In 2020 meetings will be from 11am to 2pm and will alternate between Hayden Raysmith Room, 4th Floor, Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne and the Community Hub at the Dock, Docklands Library, 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands 3008. Phone 03 9658 9161 or 03 9658 9998. The Committee meets, via Zoom, a week prior to General meetings. See Meetings & Events page for details. PLEASE NOTE: Venues for 2021 will be advised by the Presidents Weekly letter, the monthly newsletter as well as the Meetings and Events page.
A Brief History of the Society of Women Writers Victoria (SWWV)
The Society of Women Writers was founded in Sydney as a State body in 1925 to welcome women delegates and wives of delegates to the Imperial Press Conference held in Sydney that year. The organisers included the writer, Mary Gilmore, and the journalist, Constance Robertson. In 1970 Margaret Hazzard and a group of women writers in Melbourne formed the Victorian Branch of the Society of Women Writers, which became an incorporated not-for-profit society in 2000. The SWWV Biennial Literary Award was inaugurated in 2001 to celebrate this event. We have sister societies of Women Writers in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Personnel
Literary Patron: Hazel Edwards (above)
Life Members: Dorothy Richards, Barbara Warren, Errol Broome, Judy Bartosy, and Dorothea Lavery.
At the Annual General Meeting held 27 August 2021 the following members were elected as Committee members for the 2021-2022 year.
Assistant Treasurer: Maryna Mews
Membership Secretary: Megan Wallens
Writers’ Groups coordinator: Lindsay Bamfield
Writers’ Groups Facilitators: Spring: Lindsay Bamfield, Perennial Poets: Nenia Tavrou, Work in Progress: Vanessa Potts, Let’s Write: Paula Wilson
Journal sub-committee: Errol Broome, Caroline Webber, Maribel Steele, Sue Gunningham, Rebecca Maxwell and Mary Jones