Our People
Bernard Cohen
Author, Educator
Dr Bernard Cohen is a multi-award-winning author and founder of The Writing Workshop.
"I'm passionate about teaching writing to young people.
"Making literature is a brilliant way to test ideas, to understand the world and the beings in it, and to learn to control the power of language in an imaginative and constructive way.
“I believe that to teach creative writing you have to model both parts — writing and creativity.”
“My approach to teaching combines a Socratic-style dialogue with participants in the workshops as well as making up new stories just about every week - improvising them as I go, often in collaboration with the group. These two aspects together illustrate the task for the week and the subject matter or terrain.
"Sometimes the stories grow and grow, and sometimes participants find the biggest holes in them - but that means they're using their critical faculties and that thinking definitely shows up in their writing."
Bernard’s most recent novel, The Antibiography of Robert F Menzies, won the 2015 Russell Prize for Humour Writing and he has previously won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award, Arts Council of England Writer’s Award and three listings in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists. Bernard's seventh book and first collection of short stories (for adults), When I Saw the Animal, was published in 2018. According to the Sydney Morning Herald’s review, “Bernard Cohen is more than good at the undervalued craft of writing short fiction… His writing sets flame to the small tinder of life.” Together with quantum physicist Andrea Morello, Bernard was the 2020 recipient of the Writing NSW Writer and Scientist Grant. Bernard is a judge of the 2022 NSW Premier’s Awards for Literature, a regular book reviewer for the South China Morning Post and working on next writing projects.
Felicity Plunkett
Poet, Critic, Educator
Dr Felicity Plunkett is an award-winning poet, critic and educator.
it is a joy and privilege for me to share my passion for reading and writing with teachers, students and writers. Working with Bernard is inspiring — our approaches are congruous, our experiences complementary and our debates (usually) productive.
Felicity is the author of several collections of poetry. Her latest collection, A Kinder Sea, was published by UQP in 2020. Vanishing Point (UQP, 2009) won the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Prize and was short-listed for several other awards. She is the author of a chapbook Seastrands (Vagabond, 2011) and editor of Thirty Australian Poets (UQP, 2011). Felicity has a PhD from the University of Sydney, and has worked as an academic for a number of years, most recently at the University of Sydney. She has an Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of New England. From 2004 to 2008 she was Chief Examiner of English Extension 1 and 2 in NSW. She was Poetry Editor at the University of Queensland Press for nine years and holds Australian Book Review’s 2019 Fellowship.
Emily Henderson
Workshop Leader, Writer
I am inspired by the ability of young writers to immerse themselves in imagination. I love that writing can grant access to the world of storytelling while being an essential communication tool. Writing starts in pure fun, and ends in something which can be endlessly shared with others.
Emily Henderson holds a First Class Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Sydney, and is a current Masters student in environmental management at UNSW. She has a deep interest in creative and theatrical writing and (non-fiction) environmental writing. She has worked as a writer for the International Universities Climate Alliance and written for University of Sydney’s student newspapers Honi Soit and Pulp. Emily is passionate about theatre in Sydney, including producing a theatrical adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando as part of Sydney Mardi Gras in 2020. She is an Associate Producer and Sustainability Manager of Fruit Box Theatre, where she produced a new Australian play which was staged at King’s Cross Theatre during Sydney WorldPride 2023. Emily leads our face-to-face Eastwood Public School after-school workshops, and co-wrote our school holidays nature writing workshop.
Emily Gibbs
Self-paced workshop leader
Emily Gibbs is a journalist with Australian Community Media (ACM) and has a Bachelor of Communications with Creative Writing from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her creative work has appeared in Bloom, the 2021 UTS Writers’ Anthology, and in the UTS student publication, Vertigo. She previously wrote and edited for the industry publication mivision for five years. Emily was a student of The Writing Workshop from year 4 to year 12, and has worked alongside Bernard Cohen, in various capacities, for nearly ten years. She is a working journalist and leads our self-paced workshops.