Please book for the Workshop and/or Literary Event by Monday 10 August.
Workshop
(in person only)
Time: 10:15 am to 12:00 pm
Place: Michael Crouch Room, State Library of NSW
Cost: Members $40, non-members $55
Ashley Kalagian Blunt: Strengthen Your Narrative Drive
No matter what genre you’re writing, whether fiction or memoir, every manuscript can benefit from stronger narrative drive. This is what keeps readers turning pages, what makes them need to know how your story turns out. Join bestselling author Ashley Kalagian Blunt to learn a set of surprisingly practical tools and techniques to help you craft gripping scenes and a compelling story arc. You’ll learn how to grab readers from your opening page and keep them hooked to the end. By the end, you’ll have clear strategies for revising your manuscript and making it irresistible to agents, publishers and readers.
Literary Event
(in person and via Zoom)
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Place: Michael Crouch Room, State Library of NSW
Cost: Members $25, non-members $40
Annual General Meeting
The Society’s AGM will be held on Wednesday 12 August, commencing at 1:00 pm. The order of business will include acceptance of the President’s Report and Treasurer’s Report, and election of a new committee for 2026-27.
Come along and show your appreciation and support of the outgoing committee and the incoming one – you might even like to contribute your expertise and advice to their deliberations by becoming a committee member.
The AGM notice, minutes of last year’s AGM, Treasurer’s Report for 2025-26 and Committee Nomination Forms can be found here: Annual General Meeting 2026 | News | The Society of Women Writers NSW Inc.
Member Spotlight
Teresa Petersen: Daphne du Maurier – a twentieth century phenomenon
Daphne du Maurier is one of the great English writers of the twentieth century. Publication of her highly successful novel Rebecca shot her to the heights of success during her lifetime. The publication of her further writing established her as an enduring writer of romantic fiction. She eventually gained the attention of academics and her lifelong ambition to be regarded as a serious writer was established.
Member Spotlight
Pip Griffin: Hidden in History: linking women’s lives in verse narratives
Pip’s just-published book is Landfall in New Zealand: Mary Jane Cooper Malcolm and Harriet Webb (Pohutukawa Press 2026), two stories of emigrants’ resilience in the face of hardship. Mary Jane (Pip’s great-aunt), eldest daughter of Scottish Nelson settlers and Harriet, an English domestic servant who sailed alone to Auckland aged 16, face the many challenges of life in Aotearoa, New Zealand in the 1860s. Through dedication and hard work, they both overcome exhausting domestic situations, settler privation and tensions between Māori and Pākehā, to find fulfilling work, friendships and love.
Companion pieces to Pip’s verse novel Margaret Caro, these stories are valuable additions to the accounts of courageous 19th century women who have been hidden in history.
Pip’s poetry has been published in anthologies and journals. Her latest verse narrative is Landfall in New Zealand: Mary Jane Cooper Malcolm and Harriet Webb (Pohutukawa Press 2026). Other published work includes Mood Indigo with Colleen Keating (Picaro Press 2019); Margaret Caro, the extraordinary life of a pioneering dentist, New Zealand 1848-1938 (Pohutukawa Press 2020) Highly Commended, Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards (poetry) 2020; The Climb Back: poems for Ted (Ginninderra Press 2021); Virginia & Katherine: The Secret Diaries (Pohutukawa Press 2022), Winner, Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards (poetry) 2022; and Opus: a life with music (Ginninderra Press 2023).
Book and pay:
Members, you can book for yourself and a friend at member pricing if purchased at the same time.
Workshop (in person only): Members $40, non-members $55
If you have a Workshop Voucher, please email Julie Thorndyke, Workshop Coordinator, to advise your intention to attend.
Literary Event (in person): Members $25, non-members $40
Discount for full program (Workshop and Literary Event) when booked together: Members $60, non-members $85
By Credit card: https://www.trybooking.com/DMWFF
or by Direct debit:
The Society of Women Writers NSW Inc
BSB: 062 018
Account: 00950433
Code: VM
Email Amanda and include
your name, receipt number and date of event
Literary Event via Zoom: Free for AGM – please click here to book: https://www.trybooking.com/DMWFY