In some ways, choosing what to include and what to leave out seems to me intrinsic to the discipline of the play in a way that is quite different from the novel.

It’s a craft. Learn how to craft a voice. Start small. Little poems and short stories. Seek a mentor. Listen to them. Don't get upset when they critique your work. Worse things will happen when you get published.

Playwriting is the most collaborative of writing disciplines; on stage, an audience is seeing a version of your work that’s been filtered ... The relationship between writer and consumer is different – more distant? Less immediate? But still exhilarating.

The only way to write a story is to put a word down on a page, then another word, then another, until a sentence appears.

As writers we often play detective – probing, investigating, discovering, each step bringing us closer to the truth. But what if the subject of your investigation is mysterious, surly, contradictory and often inaccessible?

Karen Wyld was the inaugural recipient of HARDCOPY’s First Nations Australia Writers’ Network Scholarship, in 2018. Karen Wyld spoke with us about her experience of HARDCOPY and her career as a writer.

Shu-Ling Chua is a Melbourne-based writer. Her work focusses on culture, femininity and growing up, and has appeared in Feminartsy, The Lifted Brow and Meanjin, among others.

Anna Snoekstra Canberra-born, Melbourne-based, writer. She is the author of Only Daughter, and Little Secrets. In this Q&A she gives us insight into her process and practice, and tell us about the inspiration for her new book Little Secrets.

Kaaron Warren is an Australian author of horror, science fiction, and fantasy short stories and novels. Her short stories have won Australian Shadows Awards, Ditmar Awards and Aurealis Awards.

Ryan O’Neill is the author of The Weight of a Human Heart and Their Brilliant Careers (Black Inc.) He was born in Glasgow in 1975 and has lived in Africa, Europe and Asia before settling in Newcastle, Australia, with his wife and two daughters.

An Interview with Omar Musa
Self-promotion. It almost seems like a dirty word. It implies a large ego and a boastful nature, or someone with tickets on themselves. Lauren Briggs interviewed Omar Musa to answer an array of questions on marketing your work while retaining your artistic integrity.