee Huxley, Hazel Edwards, Ann James, Matt Cosgrove, Meredith Costain, Rod Clement, Sally Odgers, Patricia Mullins, Rodney McRae, Pamela Lofts, Junko Morimoto and more. Many of her students end up with published deals.

Novel Writing Essentials

Presenting to Kids

Write Your Novel

Short Story Essentials

Judith Rossell is a full-time writer and illustrator of children's books. Over the past 15 years, she has written more than 10 books and illustrated more than 80. Her work has been translated into 16 languages.

Judith's latest books are Wakestone Hall, Wormwood Mire and Withering-by-Sea, three Victorian fantasy-adventure novels for young readers. Withering-by-Sea won the Indie Award for Children and Young Adults, the Australian Book Industry Award for Older Children, and was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards and the Aurealis Awards.

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

Sue Whiting is the author of more than 60 books and she has worked in the publishing industry for over 15 years. Sue's nature storybook Platypus was a Notable Book in the 2016 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards. Her junior novel Get a Grip, Cooper Jones was a Notable Book in the 2011 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards, and her picture book A Swim in the Sea won Speech Pathologists Australia's 2014 Book of the Year.

Allison Tait is an internationally published bestselling author of seven middle-grade adventure novels.

Also known as A.L. Tait, Allison's latest book is The Fire Star: A Maven & Reeve Mystery published in 2020 by Penguin Australia. Her other children's book series are The Ateban Cipher (The Book of Secrets and The Book of Answers) and The Mapmaker Chronicles (Race to the End of the World, Prisoner of the Black Hawk, Breath of the Dragon, and Beyond the Edge of the Map). Her books have been shortlisted for numerous awards.

A multi-genre writer, teacher and speaker with many years’ experience in magazines, newspapers and online publishing, Allison is also the co-host of the popular 'So you want to be a writer' podcast.

Creative Writing Quest for Kids

Teenage Creative Writers’ Program

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

Make Time to Write

Patti Miller has taught creative writing, with a particular focus on autobiographical writing, for more than 20 years. Her latest memoir The Joy of High Places was published by NewSouth in 2019. Writing True Stories was published by Allen & Unwin in June 2017 and she was included in UQP's Reading the Landscape. Her previous memoirs include Ransacking Paris, The Last One Who Remembers and Whatever The Gods Do.

Memoir Writing in Paris with Patti Miller

Candice Fox is the award-winning author of 2 Sisters Detective Agency, her seventh collaboration with iconic crime and thriller author James Patterson. Candice's most recent solo novel The Chase, an electrifying cat-and-mouse thriller set in the Nevada desert, was the winner of the Best Crime Book in the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards. With James, she is also the author of The Inn, Hush Hush, Liar Liar, Fifty Fifty, Never Never and Black & Blue. Described as “a brutal, action-packed and really hard-edged novel about a crime set in a FIFO mine in the outback,” Never Never hit number 1 in the New York Times bestseller list and around the world.

Set in far north Queensland, Candice’s Crimson Lake trilogy is a series of edgy suspense novels. The books were published by Penguin Random House Australia, starting with Crimson Lake in 2017 (now a hit TV series called Troppo), followed up by Redemption Point in 2018, and the final instalment, Gone by Midnight, in 2019.

Nicole Hayes is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults. Her latest project, Little Legends, celebrates the great game of AFL, a sport that Nicole loves. She is also a writing instructor who has taught with the Australian Writers' Centre for more than eight years, as well as at universities, TAFEs and schools around Australia. She currently teaches Creative Writing at Deakin University and Sports Media at Swinburne.

Novel Writing Essentials

Nat Amoore is an award-winning internationally published author of books for children, including Secrets of an Undercover Activist, We Run Tomorrow, The Right Way To Rock, The Power Of Positive Pranking and Secrets Of A Schoolyard Millionaire.

Nat is the 2021 winner of the Environment Award for Children’s Literature. She has also been shortlisted for the Readings Children’s Book Prize and the REAL Children’s Choice Book Awards. In 2019, Nat was Australia's #1 bestselling debut children’s fiction author. Nat has also placed first and second at the CYA Conference and was the recipient of the CBCA Maurice Saxby Creative Development Program.

Lesley Gibbes is an internationally published children's author and primary school teacher. Her hilarious chapter book series Fizz has been published internationally and several of her picture books have been listed as Notable or Honour Books in the CBCA Awards.

