Category Archives: Creative Writing

NEW Writers Group @ Parramatta’s Lit!

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On 27 September, we wrapped up our annual ZineWest project with a Spoken Word event that follows the launch of the 2025 ZineWest print zine. Both events were proudly presented as part of Parramatta’s Lit! in partnership with the Sydney Fringe festival.Some NWG Inc colleagues also participated in Mihaela Cristescu’s Parramatta’s Lit! event, Meaning and Structure in Art.

 

To be invited to present your work in a festival is a remarkable creative booster for local writers and their creative colleagues. Special thanks to Parramatta’s Lit! festival director Augusta Supple  for  filling Parramatta’s month of September with memorable grass roots,  literary events, honouring the amazing spectrum of  Parramatta’s vibrant and inclusive literary life.

Thanks to all the ZW participants, with a big shoutout to our committee, volunteers, special guests and  judges.Thanks also to our kind venue providers: University of New England for their Parramatta venue, 28 George Street, and our always supportive home base, WestWords – Western Sydney Centre for Writing, 41 Hunter Street, Parramatta.

NEW Writers Group Reader Feed-back workshops

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NEW Writers Group Inc’s reader feed-back workshops are designed to assist a writer to polish/edit a one page piece or excerpt, by hearing several readers’ individual responses to their work. The readers are also people who love to write.

OUR NEXT SESSION is Saturday, 18 OCTOBER 2025 3-5 pm
WestWords, Western Sydney Centre for Writing 41 Hunter Street, Parramatta
Please email New Writers Group for a place by 15 October.

METHOD:

Writers bring 6 copies of their one page piece/excerpt. All copies are returned to the writer.

The readers sit in a circle or around a table and the writer sits close enough to listen in for a ‘fly on the wall’ experience. 

The reviewers read through the piece in silence. Then the group leader puts three questions one at a time with readers taking turns to answer. They address each other, not the writer.

A. What is the piece about
Readers express what they think is the core of this piece.

B. What is working in the piece
This could be clarity, humour, expressive language, intriguing POV, good dialogue,  suspense…

C. Is there any way the piece could be strengthened.
Some common responses we’ve had:  ‘I went back a couple of times because I was unsure which character was speaking.’   ‘The language was effective but I thought some of the word repetitions weakened each other.’ 

Our classic case was ‘I couldn’t figure out what the second key was doing.’ Nor could other readers. (Writer took the piece home, sacked the second key, and the story’s heart didn’t miss a beat.) Mention typos last, just to be helpful.  

At the end, the writer can ask for clarification of a response. But this must not lead into a writer defending their work or the readers handing out more commentary. There is no right/wrong voting happening here. The group does not try to argue against each other’s comments and respectfully leaves decisions to the writer who benefits from a range of reader reactions. 

When we are running more than one workshop at a time, writers are likely to be invited to take the role of a reader for another writer before or after their own workshop. 

NEW Writers Group Inc Open Mic

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Having just enjoyed ZineWest 2025 launch, we are proud to present a second writers event as part of  Parramatta’s LIT! in partnership with the Sydney Fringe festival.

SATURDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 3-5PM
1. SPOKEN WORD mini comp for invited ZineWest 2025 writers.
2. OPEN MIC  first ten to sign up from 2:50 pm (your own work, no props,no music, just you and the mic!)  2 mins max!!

Participants need to be 16 or over.

BOOK AWARDS! Tea/coffee/snacks; FREE ENTRY

VENUE: WestWords Centre for writing at 41 Hunter Street Parramatta

 

 

ZineWest 2025 Winners

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ZineWest 2025 launch was proudly  presented on 13th September as part of Parramatta’s Lit!  in partnership with the Sydney Fringe Festival. Our venue was the University of New England’s campus at 28 George Street, Parramatta. ZineWest 2025 is central to NEW Writers Group Inc’s Creative Project 2025 supported by the Australian Cultural Fund. We thank all our supporters and donors including our financial members, the co-sponsor of 1st writing prize, the Writing and Society Research Centre (UWS) and Augusta Supple’s philanthropic support of ZW25’s production and cash prizes via the ACF. Both judges praised the high standard and diversity of the contributors. Congratulations!
 

AWARDS LIST ZINEWEST 2025

Writing Awards – Judge Dr Luke Carman
1st  David Mitchell – The Great Uldono
2nd Jelena Curic – Gringo
3rd Peter Cartwright – Jo
Best Poem  Joshua Heylin – Where else to bring the end of this night
HIghly Commended  Nelson Groom – The Turtle
Highly Commended Tyswan Slater – Table Setting

Editors’ Award Joint prize
KT Major – Potage/Patronage
Mitch Browne – Pendulum

Art Awards – Judge Maria Constantinescu
Best Image – Czarlemagne Jeronimo
Runners-up:
Sarah Collis – Where is Home?
Micahela Simoni – The Seahorse and the Jug

 

ZineWest 2025 Writing Publication List

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Thanks to all the writers entering. You sent us talent and style in abundance. If you are not on the list, check your email for an offer to present at a spoken word event and/or be published online. Both the Spoken word event and the print zine launch are part of Parramatta’s Lit! 

