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...
Onyx Storm’s legacy is as tumultuous as its title. Following the explosive popularity of the series’ first instalment, ‘Fourth Wing’, and its sophomore addition, ‘Iron Flame’, ‘Onyx Storm’ easily became one of the most anticipated book releases of 2025. Despite...
The president of WSU’s Book Club, Lidya Rivai, thoughtfully put together a list of books that will keep readers entertained and inspired throughout the summer break until next semester rolls around. First off, we have... ‘Happy Place’ by Emily Henry (Picture...
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...
Photo Credit: Ron Lach | “Person Typing on Green Typewriter on Brown Wooden Table” | Pexels “Who uses typewriters anyway?” is a lyric by American singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, from her song The Tortured Poets Department. Though author KT Major doesn’t use a...
Tash - The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon This fictional story is the fourth in the Bone season which is a dystopian and paranormal thriller. Being in the centre of a planned seven book series means that this is the integral part of the storyline. Compelling,...
On May 24th, at the Sydney Writer’s Festival, a panel titled “The Secret Lives of Women” featured three cross cultural novelists. This panel discussed the inner worlds of their characters, where aspirations that are obscured by duty and expectations of the world. The...
Samantha Shannon, speaking at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival, with Shelley Parker-Chan. Photo credit: Nataša Aster-Stater The Roots of Chaos event, which was held at the Sydney Writers’ Festival on May 25th, showcased the author, Samantha Shannon, speaking to a...
Self-education has been a trend in books, podcasts, reality television, and social media for a long time, and is only growing - for university students, navigating the transition between high school and adult life can be overwhelming, to say the least, with no clear...
(A group photo with the Mardi Gras float, captured before the march. Photo by Liana Keo, 2025.) As someone born, raised, and now studying in Western Sydney, I never expected us to be the longest-running tertiary institution to be marching in Mardi Gras. The...
HOPELESS My problems are too many to count, Solutions nowhere to be found How and where do I even look If there's nothing to be found? Pain fills my lungs as I drown As waves of despair crash into my shore I try to swim and gasp for air But an anchor...
I once stumbled upon a photograph called Lower Paradise Valley taken in 1925 by American landscape photographer Ansel Adams when reading one of my favorite books called ‘On Photography’ by Susan Sontag. The innocence of the landscape, the purity of the light...
(Dean Shahin reporting on the student protest against cuts on staff on the 22nd of May, Image taken from Video filmed by Lamisah Raihan) On the 22nd of May 2025, student activists gathered in protest outside building EA on Western Sydney University's Parramatta South...
For most people around the world, 2025 is a normal year. For all Australians, it’s something else: it’s a federal election year. This year will decide Australia's direction for the education system over the next three years. ABC News journalist, Jacob Greber,...