EWF to stage Digital Writers’ Festival in February

The Emerging Writers’ Festival has announced that it will hold a Digital Writers’ Festival in February 2014.

The purely online festival will run from 13-24 February at a new festival website, which went live this week. The festival will be directed by EWF director Sam Twyford-Moore and Connor Tomas O’Brien, whose position is funded by an Early Career Residency Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts. O’Brien is an author and designer, and co-developer of the ebook platform Tomely.

Among the guests already announced for the festival are: Momentum publisher Joel Naoum; editors Johannes Jakob and Steph Harmon; and writers and critics Benjamin Law, Elmo Keep, Bethanie Blanchard and Dan Golding. More guests will be announced in January.

Twyford-Moore told Books+Publishing that the festival will include ‘a combination of live-streamed events, video conferencing and unique individual projects’. He said the festival will publish an ebook as part of the event, and hopes to have an ebookstore to sell titles by festival guests.

‘Creating the Digital Writers’ Festival is an acknowledgement of the strength of EWF’s digital programming—we were the first festival in Australia to introduce a digital stream—while also recognising that our audience are incredibly savvy when it comes to online events,’ said Twyford-Moore of the decision to launch the festival. ‘Unlike EWF, the Digital Writers’ Festival will take place primarily online and allow us to connect Australian writers both nationally and internationally. It’s a huge opportunity for writers and we wanted to give the programming its own unique space. Plus, it’s the writers’ festival you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home!’

The full festival program will be announced in January. For more information, visit the festival website here.

Category: Local news