ZineWest 2025 Writing Publication List

Myra A. – In the Mountains 
Nosheen Alam – The Loud Neighbour 
Linda Atkins – Ya Never Know 
C.A. Broadribb – People Expo 
Mitch Browne – Pendulum 
Adam Byatt – What is the Depth of the Ocean’s Breath 
Peter Cartwright – Jo 
Z. Cedar – Sub 
Ezra Christensen – A Phone Call from Mum 
Helena Citroni – Recipe for Disaster 
Marian Claire – Love and City Streets 
Jelena Curic – Gringo 
Norm Fairbairn – Mrs Simmonelli is in Mourning 
Zoe Gangell – At Eleven past Four 
Nelson Groom – The Turtle 
Nix Hamilton – Without Fail 
Joshua Heylin – Where else to bring the end of…
Ganesh Bahadur Khatri – From Gulmi to Grit 
Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan – The Welcome Mat for Aliens
Louise Loomes – The Pool 
KT Major – Potage/Patronage 
Kristof Mikes-Liu – The Year of Grass Trees 
David Mitchell – The Great Uldono 
Marta Morawiecka – Connections 
Renata Mueller – Room for One 
Claire Russell – Your Writing 
Rayan Shatnawi – Chromatic Consciousness 
Tyswan Slater – Table Setting 
Lina Sun – The Scattered Memories of Stitch Art 
Dannielle Viera – Transient Prophecy

Parramatta’s LIT!

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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.

NWG Inc Gathering Updates

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On Saturday 14 June, at WestWords in Parramatta, Danielle Catherine gave us a tutorial on the manifestations of  ‘life’ writing and what style and POV might best suit our story. How do readers receive us? Over-speculate about what’s ‘true’, what’s ‘fiction’? Presume our personal view narrows the story’s perspective? (Family and friends can be particularly opinionated!) Maybe strangers are our best bet, more open to new stories no matter who wrote them – unless they catch us pretending we know more than we do…
LifeWriting PPT– copyright Danielle Catherine

We then followed on from our May conversation about self-publishing. Presenters were Anisoara Laura Mustetiu, C.A. Broadribb, Belinda Curby and Mihaela Cristescu.  We plan to share some of their thoughts and useful links online over the next few weeks.

We wrapped up with poetry readings from Belinda Curby and Danny Draper who also came up with our next Pop Up Zine theme, ‘How Things Change’.

PLEASE NOTE THREE DATE CHANGES
This year two NWG Inc events and one by our colleague Mihaela Cristescu will be proudly presented as part of the PARRAMATTA’S Lit! festival in association with Sydney Fringe Festival:

ZineWest 2025 will be launched at the UNE Metro Campus at 28 George Street, Parramatta
Saturday 13 SEPTEMBER (not October) 11:am for 11:30-1:30pm

Gathering Date on 6 September is cancelled to enable the NWG Inc team to support an event run by Mihaela Cristescu. Meaning and Structure in Art

New Writers Group Open Mic will be on Saturday 27 SEPTEMBER, 3-5 pm at WestWords, 41 Hunter Street Parramatta.

NEW Writers Group Creative Program 2025

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NEW Writers Group Inc is seeking donors who believe in the literary talent that exists in Western Sydney! We love to help new  writers develop their creativity, get their work published, workshopped, celebrated. This year our committee set up an Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) campaign to support ZineWest and the flow on of activities we offer all entrants in 2025.  NWG Inc does not have Deductible Gift Recipient Status but via ACF, financial donors can claim their monetary gift as a tax donation.  

Any queries email us:  



ACF  LINK  NEW Writers Group Creative Program 2025 

 

We will never ask individuals, people help us in many ways, but if you wished to donate, you must not materially gain from the project. For instance if you entered and won ZineWest you would keep the award for sure, but not the cash prize that goes with it. The cash would be used to directly benefit other writers during the Creative Program. The ACF advises if uncertain, contact your tax adviser.
 Images: ACF poster; our April attendees going public with the project at WestWords.

ZineWest 2025 Workshop

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Saturday 22nd March 3-5pm at WestWords 41 Hunter Street, Parramatta.
Topic: How to prepare writing entries for competitions, projects, publications …

  • Discussion with writers who have some competition experience. 
  • PM Tea break
  • Workshop in small groups
  • Open Mic Theme: Autumn. 2 mins at the mic. Book prize

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. 

Expression 4 Celebration

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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.