This event is for postgraduate students studying history.
If you wish to attend, RSVP to ruby.ekkel@anu.edu.au by 15 September 2026
 

In universities, the actual process of writing is rarely talked about, yet effective writing is integral to a creative life of words and ideas. Our aim in this workshop is to talk about the experience as well as the art of writing and to bring imaginative and literary debates into our discussion of non-fiction.  We will begin with general strategies and end up by shaping words on a page.  The workshop aims to be friendly, informal and constructive. A catered morning tea will be included!

Participants are requested to send Tom a paragraph of their writing-in-progress by Tuesday 15 September to tom.griffiths@anu.edu.au, and to send their RSVP to Ruby Ekkel at ruby.ekkel@anu.edu.au by the same date. The paragraph should offer a story or scene from their subject of study, presented as a self-contained piece of writing.  It should act as a window on their interests, a snatch of narrative or analysis (or both), and an invitation to read on. (The paragraph will be for only Tom to read, unless the writer takes the opportunity to read it out at the workshop).

The evening before the workshop, Tom will be in conversation with Mark McKenna about his new book, Alice’s dreaming, from 6.00 to 7.00 pm at the Cinema at Kambri (Monday 21 September), as part of the ANU Meet the Author series: https://www.anu.edu.au/meet-the-author-series

Participants in the Writing Workshop are encouraged to come along!

Tom Griffiths is a writer and historian whose work has won prizes in literature, history, science, politics and journalism, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the Douglas Stewart and Nettie Palmer Prizes for Non-Fiction. His books include The Art of Time Travel: Historians and their Craft, Hunters and Collectors, Forests of Ash: An Environmental History and Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica. His latest book, published in 2026, is Alice’s dreaming. He lives in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria, and is Emeritus Professor of History at the Australian National University and Chair of the Editorial Board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.