ZineWest Launch: Saturday, 12th September at University of New England Parramatta Campus,28 George Street, Parramatta.
11:30 am for Noon – 2:00pm or earlier (bump out 2:30pm)
Entry: $10, Free for under 16’s and carers.
Zines:$15; Contributors 1st copy: $10
Readings; Judges’ comments and awards
Door prize and raffle draws
Cake!
This event is part of Parramatta’ Lit! Check out the other events!
VENUE UPDATE:
Our gathering on Saturday 25th July, 3-5 pm,
will be at 41 Hunter Street Parramatta not
at Old Government House as we first thought.
We will move to Old Government House for our monthly events from 8th August. NB by 1st August, you will find WestWords admin at the Caretakers Cottage, Experiment Farm which like Parramatta Park is a delightful location.
PUBLISHING NEWS: At last, Expression 2025 has been lodged at the National Library of Australia – see via TROVE. Pdfs of the first five are are also on this site .
Pop Up Zine 2026 (most of which will appear in Expression 6) has the theme of Distance – interpreted widely we hope. A collection of ZineWest 2026 writing will also feature. Please note that this publication is only open to invited writers with Western Sydney connections. Due 27 September. Pop Up Zine_ Distance_EntryForm
Pop Up Zine 2026 Image entries entry form available soon.
ZineWest 2026 print publication List. (Art work will be announced in August.)Launch 12 September 11:30am for Noon start. UNE Parramatta Campus, 28 George St Parramatta. More details soon, meanwhile …
ZINEWEST PUBLICATION LIST 2026.
(NB Additional entrants will contribute to a digital publication)
Myra A. – Overcome
C.A. Broadribb – Don’t Read This Story
Peter Cartwright – The Gate
Sarah Cupitt – I Said Desire Bleeds
Marie Dustmann – Last Walk in the Rain Forest
Edie – High Heels
Norm Fairbairn – Irvine’s Foot
Zoe Gangell – My Fashion that She Wore
Nelson Groom – Little Coogee
Jondarr – Conquered
S L Jones – Temporarily Untranslated
Gregory Kenny – Reflection
Artelle Lenthall – Unquestionable
Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan – Puffers
Jessie McDowell – Rice Cooker Song
KT Major – Untold
Kristof Mikes-Liu – A person Stumbles on Infinity
Adriana Mucea -Happiness
Renata Mueller – Homespun Cloth
C E. Mutya – The White City
K.L. Quah – What will you do the day before the world ends
Charnel Rizk – She Hugs the Trees
Niko Satria – The Observatory
Dannielle Viera – Off the Market
Rosanna Yahya – Photographer
Dona Samson Zappone – New Dark Forest
Our annual ZineWest Launch and New Writers Group Open Mic event which features ZW entrants plus an open mini comp, will be proundly presented as part of Parramatta’s LIT! in partnership with Sydney Fringe 2025. We are delighted that so many of our writing and art colleagues can contribute to not one but two festivals, Sydney Fringe and the new Parramatta’s LIT! founded by festival director Augusta Supple.
This is a special year for NWG Inc because we are also supported by the Australian Cultural Fund for ZineWest: publication, prizes and related events including free workshops and online publishing.
Saturday 22nd March 3-5pm at WestWords 41 Hunter Street, Parramatta.
Topic: How to prepare writing entries for competitions, projects, publications …
Meet past ZineWest winners and other writers with prize or publishing success to discuss how we best approach opportunities. We want to optimize the time (and often money) we have to spend, so how do we best match our work to a specific publisher, competition or mentorship program. What are the key things to do before hitting send… And how are we being evaluated amongst other writers?
Workshop: You are asked to rank several small pieces of writing and then to share with a group why you made your decisions. This is not aimed at gaining empathy for the gatekeepers but rather to help us see what works from a different angle.
Entry is $5 to help cover our insurance. Free entry for first time guests, financial members and children 12 and under.
