Weddings are beautiful... but we're also just humans trying to get along!

Jelena Curic is a writer of literary fiction, crime, and comedy. She is also the resident Diva in the Croatian community, singing most weekends. A 2023 Westwords Alumni, her stories can be found in Westwords Bad Western Sydney, Bad Western Sydney. The Second Case, Living Stories the Other City, Short Stories Unlimited Leaving Home Anthology and Written Off Literary Journal. She was also shortlisted for the Born Writers Award 2023 and 2024.

She has read at Bravewords, was a panellist at BAD Crime Festival 2024, alongside Candace Fox and Dinuka McKenzie, and was accepted into the 2024 Accelerator program with Westwords and Parramatta City Council. Her debut novel, Sing To Me, was released in September 2025 through Westwords Books.

Music courtesy of Sean Peter

Emergency Departments - Egg Sacks anyone?

Michael Hayes recently retired from 30 years working as a respiratory physician on the Central Coast of NSW.

He then "stumbled into one of Ado’s writing courses and here I am."

Plenty of academic publications (In vivo quantification of pulmonary beta receptors using positron emission tomography etc etc) but this is my first attempt at writing anything creative.

"One of the joys of medical practice is the amazing stories you get to be part of. I’m hoping to share one of these at Bravewords and just hope I can do it justice." Michael Hayes.

Music courtesy of Sean Peter

Oh, the wild history in every playground interaction!

Born in Singapore, KT Major writes literary fiction, essays and poetry. KT’s stories have won several awards, including most recently the 2025 Louie Award for crime writing. She has been published in lots anthologies and journals, including The Big Issue, Splinter, Verandah, Grieve, and BAD Western Sydney, among others.