Chrissy Sharp, a cherished and highly respected past Executive Director of the Australian Writers’ Guild, died on November 2.

It was while listening to his father’s theatrical readings of Winnie the Pooh as a small boy in suburban Greensborough that Doug McLeod realised that he wanted to be a writer. Unlike most of us though, Doug didn’t wait until he had grown up to get started.

For the third year running, a playwright has taken home the top prize at the Australian Writers’ Guild’s Annual AWGIE Awards, with Kodie Bedford’s sharp and vibrant play Cursed! winning the 2021 Major Award.

The Australian Writers’ Guild celebrates the passage through Parliament of legislative changes to federal tax incentives that will promote investment in the screen sector and provide appropriate tax support for local writer-producers.

An outstanding field of Australian screen and stage writers have been nominated for the 54th Annual AWGIE Awards in a year that champions storytellers who have crafted works of strength, creativity and ambition. The nominations exemplify the excellence and range of Australian writers, with stories that speak to the complexity and richness of our past, alongside those that seek to understand our present, telling tales of our everyday heroes, our struggles and our joys.