Young Writers Collective: Uncommon Words Launch

The launch of Uncommon Words—the first published anthology of writing by the SCWC Young Writers Collective—on 5 June 2022 at the Wollongong Art Gallery was the final event of the inaugural South Coast Writers Festival.

During the launch, writers that were featured in the book read from the anthology, including: Jamilla Dempsey, Joshua Sorenson, Holly Trenaman, Sky Carrall and Rhys Lorenc. Program Leader Helena Fox had many warm words to say about the group and their accomplishments at the event, as well as in the anthology’s introduction:

“The Young Writers Collective began with a little anarchy. In late 2019, I took a break from running the Young Writers Group at the South Coast Writers Centre, and left it in the capable hands of Rhys Lorenc, one of my most senior students. He did a beautiful job. Two other students also ran workshops that term, and when I came back to the group, everyone said, “Hey, that was great. We kind of don’t need you anymore - we can do it ourselves!” So, an idea was born: to create a Collective of young writers who would pay each other to run workshops they had devised themselves.

The Collective officially began its life as a self-run entity in February 2020, for writers aged 18-25. Whoever wanted to run a workshop, could. After a little tweaking, the workshops presented were always of a University level. We met weekly and created and shared many poems, stories, experimental works and scripts.

My place in the Collective has been as a mentor; I’ve helped the Collective organise their meetings and finetune their workshop skills, and I have offered feedback on their work. The Collective has provided the rest: dozens of workshop prompts, supportive and constructive feedback, laughter, cups of tea, and an incredibly high level of writing.

UNCOMMON WORDS is a beautiful showcase of the Collective’s work - inside these pages you will find probing, personal, unique words that reflect the singular minds of these great young writers. It has been an inspiration and honour to work with them, and I look forward to reading all their words to come!”

The Young Writers Collective (aged 18+) is part of SCWC’s Young Writers Program. The Collective is built on peer-led active, workshop based learning and allows for participants to share their work, be given feedback as well as being able to listen and critique the work of their peers.

Uncommon Words is available for purchase through the SCWC Online Shop

Contributors:

Nina Adams, Jamil Badi, Paris Barker, Sky Carrall, Laura Charlton, Jamilla Dempsey, Jerome Des Preaux, Kit Fox, Rhys Lorenc, India Goss Maher, Sophie Miller, Josh Sorensen, Max Taylor, Holly Trenaman and Dane Vinchest.

Edited by Lore White and Helena Fox.

Published by the South Coast Writers Centre, Copyright © 2021.