NYWF announces 2025 program

The National Young Writers’ Festival (NYWF) has announced its 2025 program, running 2–5 October on the land of the Awabakal and Worimi peoples in Newcastle, NSW.

To open the festival this year, NYWF’s creative producer Lay Maloney, Red Dirty Poetry Festival’s Laurie May, and journalist Phoebe McIlwraith will speak on the ‘importance of creating space for storytelling, the role of festivals, and the power of writing’. The festival will close with ‘A Reading at the End of the World’ focusing on the question of ‘what comes next?’.

Other reading events include ‘Queer Readings’ and ‘Letters To…’.

Topics covered in panels and discussions include marginality, criticism, world-building, writing about disability, practicalities of the industry, journalism, video games, domesticity and humour.

Creatives featured in the festival include Andrew Sutherland, Alex Creece, Blair Wise, Phoebe McIlwraith, Rafeif Ismail, Felicity Pickering, Lucille MacKellar, Patrick Marlborough, Harvey Liu, Shu-Ling Chua, Jaala Hallett, and Lulu Houdini.

This year’s zine fair, curated by Benjo Kazue, will run on Sunday 5 October at Earp Bros in Newcastle.

‘[The NYWF is] a place to show work, share ideas, and learn,’ said organisers. ‘Our programs are free and made by and for young writers who create across stage, page, web and beyond.’

The 2025 Younger Young Writers’ Program (YYWP) Roadshow will run 22–26 September for writers aged 13–17, and feature events focusing on the publishing world. NYWF has organised young editors, designers, typographers, proofreaders, and printers to assist in creating a chapbook of YYWP participants’ work. The book is slated for its launch on 5 October at the festival.

More information and the full program is available on the NYWF website.

Category: Events Festivals Local news