Creative Writing lunchtime drop-in: ‘What happened next?’ Alumni pathways and successes with Dennan Chew, Bastian Fox Phelan, Annette Higgs and Bronwyn Rennex

Wondering what happens after graduation? The Creative Writing program invites you to join us for a discussion about post-graduation pathways with program alumni. Dennan, Bastian, Annette and Bron will share with us their insights and successes, which include book-length publication, a major literary award, a film prize and national press coverage.

Dennan Chew graduated from the MCW in 2019. He has publications for two short stories, a poem, and an article. He wrote and produced a short film, Inconvenience Store, which has received 16 international awards. He is currently polishing the final draft of his novel which he began in the MCW Advanced Fiction Workshop.

Bastian Fox Phelan is a writer, musician and zine maker living in Mulubinba Newcastle on Awabakal land. Their zines, including cult classics Ladybeard and How to Be Alone, are held in collections around the world, and they have worked with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and National Young Writers’ Festival on major zine fair events. Bastian’s writing has been published in journals including Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Archer and The Lifted Brow, and they make music as part of dream-pop duo Moonsign. How to Be Between is their first book.

Annette Higgs is a writer living in Sydney, Australia. A Pushcart nominee, her short fiction has been published in a number of US journals: The Writing Disorder, Typehouse, LitroNY, Litbreak, RueScribe, The New Guard, The Plentitudes Journal, and in the Adelaide Literary Journal, where she placed as a finalist in 2019. Her stories have also appeared in the Australian TEXT Journal, online journal Brain Drip, and in the anthology Signs of Life; in the UK in Confluence and The Selkie; and in India, in the Bangalore Review. She has a Master of Creative Writing and a Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Sydney. In 2022 she was announced as the winner of the Penguin Literary Prize for her novel On a Bright Hillside in Paradise, which will be published by Penguin Random House in 2023. She tweets @sendchampagne

Bronwyn Rennex is a writer, artist and arts professional, whose work revolves around pictures and words. She completed a Master of Arts (Research) in Creative Writing at the University of Sydney in 2020 and was awarded the Dr Colin Roderick Prize in Australian Literature for the best thesis on a topic in Australian Literature. Her first book, Life with Birds: a suburban lyric was released by Upswell Publishing in June 2022. Her poems have been published in Cordite Poetry Review and her photographs have been exhibited widely and are held in private and public collections.

Friday 28 October 1-2pm  | Location: Woolley Common Room, John Woolley Bldg and via Zoom