Hooked on books

Felicity likes books. She reads them, she helps compile them, she writes for them and she edits them. Her latest venture in the world of book publishing was as Co-Editor of On Western Sydney, an anthology of stories about Western Sydney written by people from Western Sydney, published by Westside Publications in September. She worked closely on this project with Chief Editor and UWS student Mohammed Ahmad, who recently completed his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree.

Mohammed says On Western Sydney is a real depiction of Western Sydney's culture. "The book contains literature that recognises the diversity of the region," he explains. "Western Sydney is a unique place and is one of the country's most rapidly changing landscapes. Typically, films and books about Western Sydney have negative connotations; this book has a more accurate representation."

At UWS, Felicity is a doctoral candidate with the Writing and Research Centre on the Bankstown campus, which has supported Westside Publications through funding and the mentorship provided by Ivor Indyk, Whitlam Chair in Writing and Society. At Westside Publications, Felicity works a couple of days a week as the Education Officer, where she co-facilitates the Westside Writers' Group as well as writing workshops in local Western Sydney schools.

"Westside Publications' anthologies are quite different to other anthologies, as rather than putting a call out for work and then accepting or rejecting pieces, we work very closely with writers from the western suburbs community to develop their pieces for publication," says Felicity. "Most of the pieces in On Western Sydney were extensively workshopped in our Westside Writers' Group. It took about two years to compile all of the pieces and it took about eight months of editing and designing after that."

Felicity says she finds inspiration for writing about Western Sydney from her own experiences living and working in the region. "I just wanted to write snapshots of all the things I see in Parramatta where I live," she explains. "I'm really interested in the ordinary everyday of suburbia and the greater meanings that can be read into simple gestures and places. Also, I spent several years teaching in boys' schools. This experience made me really interested in exploring the kinds of voices I wrote in my piece for On Western Sydney, called The Incredible Here and Now, which I later turned into a book."

Felicity has had her work published in Heat, The Age and Island. Her first book, Small Indiscretions: Stories of Travel in Asia, a collection of stories set in major cities of Asia, was published by Transit Lounge last year. You can follow Felicity on Twitter (opens in a new window).