Welcome to a special series of episodes, where WestWords Academy alumni interview their favourite creatives.

In this episode, Academy alumni Zohra speaks to Hayley Scrivenor about Hayley's experience writing her award-winning novel Dirt Town as a part of her creative writing PHD. Together they discuss knowing when your novel is finished, working out your writing routine, and tackling the editing process when you're not a natural plotter.

Hayley Scrivenor is a former Director of Wollongong Writers Festival. Originally from a small country town, Hayley now lives and writes on Dharawal country and has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong on the south coast of New South Wales. Dirt Town is her first novel. An earlier version of the book was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize and won the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award.

Zohra Aly writes essays, short fiction and poetry and has been published in various literary journals and anthologies. She has been a guest curator and chair for Boundless and the South Coast Writers Festival and interviewed writers for WestWords.