Join us for the 2023 South Coast Writers Centre's end-of-year celebration our community's year of reading and writing!

Hear readings from our 2023 Wollongong Writers Studio writers-in-residence, Tonya Lee, Sky Carrall and Lajos Hamers.

One of our 2022 writers in-residence, Elanna Herbert, returns with her new poetry collection sifting fire writing coast, and member Paris Rosemount performs from her just- released Banana Girl.

Also, step up for the members' Open Mic and share what you've been writing!

If you are an SCWC member and would like to sign up to read at the Open Mic (any genre, max. 3 minutes), please email: news@southcoastwriters.org. This event will be recorded and, if you live out of the area, you can also submit a pre-recorded reading for the Open Mic.

APPEARING:

Tonya Lee is a unique performer, singer, and writer. Performing since the age of 5, she has experienced a creative resurrection after a hiatus of 20 years which started with her selection in SCWC and Merrigong’s Emerging Playwrights programme in 2022. As a child of immigrant parents from a low-socioeconomic background and a survivor of childhood and partner abuse, Tonya uses her life challenges to offer a lens into the hidden issues within communities. She hopes to provide insight into tough topics and create a wave of change from ignorance to understanding.

Lajos Hamers is a storyteller of Hungarian folk tales, actor, writer, musician & survivor. Lajos graduated from a PhD in Creative Arts & Cultural Studies (Uni of Wollongong) in 2019 and has recently had poems published in Admissions Anthology (2022) and 34 to 37 Degrees South: SCWC Digital Poetry Anthology (2023). Of Hungarian and Dutch heritage he was born on Ngunawal land (Canberra) & now lives on Dharawal land (Wollongong). Here he is active in the creative community and also volunteers for a local AFL team The University of Wollongong Bulldogs.

Sky Carrall is currently writing a coming-of-age manuscript which was longlisted in the 2023 Queensland Writers Centre Publishable program. Sky has completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in creative writing at the University of Wollongong.She has been involved with the SCWC Young Writers Collective (YWC) since 2020 and now teaches writing workshops to the SCWC Senior Young Writers Group. In 2022, Sky’s work was published in the YWC anthology Uncommon Words and Sky’s microfictions and short stories have been published in Spineless Wonders anthologies.

Elanna Herbert holds a Communication PhD (UC). Her short story collection Frieda and the Cops (Ginninderra Press, 2005) was Runner up ACT Writing and Publishing Awards, and won the 2001 Marion Eldridge Award. In 2021 she shortlisted for ACU’s Prize for Poetry, and the Queensland Poetry Awards Emerging Older Poets mentorship. In 2020 she won the June Shenfield National Poetry prize and was awarded a Varuna ‘Writing Fire Writing Drought’ Fellowship. She was shortlisted for the Booranga Prize and Storyfest, and was a winner of the SCWC ‘Writing in Colour’ poetry competition, the Ethel Webb Blundell Literary Award. Elanna’s work appears in Science Write Now, Westerly, Axon, Not Very Quiet, Meniscus, StylusLit, Australian Poetry Anthology, Four W, Poetry New Zealand and anthologies Brushstrokes II, Grieve and Never Heard of Them, among others.

Paris Rosemont is a widely published Asian-Australian poet, featured in publications like Verge Literary Journal, FemAsia Magazine, and Red Room Poetry's 'Admissions'. She's won the New England Thunderbolt Poetry Prize in 2022 and received a shortlisting for the Hammond House Publishing International Literary Prize. Paris is also known for her performances at events like the Sydney Fringe Festival and the world premiere of Slam Messiah in 2022. She has won awards for Best Script, runner up Best Actor and runner up Best Overall Production in the Short + Sweet Festival Illawarra Festival in 2023. Paris will be an artist in residence in Ireland for 2024 and has been awarded other prestigious residencies, including the Kathmandu International Artist in Residence in 2024 and the Varuna Shanghai Lamplight Residency in 2023. She's also a WestWords/Copyright Agency Fellowship recipient for 2023.