Ally Burnham is the Creative Producer at Westwords, Western Sydney’s centre for creative writing. She completed a Master’s in Writing for Performance at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and won an AWGIE in 2020 for her short film screenplay ‘Metropius’. She is a...
A Word On WestWords: Advice To Writers
Ally Burnham is the Creative Producer at Westwords, Western Sydney’s centre for Creative Writing. She completed a Master’s in Writing for Performance at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and won an AWGIE in 2020 for her short film screenplay ‘Metropius’. She is a...
How did the ‘Made in the West Film Festival’ start?
Misty McPhail is an executive producer at Made in the West CREATIVE and the general manager of Made in the West Film Festival (MITW), a grassroots festival that celebrates and showcases Western Sydney filmmakers on screen. W’SUP chats to her about the 2024 Made in the...
Afterpay: are students paying the price for buying now?
In 2022, the Australian Finance Industry released a report that showed how Afterpay created a catch-22: people would use it to pay for essentials, yet it's been reported some would also need to cut back on essentials just to make the required repayments. Today, 40% of...
Article, Review, Whatever: Suki Shimmers on ‘Memoir of a Sparklemuffin’
Singer-songwriter, Suki Waterhouse, released her sophomore album, 'Memoir of a Sparklemuffin', on September 13th, 2024, with the title inspired by the Australian “sparklemuffin” spider, which dances for its partner (or gets eaten). "God, it feels good to find someone...
‘Made in the West’ Online Mega Movie Marathon – What to Expect!
W’SUP interviews ‘Made in the West’ ahead of its online Mega Movie Marathon event, starting 10th December 2024. Misty McPhail, ‘Made in the West’ CREATIVE, tells us what to expect when viewing these wonderful films online. W’SUP: What is the ‘Made in the West’ film...
Lottie McLeod and her Secret Music Plans for 2025! – Part 2
You heard it all in part one - get ready for part two! In part one of W’SUP’s exclusive, W’SUP editor Eugenia Kourkoutas and W’SUP Director Natasa Aster-Stater interview Lottie McLeod on her rise to fame, the inspiration behind her latest singles, and her reflections...
Interview with Singer-Songwriter, Lottie McLeod – Part 1
From her inspirations to scholarships to her proudest moments of 2024, upcoming indie pop musician Lottie McLeod covered it all. Best known for her debut song ‘Happy Birthday’ and for being Triple J’s 2023 ‘Unearthed’ Feature Artist, McLeod has been rising to stardom...
Interview with Satya Patel – cover artist of ‘New Perspectives’
Satya Patel is a Western Sydney University student and creative designer, who is the recent cover artist for W’SUP’S newest print edition, ‘New Perspectives’ (NP). In this interview, Satya describes his interest in drawing and design, what manga and anime inspire him,...
‘Tis the Damn Season: It’s NaNoWriMo!
National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) is a one-way ticket for writers to enter four weeks of self-inflicted madness (or so many authors have said), and write in any spare moment they can. The need for a rush of words leaves little time to overthink, go back or...
Interview with director Milena Bennett: On Film
Interview with director and writer Milena Bennett, by Luci Kugathasan and Nataša Aster-Stater Milena Bennett’s 2023 short film, ‘Cactus’, is a heartbreakingly beautiful story about two lonely souls becoming unlikely friends. Through ‘Cactus’, Bennett tells her story...
The Western Pantry: Fighting Food Insecurity
The Western Pantry, which aims to combat food insecurity, officially opened its doors to all Western Sydney University (WSU) students on July 22nd at Kingswood Campus. The Pantry, situated in Building O, level 1, will be available to use during the times of Monday...
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Bianca’s breakthrough: How WSU helped her find her voice in the newsroom
When Bianca Tropiano started studying a Bachelor of Communication at Western Sydney University, she hadn’t picked a major. She undertook the ‘Introduction to Journalism’ subject. Whilst she didn’t really like it, she's now set to graduate with a major in journalism, a...
Western’s Annual Lifeblood Challenge, Now Open to More Donors!
The Lifeblood Challenge is a yearly competition organised by the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood where each team attempts to collect as many blood donations as possible in a set amount of time. From August 1st to October 31st, Western Sydney University (WSU) is working...
Queer Social Club Celebrates 2 Years
Josh Bouman (he/him) is the Queer Social Club (QSC) co-founder. The QSC runs events such as, picnics, hiking, queer trivia, beach days, game afternoons, brunches, trips to a café, craft-days, karaoke and craft-days. ‘[The Queer community] is very important...
Penguin Fantasy Fest Comes to Sydney
July 2025 saw Penguin’s ‘Fantasy Fest’ arrive in Australian cities, readers enjoying exclusive previews of upcoming fantasy novel releases and extensive author panel discussions. In 2023, Penguin Random House Australia, one of Australia’s ‘big five’ publishing...
Diversity Fest in Jeopardy: An Absent Crowd, but a Present Message
Diversity Fest was once the booming heart of Western Sydney University’s social life. This year, the campus was silent, with attendees few and far between. This begs the question: Has Diversity Fest lost its spark or has a shift occurred with how students...