What We Do
Sitting under the umbrella of UniSC’s regional engagement activities and funded through the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP), the CWEP is presented in regional high schools in the Wide Bay Burnett, Cooloola, and Moreton Bay regions. The program is delivered over a school term, through eight weekly workshops, for students between Grade 6 - Grade 11 (and occasionally Grade 12).
The CWEP teaching team work alongside aspiring young writers in their schools to cultivate their skills in the essential elements of story creation: character, setting, plot, structure, point of view, dialogue, theme, and editing. During the CWEP, our young writers develop, write, and edit a short story for inclusion in an anthology, which is published and presented at their graduation/anthology launch in the last week of the program, replicating the university experience and the professional goal of most creative writers.
The CWEP teaching team, Dr Eileen Goodall, Shannon Horsfall and Caitlin Noakes, are practising and published writers, who believe in the power of acknowledging and nurturing the potential for success in young creatives. By sharing their expertise, the CWEP teaching team hope to build aspiration for further education, while inspiring our storytellers of the future.
Who We Are
Caitlin Noakes is a creative writing PhD candidate and tutor at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research interests include postmodern literature and exegetical writing. She has taught at the university since 2012 in creative writing, communication, academic skills, and history courses. Her work has appeared in journals and magazines like Voiceworks and The Big Issue, and has been presented at the Brisbane Writers Festival, at the Woodford Folk Festival, and on ABC Radio Brisbane.
Dr Eileen Herbert-Goodall is Coordinator of the Creative Writing Excellence Program. She has had works of non-fiction and fiction published in various magazines, journals and anthologies. She is the author of a novella titled The Sherbrooke Brothers. Eileen is also a professional editor of fiction and academic work. She is the Membership Liaison Officer and Secretary for the Australasian Association of Writing Programs. To inquire about having a CWEP presenter visit your school, contact Eileen at egoodall@usc.edu.au
Shannon Horsfall has an Honours Degree in Creative Writing at UniSC and is undertaking her PhD in creative writing. She is the award-winning author-illustrator of Was Not Me and Nomax - longlisted for the CBCA Awards - published by HarperCollins, and the illustrator of Dear Santa (Scholastic), My Unicorn Farts Glitter (Hachette), and Once I Munched a Mango (SLQ). She has published short stories, poetry, and flash fiction. Shannon teaches Creative Writing at UniSC and presents workshops at the Queensland Writers’ Centre and in schools across the state.