For the past two weeks, I was lucky enough to be writer-in-residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in the Perth Hills. When I wasn’t hunkered down in my cabin in the woods, I was busy running workshops at KSP and Northam Library, talking about Wrong Way Round, visiting the many writing groups that meet weekly at KSP, and reading at a literary dinner.

I had a wonderful time at KSP, and it reminded me of the importance of belonging to a community of writers. The support and feedback the KSP members gave each other in the various groups was inspiring. At least two of the groups also produce an annual anthology, a labour of love that encourages them to push through with the hard work of writing, rewriting and editing.

Like many Australian arts organisations, KSP recently lost a lot of their funding. I hope this doesn’t mean that their writer-in-residence program becomes too difficult to run. It was a fabulous experience for me, and I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to share their knowledge and have some downtime in a beautiful location to get some serious writing done. If that sounds appealing, applications for the 2017 program close on 29 July 2016.