An award-winning journalist wants Illawarra writers to ''find a voice'' in her True Story Festival workshop in November.

Erin O'Dwyer says she really admires the efforts of the South Coast Writers Centre, True Story's artistic director Caroline Baum and the many other writers in the region to foster a community where writing is valued and where creativity can happen.

“Finding a voice is such a critical aspect in writing,'' she says. ''Either finding your voice as a writer or helping a client find theirs, or with ghostwriting, you learn how to put your client’s voice onto the page, and that’s quite an art.”

In 30 years as a journalist, Erin says she has seen a lot of disruption in the industry, working across print, digital, broadcast and publishing media. She has worked for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Good Weekend, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, Australian Geographic, Marie Claire, Vogue and ABC Radio National. Now her broad experience helps her to write in other people’s voices.

"Journalists have found employment in ghostwriting memoirs and business books for leaders, celebrities, CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs… people who find themselves in the spotlight and might not have the story craft or time to sit down and write 75,000 words. They can turn to a professional writer to help them tell their stories,” Erin says.

“Ghostwriting takes lots of different forms. It can be as simple as writing a blog post or a LinkedIn post, a quote on behalf of a CEO where you're essentially writing in that CEO's voice.”

In 2006, Erin’s work in the promotion of multicultural issues earned her an Australian UN Media Peace Award. She’s a two-time finalist for the same award, as well as a Walkley Award finalist.

“I have a ‘do no harm’ philosophy,” Erin says. "When I first went freelance, at about 30, that became my ethos for jobs that I would take on, journalism that I would do, clients that I would work with. Anything I did had to have a positive social impact.”

"A lot of my work has been grounded in social justice, social advocacy, social issues. And so it is very gratifying to be awarded for that kind of work because you can grind out that work, day in day out, year in year out and not get a lot of recognition or thanks.”

Through Good Prose Studios, her writing and editing consultancy business, Erin trains writers of all kinds in story strategy and narrative development. Good Prose Studios deal with any kind of written content including book-editing and corporate storytelling, and offer coaching and workshops for writers.

“We’re educating people about the core craft elements of storytelling, which we know innately, but we often miss the obvious things when we’re writing creatively," Erin says.

Erin is a lecturer in journalism at the University of Sydney, mentoring the next generation of storytellers.

“Teaching is a really valuable part of my practice as a journalist. I always find that I learn more through my teaching than ‌maybe even the students do," Erin says.

"The stories of our region are very important, and they can often get lost in metropolitan and national news organisations".

“We're at a‌ particularly interesting point in the development of news, storytelling and information … gathering and sharing. AI and copyright are two burning issues. We're seeing the demise of local newspapers and we're now seeing the rise of other news sources. You can either be scared by that or you can embrace it.

"We will always be storytellers. Human beings are hard-wired for storytelling… information gathering and sharing of news is fundamental to who we are. We just will continue to do it in different ways."

Erin spent two years getting to know former Miss Australia, gangland girlfriend and convicted drug trafficker Felicia Djamirze, working as a ghostwriter on Felicia’s biography, Accessory, released in June.

“We've had a remarkably successful partnership,” Erin says. ''We have each trusted each other, and we've each stayed in our lane. She has respected my expertise, and I have respect for her story.

"What was really helpful when I was working with Felicia was the work done off the clock. I went to events, I went to a birthday party, just hanging out, and it gave me an understanding of her worldview, her lens, where she was coming from, and that then made it easier to step into her shoes to tell that story.

“I gathered all the data and wrote the bulk of the book, and then Felicia came in as the editor in effect – saying ‘you know what… I wouldn't call the police the police. I would call them the cops or the pigs.”

Erin says Felicia Djamirze’s story is a reminder not to judge a book by its cover. Felicia grew up in 1990s Blacktown, a community affected by addiction and family violence. She went on to become Miss Australia three times. In 2017, Felicia was convicted of drug-trafficking offences, having admitted involvement with the Queensland bikie gang her then partner was part of. In the aftermath, Felicia retrained as a counsellor and advocate for mental health and women’s justice.

“Felicia is a beautiful woman, and she’s lived on the wrong side of the tracks. She gets judged on both of those things – her beauty and [her background]. We need to look beyond what we see at face value,” Erin says.

“Her story is one of redemption and of second chances. The fact that she's been able to turn her life around, study counselling, become a counsellor, become an advocate for women who are dealing with family violence and trauma, is a great achievement, and it was an honour to tell her story."

True Story Festival is an annual collaboration by artistic director Caroline Baum, the South Coast Writers Centre and the Illawarra Flame. Visit the SCWC website to see the program for 2025