Wayne Bergmann has spent decades fighting for the rights of Traditional Owners – a job that often puts him in the firing line. So what was it like to reflect back on the entirety of his life – from his childhood to today? To write his story, Wayne called on award-winning novelist and longtime colleague […]

***Rescheduled*** Join City of Fremantle Hungerford Award 2022 winner Molly Schmidt in conversation with the Hungerford Award 2020 winner Maria Papas. The two will spend the evening discussing Molly’s debut novel Salt River Road, writing on grief, and what it takes to write award-winning fiction.

Perth Festival and peak writing body Writing WA are back for Perth Festival Writers Weekend 2024 to showcase homegrown literary talent to engage in robust discussion with Australian and international writers at the State Library of WA.

A new local literary talent emerges for an intimate evening discussing her first book of personal essays described as ‘remarkable, careful and passionate’.

Salt River Road by Molly Schmidt is one of ten Australian debut novels in the running for a 2024 Indie Book Award. Presented by Leading Edge Books, the Indie Book Awards celebrate the depth and range of literary talent in this nation. They recognise the best Australian writing as chosen by Australian independent booksellers. In […]

Screen Australia and Stan have announced Invisible Boys is one of three new Stan Original series commissioned for production. Based on the book by multi-award-winning Fremantle Press author Holden Sheppard, Invisible Boys will be a ten-episode contemporary drama series set in the regional town of Geraldton, Western Australia. Spoiler alert!  ‘In a small town everyone […]

On a morning exploding with pigeons, I fall into a phone conversation with my old friend Kiera as I walk to work. ‘Can we talk about historical fiction?’ I ask. ‘I don’t write historical fiction,’ she says. ‘I write speculative biography.’ Isn’t that the way of writerly research, I think with a sigh: you push […]

During my thirty-five years as a published writer and thirty years as a teacher of creative writing at various universities, I’ve read several articles by creative writers, writing teachers or editors who say that starting to write a new story is the hardest part. But for me, beginning a story comes relatively easily. Almost always, […]

Beneath the trees and scenic lighting of the Fremantle Arts Centre, we awaited the announcement of the winner of the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, while hearing from 18 Fremantle Press authors pitching their newly published books. Our witty MCs and authors, Helen Milroy and Holden Sheppard, opened the evening followed by an Acknowledgement […]

I live on a rural bush retreat in Western Australia’s Great Southern region, and have been writing stories obsessively since childhood. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing at Curtin University, my short fiction began to win or be placed in writing competitions, with a number being published in various journals and anthologies […]

Gerard McCann grew up in Cottesloe in the 1950s and 60s, the second of five boys. Staunch Catholicism had the boys on their knees at night and Sunday mornings, but otherwise running free, exploring and adventuring in the streets and neighbouring gardens. He studied Architecture at the Perth Tech and UWA, and specialised in heritage […]

Entranced by the power of words from birth, Marie O’Rourke spent many years reading, analysing and teaching the stories of others before working up the nerve to start shaping her own. Her writing pushes against the tradition of first-person, past-tense, chronological, narrative memoir, hoping to capture the shape-shifting nature of memory and identity. Marie’s essays […]

Molly Schmidt is a writer and journalist, currently undertaking the Four Centres Emerging Writers Program with Fremantle Press. By day, she works as a radio producer and reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where her passion for storytelling is put to good use. While writing her first manuscript, Molly has been collaborating with Noongar Elders […]

Join us as we announce the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award winner and celebrate new releases at the Great Big Book Launch.

Joy Kilian-Essert, Gerard McCann, Marie O’Rourke and Molly Schmidt are in the running for $15,000 in prize money from the City of Fremantle and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. All four Western Australian writers were shortlisted for the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, which is in its 32nd year. Fremantle Press Publisher Georgia […]

Eleven Western Australian writers are longlisted and in the running for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. Judged anonymously, the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award is a biennial prize awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a Western Australian author for a work of fiction, narrative non-fiction or young adult fiction. The winner receives a cash […]

In Only Birds Above Arthur Watkins, is a blacksmith serving with the 10th Light Horse Regiment in the Middle East during World War I.  When he returns home without his horse – the companion he’s worked alongside for four years – he is a man forever changed by what he has seen and suffered. In […]

Submissions for the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award are open. Western Australian writers have just two months to enter the state’s longest running and most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript, which offers a cash prize of $15,000 from the City of Fremantle and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. Fremantle Press CEO Jane […]

It’s just two months until 3 February 2022 when entries will open for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for an unpublished work of fiction, narrative non-fiction or young adult fiction by an unpublished writer. The winner receives a cash prize of $15,000 and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. To help keep you motivated, […]

Julie Sprigg, author of Small Steps: A Physio in Ethiopia, has vowed to give her Christmas royalty cheque to Direct Reach Ethiopia. A Perth-based organisation, Direct Reach Ethiopia runs programs that empower people living in extreme poverty by supporting children’s education and increasing the earning capacity of Ethiopian women. Julie said, ‘Small Steps is about […]

Described as ‘breathtaking’, ‘wise’ and ‘poetic’, Maria Papas’s City of Fremantle Hungerford Award winning novel Skimming Stones explores the impact of childhood illness and trauma on families. Set in a paediatric oncology ward and at Lake Clifton in Australia’s South West, Skimming Stones is about a nurse named Grace, who cares for and guides her […]