It’s not too late 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.
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.
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 note:
- Due to the Library’s renovations, these events will be held in the Michael Crouch room, on Level 1, instead of in the Dixson Room. Level 1 is accessible by lift or stairs at both ends of the building.
- The cafe is now back where it belongs – Ground Floor, Macquarie Street Building.
Please book for the Workshop and/or Literary Event by Monday 6 April.
Workshop
Time: 10:15 am to 12:00 pm
Place: Michael Crouch Room, State Library of NSW
Cost: Members $40, non-members $55
Carmel Bendon: Writing Beginnings that Matter
You may not be a Charles Dickens with his killer opening to A Tale of Two Cities of ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …’ or a Daphne Du Maurier with the ‘Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again’ start to Rebecca but the good quality of the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of a novel, non-fiction book, short story or article is vital in capturing a reader’s (or publisher’s) interest for what is to follow. In this workshop, we look at some ‘great beginnings’ and the ways in which they set the mood and tone of the whole work. And we consider how we might apply these insights to our own writing.
Carmel Bendon is an author, academic and presenter on ‘all things medieval’. She has a PhD in Medieval Literature and a 1st Class Honours in Early English. Her publications include the influential academic book Mysticism and Space, the prize-winning novel Grasping at Water and the award-winning creative non-fiction The Mystics Who Came to Dinner as well as articles, book chapters and encyclopedia entries on subjects that include Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oscar Wilde and poet Bruce Dawe. Her non-fiction Birds of a Feather was the winner of the 2022 Society of Women Writers National Writing competition. She is a regular speaker at libraries, museums and interest groups throughout Australia, has been an international enrichment lecturer on the Princess Cruise line, and has regular chat spots on ABC radio nationally.
Literary Event
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Place: Michael Crouch Room, State Library of NSW
Cost: Members $25, non-members $40
Member Spotlight
Gwen Wilson: Louisa
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Encouraged by her dying father’s words, Louisa is determined to seek a new life in Australia, free from the constraints of Victorian England.
Ignoring advice that single women go to Australia to be wives or servants, Louisa strikes out as a governess in a remote country town and discovers that in ‘the bush’, women struggle under social norms designed by men – often with disastrous consequences. Even returning to Sydney shakes her hopes and dreams but she presses on, hopeful of a brighter future.
Set in Sydney between 1882 and 1895, Louisa takes us into a world where a woman’s reputation hangs by a thread, requiring every ounce of ‘strength and courage’.
Gwen Wilson is a Wollongong-based author and blogger who launched her writing career following her retirement from international trade and supply chain management. Her memoir, I Belong to No One, was published by Hachette Australia and Orion UK in 2015. Louisa, partly inspired by research into her great-grandmother, and its forthcoming sequel, Florence & Lucy, are her first historical novels. Gwen has received recognition for her fiction and non-fiction short stories, including awards and publications in anthologies.
Gwen is a member of the Society of Women Writers NSW, Australian Society of Authors and the South Coast Writers Centre, who awarded her an Artist in Residence retreat at Arthur Boyd’s property, Bundanon, in April 2022. In November 2022, Gwen was a founding member of, and participant in, the inaugural Adoption Literary Festival.
Find more on her website www.gwenwilson.com.au, where you will also find her blog, The Reluctant Retiree, Stories from a Baby Boomer Surviving Retirement, by Garrulous Gwendoline.
Guest Speaker
Nell Jones: Forgery, Exile and Inspiration – Finding Joseph Lycett
The power of writing in place, at the SWW Barnstaple Residency – this talk traces the journey of writer Nell Jones, recipient of the 2025 Di Yerbury Residency, as she travels to England to retrace the life of transported convict artist Joseph Lycett while researching her historical novel. A residency in Devon and archival research across the Midlands turned history into a powerful encounter with place, story and memory. Walking in Lycett’s footsteps revealed the paradox of a brilliant artist shaped by crime, punishment and reinvention. The talk explores how immersion in landscape and archives can transform both narrative and writer.
Book and pay:
Members, you can book for yourself and a friend at member pricing, if purchased at the same time.
Workshop: 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: 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/DKFNM
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
Zoom ($10) will be available for this function – please click here to book: https://www.trybooking.com/DKFNY