Robyn Black is the president of the Goulburn Valley Writers Group Inc. which is based in Shepparton. She is a poet and short story writer who has twice won the Open Poetry section of the Joseph Furphy prize and then annually judged this section of the Award until it ceased in 2019. She is the co-ordinator of the new Furphy Literary Award ($15,000 1st Prize), an annual award which commenced in 2020. She also judges the Furphy Literary Award Youth Poetry section. She is a former editor of Tamba Magazine and has been published in a number of literary magazines including Tamba, Ripples, The Wild Goose, Regime Books and The Australian Writer as well as on the Australia Poetry website.
Robyn has enjoyed a varied experience in connecting locally with literary pursuits including being involved with the former Country Festival of Writing (which ran for 10 years in Shepparton); annual literary workshops; poetry sessions in local primary schools; joint ventures with local arts organisations and several years reading at ‘Breakfast with the Poets’ when it was part of the Shepparton Festival. Robyn was also longlisted in the inaugural (2011) Montreal International Poetry Prize with her poem ‘boat talk’. She was short-listed in the 2016 and 2017 Alan Marshall Short Story Awards and the 2016 VU/Overland Short Story Award for Emerging Writers and has collaborative work exhibited at several local art spaces. Robyn is the Regional Ambassador – Goulburn Valley Region - for Writers Victoria. Her first collection of poetry - No Straight Lines published by Ginninderra Press - was released in October 2021.