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The latest episode of The New Writer’s Room looks at what it’s like being published in a book and the writer-editor relationship. Listeners will hear from Emily Hart, an editor at publisher Hardie Grant, and Nancy Huang, a 2021 SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition entrant whose memoir piece, ‘Mini Moke’, was featured in .
Huang, who migrated from Taiwan to Sydney without a word of English, spent 35 years working as a doctor before finally succumbing to her urge to write once she became a grandmother. “I believe that all writing is built on the shoulders of [reading] good writers,” she says, adding that she didn’t start reading for luxury until her 20s and 30s.
While she had been published in scientific and medical journals throughout her career, Huang was surprised by how collaborative the editing process was, something she calls an exercise in “confidence-building”.
Nancy Huang with her grandson, Arlo. Source: Supplied
Working with previously unpublished writers, unfamiliar with the editing process, Hart knows the importance of maintaining the heart and voice of a story. “You always want a story to become more like itself,” she says. “You don’t ever want to be coming in and trying to make something into something different. You’re just trying to bring out the best in that story.”
After working as a doctor and writing scientific articles that were more ‘black and white’, Huang is enjoying the creative process of writing prose. “The luxury of being older I think is also learning that those shackles of truths and ‘should’s are loosened – there is just so much grey.
Hardie Grant editor, Emily Hart is a guest on The New Writer's Room podcast. Source: Supplied
“Through this process, what’s really been emphasised to me is that writing is about the writing. So just getting down to it, on my own, in my time and engaging with the words that are swirling around in the head, catching them, putting them down on paper. In the end, that’s what really works.”
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The SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition is open for entries on August 16. Write a non-fiction memoir story on the theme of ‘Emergence’ for your chance to be awarded the $5000 first place prize, $3000 second place or two runners up prizes of $1000. The top entries will also be published in an anthology by Hardie Grant. Go to to register and find out more.
