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Freelance and Travel Writing Workshop, 28 nights from $3000AUD 

nipaluna/Hobart, Australia

 
 
 

With its bold art scene, gorgeous old buildings and lashings of natural beauty, nipaluna/Hobart is a dynamic playground of a city where there is always something to do.  The island itself – lutruwita/Tasmania – is as compact as it is diverse, with bountiful landscapes to explore that have been home to Tasmanian Aboriginal people for milennia.

Come spend a month writing and building connection in nipaluna/Hobart with Astray. Wedged between striking beaches and the rugged ferny peak of kunanyi/Mt Wellington, this is a city with the feel of a village: maintaining a warmth and lack of pretension that is hard to find elsewhere.

Over the course of four weeks, you and a team of other creatives will be living together in a magnificent 150-year-old Georgian house in the city, attending daily journalism workshops taught by passionate freelancers. You’ll refine your writing skills, learn how to pitch and get published – penning two stories and putting together an eBook guide to nipaluna/Hobart. You’ll also be learning about palawa culture and history with our pals at nita education – spending a day on Country eating bush tucker, absorbing knowledge and sharing stories.

Learn what you don't get taught at uni

This program provides practical, real-world experience, and has been designed to be a bridge between writing privately and entering the workforce as a freelance writer. Applicants vary in levels of experience — some are fresh out of high school, others are in the throes of a journalism degree, some are studying something super random and others have never been to uni. Maybe you’ve filled eight travel journals over the last five years; perhaps the only writing you’ve ever done is graffiti on the back of a toilet door. We cater to all ability levels, and though experience helps, it’s not at all necessary — we’ll teach you everything you need to know, and guarantee that you’ll have a wealth of new skills and confidence (plus a fantastic story worth pitching) by the end of the week. In fact, many students often keep writing for us on a freelance basis once the course is over.

What you get

    • Daily writing, editing and freelancing workshops. Classes go for between two and three hours each weekday. Click here for a subject breakdown.
    • A half-day workshop with nita education
    • One month’s accommodation in a historic and gorgeous guesthouse in Hobart CBD
    • 24-hour support, care and mentoring
    • Potential university credit via the Work Integrated Learning program: if you’re a journalism, media or communications student, enrolment in the program gives you the potential to receive a full subject’s worth of university credit. So far, we’ve had students from RMIT, Wollongong University, Charles Sturt University, Griffith University, La Trobe University, UNSW, QUT, the University of Queensland, Curtin University and more receive credit, as well as those attending schools in New Zealand, the UK and the USA.

Teaching the program

Gemma Clarke is the editor of Astray and Anaerkillik, a freelance writer and the head of content (read: corporate sellout) at a travel insurance startup called Freely. Previously, she has worked as the editor of YFH, the deputy editor of the triple j Annual and a radio host at Bay FM; and her work has been published by the ABC, New Matilda, the Courier Mail, We Are Explorers and various other rags. In her free time, she likes sleeping in, bushwalking and making zines, podcasts and playlists.

Eugene Yang is a writer, audio maker, and researcher living on Gubbi Gubbi country. His work looks at using sound and audio narratives to convey his experiences of Asian-Australian identity. Eugene’s work has been published by the ABC, SBS, All the Best and Peril, and he has been rejected from many, many more.

Dates and Cost

Next program: November 25 – December 23, 2022 (last class December 22 if ya wanna fly home for Xmas a day early!)

  • $3000 for a triple-share room on the bottom floor in a bunk bed (two beds available)
  • $3100 for a triple-share room on the bottom floor in a single bed (one bed available)
  • $3200 for a triple-share room on the top floor in a single bed (three beds available)
  • $3350 for a twin-share room on the middle floor in a single bed (four beds available)

Once you get in to the program, a $500 deposit will be required to confirm your place, and the rest will be due six weeks before the program starts. If we have to cancel, the program is fully refundable. If you have to cancel, the program is fully refundable less the deposit until four weeks before. Payment plans are available and can span for up to six months after the program finishes.

Travel respectfully and sustainably

We’re determined to encourage a culturally relative approach to travel, which in lutruwita/Tasmania means listening to, learning from and paying our respects to the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we live, work and play: the palawa/pakana people (in palawa kani, capital letters are not used). It also means taking care of lutruwita/Tasmania’s sensitive wilderness and being conscious of our social media footprint. 

FAQ

  • This looks kind of scammy — I’d like to read some reviews of the program from previous students!
  • I want to know some more information about the program!
  • What are your terms and conditions?
An image from one of our nipaluna/Hobart writing workshops that shows two students sitting joyously down by the water of the harbour alongside old-fashioned wooden ships.

Astray is a storytelling project centred on travel, place, culture and identity.

We’re run by a team of writers who mostly live, work and play in nipaluna / Hobart. With reverence, we acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal people as the traditional and ongoing custodians of trouwunna / lutruwita / Tasmania: land that was stolen and never ceded. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.