Programs - Adult
Learn English with Nepean Community College
Who: Adults with beginner and intermediate English speaking skills.
When: Thursdays 15 May - 3 July
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: Free.
Are you interested in improving your English skills? Join us for this 8-week course with Nepean Community College (RTO #1223) for beginner or intermediate English speakers. The course will run for 8 weeks from Thursday 15 May to Thursday 3 July 2025. Registering is confirmation of attendance for those 8 weeks.
On registration, participants must visit Nepean Community College between 12-14 May, 9am-5pm. Please bring along a form of ID such as a Driver Licence or Medicare Card to create a Unique Student Identifier for class.
This training is funded by the NSW government for citizens/permanent residents, or those with a humanitarian or refugee visa. Tea, coffee and light refreshments provided. Please advise us on 4732 7891 if you have accessibility requirements for this program.
Level 1 (Beginner)
9.30 - 11.30am | Course Code: VU22386 - Engage with texts of limited complexity for personal purposes
This course for beginner English speakers will focus on developing sentences, basic spelling, identifying audiences, comprehending formal texts and understanding abbreviations. Activities include reading formal letters and showing comprehension, developing your own messages, finding specific information, using a website to find information and identifying visual cues.
Click here to book for Level 1
Level 2 (Intermediate)
12 - 2pm | Course Code: SWERWT001 - Read and write simple social texts
This course for intermediate English speakers covers vocabulary growth, sentence structure, reading, comprehension and creating texts. Activities will include bilingual dictionary/vocab lists, reading texts to understand and identify certain characteristics of characters, identifying different kinds of text and their audience and creating personal texts for social interaction.
Click here to book for Level 2
Come and Try - 3D Modelling
Who: Adults 16+
When: Wednesdays 19 March - 30 April | 6-7.30pm
Where: St Marys Library
Tickets: $10 per person. Bookings are essential due to equipment availability.
Learn about the exciting world of 3D printing and create a custom keychain to be 3D printed and collected after the workshop!
Discover the fundamentals of 3D printing, develop skills in designing digital models in a 3D space, then get creative as our enthusiastic staff guide you through creating your first 3D model in TinkerCAD.
Please note: As 3D printing is a slow process your 3D creation will not be printed on the same day, however you will be contacted following the workshop when your creation is ready to collect.
Basic computer and mouse skills are recommended to participate in this workshop.
Living Stories Workshop: 16+ years
Who: 16+
When: Tuesday 22 April | 5.30-7pm
Where: Peter Goodfellow Theatrette, Penrith City Library
Tickets: Free. Bookings are essential.
Do you love writing? This workshop is for you.
Join our free creative writing workshops hosted by WestWords and WestLit Libraries. Learn the skills you need to craft a short story and poem in these workshops hosted by professional writers.
These workshops are held as a part of the 2025 Living Stories Western Sydney Writing Prize. In its 5th year, Living Stories is open to residents of Western Sydney and Wingecarribee Shire, offering an opportunity at publication and cash prizes from a pool of over $12,000.
This year, participants are asked to respond to the theme: Only I can say. Write your entry at our workshops. Then choose to submit for your chance at a cash prize and publication!
Entries, either a short story/narrative non-fiction (up to 500 words) or a poem (up to 25 lines) and are open to residents from the 14 LGAs across four age groups: 10 - 12 years; 13 - 15 years; 16 - 18 years; and adults (18+).
To enter, and for more information, please visit: www.westwords.com.au/living-stories
Living Stories is presented by WestWords, WestLit Libraries, Create NSW, the James N. Kirby Foundation, Arab Bank Australia, and Australian Catholic University.
The 16 years and over workshop will be facilitated by Will Kostakis.
Presenter Bio
Will Kostakis writes for young adults. First published at nineteen, he is best known for writing whip-smart comedies that break (then mend) hearts. We Could Be Something is his latest novel. It’s a humorous yet heart-rending look at family, fame and falling in love. It won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature, and was shortlisted for the Victorian and New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the Queensland Literary Award.
A workshop for 10-15 years is also available.
