Emerging Writers' Festival 2015

Overview

An all-day event devoted to female writers and freelancers on a SWEATSHOP panel are among the headliners of the just-announced 2015 Emerging Writers' Festival program, taking place in Melbourne between May 26 and June 5.

One of this year's key EWF events, titled #writingwhilefemale, is a female-focused extravaganza made up of panel discussions, live performances and workshops. The all-day event will open with a discussion dubbed ‘Writing While Feminist’, exploring the challenges of expressing feminist opinions in cyberspace, where the proliferation of platforms allows more and more women to speak out, but also enables online sexual harassment and abuse. It's an extremely topical start, riding the buzz surrounding Anita Sarkeesian's recent Australian visit. Other topics to be visited on the day include ‘Schooling Self-Confidence’, ‘Breaking the Glass Ceiling’ and ‘Writing Women’. #writingwhilefemale, to be held on Friday 5 June at The Wheeler Centre (176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne), is just one of numerous festival events concerned with women in writing. In fact, more than half of the artists scheduled to appear are female.

Meanwhile, SWEATSHOP’s panel will take an in-depth look at the lives of freelancers. Are all freelance writers free to work in their pyjamas and indulge in ultra-long coffee dates? Or are they too busy counting their pennies and chasing work? Four experienced freelancers — Sam Cooney, Gillian Terzis, Ellena Savage and Connor Tomas O’Brien — will spill the beans on how they spend their days. The discussion is just one part of the National Writers’ Conference, to happen over the May 30-31 weekend at the Melbourne Town Hall. All six of the festival’s official ambassadors — Oslo Davis, Kylie Ladd, William McInnes, Sulari Gentill and Anna Poletti — will make appearances.

Beyond the chats, there’ll be stacks of live performances, including Translation Nation, which will involve five emerging translators telling parts of a story in Mandarin, Indonesian, Spanish, Italian and Japanese; Travel Slide Night, where stunning photos will be supported with compelling stories (not your average somnolent slide session); and #Selfies, during which eight writers will talk about what their selfies reveal about their inner selves. Festival junkies can also look forward to the return of Amazing Babes and Mixtape Memoirs (a collaboration with the Lifted Brow).

Emerging Writers' Festival runs May 26 to June 5. Check out the rest of the program for yourself right here.