EWF 2016 program launched

11 May 2016 Books+Publishing

The program for the 2016 Emerging Writers’ Festival, to be held in Melbourne from 14-24 June, has been announced.

The 2016 festival will open with a ‘Storytelling Slam’ featuring four storytellers performing stories about the best and worst pieces of advice they’ve received. The opening night event will also include winners’ announcements for the Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing and Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.

The centrepiece of the festival will be the National Writers’ Conference for industry professionals, to be held from 18-19 June at the State Library of Victoria. The conference will feature more than 70 speakers participating in a range of panels, discussions and performances. Guests at the conference this year include: Alice Pung, First Dog on the Moon, Omar Musa, Adam Liaw and Chandani Lokuge, among others. Also appearing at the conference are Toni Jordan and Michelle Wright, who will reflect on their Faber Writing Academy student and mentor partnership; and author Sophie Hardcastle and her publisher Vanessa Radnidge in an ‘informal chat’ about the publishing process.

Highlights from the 2016 program include A Room of One’s Own, a full day of workshops, panels and performances in celebration of women in writing; a walking tour exploring the diversity and transformation in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray; a discussion with literary awards judges about the landscape of literary prizes in Australia; and masterclasses on freelancing, programming, criticism and podcasting.

In a statement, festival director Michaela McGuire said this year’s festival is aiming to provide ‘a platform to offer practical, hands-on, no-nonsense advice to creative practitioners’.

To see the full program, visiting the Emerging Writers’ Festival website here.

Category: Local news