Kathryn Coughran is a Writer, Writing Tutor, Educator and Therapist ~ semi-retired and writing full-time.
She is on the judging panel for the 2021 E. M. Fletcher Writing Award, which closes on 15th July 2021.
In 2019, she won the Inaugural E. M. Fletcher Writing Award ~ for All At Sea, a story with a family history theme.
The following year, Kathryn’s family history story, Survival, was short-listed and Commended in the E. M. Fletcher Writing Award.
These stories form part of the mixed-genre manuscript she is writing, which explores the lives of her great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers, thus giving a snapshot of the sacrifices and tenacity of early generations of colonial women and showcasing their legacy.
Kathryn has twenty-five years experience teaching writing courses at Universities, Community Colleges, Writers’ Groups and various other outlets across New South Wales. Teaching Research Strategies in Family History and Writing Ancestral and Personal Stories have been among her most favored courses… by herself and her students.
She has judged writing competitions and launched books for colleagues and students.
Following a long break as a result of a workplace injury, Kathryn slowly returned to part-time tutoring and mentoring.
She is now focused on getting her more comprehensive works into the public arena. She is currently seeking a publisher for her memoir: Bookends, while working on two subsequent manuscripts.
Kathryn’s writing journey began in childhood. She wrote her first little ‘book’ at the age of eight – on the back of forms discarded from her father’s workplace, tied together with string and encased in cardboard from the back of her mother’s almost empty writing pad.
Following teenage years of writing poetry and short stories, and spasmodic writings during her mothering years, she joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW) in 1982, instigated the Lambing Flat Regional of FAW the same year, and has been a member of various professional writing organisations ever since.
She attended workshops and training courses on a range of writing subjects, offered by: FAW (Lambing Flat/Young, Manly and Blue Mountains branches), Australian Writers’ Centre (previously Sydney Writers’ Centre), Writing NSW (previously NSW Writers’ Centre), Varuna Writers’ Centre, Hunter Writers’ Centre, Australian Writers’ Guild, Australian National Playwrights’ Centre, Poets’ Union and Faber Writing Academy.
Since 1990, Kathryn has read her work at numerous venues and functions, often as an invited guest, including at a Sydney Writers’ Festival session at the Opera House in 1995. On that occasion, she represented the Blue Mountains and read from her book, Family Matters, published in 1994 in celebration of the International Year of The Family.
Kathryn has been guest poet on eight community radio programs across Sydney and the Blue Mountains; including 2BLU at Katoomba… where she also hosted a weekly program – Poetry Plus On The Air – for approximately five years, interviewing and showcasing the work of writers. This program was an off-shoot from Poetry Plus, a monthly performance venue she instigated and coordinated at Springwood for seven years.
Kathryn’s work has been published in fourteen anthologies, including Faber Writing Academy’s Writing a Novel Anthology 2013. Many of her articles have been published across six regional newspapers and various specialist magazines – Footlight (a glossy entertainment publication), Over 50s Newspaper (Central Coast), and several community publications, including The Wave (Central Coast).
She also produced a series of posters, combining her poetry and photography.
A few of her early successes with poetry and short stories are:
- Treasures – won New Idea’s Story of the Week… published in New Idea during 1994
- Nipped in the Bud – Best Poem of the Night, at Penrith Sailing Club readings 1998; chosen by a scout from The Joan Sutherland Centre
- Poignant Reminder – Highly Commended, Joan Johnson Poetry Awards 2005
- Waiting Agony – Highly Commended, Gum Blossoms Poetry Competition 2007… published on Scribbligum Poetry Website for twelve months
In 1990, Kathryn was commissioned by the Centre for Education and Information on Drugs & Alcohol (CEIDA) to write and narrate three ninety-minute audio tapes, as part of One Size Fits All – a training resource for youth workers in the field of Alcohol and Other Drugs.
Kathryn produced her play, Aiding Others (HIV/AIDS education play), three times in 1993, twice in the Blue Mountains and once in the Manly Amphitheatre (on The Corso) during Writers’ Week. The following year, she produced Busy Bodies at a community function in Springwood in the Blue Mountains, and also on community radio.
At the request of The Hawkesbury branch of FAW, Kathryn wrote the Foreword for the group’s short story anthology, River of Words. More recently, she wrote the Foreword for John Giutronich’s My History, a personal exploration for his family, and The Reason For The Rhyme-Yarns and Reveries by Don Norrie (proceeds from this book go to cancer research).
Much of this earlier work was published under her previous name, Kathryn Andersen.
Kathryn’s development as a writer and writing tutor was against the backdrop of her other careers:
Retailing (children’s wear, knitting yarns and craft supplies) -owner/manager (8yrs)
Community Management
Psychotherapy and Natural Therapies
…and as an educator in these fields…
For more information about Kathryn’s experience, go to:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-coughran-a236217a
You can find Kathryn on:
Facebook: Kathryn Coughran
Twitter: @KathrynCoughran