Please note:
- Due to the Library’s extensive 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 has been temporarily relocated to the Dixson Room – it is open for coffee etc but limited food is available.
Please book for the Workshop and/or Literary Event by Monday 6 October.
Workshop
Time: 10:15 am to 12:00 pm
Place: Michael Crouch Room, State Library of NSW
Cost: Members $40, non-members $55
Pippa Kay: A Short Story Toolkit
In this workshop, we’ll practise using the tools you need to craft a short story, with fun exercises and some challenges.
Pippa Kay’s collection of short stories, Keeping it in the Family, won the 2018 SWW Fiction Awards and her short stories have featured in anthologies and won awards. She is a regular judge of Fellowship of Australian Writers’ short story competitions such as the Marjorie Barnard Award and the Ernestine Hill Award.
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
Sharyn Anderson: The Poetry of Dorothea Mackellar: The Challenge of the Twentieth Century
Dorothea Mackellar is widely known for her poem My Country. First published in 1908, many Australians today know and identify with the poem’s sentiments — often without having read it. My thesis’ aim was to explore her collected verse (now long out of print) as a way of recuperating her reputation, to show she was much more than a ‘bush poet’. Dorothea’s life is also reflected in her verse and so I made this the basis for my biography. Her conservative personal and political values meant, although her work initially sold well, she gradually became marginalised and her more worldly poetry, with its astute recognition of modern literary developments, was often ‘not understood’.
Sharyn Anderson has just completed a PhD which follows on from her Honours thesis (2014), reflecting on the poetry and life of Dorothea Mackellar. She lives with her family on a small farm situated in Western Victoria on the fabled ‘Shipwreck Coast’. After growing up in suburban Melbourne and working in a variety of jobs, she moved to the country 35 years ago, relishing the challenges and opportunities afforded by rural living. Sharyn also became an English secondary school teacher and a professional librarian, but in recent years has worked in academia as a language and learning advisor, as well as a tutor in English literature, teaching and educational studies.
Guest Speaker
Libby Hathorn: Shining City, Sydney
Libby will be launching her new book, Shining City, Sydney, with Elizabeth Cummings.
Libby Hathorn is a writer, poet and librettist. She has won numerous awards here and internationally, including the Centenary Medal, the Alice Award 2014, the Asher Peace Prize 2017, the Lady Cutler Award, 2020, and the ABIA Pixie O’Harris Award, 2022, for outstanding services to children’s literature.
Recent picture book No! Never! (Hachette Australia), with daughter Lisa, won the CBCA Early Childhood Children’s Picture Book of the Year, 2021. Her latest book is Mother Earth (Hachette Australia) 2023, poetry which celebrates our unique Australian environment. Two poetry collections, Shining City Sydney (Hathorn&Cummings), Pacific Ocean Press, and This is Us (Hathorn&Fell), National Library Australia, launched in 2025. Her verse novel Through a Glass Darkly is slated for 2026.
Libby lives and breathes poetry.
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/DCRVR
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/DCRVC