Our annual digital anthology Expression collects works from our online Pop Up Zines. On 8 Feb 2025 we celebrated Expression 4 with readings and an art PPT, rounding up with a Valentine open mic. Most works in Expression (edition 4) were on our 2024 Somewhere Else theme plus some antholgy pieces. See below the gallery for more detail and Please check out the writing and art currently on this site.
Gallery: From top left: Carol Amos, NWG Inc President. Readers: Mihaela Cristescu, Augusta Supple (reading for Norm Fairbairn and Danny Draper) Marina Robins, Anisoara Laura Mustetiu, C.A.Broadribb, Greg Kenny, Michelle Huynh and Marina Robins with her winning art entry Barely There and her book award choice. Sue Crawford (Expression editor) and the ppt of Somewhere Else images and photos from Mihaela Cristescu’s Vivid 2024 collection. Danielle Catherine gave the group info on her picks of local opportunities for writers offered by our amazing venue host, WestWords.
Awards: Marina Robins won the Somewhere Else book award for her image Barely There. Peter Cartwright (unable to attend) won the Somewhere Else writing award for his poem Sophia and the River. Mihaela Cristescu won the Valentine Open Mic for her poem The Man who told me I was Beautiful. Please check out the writing and art in the Pop Up Zine 2024.
ZineWest 2024 Launch was dedicated to the memory of our esteemed colleague, Trish Jean, who has a poem in this edition plus an image on the awards list. We will write more about Trish in Expression 2024, to be launched in early 2025.
ZineWest 2024 Launch report
On Saturday 12 October NEW Writers Group Inc. launched ZineWest 2024 at a UNE Sydney Parramatta venue. Many thanks to UNE for their support of local creatives! And thanks to our judges, volunteers, and everyone who came or sent their best wishes.
ZW24 on sale at our shop. NB Contributor’s 1st copy and Contributor’s 1st copy plus one.
We will post images and launch photos soon.
ART AWARDS – Judge Maria Constantinescu
Best Image: Sandra Borri for In Two Minds
Best Image Runners-up:
Trish Jean for I am the Cathedral Too
Shakira Piggott for Sacred Land
WRITING AWARDS – Judge Luke Carman
1st Place and Best Prose:
Michelle Huynh for the story When in Kowloon
2nd Place: Tyswan Slater for the story Hallway
3rd Place: Adam Byatt for the story Erosion
Highly Commended (and Best Poem)
Mitch Browne for the poem Outta Utero
Also Highly Commended
Marian Claire for the story Jane Doe
Mona Elhassan for the story Bougainvillea
Editors Award Joint Winners
Lauren Maher for the poem Uncle Jack
J. Marahuyo for the poem Sheet Lightning
Launch Image photo credit: Baiames Ngunnhu Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps: Barwon River NSW. One of three images sent to us for ZineWest 2024 by Trish Jean.
Join us at at 11:am, UNE Sydney, 100 George Street Parramatta, to hear from Western Sydney writers and see the work of local visual artists, all published in this year’s ZineWest.
ZineWest’s 18th edition will be celebrated on Saturday, 12 October
UNE Sydney’s Parramatta campus, Level 4, 100 George Street Parramatta.
11:00 am Morning Tea; 11:30 am – 1:30 pm: Judges’ comments, Readings, Prizes.
$10 Entry with Door Prize. (Free entry for carers and children 12 and under.)
Zines $15; Contributors’ first copy $10 (If you can’t attend, zines will be available post launch on nwg-inc.com website.)
Please note all awards are announced at the launch – not beforehand.
Writing 1st: $400; 2nd: $300; 3rd: $200; Highly Commended: Book awards
Art 1st: $100; Runners-up (2): Book awards
Congratulations to the writers who reached the ZineWest 2024 list. It has been a tough year. The ZineWest selection team works hard to give every entry (and every writer) a fair review and if you don’t have an entry on the list, we wish you to know your work is in good company with well-ranked pieces. When we trialled the short list in a draft publication we exceeded our budget and could not extend further.