Tea, coffee and light refreshments provided.
Please advise us on 4732 7891 if you have accessibility requirements for this activity.
Come and Try Yoga
WHO: 14-25 year olds
WHEN: Wednesday 23 April | 6-7pm
WHERE: Peter Goodfellow Theatrette, Penrith City Library
TICKETS: $10 per person. Bookings are essential.
No experience or equipment needed for this class. Just wear comfortable clothing that you can move in.
Suzanne Ellis is a fully qualified Yoga Teacher, Yoga Therapist, Naturopath, Nutritionist, Somatic Exercise Yoga Coach and Meditation teacher.
Please advise us on 4732 7891 if you have accessibility requirements for this activity.
Watercolour Earrings Workshop
Who: Adults 16+
When: Saturday 3 May | 10am-12.30pm
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: $20 per person. Bookings are essential.
During this session you will learn the wonders of watercolour with Jennie Deane from Hiccup Art and create sets of earrings ready to wear or gift. Bring your mum for a pre-Mother's Day celebration, come with friends or come alone and treat yourself!
What you will learn:
How to mix and control watercolour
Watercolour washes
Layering and texture techniques
How to create you own earrings
What you will get:
A relaxing session of watercolour
Finished earrings, ready to wear
Encouragement to carry on your watercolour art journey
What to bring:
All materials are provided
What to wear:
Casual - watercolours aren't generally messy but don't wear your favourite outfit
About Jennie Deane:
Jennie Deane is a Blue Mountains based artist. Inspired by her beautiful surroundings, Jennie's most recent body of work is exploring lookouts and landscapes. In her latest book 'LOOKOUT' Jennie works with pen and watercolour as well as experimenting with a broad range of mediums. As well as creating herself, Jennie also teaches classes and workshops to encourage others to start their own artistic adventure.
Tea, coffee and light refreshments provided.
Please advise us on 4732 7891 if you have accessibility requirements for this program.
Author Talk: Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland
Who: Adults
When: Monday 5 May | 6.30-7.30pm
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: $5 per person. Bookings are essential.
At the age of 31 Jamila Rizvi was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. When she shared her diagnosis with loved ones, good friend Rosie Waterland proposed the tumour eventually be named ‘Jam’s Jerky’ and kept on display in a jar. While this sensitive proposal was politely declined, there was a reason Jamila had turned to Rosie for support. Rosie knows what it’s like to live with a broken brain. After a childhood of abuse and neglect, she had been dealing with significant trauma symptoms for years. Jamila and Rosie soon discovered their broken brains had more in common than they could ever have imagined.
In this brave and honest book they share their parallel experiences of being sick, alongside the advice of those who’ve been there before. Broken Brains offers exactly what both Jamila and Rosie wish they’d had at the height of their illnesses: comfort, solidarity and understanding. Sometimes funny, sometimes brutal, this book is essential reading for anyone who has ever been sick or loved someone who was.
About Jamila Rizvi
Jamila Rizvi is a broadcaster, public speaker and social policy expert, as well as the bestselling author of Not Just Lucky and The Motherhood. As deputy managing director of Future Women, Jamila champions women’s economic security and gender equity in Australian workplaces. She has been named one of Culture Amp’s 25 Emerging Global Culture Creators, included in the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence and won the Women and Leadership Australia Award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership in 2020. At age 31, Jamila was diagnosed with a rare type of recurrent brain tumour, and now lives with complex disabilities due to acquired brain injury.
About Rosie Waterland
Rosie Waterland is an author, comedian, podcaster and public speaker, but mostly calls herself a writer. Her first two books, The Anti Cool Girl and Every Lie I’ve Ever Told, were critically acclaimed, national bestsellers. Her podcasts ‘Mum Says My Memoir is a Lie’ and ‘Just the Gist’ have over 20 million combined downloads, earning her an Australian Commercial Radio Award and Australian Podcast Award. She had written for various TV projects and nationally toured three one-woman shows. Rosie has spent much of her adult years dealing with the debilitating symptoms of trauma caused by prolonged exposure to abuse and toxic stress in her childhood.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Tea, coffee and light refreshments will be provided.