Tim Harris is one of the most exciting children’s authors in Australia with several laugh-out-loud series for kids to his name, including Toffle Towers, Mr Bambuckle’s Remarkables and Exploding Endings. The first book in the Exploding Endings series, Painted Dogs & Doom Cakes, was awarded Honour Book at the 2017 KOALAs. His second series, Mr Bambuckle’s Remarkables, contains his trademark quirkiness, mixed with a touch of poignancy.

Natasha Lester is the award-winning author of historical fiction. Her latest book is The Riviera House, a lush and engrossing novel of World War II. Her other recent novels include The Paris Secret, The Paris Orphan (also published as The French Photographer), The Paris Seamstress, and Her Mother's Secret.

A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, set in the Jazz Age in New York, was released by Hachette Australia in 2016 after a bidding war between publishers. Her previous novels are If I Should Lose You (2012) and What is Left Over, After (2010).

L.A. Larkin’s crime-thrillers have won her fans all over the world. Described as a superb ‘chiller thriller’ writer by Marie Claire magazine, and praised by the king of crime, Lee Child, Louisa likes to write stories with lots of plot twists and characters that surprise. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and has been on the organising committees of the prestigious Ned Kelly Awards and Sisters In Crime NSW.

Her latest novels are the action-packed psychological thriller The Safe Place, and Widow's Island, a nail-biting crime thriller about cyberbullying, climate change and murder.

Creative Writing Stage 1

Bernadette Foley is one of the most connected people in the publishing industry, working as an editor and publisher for over 30 years. She was publisher of fiction and non-fiction for international publishing house Hachette Australia for 10 years, working with such authors as Di Morrissey, William McInnes, Gabrielle Lord, Graeme Blundell, Kate Ceberano, Bronwyn Parry, Lian Hearn, Pamela Freeman, Troy Cassar-Daley and many more. In 2015, Bernadette received the George Robertson Award for Service to the Australian Publishing Industry.

Write Your Novel

Writing Workout

Alexandra Spring is a journalist and editor. The former features director of Vogue Australia, her stories have appeared in Elle Australia, Guardian Australia, Sunday Life, InStyle Australia, Vogue UK, Vogue Girl, GQ Australia, The Walkley Magazine and Your Garden, as well as online for NRMA, Primped, The Hoopla and The Knot. She is currently a Senior Digital Producer at ABC Radio National.

Cindy MacDonald is deputy editor of The Saturday Paper, where she commissions and writes a range of features on news, books, lifestyle, social issues, the arts and more. Prior to this, she had a long career in journalism, including deputy editor at the award-winning Good Weekend magazine.

David Leser is an award-winning feature writer who has worked for The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, HQ, The Bulletin, Good Weekend, The Australian Women's Weekly, Vanity Fair, Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of Women, Men and the Whole Damn Thing (2019, Allen & Unwin) and has also worked as a Washington and Jerusalem-based correspondent.

Bernadette Schwerdt has trained over 9,000 people in the art of writing words that sell. She was a senior account director and copywriter for global advertising agency Young & Rubicam Advertising and worked on campaigns for clients such as Apple, Amex, Optus and Colgate. In 2001, she founded the Australian School of Copywriting, launching the careers of thousands of successful copywriters.

How to Build a Successful Freelance Copywriting Business

SEO Copywriting

Copy Club

Email Marketing and Copywriting

Carli Ratcliff is an award-winning editor, journalist, digital content specialist and UX writer. She established and has led the UX writing team at Qantas for many years. She now also advises on UX digital content and best practice for clients including SBS OnDemand, and advises Adobe on the design of their 'Writing for Voice' platform.

Food Writing

Valerie Khoo is an award-winning feature writer who is also CEO of the Australian Writers’ Centre. She writes for a range of corporate and consumer publications and was previously a regular writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age for over 15 years. Valerie is also the author of seven books. Her latest books are So you want to be a writer (co-authored with Allison Tait) and Power Stories: The 8 Stories You MUST Tell to Build an Epic Business.

Travel Writing

Freelance Writing Masterclass Program

Content Writing

Plain English Business Writing

Suzanne O'Sullivan has been an editor and publisher for seventeen years, specialising in books for children and young adults.

She has worked in-house at Hachette, Walker Books and Scholastic. As a publisher, her credits include Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor series, Rules of Summer and Cicada by Shaun Tan, The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon, A.L. Tait’s Mapmaker Chronicles series, Hark! It’s Me, Ruby Lee! by Lisa Shanahan and Binny, Mick Elliott’s Squidge Dibley series, and many others. Some of these books won awards, some became bestsellers, and some achieved the greatest success possible for a kids’ book: becoming a child’s favourite.

Creative Writing Stage 1

Writing Picture Books

Kate Hennessy is a professional writer who splits her time between corporate writing, travel writing, journalism, editing and communications consulting.

