Wendy's Big Bio
Wendy Beach (she/her) is a ND writer, born in Gosford, Australia in 1970 and lives in Perth. She is a graduate of Edith Cowan University and Curtin University, where she studied Writing and English while working as a copywriter, and then completed a post-graduate teaching degree. Since leaving university she has worked as a Flying Squad Teacher in remote Western Australia and is currently teaching in Perth city. Wendy acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land where she lives, works, and writes, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation and pays her respects to Elders past and present.
Wendy has received several writing awards for poetry, short stories and scripts, and a novel. Her poetry has been read on the air and been displayed on posters on campus and in the community. She has been published in printed anthologies and online journals and e-zines.
Anthologies, Physical Magazines, and Co-Authored Book Publications
2024: "All their Worlds", script, John Gavin Fremantle Roundhouse Anthology
2020: "Two Sacs", Creatrix 3 Anthology
2020: "Sunflowers" SCOPE Magazine
2019: "A Gutted Fish", sonnet, Ros Spencer Poetry Anthology
2017: "Sea Widow's Sonnet", Creatrix 2 Anthology
2017: Three Untitled Poems, Creative Connections Anthology
2016: "Sonnet for a Native Girl", WA Shakespeare Club Anthology
2016: Wendy co-authored/ illustrated "The Adventures of the Belmonsters", a Community Children's Book (Co-operative authorship), which in 2019 won the National Local Government Awards for Arts and Animates.
2014: "Pelican Smile" and "The Visitor", both short stories, were translated into Russian and published in Russia as part of a coffee table collection of short stories by an independent publisher.
Community Engagement
Currently, Wendy is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Wild Whispers Poetry Magazine (Online), which has its first issue coming out in March 2025. Wendy has a strong interest in engaging with the community. Beachie, as she is known to some of her poetry friends, is a co-convener of the Annual Poets Picnic at Kings Park (2022), Queens Park (2023), and Hyde Park (2024). She performed Klingon poetry as part of the Out of this World poetry event at Perth Poetry Club (2024). Through her job as a teacher, she has assisted remote Indigenous girls to publish their haikus in English and their Indigenous language (2023). Wendy also arranged the Poetry on the 998 Circle Route Bus Poetry Workshop (2020). Wendy started the Ruth Faulkner Library Writer's Group, which ran from 2015 - 2021. She has obtained funding for the both the Victoria Park Slam and the Poets in Harmony, Harmony Day event for the City of Belmont (2017). She was the Submissions Manager for the Creatrix Poetry & Haiku Journal (2016 - 2018).
Feature Poet & Launcher of Events
2025: Wendy will be featuring at Perth Poetry Club
2024: Launch Wild Whispers Poetry Magazine
2024: Klingon Poetry and Culture - Out of this Word Poetry
2018: Woman Scream, International Women's Day event
2017: Perth Poetry Club
2017: Vic Park Arts Centre, Sonnet no Soup event
Digital and Other Poetry
Wendy's poetry has been projected on the Yagan Square Digital Tower, the big screen at Northbridge Piazza, the screen in Forrest Place in Perth in 2024 - 2025 and in the Skyline's visual poetry presentation on the big screen in Perth City (2018). "Sea Widow's Sonnet" was made into a poster for Open Day at ECU (2016). "Pantoum for the Birth of Christ", was turned into a Christmas Festival Display poster, City of Belmont (2016).
Novels
Although novels are not Wendy's main writing focus, she has written "The Witch Who Ate Autumn" (YA Unpublished) and "The Night Jasmine", which was commended in the T.A.G. Hungerford Award (2016). She has been working on "The Keep", a Ghost Story based on a Shakespearean Play, since 2021 and enjoying the process.
Online Publications
2025: "An Old Woman", haiku poem, Five Fleas, Itchy Poetry, Feb 6 edition
2025: "Illness", haiku, Duck & Dash, Anti-Haiku Competition, selected for FB publication
2024: "Karrakatta Cemetery" tanka poem, Catchment Literary Journal, Poetry of Place
2024: "Fourteen Apple Pies" poem, Fremantle Library Facebook, in their 31-Day Poetry Challenge for Poetry Month (WA)
2017: "How to be a Poet: In Memorandum of Caroline Sambridge" poem, Creatrix #38, "Pedestal" and "The Peacock", poems, published in Creatrix #37
2017: "Women of Disharmony" poem, The Uneven Floor
2016: "Lessons in Enjambment" poem, The Westerly Literary Magazine, New Creative Edition
2016: "Sea Widow's Sonnet", Creatrix #35
2014: "An Alien in an Alien Land" short story, issue 35 of Dark Eclipse e-zine
On Air
2024: 3RC Radical Radio included "Balance", poem, as one of ten Australian poems broadcasted in the Podcast episode of the 3CR 2024 Spoken Word Radiothon Live Show
https://www.3cr.org.au/spoken-word/episode/spoken-word-radiothon-live
Wendy is preoccupied with the exploration of interconnectedness across generations and over continents, with particular connections to the UK. Her work delves into the ancestral echoes of the past, weaving it with contemporary reflections of the present to create a rich tapestry of time and peoples.
Honours
2024: Highly Commended in the John Gavin Writing Competition, Fremantle Round House, All Their Worlds, Short Script
2022: Wendy was honored to co-edit "Fifty Words for Sand – A History of Live Poetry in Western Australia 1829-2021" by Mar Bucknell
2016: Commended in the T.A.G. Hungerford Award, "The Night Jasmine", novel
2015: Commended Talus Prize, "Sea Widow's Sonnet"
2014: Winner Talus Prize, Short Story, "The Visitor"
2014: Shortlisted William Todhunter Literary Award, Short Story, "Brushstrokes".
Thanks
While at university, Wendy studied: Play Writing with Reg Cribb (Last Cab to Darwin, Last Train to Freo); Creative Writing and Editing, Marketing, Therapy Writing, and Autobiographical Writing with Ffion Murphy and Josephine Taylor; English Literature with Susan Ash; Poetry with Marcella Polain, and tutored by poet Shevaun Cooley; and had wonderful poetry conversations early on with Fay Zwicky. From 2014, Wendy had a long poetry mentorship with David Neilson (XII from Catullus translated, Editor and Illustrator Edwin Morgan's Tales from Limerick Zoo, Author of Sophie Rathenau’s Vienna Mysteries) for many years and ongoing friendship. Wendy has been a regular at the Perth Poetry Club since 2016, which is run by Elio Novello. All of these people have shared their knowledge with Wendy and improved her writing and poetry over the last decade. She is very grateful for their wisdom and the many friendships she has made in the poetry community.