OUR TEAM

Roland Fishman created The Writers' Studio in 1992. He has been a professional writer since 1980 and has published three books.

By drawing on the wisdom from some of the world's greatest writers and teachers, Roland has developed writing courses that bring out the best in participants and their work. He has dedicated his life to story structure and the creative process.

He is an Arts/Law Graduate and a former journalist and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Review and The Good Weekend. He has published three books.

He ran his first writing workshop while doing a work-study program at The Esalen Institute in California in 1992 and has worked as a script consultant for George Miller, director/writer of Mad Max, Babe, Lorenzo's Oil.

Roland believes the process of writing fiction nourishes and expands the spirit and that everyone has the ability to write and tell their story if they put in the time and effort required to master the essential tools and techniques of fiction writing.

George Miller, the film director and writer who has worked with Roland, said
"Roland is like a script shrink. He works on the story from the inside out and got me excited about the possibilities of the story we were working on. We were very much on the same wavelength. I left the sessions feeling excited and inspired."

Roland has been invited to present his workshops at the:

Sydney Writers' Festival, 2008

He has also been invited by The Australian Women's Weekly to contribute tools and techniques to help writers prepare their stories for:

The Australian Women's Weekly Short Story Competition.

Sydney Morning Herald Article about Roland.

Alex Gilly is our manuscript assessor and Third Draft online tutor and shares the online tutor duties with Andrew Blanch for the Character and Critique Course and the Myth-Based Genre and Critique Course.

Alex has translated six novels from French, including three that were published by Simon and Schuster in the UK and three by Scribner in the USA.

He has worked for the publishers Harper Collins, has a degree in Linguistics from NSW University, has completed an editing course at UTS and is currently completing his masters in interpreting and translation.

The people he has worked with have loved his input and said it really helped take their stories to another level.

Sophie Bouris, who has worked with Alex on her novel, said
"I've got a far greater chance of being published thanks to Alex Gilly and the Writer's Studio. It is a wonderful inner freedom to know that every corner of the story has been investigated to the best of our ability. I would strongly recommend anyone who loves writing to embrace this process for their final draft to produce the best work they can and to get as much out of the process as is possible."

Andrew Blanch is our online tutor for the Unlocking Creativity Course, The Novel and Script First Draft Course Online, the Character and Critique Course and the Myth-Based Genre and Critique Course.

Andrew is currently writing the third draft of his novel with us and was personally invited by Roland to be our online tutor due to his inate sense of story structure and his incredibly insightful and in-depth feedback and guidance.

Marie McMillan, who has worked with Andrew, said
"I think he was born to be a teacher or sub-editor. He is, no doubt, an asset to your organisation. Passionately interested in people's stories, he is patient, objective and so helpful."

Tamara Stojanovic

"But the absolute best thing about the course was Andrew. I have never come across a talent such as his. His ability to delve into each text, really understand it - it's strengths and weaknesses as well as his ability to get close to each writer and understand exactly where they were coming from was extremely impressive. The first story that I gingerly posted - he immediately picked out its strengths but also he picked up that I never made cuts, I was too scared to make cuts and he encouraged me to experiment with them - which freed up my writing immensely.

I think my last story was more competent, engaging and confident than my first and I really can't think of a better investment. Also I noticed that because Andrew supported everyone so wholeheartedly and equitably, this course didn't develop that competitive dynamic between participants that sometimes these courses do. Please feel free to use these comments in any promotional material."

Kathleen Allen is the manager of The Writers' Studio.

Gertie, aka The Gertster is head of security.

If you have any questions about the The Writers' Studio and our courses, please do not hesitate to call her. 02 9386 4994 or
email at: wstudio@writerstudio.com.au