In August, we attended a celebration of Julia Robinson the artist, as well as Julia Robinson, the 2024 SALA Feature Artist monograph, by Leigh Robb, Hannah Kent and Jess Taylor.

We’re pleased now to be able to share Julia’s speech from the evening, sharing her memories of SALA’s humble beginnings, and how the festival helped her realise that pursuing art was a viable career choice.

Read her speech below.

Banner image: Bitter Roseroot (detail), 2018, gourd, silk, thread, pins, braid, brass, gold plating, steel, padding, mixed media, 120 x 80 x 60 cm, collection Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Sam Roberts.

Wakefield Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of world rights to award-winning Adelaide author Andrew Roff’s debut novel via Martin Shaw of Shaw Literary. Publication of the novel, provisionally titled Pangea, is expected in March 2025.

Read more about this exciting acquisition below.

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the August WWWC: Span Hanna. Responding to the prompt ‘plenty of books’, Span’s ‘Toward the End of My Shift’ follows an unnamed narrator navigating a very strange day at his very strange off-books job.

Read Span’s winning piece below.

When our work experience student picked up a copy of Roanna McClelland’s award-winning debut novel, The Comforting Weight of Water, she was swept up into the novel’s wild and wet world.

In a special blog post, Roanna answers questions about the book, being a debut author, and finding inspiration in unusual places.

Read the interview in full below.

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the June WWWC: Julia Archer. Responding to the prompt ‘down by the river’ Julia’s winning piece ‘The Gallery Goer’ follows a down on his luck fellow making the most of things.

Read her winning entry in full below. This is Julia’s second WWWC win – her first was in May 2023. Read that entry here.

In Wendy Sharpe: Many lives we find that Wendy Shape’s art has touched many people’s lives around the world. Sharpe believes that there is a possibility of a spirit world parallel to our own and she brings that forward in her art. 

Wendy Sharpe’s exhibition Spellbound is showing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until Sunday 11 August 2024. We asked work experience student Isobel to flick through the pages of Wendy Sharpe and pick some of her favourite images to share with readers who can’t get to the show. Read on below to see what she chose to spotlight.

When work experience student Sam picked up a copy of Out of This World by Sonya Spreen Bates, he was quickly drawn into a fast-paced middle grade story about family, fitting in, and finding your place in the world.

In a special blog post, Sam interviews Sonya about the book, her writing process, and her tips for budding young authors out there.

Read the interview in full below.

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the May WWWC: Mike Ladd. Mike’s poetic entry, ‘A funny thing happened the other day at the Amusement Park’, is funny, arresting and a little surreal, while also being one of the shortest winning entries!

Read his winning poem in full below.

Last week, we gathered at Mrs Harris’ Shop for the launch by multi-hyphenate Tracy Crisp of Sally Heinrich’s Local Icons, a gorgeous new art book that accompanies Sally’s exhibition of the same name.

We are pleased now to be able to share Tracy Crisp’s launching speech.

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the April WWWC: Valerie Volk. Fitting indeed that Valerie’s third WWWC win matches up so perfectly with the prompt ‘three generations’.

Valerie’s winning piece ‘Patterns’ is an examination of mother-daughter relationships and the cycles of behaviour we often fall into. Read her winning piece below.