We still have a few copies of our Centenary Anthology? Don’t miss out on having one of these special collections of our members’ works.
Ink 4 is an anthology of four years of prize-winning fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, published to celebrate the Centenary of the Society of Women Writers NSW Inc.
To order a copy of Ink 4 - click here: https://www.trybooking.com/DCQVM. To save on postage, come along to a workshop and/or literary event and pick it up.
Pricing – $20.00 each plus postage or collect in person at an SWW event. For orders of more than one book, please email SWW President to discuss postage or delivery options.
Please book for the Workshop and/or Literary Event by Monday 8 June.
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
Vanessa Proctor: Writing Place, from Poetry to Prose
Beginning with the imagist poets of the early 20th century, Vanessa will talk briefly about Japanese forms, before moving into longer poetry, and examples of prose fiction and non-fiction which use poetic techniques to portray place in a vivid and engaging way. There will be time for writing and a handout of poems and prose extracts to discuss.
Vanessa holds an MA in Creative Writing and lives in Sydney. She is an award-winning poet from Sydney whose writing has been published in major Australian literary journals and translated into several other languages. Her poetry has been published in journals such as Australian Poetry Journal, Island, Meanjin, Meniscus and Southerly. Her first free verse collection is On Wonder.
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
Member Spotlight
Sue Woolfe: The Girl who Climbed on Rooves
Sue Woolfe’s luminous new novel, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves, is a deeply moving exploration of mothers and daughters, buried trauma, and the mysterious ways art emerges from lived experience.
In this novel an Australian composer, loved for the joy of her music, at the height of her international fame is besieged by a would-be biographer who demands to know, as the world does, what’s behind her music and how does she channel her life into her creativity?
She always evades him, but she tells the ghost of her mother what she wishes she’d admitted to in life.
This story, based on a true story, is a heart-racing portrayal of the journey towards creativity of an intuitive, devoted child who comes to suspect her mother’s strange rages are not what they seem but the result of a terrifying past – but what? And can she save her mother from imminent catastrophe? Her discovery of the truth, that her mother came from one of Australia’s abusive orphanages, sharpens her resolve to find for herself the voice that might have once been her mother’s.
This story of Frances and her creation of joyful music is backgrounded by the seldom recognised vast revolution of women’s lives in the 20th century – from a mother in the 1950s, chained not only to terrible memories but drudgery to, light years away but only in the next generation, a daughter who is free to fulfil the childhood dream that she had in an Sydney suburban backyard.
Structured with the emotional resonance of a symphony, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves is intimate and expansive: a novel about what families cannot say, and the cost of that silence across generations. It also offers a rare and compelling insight into the creative process, tracing how music can arise from the depths of experience and transform pain into meaning.
Guest Speaker
Libby Hathorn: Through a Glass Darkly
Evie Walsh sits obsessively at her garden pond examining her life and her loves. What is the significance of the places she returns to in her memories … of the one man who recurs, carrying as he does the dark secret he wants to share only with her?
Her loves will take the reader back in time, deep into the heart of Sydney suburbia, the tempting bohemia of Kings Cross, the alluring mystery of the Blue Mountains and to far away Normandy, France, as her marriage collapses. But always back to the present, the garden pond and seemingly disparate reflections. It is here at last clearer memories of the enigmatic Rob Connor can finally release her from her vigil.
Key themes: Poetry; Visual poetics; Relationships; Novel in verse.
Born in Newcastle, NSW, Libby Hathorn is a renowned writer, poet and librettist whose works have been translated to several languages and adapted for stage and screen. She has won numerous Australian and international honours and awards including the Centenary Medal, the Alice Award for her distinguished contribution to Australian literature, the Asher Peace Prize, the Lady Cutler Award and the ABIA Pixie O’Harris Award for outstanding services to children’s literature.
Hathorn has lectured in Creative Writing and is a frequent speaker at conferences and festivals. As an Australia Day Ambassador, she has travelled to country towns each year where she talks about the importance of Australian Literature.
Her novels include Thunderwith (1989); Rift (Hodder, 1998), Letters to a Princess (ABC books, 2007); historical novel, Georgiana: Woman of Flowers (Hachette Livre); a play based on her picture storybook, The Tram to Bondi Beach (Currency Press, 2008); and Fire Song (ABC/HarperCollins, 2009).
Libby has an abiding passion for poetry and many of her works are written in or inspired by poetry. Through a Glass Darkly is her first novel in verse.
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/DLWIJ
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: Members $10, non-members $15 – please click here to book: https://www.trybooking.com/DMCRN