Support our work this AusArt Day

Thursday 22 October 2026

This AusArt Day, I’m raising support for Voices from the Writers in the Park Archive — a new work of creative nonfiction and funding for live contributors a related podcast series drawn from an extraordinary archive of Australian literary voices.

Between 1985 and 1994, Writers in the Park brought hundreds of Australian and international writers to the Harold Park Hotel in Glebe for weekly public readings. The surviving collection, now held by the State Library of NSW, includes 438 audio recordings and approximately 500 hours of sound.

I was one of the long-term organisers of Writers in the Park, and this project returns me to that archive more than thirty years later.

Through close listening, archival research, interviews and writing, I’m exploring what these recordings can tell us about Australian literary culture before the digital age: about writers reading their own work, the communities that formed around them, and questions of voice, memory, trust and cultural custodianship.

The project will become a book-length work of creative nonfiction, accompanied by podcasts produced in collaboration with Impact Studios at UTS.

Contributions will help support the independent creative and research work required to bring this material back into public life: listening and archival research, writing and editing, permissions and rights acquisition, and the development of podcast material from the recordings.

What your support will make possible

Every contribution, whatever its size, helps create the time and resources needed to do that work carefully.

[SUPPORT THE PROJECT]

Your contribution will be processed securely through the linked payment service.

Why AusArt Day?

AusArt Day is a national day of giving to Australian artists and arts organisations. On 22 October, people across Australia are being invited to directly support the creative work they value.

If this project — or the preservation and retelling of our literary history more broadly — matters to you, we (me as project leader and with Impact Studios and our supporter at the Mitchell Library, State Libary of NSW) would be very grateful for your support.

Thank you.

Linden Hyatt
Writer and researcher
Voices from the Writers in the Park Archive