QBD Books will be in attendance. Purchase Broken Brains and get it personally signed.
Please advise on 4732 7891 if you have any accessibility requirements for this event.
Click here to book now
Author Talk: Amanda Hampson
Who: Adults
When: Thursday 8 May | 6.30-7.30pm
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: $5 per person. Bookings required.
Join award-winning Australian author Amanda Hampson to talk about her latest Tea Ladies mystery, The Deadly Dispute.
This delightfully intriguing series has captured readers around Australia, and we are thrilled Amanda is joining us at Penrith City Library.
About The Deadly Dispute
1967: Hazel’s new job at the docks quickly turns perilous when she stumbles into the criminal underworld that lurks beneath the surface. A million in gold coins has vanished from a cargo ship and a dead body washed up. Suddenly, she’s in over her head.
Disillusioned with her life, Betty is led astray by a charismatic new friend and finds herself exposed in more ways than one – until a crisis drags her back to reality.
Living in a high-class brothel, Irene gets wind of a threat that could destroy her livelihood. She takes on the Maltese mafia and becomes involved in a dangerously sticky situation.
When one of the tea ladies disappears, they face their greatest challenge yet, pushing their detective skills to the limit. It will take more than a glass of Hazel’s homemade wine to solve this one.
About Amanda Hampson
Amanda Hampson has been writing professionally for more than thirty years and is the bestselling author of nine novels.
A runaway bestseller, The Tea Ladies won the 2024 Danger Awards for Best Crime Fiction and was Shortlisted for the 2024 Davitt Awards - Best Adult Crime and the 2024 Ned Kelly Awards – Best Fiction.
Tea, coffee and light refreshments will be provided.
Purchase a book from our QBD Books pop-up on the night to have it personally signed by Amanda.
Please advise us on 4732 7891 if you have accessibility requirements for this session.
Sydney Writers' Festival - Jock Serong: Cherrywood
Who: Adults
When: Wednesday 21 May | 6.30pm
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: $5 per person. Bookings required.
What connects an impulsive Scottish industrialist in 1916 Edinburgh and a frustrated lawyer dropping into the pub for a bottle of wine in 1993 Melbourne?
From multi-award-winning author Jock Serong comes Cherrywood, an imaginative, darkly playful and deeply meaningful delight; a novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention. Join Jock Serong in conversation with Amy Sambrooke.
About Jock Serong
Jock Serong is the author of seven novels. He is also the founding editor of Great Ocean Quarterly and his non-fiction work appears in publications from The Guardian and The Monthly to Surfing World and Patagonia's Roaring Journals. Jock writes for the screen and teaches writing to rooms that are sometimes filled with judges and sometimes prisoners. He is a board member of Melbourne's Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. His latest novel is the urban fairytale Cherrywood.
About Amy Sambrooke
Amy Sambrooke is a creative producer and facilitator and manages the professional development masterclass program at Varuna, the National Writers' House. Formerly the Creative Director of Varuna and the Blue Mountains Writers' Festival (2017–2023), Amy has held senior roles in program leadership, education and communications in the arts and in public policy. Amy started her career as a producer at ABC Sydney and is a graduate of Macquarie University and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Tea, coffee and light refreshments will be provided.
QBD the Booksellers will be there. Purchase one of Jock's books to have it personally signed.
Please advise us on 4732 7891 if you have accessibility requirements for this session.
YA Author Talk - Tegan Bennett Daylight
Who: Ages 13+
When: Wednesday 28 May | 6pm
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: $5 per person. Bookings are essential.
Join local author Tegan Bennett Daylight in conversation discussing her latest young adult novel How to Survive 1985. How to Survive 1985 is the follow up to Tegan’s acclaimed YA novel Royals which was shortlisted for the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and named a ‘Best Book of the Year’ in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian. Royals received glowing praise from Alice Pung, who described it as ‘A real page-turner of a book, full of vivid characters, intrigue and genuine warmth. The setting is so realistically unsettling, and the teenagers so likeable, that I was hooked from the beginning'.
