UTS Writers' Festival

Join us in celebrating this year’s books by UTS Creative Writing Staff, alumni and students.

PROGRAM:

3-3:05 – Welcome by new Head of Creative Writing, Professor Sarah Holland-Batt.

3:05pm-3:35pm – Rebel Daughters. Praised by Irish President Michael D. Higgins as an ‘important work’, Anne Casey’s poetry collection Seang (Hunger) reclaims the poignant lost stories of the Australian daughters of Irish Famine immigrants. Dr Casey will read, followed by a Q&A with Professor Holland-Batt.

3:35pm-4:20 – Secrets and Hollow Spaces. Published with Simon & Schuster’s new Bundyi imprint, Judi Morison’s Secrets is a gripping family saga of three generations and three strong women.  Set in far north Queensland, Verity Borthwick’s Hollow Air (Ultimo Press) tells the suspenseful story of a female FIFO geologist who is driven to understand the secrets of the earth. UTS alumni Judi Morison and Verity Borthwick discuss their debut novels with Dr Claire Corbett.

BREAK 4:20-4:45

4:45pm-5:45pm – How to Become an Editor.  What skills do you need to edit others’ work? How do you find the right order for a national annual anthology? Hear from this year’s student editors of the UTS Writers’ Anthology. Featuring Jessica Duff, Aveline Yang, Emma Goldsmith, and Jaques De Deugd. Introduced by Dr David Drayton.

5:45-6:30pm - Quiet Heroes and Vanishing Worlds. In their moving novels, set in the declining world of newspapers and a Hague war crimes trial, Dr Andrew Pippos and Dr Gretchen Shirm explore what it means to be human in the face of history’s transformations. They discuss The Transformations (Pan Macmillan) and Into the Woods (Transit Lounge) with Dr Delia Falconer.

‘…if you’re looking for a creative writing course, this is clearly the one to join!’ Caroline Overington, Literary Editor, The Australian REVIEW, October 4-5, 2025.