Emerging Writers’ Festival

The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) is back for its 2018 run. Bringing together storytellers from Tuesday, 19 to Friday, 29 June, the EWF showcases the boldest new voices on the writing scene.

 “Language is powerful, and it’s always doing something. Our aim with this program is to provide a bird’s eye view of at least some of the staggering creativity, care and critical rigour that’s happening here in this moment,” says EWF Artistic Director Izzy Roberts-Orr.

This year’s festival is the biggest yet, featuring over 300 emerging and established writers in new spaces across Melbourne’s CBD, Brunswick, Footscray and Dandenong. In the dark, in a chapel, in a backyard, on a boat, and in a new daytime hub at State Library Victoria, witness and experience performances, panels and professional development classes.

The National Writers’ Conference (Saturday 23 and Sunday, 24 June) is the backbone of the festival, covering craft, industry insights and networking for writers of all genres and forms. For the first time at the conference, writers will have the opportunity to pitch to publishers, editors and industry professionals. This year’s ambassadors include Melissa Lucashenko, Isobelle Carmody, Ellen van Neerven, Michael Mohammed Ahmad and Stuart Grant.

EWF’s program is full of quality events, over half of which are free and accessible. Breakfast with Stephanie Lai, Rosalind McFarlane and Saaro Umar in their session ‘The Early Words: Travel Writing and Gender’, or discover the Sweatshop literacy movement based in Western Sydney which is devoted to empowering groups and individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds at the ‘Sweatshop Showcase’ session.

At ‘Speakeasy: Money, Sex, Death’ no subject is off the menu. Defy decorum and delve into delicious ideas, discussions and debates. Each session costs $40 (or attend all three for $100) and includes dinner and roundtable discussions between dinner guests and artists. Money will ponder alternative economies, class and elitism in the arts, and the market price of artistic integrity and truth-telling. Sex will talk erotic writing, gender, fluidity and desire. It’s going to be saucy, consensual and conversational – just the way we like it. And Death will chew over the nature of death – and our ways of living with it. Whose deaths matter? Do we lack death literacy? Who is commemorated or erased in death? How do we ritualise grieving, healing, and celebration after death … and why?

Round out your festival experience with a celebration of the winter solstice at the Further from the Sun party. Come light the touch paper of renewal, and join us around the fire for a night of performance, stories, song and dance.

Emerging Writers’ Festival is a place where creativity and innovation are celebrated, where new talent is nurture and where diverse voices from across Australia are represented. There are so many events to indulge your individually creative minds, so make sure you hit up the full festival program.

Emerging Writers’ Festival
Tuesday, 19 to Friday, 29 June 2018
Various locations
emergingwritersfestival.org.au