This could be you | Australian Writers' Centre

Frances Chapman’s successful transition from freelance writer to published author

The “loneliness of the solitary pursuit of fiction writing” led Frances Chapman to AWC’s Novel Writing Essentials course and her subsequently winning the Hardie Grant Egmont 2018 Ampersand Prize for her ‘vibrant’ debut YA novel, Stars Like Us, published by Hardie Grant Egmont.

AWC’s amazing creative writing team publish a whopping 43 books this year

2018 has been a bumper year for our team of creative writing presenters and alumni, publishing a whopping total of 43 books, including books of fiction and non-fiction in the genres of romance, historical fiction, fantasy, crime and mystery, thriller and suspense, Australiana and children. Here, in no particular order, is a list of just […]

Congratulations to Frances Chapman winner of the 2018 Ampersand Prize

We are delighted to announce that AWC graduate Frances Chapman has won the prestigious Hardie Grant Egmont 2018 Ampersand Prize for her ‘vibrant’ debut YA novel, What it Takes. From the Hardie Grant website: Selected from nearly two hundred submissions, What It Takes is a beautifully written own-voices LGBTQ novel about 16-year-old Lily, whose band […]

Tamsin Janu shortlisted for the 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards

We are thrilled to see AWC alumna and award-winning author Tamsin Janu shortlisted in 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Children’s fiction category for her book Figgy Takes the City. From the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards media release: The shortlists for this year's Prime Minister's Literary Awards have today been announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and […]

Ashleigh Mills launches her travel directory – ‘Hotels with Cats'

Ashleigh Mills wanted to combine her passion for cats, travel and freelance writing. So she took AWC’s courses in Blogging for Beginners, Travel Writing and Freelance Writing Stage 1. Then everything fell into place.

Jo Hartley’s life-changing leap from recruitment to successful freelance writer

When Jo Hartley took Australian Writers' Centre’s Freelance Writing Stage 1 course it totally changed her life. Today she calls herself a freelance writer and says she can’t imagine her life without writing.

Margaret Morgan: Author of ‘The Second Cure'

Thanks to the Australian Writers' Centre’s Write Your Novelcourse, and the subsequent publishing of her first novel, The Second Cure (Penguin Random House), Margaret Morgan now proudly calls herself an author.

Jaci Byrne’s dreams of being a published author come true

After self-publishing four novels and a series of eight illustrated children’s educational books on Amazon, Jaci Byrne decided that she wanted to get her books ‘traditionally published’.

Sarah Bailey wins Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel

A HUGE congratulations to AWC Creative Writing Stage 1 graduate, Sarah Bailey who has won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel, The Dark Lake (2017 Allen & Unwin). The Dark Lake was a bestseller around the world and her suspenseful storytelling about a police procedural set in country Victoria earned her comparisons with […]

How vision impaired Graham Frizzell gained the confidence to become a successful freelance writer

Living with profound vision impairment (Graham is legally blind) and growing up prior to the advent of the adaptive technology that has so enriched his life today, Graham felt completely lost when it came to mainstream employment. He had finished a Certificate IV in Professional Writing & Editing qualification at Melbourne Polytechnic TAFE but felt it was geared predominantly to fiction writing. So he decided to enrol into AWC’s online Freelance Writing Stage 1 course, and has never looked back.