The The NSW Writers' Centre

Board

Chair – Susanne Gervay

Susanne is the award-winning author of the young adult novels I Am Jack, on school bullying which has been adapted into a play by Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People. Her young adult novel, Butterflies, is a defining book on youth disability, while The Cave exposes youth male culture today. That’s Why I wrote This Song is a break through work on the integration of music and text. Susanne’s books are endorsed by organisations such as the Room To Read, Children’s Hospital Westmead and the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. She has won and is short listed for numerous awards, is an inaugural patron of Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People, awarded the Lady Cutler Award for Distinguished Services to Children’s Literature, go-head of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), is Chair of the Sydney Children’s Writers and Illustrators at The Hughenden Hotel.

Deputy Chair – Diane Murray

Diane Murray is a founding director of the Interior Architecture practice, Danks Design Group Pty Ltd, established in 1978. She completed her MA in Creative Writing in 2006 and is currently undertaking her PhD at Swinburne on the subject of Marion Leathem, a pioneering Australian newspaper editor from the 19th century. Her short stories and articles have been published in professional publications and various online and printed journals. Diane has lived and worked in the Leichardt Municipality for 30 years. Due to her online study experiences and passion for books and writing, she is keen to promote the accessibility of writing in all its forms.

Secretary – Elisabeth Storrs

Elisabeth Storrs’ historical novel, The Wedding Shroud, was published by Pier 9 Murdoch Books in 2010 with a sequel due to be released in 2013.

She has had experience as a senior associate of a law firm and was a co company secretary of NRMA Limited and NRMA Insurance Limited. More recently she ran a consultancy advising corporations on corporate governance. Companies numbered amongst her clients were Caltex, MLC, IAG and Citigroup.

Her qualifications include a B.A., L.L.B and she is both a fellow of Chartered Secretaries Australia (F.C.I.S) and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (M.A.I.C.D.).

Treasurer – Vacant

Linda Funnell

Linda Funnell has over 30 years experience in the publishing industry and has worked as a publisher, editor and literary agent.  From 2000 to 2010 she was a publisher with HarperCollins and published award-winning fiction and non-fiction as well as popular bestsellers.  Her list included the authors Steven Carroll, Geraldine Brooks, Belinda Alexandra and Colleen McCullough. She is currently a freelance editor and publishing consultant, and co-editor of the online review the Newtown Review of Books (newtownreviewofbooks.com).

Bronwen Ginges

Bronwen Ginges is a solicitor who has been practising in her own firm, Annandale Lawyers, for the past five years. Before practising as a solicitor, Bronwen worked for many years in project development with Reader’s Digest. She has also edited trade magazines and as a copywriter for a variety of clients from such diverse industries as travel, computers and beauty. As a solicitor, Bronwen runs a general practice covering all areas from property and Conveyancing to Family Law and commercial litigation.

Bert Hingley

Bert Hingley has worked in both educational and trade publishing in London, Auckland and Sydney. He spent several years as publishing director for Hodder & Stoughton NZ and in 1988 was transferred to Sydney to be publishing director of Hodder & Stoughton Australia (now Hachette). He owned a second-hand bookshop for a time and later became publisher at Hale & Iremonger. He has written two novels (as yet unpublished) and a considerable amount of literary journalism. For the last few years he has worked as a freelance editor and consultant and has mentored many aspiring writers, including several for the NSW Writers’ Centre. He brings to the board of the Centre his extensive publishing background, his years of experience as a company director, and his awareness of what it is like to be a writer.

Dee Read

Dee has worked as an English/Drama and History teacher in Australia and the UK; as a Manager for a variety of Performing Arts companies in the UK including Hoipolloi, the National Youth Music Theatre and Youth Music Theatre UK; as an arts-in-education facilitator for the Arts Council of England and consultant in Child Protection in the Arts; and as Chair of the Board of Menagerie Theatre Company in the UK. Following 32 years in England, Dee returned ‘home’ to Sydney in 2004 and in 2005, after a contract with Legs on the Wall theatre company, she joined the Australian Publishers Association to manage professional development initiatives for the publishing industry. Her roles include responsibility for a seminar and workshop program, Digital Publishing training, and Literature Board project initiatives such as the Residential Editorial program, the Children’s Publishing Conferences and the Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship.

Sharon Rundle

Sharon Rundle co-edited Fear Factor: Terror Incognito, Indo-Australian short stories, Picador India (2009) Picador Australia (2010). She co-edited, Peacock Memosaic, a new media collection of stories (2010). Sharon edits the University of Technology Sydney quarterly Journal Writers Connect and is head of the UTS Alumni Writers’ Network. She has published and broadcast stories, essays and articles in Australia and internationally including in: Encounters: Modern Australian Short Stories and Desert in Bloom – Indian Women’s Fiction in English. She is co-author of Round Table Writing and author of Changes & Chances. She is an academic at the University of Technology Sydney and has taught English, Writing and IT subjects for Higher Education institutions in Australia and the UK for eighteen years. She was awarded the 2010 UTS Alumni Award for Excellence; the UTS SMSA Medallion; and a Commonwealth Short Story prize. www.roundtablewriting.com

Jacs Vittles

Jacs Vittles has been an active member of the Writers’ Centre since coming to Australia in 2005. Her first book, a memoir on discovering her dyslexia in her mid-forties, was launched by David Ryding, the Centre’s Director, in March 2010. Jacs has an MBA and has held down many management, policy and strategy development roles, as well as setting up and running her own business. She describes her discovery as emerging from a tunnel into the light for the very first time and encouraged to share her story, Dyslexia – An Amazing Discovery is the result.