Emerging Writers' Festival 2023
Whether you're heading along in-person in Melbourne or beaming in digitally, this is a must-attend event for word nerds.
Overview
If you're a devourer of books and words, you can look forward to feasting on a hefty lineup of talks, workshops, panels and other literature-loving events when the Emerging Writers' Festival returns for 2023. While the days of all-digital instalments are behind us, the fest won't just be hosting a jam-packed program of IRL sessions — handily, especially for folks outside of Melbourne, a stack of them will also be accessible online.
Running from Wednesday, June 14–Saturday, June 24, this year's edition has events for all varieties of lit-lover and writing enthusiast. Opening night features a session on truth telling by Naarm's Sofii Belling-Harding, Yaraan Bundle, Lay Maloney, Patrick Mercer and Elijah Money; the return of the National Writers' Conference will deliver a day of panels, workshops and pitching sessions; Voiceworks will celebrate its latest issue; and a dinner at Willows and Wine will get you sharing erotica prose and poetry.
For fans of all things spooky, Scream Scenes will tell eerie tales with matching cinema projections at Thornbury Picture House. Sports writing, spoken word, writing TV, intergenerational stories, radical memoirs, the intersection of hip hop and literature: they all get their time to shine, too.
You can also up your own writing skills with an array of masterclasses and workshops — and, for the online crowd, learn about digital ecologies, the ethics of drawing from real life, pitching, researching fiction, genre fiction and more.
