Category: Alumni/Student success stories

Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

"I got published!": Michael Carland

We love hearing from our students no matter what they have to say, but when we hear of a student being published, we just want to shout it from the rooftops! We’re a little scared of heights, so we’ll go with a blog post instead. Michael says: I had a

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Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Student Success: A publishing deal with Allen & Unwin and two first-time feature writers

Here’s a snippet of an email we received recently from Robyn Windshuttle of NSW:

“As a previous student at AWC, I thought I’d let you and your team know that my manuscript has been picked up by Allen & Unwin and my book, Dancing with A Cocaine Cowboy…a true story of love and life with a Colombian drug trafficker, is scheduled to be on the shelves in October. I was given a sizeable advance and there is talk of international sales. It’s very exciting for me.”

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Student Success: Published in Crikey, New Daily Website, and New York Times online

Our graduates are kicking so many goals recently we can hardly keep up! We’ve heard from graduates in Magazine and Newspaper Writing, Writing Books for Children and Young Adults and Blogging for Beginners, who all wanted to share their success stories with us.

Let’s start with Richard Curzon from NSW. He’s completed a number of courses and seminars with the Australian Writers’ Centre – including the online course in Magazine and Newspaper Writing, Travel Memoir and Life Writing, and seminars on From Blog to Book, How to Create and Sell Your Ebook, How to Get Your Book Published.

He’s been busy working on his book and an extract from that, Destination Detention (which is almost ready for publication), was published on Crikey on 6 March under the heading “The Indian Solution”.

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Chris Muir: Ad man writes action thriller

For author and AWC graduate Chris Muir, writing the fictional adventure thriller A Savage Garden, set in Africa, was a natural progression for the life-long passion he’s had for the country. But when you read this book, you realise that Chris’ experiences in Africa are anything but ordinary. And on

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Food adventures in Vietnam

Expect the unexpected on this gastronomic adventure written by Australian Writers’ Centre graduate Dianne Bortoletto. You can find her at travelletto.com

Everyone says that the food in Vietnam is “delicious” and “so fresh”. You hear it all the time. My mother never cooked with lemongrass, coriander, or fish sauce and the few Vietnamese restaurants I’d been to in Australia were, well, ordinary at best. It was only when foodie friends returned from Vietnam raving about the county’s cuisine that I realised I was missing something.

A small mention about a food writing tour of Vietnam in a previous issue of Latte jumped out at me. Two things crossed my mind: this was a chance to properly explore what I was missing out on with Vietnamese food, and an opportunity to have a tax-deductible holiday because a learning element was involved. Win-win. Nine days touring Hanoi, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City interviewing chefs, visiting markets, attending cooking classes, eating and learning how to write about it … I felt compelled to go.

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AWC graduate Tamsin Janu on writing and publishing her first book

Australian Writers’ Centre graduate Tamsin Janu completed the Writing Books for Children and Young Adults course in 2012 and immediately afterwards started work on her book Figgy in the World. That book is now being published by Scholastic Omnibus and will hit bookstores in June 2014.

Despite feeling she was ‘too young’ to write for children, Tamsin undertook her Australian Writers’ Centre course while also studying law. She had spent some time in Ghana on a volunteer program and it was that experience that inspired her to write for children. She now works in a remote community in the Northern Territory as a youth worker.

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Jessica Shirvington: Living her dream

A true example of turning a writing dream into reality, Jessica Shirvington’s career continues to go from strength to strength. Author of the popular young adult series, The Violet Eden Chapters, Jessica has also delved into the world of picture books recently with Just the Way We Are (HarperCollins, 2015). Her

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Georgia Rickard: Transformed her life

Georgia, 25, is a successful freelance writer who transitioned from recruitment into full time writing via the Australian Writers’ Centre course Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1. She now writes for a range of glossy magazines and has had articles syndicated all around the world. Georgia was 21 and, after graduating

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Jocelyn Pride: Finding the perfect travel writing formula

Jocelyn Pride completed the Australian Writers’ Centre Travel Writing course in the summer holidays of 2011. She grew up in a home where storytelling was prominent. Her mother’s skill of taking people on a journey with her love of words filtered down a generation. With a background in education, evolving

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Victoria Birch: From corporate world to freelance writer

Victoria Birch always wanted to be a writer. She just didn’t know it was a viable option. Until now. The Sydney-based mother has always been interested in music. While living in the UK, Victoria would write music reviews, develop music websites and immerse herself in this artistic world. This passion

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Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Sue White: The ultimate success story

Sue White, is now one of Australia’s busiest feature and travel writers. She has an enviable portfolio that includes the country’s most respected publications including The Good Weekend, The Sydney Morning Herald, Vogue Australia, Travel + Leisure (Australia), Sun Herald Travel and Women’s Health, to name just a few. Sue

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Aoife McGee: Getting paid to do what she loves

Aoife, 44, is now a freelance writer living in Sydney. She completed the Australian Writers’ Centre online course Magazines and Newspaper Writing Stage 1. Aoife has written for Body+Soul (The Sunday Telegraph), Echo Paper and TNT magazine. She is also a regular contributor to Australia and New Zealand Magazine in the United

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Susannah Hardy: Combining acting with freelance writing

Susannah Hardy is an actor who always knew she could write, but wondered how she could improve her skills, and if it was possible to make a living from her writing. She had always had a love for writing, often creating material for her performances. But she admits, “I wrote from instinct, and I realised I needed tuition”.

Unsure of how to get that tuition, she says her mother noticed an ad in the local newspaper in 2006 advertising the Australian Writers’ Centre Newspapers and Magazine Writing Stage 1 course. She decided then and there that the course would be the perfect way to polish her nascent skills, and so she enrolled immediately.

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Cassy Small: Writing is her first love

Cassy Small, 32, is a Sunshine Coast health and wellbeing writer. She completed the Australian Writers’ Centre Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1 course online in January 2012. The confidence to get started Like many teenagers, Cassy Small spent hours journaling and writing short stories but the memory was packed away once

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Angela Steyn: Successful career change

Angela Steyn, 33, left her job as a lawyer to become an interior stylist and writer specialising in interiors, homes and design … with some help from the Australian Writers’ Centre. In 2007, Angela walked away from her job as a lawyer to follow her passion for interiors. She knew

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