Hear from participants of the 2025 South Coast Writers Centre Emerging & Established Writers Group Retreat.
This talented group of writers from the South Coast will share insights into their current writing projects, and their time as writer-in-residence at Bundanon. This event will be Chaired by Dr. Sarah Nicholson, Director of the South Coast Writers Centre (SCWC).
About the writers
The 2025 SCWC Emerging & Established Writers Group Retreat at Bundanon welcomes writers working in fiction, creative non-fiction, playwriting, and poetry. Join us in celebrating the diverse voices and literary talents that make up this vibrant community.
Alyssa Montgomery is a multi-published, USA Today bestselling contemporary and medieval romance author. She has presented fiction writing courses at the South Coast Writers Centre.
Susie Fagan is a writer and performer. Susie wrote and performed a solo show at the 2023 Sydney Fringe Festival, completed the 2024 Playwrights Program at SCWC, and in 2025/26 will work with Merrigong Theatre to develop a solo show that will incorporate comedy writing, poetry and storytelling.
Caroline Baum is a communicator, storyteller, advocate, moderator, journalist, curator, podcaster and author. She works in all digital and traditional media. In 2017 her memoir, ONLY: A Singular Memoir, was published by Allen and Unwin. In 2015, she was awarded the Hazel Rowley Fellowship for memoir and biography. Caroline writes and presents a podcast about biography, Life Sentences, which she has used as part of her research for her current book project. She also writes about social and cultural issues in various media including for The Guardian Australia and Good Weekend.
Ryan Butta‘s first book, The Ballad of Abdul Wade, cast a critical eye on the nation’s foundational myths through the previously untold story of the Afghan men that came to Australia in the 1800s for work in the mining and wool industries. It was shortlisted for the South Australian Literary Awards Nonfiction Book of the Year 2024. His latest work, The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli, examined themes of racial equality and memory though the remarkable life story of Harry Freame, a Japanese-Australian adventurer, Anzac, orchardist and spy. Ryan’s works of non-fiction look to explode national myths to reveal and understand the hidden and forgotten stories of Australia. He believes that only by dismantling the myths of the past can we build the country of the future.
Megan Cartwright is a college English/Lit/Drama teacher who has had poems published in print and online in Australia and overseas, including The Augur, Contemporary Verse 2, Cordite Poetry Review, Island Magazine, The Sunlight Press, Quadrant and Verandah Literary Magazine. In 2024 she won the Matthew Rocca Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Jean Stone Poetry Competition, Red Room Poetry’s Poem Forest – Accredited Teacher category, the Plough Prize, and Northwind Writing Award. In 2023 Megan won the ACT Litlinks Teachers as Writers for her short story ‘Cicada Season’ and was shortlisted for the Hexham Poetry Prize and Lane Cove Literary Awards.
Belinda Lopez is a Spanish-Australian writer, documentary maker, journalist and anthropologist, and her award-winning audio documentaries and creative non-fiction have explored history, human rights and democracy worldwide. She is a fellow at Macquarie University and holds a PhD in creative writing based on anthropological and historical research with West Papuan communities in Indonesia. Her writing, documentaries and collaborations have been shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, the Australian Human Rights Awards, the Kennedys, the Walkley Awards and the Amnesty Media Awards. Belinda’s work has won prizes from the New York Festivals, the United Nations, the AWGIEs, the Gabriels, the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, among others.
Linda Albertson is an emerging poet. She observes the world around her, the people she encounters and daily minutiae. Through her poetry, Linda connects with people and allows others into her world to see who she is. She writes sincere, down-to-earth personal narratives exploring relationships, memory and the interplay of time.
Frankie Adkins is a journalist with work published in a range of international publications including The Guardian, the BBC, The Telegraph, WIRED and Conde Nast. Born in London, she has a first-class degree in English Literature from Edinburgh University and a distinction in International Journalism from City, University of London. She mostly writes long form and creative features on nature, mental health and the climate crisis; for example, communities banding together to protect their night skies (BBC), beekeepers harnessing AI to stave off a hornet invasion (WIRED) and farmers pioneering low-cost healthy produce (the Guardian). She has recently relocated to Australia, where inspired by the bush, ocean and wildlife, she is working on a creative non-fiction book about community solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis, with case studies in Wollongong and beyond.
Bundanon’s Artists in Residence Program
Applications for our highly anticipated 2026 Artists in Residence program will open in April 2025. Be part of an extraordinary multi-arts residency program that welcomes applicants from various disciplines, including visual and performing arts, music, academic research, dance, and literature. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore, create, and thrive in the breathtaking setting of Bundanon.
Find out more about Bundanon’s Artists in Residence program.
Thinking together: Exchanges with the natural world
This event is part of Bundanon’s program of live events for current exhibition Thinking together: Exchanges with the natural world.
This exhibition explores themes of reciprocity and collaboration between the human and non-human. Each work responds to notions of community, and considers the possibility that new knowledge can only be created through a process of thinking together, via communal making, cooperation between the species and embodying First Nations practices of knowledge sharing.
