Sweatshop launches program for Western Sydney culturally diverse women writers

Western Sydney literary group Sweatshop has launched the Writers’ Collective for Diverse Women, a new program of workshops for Indigenous and culturally diverse women writers residing in Western Sydney.

Funded by Create NSW and organised by Sweatshop manager and editor Winnie Dunn, the initiative will run monthly writing workshops in Parramatta and Bankstown starting in February 2018. A published anthology showcasing the poems and short stories of the workshop participants will be launched at the Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2019

Each workshop will also feature a prominent Australian female author in attendance as a special guest facilitator, including Michelle de Kretser, Julie Koh, Michelle Cahill, Randa Abdel-Fattah and Sarah Ayoub.

Dunn said she hopes the project will create a ‘safe and critical space to foster literature that is written, edited and designed solely by culturally diverse women’. ‘Australian literature often overlooks stories written by women from non-English speaking backgrounds … As a Tongan-Australian from Mt Druitt, I’m thrilled to bring together such a dynamic and diverse mix of established and emerging female authors from all over New South Wales.’

Sweatshop is encouraging culturally diverse women from Western Sydney to contact the organisation via its website if they are interested in attending the workshops.

(Photo credit: Socorro Cifuentes.)

Category: Local news