About Sharyn Munro
Sharyn Munro is a freelance writer as well as an award-winning short story writer and has contributed non-fiction pieces to ABC Radio National’s Bush Telegraph program.
She lives in a solar-powered mudbrick cabin on her mountain wildlife refuge in the New South Wales Hunter Valley. Here she is regenerating her property’s vegetation at a pace dictated by ageing knees.
Mother of two, grandmother of nine, she is also a late-blooming environmental activist at a pace dictated by concern for their futures.
Her first book, The Woman on the Mountain, was released by Exisle Publishing in 2007, and her second book, Mountain Tails, in mid-2009.
Photograph of Sharyn Munro by Scott Hawkins, courtesy of Notebook magazine.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sharyn
I love your first book and have read it several times, I’m now going to purchase your second book and can’t wait to read it. Do you ever come down to Tasmania? You are an inspiration and I hope to follow in your footsteps for a similar life. Are you well?
Lee
Hi Lee,
I am honoured that you have read my book several times and relate to it so much. I’d love to come to Tasmania, as I’ve never been. I just need some funds! If I could organise a few talks that would pay my costs I’d be there tomorrow. Libraries, green groups?
And apart from a few eye worries, I am fine, thanks Lee. Hope you enjoy the new book.
have just read article in Notebook and have ordered your book the woman on the mountain.
can’t wait to get it.
i would love to do just what you have done. must be a sixty thing.
will order your new book too.
regards and hope i can keep in touch…… sylvia
Hi Sylvia,
Yes, that was a good article, although I hadn’t expected Rosamund (the journalist) to write it in 1st person as if I wrote it!
It sounds like you will really relate to my books. Do visit again and leave a comment on the web site when you’ve read it/them. I always appreciate feedback.
Cheers
Sharyn
Dear Sharon
I bought both your books at your talk at Wollombi. I have just finished The Woman on the Mountain which I enjoyed. It’s coverage was wide ranging: your love of your place, the practical difficulties of being there (my chainsaw also is cantankerous but that’s ‘small potatoes’ compared to the myriad of issues that you face), your experience with alternate medicine and food elimination (nightshade family eh), your passion to protect the wider world environment.
And as a very, very amateur writer even, I can relate to your comment at your talk that your place is a source of inspiration, but day to day practicalities present challenges to written output! My experience of living on a rural property is that you can plan your day but the property has its own agenda!
All the very best.
Sharyn – I just noticed that I did not use the correct spelling of your name – sorry – I used by habit I guess, the spelling of our daughter’s name!
Hi Mike,
Of course I remember you. Thanks very much for giving me feedback, which is always appreciated. I’m glad you enjoyed my book; finding a structure, a basic fabric for weaving in all those issues was the hardest part. And yes, the property certainly has its own agenda – fire prevention at present, with such heat and winds and fires in the area.
Hope you enjoy the animal chocolates next!
Hi Sharyn, we met whilst staying at the Pilliga Pottery, such a lovely spot to rest and yarn over dinner enjoying talks about sustaining the environment etc. You mentioned your book the Woman on the Mountain a wonderful read and great to get me started on some very worthwhile ideas.
You mentioned an enviromental magazine and I have lost the name of it would you mind replying so as I do not miss the article on pilliga pottery? Ann &Geoff
Hi Ann & Geoff,
Yes, we had a very pleasant evening there. But I have your address and will be sending you a copy of The Owner Builder magazine when the Barkala/Pilliga article is in, which won’t be until June 2010. Maria, who is on holiday in Thailand, has read the text of the article and liked it.
Cheers
Sharyn
HI SHARYN, I WAS WONDERING IF YOU ARE THE SAME SHARYN MUNRO THAT WENT TO SCHOOL AT ST. JOSEPH’S EAST GOSFORD.SISTER JOSEPH TAUGHT US, SHE ALSO HAD A DOG CALLED DFOR, ARE YOU THE SAME PERSON? SHARYN SHORT WAS ALSO ANOTHER PUPIL IN OUR CLASS. I REMEMBER THAT YOU WOULD WRITE GREAT COMPOSITIONS THAT GOT READ OUT TO THE CLASS. REGARDS MICHELLE PUDIG
Hi Sharyn,
I wrote to you about 18 months or so ago after reading “The Woman on the Mountain”.
I write short stories & poetry & you gave me a few ideas on who to contact. I’m ashamed to say I’ve only just started to get in contact with them after I finished another story & am about to begin another.
I reread “The Woman on the Mountain” as I’m aiming to move to my property in southern Tasmania around this time next year & it’s going to be a new learning curve for me.
I also just finished your “Mountain Tails” book which has further inspired me to make the big move.
What a brilliant & refreshing book!!!
You are a true inspiration to me.
Thank you for your time.
Brendon.
That’s great feedback, Brendon. Thank you for telling me; we all need it. I wish you all the best with both the new rural life and the writing.
Sharyn
Hi Michelle,
Yes we did go to the same school. You were a class behind me I think, so a little younger, and you lived way up on the hill above Gosford; your father worked with Gosford Sandstone?
I remember Sharon (Sharron?) Short and Sister Joseph well, but not a dog.
Thanks for visiting the website.
Hi Sharyn, as you know, I attended your talk at the Belgrave Library on June 24. You painted a beautiful picture of your ‘bushland’ home., and your photos certainly reflected your description and passion of your country lifestyle. You know, Sharyn, I would be like a ‘kid in the candy shop’ taking photos of your lovely property.
You can see a photo I had taken of you during your talk by going to my Blog … http://www.spectrumfmradio.org/photoblog20100600.htm
All the best
John Weeks
Belgrave
Victoria
Hi Sharyn – just read about you in ABC News (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/06/3003669.htm) – it’s great to hear you’re working on coal and I’ll be very keen to read your book when it comes out.
Perhaps we could convince you to get on Twitter?
[Hopefully you won't get confused with another lady in Brisbane who has the same name].