How to Survive 1985 is a warm, life-affirming story that follows four friends who find themselves thrown back in time to 1985. This sure-fire family conversation-starter looks at how the teens of today would survive in their parents’ era – how do they manage the harsh attitudes and language, the lack of internet, and most importantly, their teenaged parents.
Optimistic and heartwarming, this is Up-lit for today’s teens. In the face of a lot of pessimism about Gen Z and the world they’re inheriting, Tegan explores the positive aspects of Gen Z: their care for each other, their moral fibre, their resilience, and resourcefulness. Gen Z is surrounded by so many dystopian visions of their world and future (in the news as well as books), How to Survive 1985 is a wonderful demonstration of the ways many things have improved. Most notably, sexism, racism and ableism.
Tegan Bennett Daylight is a writer, teacher and critic. Her books include the Stella Award shortlisted Six Bedrooms and the novels Safety and Bombora. She lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two children.
Tea, coffee and light refreshments will be provided.
Purchase a book from our Harry Hartog pop-up on the night to have it personally signed by Tegan.
Please advise us on 4732 7891 if you have accessibility requirements for this program.
Law Week 2025: Lunch and the Law Series with Legal Aid NSW
Who: Adults
When: Monday 19 May - Friday 23 May 2025 | 12pm-1pm
Where: Online Webinar through State Library
Tickets: Free
Topics include:
Parenting arrangements and the law | Monday 19 May | 12pm-1pm
Do you know how parenting arrangements are made after a separation? Hear an experienced family lawyer discuss the new laws about parenting and how parenting orders are made.
Renting and the law | Tuesday 20 May | 12-1pm
Learn all about the new changes to NSW tenancy laws. Hear about the ending of ‘no grounds’ terminations, changes to keeping pets, limiting rent increases and more.
Second hand cars and the law | Wednesday 21 May | 12-1pm
Hear from experts about what you need to know before buying a used vehicle, including your consumer rights if something goes wrong.
Traffic fines and the law | Thursday 22 May | 12-1pm.
Put the brakes on traffic offences. Learn all about traffic offences including what your options are if you receive a fine, what to expect at court and alternatives to fines.
Mobile phones and the law | Friday May 23 | 12-1pm
Nearly everyone has a mobile phone. But do you know your rights and the laws related to mobile phones? When can you use a mobile phone while driving? Can you record other people in public? Can people film you? Can you secretly record a phone conversation? Do you have to hand your phone to police if they ask? What can you do if you think someone is tracking your phone?
Click here to find out more
Book Clubs
Second Tuesday Book Club
When: Second Tuesday of the month | 10.30-11.30am
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: Our group is currently at capacity.
Third Tuesday Book Club
When: Third Tuesday of the month | 2-3.30pm
Where: Penrith City Library
Tickets: Our group is currently at capacity.
Join one of Penrith City Library’s book clubs and discuss great reads with a group of fellow literary lovers. Places are limited.
St Marys Knitters
Who: Adults
When: 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month | 10am-12pm
Where: St Marys Library
Tickets: Free. Bookings not required.
Bring along your knitting, crochet or other craft project, and work away with other like-minded creators at St Marys Library. The group meets twice a month for a chat, cuppa and to work on their latest project. This free group meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month.
Tech Help
Need help with learning to use your smartphone, tablet or laptop?
Want to learn to send messages and emails, or to shop and pay bills online?
Book a one hour, one on one training session with a Tech Mate from the Digital Literacy Foundation on Tech Tuesday at Penrith City Library, or Web Wednesday at St Marys Library.
Tech help topics may include:
- creating and using an email account
- creating documents
- attaching files and photos
- using subscription library resources
- downloading and streaming content like movies, books, and audiobooks, and more.
- Using your device
- Searching the Internet
Bookings are essential call 4732 7891 or contact us at my.penrith.city or see one of our friendly staff at any of the library branches.
Please bring your device and passwords with you. We look forward to helping you!
Visit the Library’s technology page for T&Cs HERE
Digital Literacy Foundation provide free tech help while supporting you in your digital learning journey.