As a travel writer, Kate's travel stories can be seen regularly in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Vice/Noisey, The Saturday Paper, The Australian Financial Review (Life & Leisure), The Australian, The Wire, The Quietus, AWOL, Wellbeing Magazine, CEO Magazine, Get Lost Magazine, Marie Claire, A Hotel Life and more!

Plain English Business Writing

Travel Writing

Deb Doyle is a consultant who runs three businesses: Editorial Training Services, Living Proof - Book Editing, and Draw On. She specialises in publication editing as well as in training company and government employees to improve their skills in grammar, punctuation, writing, editing, proofreading and plain English. She's conducted courses for AMP, Police NSW, the Productivity Commission, the RTA, and many other corporate and government entities in Sydney and Melbourne.

Grammar and Punctuation Essentials

Ky Chow has over a decade of journalism experience as a reporter for Australia's top news brands such as SBS, Sky News, the Australian Financial Review and the ABC. As a specialist in business and finance journalism, Ky can share how to write persuasively on business topics both simple and complex.

Workplace Writing Workshop

Dean Koorey is a freelance copywriter and Content Manager at the Australian Writers' Centre. He originally trained as a graphic designer before working as an Art Director for worldwide advertising agency Draft FCB in Auckland, New Zealand. While there, he helped create many award-winning campaigns for print, radio, online, billboards and television. (And played a lot of pool.)

Michelle Barraclough is a strategic marketing expert with 30 years' experience in a diverse range of industries including tourism, hospitality, professional services and retail. As a website designer, she helps clients take their author businesses online with fresh, modern websites created in Squarespace.

Linda Diggle is an expert in self-publishing. She helps professionals, entrepreneurs, speakers, coaches and market leaders decode the complex world of self-publishing and bringing their book to market.

Self-publish your Novel on Kindle

Zanni Louise is a CBCA long-listed author, with five published children's books, and another seven in production.

In Australia, Zanni is published with Scholastic, Walker Books, Hardie Grant Egmont and Five Mile. From 2018, Zanni's books will be found in 18 countries across the world, including the US, UK, China, Japan and Germany.

Zanni has years of experience, sharing her love of writing with kids and adults at festivals and writing colleges. She is passionate about helping writers create compelling stores and reach their writing goals.

Julia Kuris works with self-published authors to create beautiful covers that sell! She is the founder of Sydney based design and branding studio designerbility.com.au. Julia has designed covers for some of Australia’s leading authors and entrepreneurs as well as designing covers for Finch Publishing, an independent publishing house based in Sydney. She regularly speaks and teaches about cover design and is passionate about helping authors connect with their readers.

Julia teaches Book Covers That Sell.

Stephen Hart's most recent publication was a middle-grade novel, The Lighthouse at Pelican Rock, a time-slip story set on the south coast of NSW, published by Eagle Books to great reviews.

He has just finished working on a musical adaptation of Pamela Freeman's children's classic Victor's Quest, for which he has written the songs.

His current writing project is a children's book about a boy who is trying to convince his parents to let him have a pet python.

Over the years, he has also been an archaeologist, university tutor, librarian, computer game programmer and musician. He is one of the world experts in the exceedingly obscure field of Edomite pottery, quite knowledgeable about 18th century Thieves' Cant and also plays the saxophone.

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

Pamela Cook is an author and teacher. She has had four novels published with Hachette Australia, Blackwattle Lake, Essie’s Way, Close To Home and The Crossroads and has also published her first independent title, Cross My Heart.

Pamela is an experienced tutor and has taught writing courses and workshops for the last 15 years. She is the co-host of two podcasts, Writes4Women and Writes4Festivals. She is a Writer Ambassador for Room To Read, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes literacy and gender equality in developing countries. When she’s not writing Pamela wastes as much time as possible riding Rio, her handsome quarter horse.

Novel Writing Essentials

Kath Walters is a business writing trainer, journalist, feature writer, editor and book coach. Over her career at Fairfax Business Media and beyond, her stories appeared in the Australian Financial Review, Smart Company, Business Review Weekly, Business Spectator, Women's Agenda, ANZ Bluenotes and Company Director.

Workplace Writing Workshop

Amanda Hampson is a bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction books. Her latest novel is Lovebirds, published by Penguin Random House, and her other adult novels (also published by Penguin) include Sixty Summers, The Yellow Villa, The French Perfumer, The Olive Sisters and Two for the Road. Her books have been translated into German, Turkish, Slovenian, Czech and Italian and made into audiobooks.

