Thanks to the Writers Talk 2008, aspiring young authors can access advice from the authors they know and love.

Writers Talk features video interviews with 12 guest authors from the 2008 Sydney Writers’ Festival. The writers discuss their writing routines and inspiration and offer advice to young people wanting to follow in their footsteps.

The Writers Talk website, made available by the department’s Centre for Learning Innovation (CLI), includes resource links and teachers’ notes for each of the author interviews. The resource is suitable for Kindergarten to Year 12 students and has relevance to English and history syllabuses.

The manager of learning design and services at CLI, Bill Spence, said the resource brought an authentic writing experience to students regardless of where they were geographically placed.

“It allows students and teachers to access expert information 24/7,” Mr Spence said. The range of authors and topics allows for diverse responses. Emily Rodda, Bernard Cohen and Deborah Abela mention reading as an important aspect of becoming a writer.

Ursula Dubosarsky focuses her advice on persevering with and completing a story, while Mr Cohen highlights reading aloud as the best way to edit a story once it is finished.

Masterclasses with Ms Dubosarsky and Mr Cohen are available on the website and offer an opportunity for students to experience a writing class.

Writers Talk 2008 also includes an interview with Wendy Were, director of the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Ms Were provides an insight into her job running the world’s third-largest literary festival.

She explains how she chooses writers to attend the event and outlines what can be expected of the festival in the future.

Mr Spence said the partnership with the Sydney Writers’ Festival was a significant one for the education department. “The festival brings a rich group of national and international authors together for a short period of time. Through Writers Talk, we can get the observations and experiences of these authors out to a wide audience of students and teachers,” Mr Spence said.

Writers Talk 2008 can be accessed on the Teaching and Learning exchange (TaLe): www.tale.edu.au or on the CLI website: www.cli.edu.au