Great Southern writers celebrated at Albany Town Hall launch of Voices of the South 2025 anthology

Voices of Great Southern writers are again being raised high with the launch of this year’s Voices of the South anthology to celebrate local writing talent.

The second edition of the popular anthology, Voices of the South 2025: Albany-Kinjarling and the Great Southern includes 83 pieces of poetry and short stories from 56 local writers.

Editor Roger Guinery said for many of the authors, it was the first time they had seen their writing published.

“I’m so thrilled for the authors who are published for the first time,” Mr Guinery said.

“It means so much to them.

“They have all dug deep to share their feelings of love and passion, yearning and grief, and their search for happiness and contentment.

“They love our extraordinary environment and shudder at the horrors of war.

“They contemplate truths about migrations, the perils of technology and the medical world, and our modern mental states.

“But they also bring us laughter and satire, philosophical musings and poetry for performance.

“They take the reader to faraway places they have experienced, and the strange worlds they imagine.”

The launch of the anthology will be held on Wednesday night, August 13, at the Albany Town Hall from 7pm. It will include readings from the book by authors, with special awards for outstanding poems and stories presented by supporting community organisations and sponsors.

From the event, $10 of the $11.50 entry ticket, as well as $10 from each book sale, will be donated to the Albany Community Hospice.

Mr Guinery said he was “astonished” by the support and interest in the project, with too many pieces submitted to be able to include them all in the final book.

“Much credit goes to the Albany Creative Writing Group hosted by our library, and Great Southern FM 100.9 for giving me space weekly on Arts Magazine where many local writers have had their first opportunity read their works on air,” he said.

Next year will see the project transformed into an Albany-themed collection, with Mr Guinery inviting short stories, poems, memoirs and thought-pieces based in or about Albany, from both experienced writers and first-timers.

Voices of the South 2025: Albany-Kinjarling and the Great Southern and tickets for the launch event are on sale in Paperbark Merchants in York Street, or online at paperbarks.com.au.