SCIENCE WRITING 101: LET'S GET YOU PUBLISHED IN BEST AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE WRITING 2026!

Join us at this once in a lifetime Science Writing workshop, with special guest Jo Chandler!

A little about the workshop from Jo Chandler:

Every November for the past 15 years, NewSouth press has published a compendium called Best Australian Science Writing. I've edited this publication (in 2016) and had stories featured in all but a couple of editions. Anyone who has had a science story published anywhere - even in their own blog - can submit to the editors for inclusion in the collection. Indeed a story I selected for the 2016 edition was self-published in a blog by Fiona McMillan, and went on to be runner up in that year's UNSW Bragg Prize for Science Writing (you can find the story here: https://www.fionamcmillanwebster.com/lucy-s-lullaby). 

This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of good science writing in the broadest sense - environment, technology, climate, engineering, medicine, health, whatever rocks your boat. As an exercise, we will go into this workshop with the ambition of producing and publishing a story that you might submit to the editors of the next edition of BASW when they next call out for entries around March 2026. Don't be afraid of science writing. It doesn't have to be technical - as Fiona's story indicates, it can be deeply personal, but framed to tell a story of science.

Ideally you should come along with a pitch we might discuss, but that's not imperative. A week before we meet I will send you a couple more stories, likely shorter ones which are the most likely to be selected for publication by new writers (so 800-1800 words-ish) to read in advance, and we will discuss these in our workshop.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW: 

- Who is a science writer?

- What makes a good science story, and where do they come from?

- Reporting Science 101

- Crafting your narrative

- Building expertise.