Thanks to the reiviewers: J. Anne DeStaic, Mihaela Cristescu, Ruth Wyer, Chris Sammut and ZW Editor Sue Crawford. Also, to Carol Amos (NWG Inc president) and Felicity Amos who tracked and documented our progress. Any entrants not on the list below should have received an invitation to present their work at ZineWest WORD later this year. We are firming up the details and will post them soon.
Zine West 2024 Publication List
Amy Anshaw-Nye – Saltwater Girls
C.A. Broadribb – Land of Lost Time
Mitch Browne – Outta Utero
Adam Byatt – Erosion
Peter Cartwright – I’m a Poet
Z. Cedar – Muslim Ghost Stories
Marian Claire – Jane Doe
Bill Collis – Winter’s End
Sarah Cupitt – Skin and Bone
Danny Draper – Marine Life not Seafood
Marie Dustmann – Tea Land
Mona Elhassan – Bougainvillea
Norm Fairbairn – Winter’s End
Nelson Groom – The Text
Nix Hamilton – Together We Fall …
Sam Herzog – Friends
Michelle Huynh – When in Kowloon
Trish Jean – A Lover’s Lament
Gregory Kenny – Leaving
Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan – Love at La-de-da
Lauren Maher – Uncle Jack
KT Major – Blue Jeans and Pop Music
J. Marahuyo – Sheet Lightning
Kristof Mikes-Liu – Moving In Day
Tyswan Slater – Hallway
Augusta Supple – The Reason You Didn’t …
Paul Traynor – Invocations
Dannielle Viera – Bright Divergence
Image by Mihaela Cristescu who also supplied the cake.
The NWG Inc team arrived at WestWords for their first 2024 monthly meeting. Many thanks to WestWords Director, Michael Campbell, for onboarding us. We ran a workshop on the topic of how and why gatekeepers pick our work / or not … Our task was to a) choose which of three well written, intriguing poems should take the last space in a new anthology, and b) to reach a team decision. A common challenge for editors with limited places.
At the open mic comp on the topic of Valentine, Ruth Wyer, by a tight margin, won Yumna Kassab’s novel Australiana. Additonal awards: Siham Chamoun won Ambiguous Loss, a NWG Inc Anthology, Danielle Catherine won Avant La Lettre, a bilingual Romanian / English Anthology published by Mihaela Cristescu which includes writers from Western Sydney, and C.A. Broadribb won Lunar Inheritance by Lachlan Brown. Next meeting: Sat 9 March, 3-5pm 41 Hunter Street, Parramatta. Read three of the works in our Pop Up Zine 2024.
In 2024, NEW Writers Group Incorporated will be based at WestWords, 41 Hunter Street Parramatta, for monthly events.
An outstanding opportunity for NWG Inc members and colleagues to foster inspiration and creative skills at this remarkable hub of Western Sydney literary programs and events.
NEW Writers Group Incorporated committee has accepted the gracious invitation made by WestWords Executive Director Michael Campbell to base NWG Inc’s regular monthly events on Saturday afternoons at the delightful WestWords venue, 41 Hunter Street, Parramatta in 2024.
“How do we condense what we do at WestWords into a simple message? In a nutshell, it’s about telling stories that represent the people of Western Sydney.”
Our first event will be Saturday, 10 February, 3-5pm: Afternoon tea – welcome & introductions; author interview; invited readers; and an open mic on the theme of Valentine. NB: we hope for varied interpretations! Please write for 16 years and over. You will have two minutes at the mic … Book awards.
$5 entry. Free for financial members. First visit to NWG Inc? Free entry. Also free entry: carers of participants; and children 12 and under, who must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Only 16 and over can participate in our programs.
Calendar of events at WestWords in 2024 see About Page.