Deb Fitzpatrick is a freelance editor and author with six published novels. She is an experienced corporate trainer in professional business writing. Deb has a Master of Arts (Creative Writing) from the University of Western Australia and has had a lengthy career in publication editing, including teaching professional writing and editing at Curtin University.

Teenage Creative Writers’ Program

Workplace Writing Workshop

Plain English Business Writing

Vivienne Pearson is a Byron Bay-based freelance writer whose byline has appeared in Good Weekend, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper, ABC, SBS, MindFOOD, delicious and more.

A writer without a niche, she writes features and opinion pieces on parenting, lifestyle, opinion, food and news-related features. She was a recipient of an inaugural Walkley Grant for Freelance Journalists, producing seven stories on the topic of school fundraising.

Opinion Writing

Mark Farrelly's extensive copywriting career began at Ogilvy’s, working on BMW, Shell, Kit Kat, Smarties, Minties, Violet Crumble, Fantales & Black Magic as well as Barbie & Hot Wheels. He then joined the Leap Agency, writing for Australia Post, HP, BMW, RVIB, Foster Parents Plan, Lanes Biscuits and Link Telecommunications.

A position of Senior Writer/Creative Group Head lured him to Samuelson & Talbot (now M&C Saatchi) working on Morning Fresh, Radiant XL, Cussons Imperial Leather & Duo. He won Retail Launch of the Year Award for his Whitman’s Chocolates campaign.

Jennifer Breukelaar is an Australian-American author of three novels and one short story collection. Also known as J.S. Breukelaar, her short story collection, Collision, was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and winner of the 2019 Aurealis and Ditmar Awards.

Her second novel, Aletheia, received international acclaim and was also shortlisted for numerous awards. Jennifer’s short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in magazines and anthologies worldwide, including several Year’s Best.

Petronella McGovern is an author and editor. Her latest novel is The Liars, a heart-stopping cocktail of family secrets, sinister unsolved disappearances and a community at war with itself. Her second novel, The Good Teacher, was longlisted for the Sisters-in-Crime Davitt Awards, and her first novel, Six Minutes, debuted on the Australian best-seller list and was shortlisted for three prestigious awards. Both psychological suspense novels, they have been described as gripping page-turners. She has also co-written two non-fiction books.

Petronella has been working as a writer and editor for thirty years, managing and training in-house editorial teams. She holds a Masters in Arts (Creative Writing) from the University of Technology, Sydney. Petronella lives in Sydney on the edge of a national park, and when she’s not reading books, she enjoys bushwalking.

Learn from the best

Creative Writing Stage 1

Writing Workout

Novel Writing Essentials

Write Your Novel

Edit Your Novel

Creative Writing Stage 1

Writing Workout

Novel Writing Essentials

Write Your Novel

Cut, Shape, Polish: How to edit your own stories

History, Mystery and Magic

Plotting and Planning

The Story Doctor

Dare to Dream

Creative Writing Stage 1

Novel Writing Essentials

Presenting to Kids

Write Your Novel

Short Story Essentials

Writing Picture Books

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

Creative Writing Stage 1

Creative Writing Quest for Kids

Teenage Creative Writers’ Program

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

Make Time to Write

Life Writing

Memoir Writing in Paris with Patti Miller

Anatomy of a Crime: How to Write About Murder

Creative Writing Stage 1

Novel Writing Essentials

Presenting to Kids

Writing Chapter Books for 6-9 year olds

Laugh Out Loud

2 Hours to Scrivener Power

Crime and Thriller Writing

Creative Writing Stage 1

Novel Writing Essentials

Write Your Novel

Writing Workout

Freelance Writing Stage 1

Freelance Writing Stage 1

Profile Writing

Copywriting Essentials

How to Build a Successful Freelance Copywriting Business

SEO Copywriting

Copy Club

Email Marketing and Copywriting

UX Writing

Food Writing

Freelance Writing Stage 1

Travel Writing

Freelance Writing Masterclass Program

Content Writing

Plain English Business Writing

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

Creative Writing Stage 1

Writing Picture Books

Workplace Writing Workshop

Plain English Business Writing

Travel Writing

Editing Essentials

Grammar and Punctuation Essentials

Plain English Business Writing

Workplace Writing Workshop

Real Estate Copywriting

Your Author Website

Successful Self-publishing: Print and Ebooks

Self-publish your Novel on Kindle

Writing Picture Books

Book Covers That Sell

Creative Writing Stage 1

How to Write for Children and Young Adults

Creative Writing Stage 1

Novel Writing Essentials

Plain English Business Writing

Workplace Writing Workshop

Creative Writing Stage 1