Melbourne Writers Festival is committed to creating space for First Nations voices within the Festival program. We celebrate the breadth, depth, and diversity of Aboriginal authors, poets, journalists and commentators through appearances by many talented individuals. In 2018 MWF was proud to have Belong as a cultural partner for the first time, with a strong […]
Melbourne Writers Festival partnered with Study Melbourne to host Me & Melbourne, a storytelling competition for international students. ‘Living Overseas’ by Monica Ferreira Rocha from Brazil was shortlisted in the Vocational Education and Training category and was voted the winner of the People’s Choice Award. Living Overseas by Monica Ferreira Rocha When I arrived in […]
A reflection on the Festival that was by book blogger and MWF18 Digital Storyteller Tracey Allen, aka Carpe Librum. Under the creative leadership of artistic director Marieke Hardy, this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival succeeded in reinventing writers festivals as we’ve come to know them. With an evocative theme of ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, […]
Melbourne Writers Festival is passionate about fostering the next generation of readers through our Schools’ Program, with workshops and opportunities for students to meet Australian and international authors, artists, journalists and more. We also support teachers to share the wonderful world of reading with their students. In partnership with Reading Australia and the Copyright Agency’s […]
Melbourne Writers Festival is passionate about fostering the next generation of readers through our Schools’ Program, with workshops and opportunities for students to meet Australian and international authors, artists, journalists and more. We also support teachers to share the wonderful world of reading with their students. In partnership with Reading Australia and the Copyright Agency’s […]
Mentors play an invaluable role for many emerging writers, a source of inspiration, accountability, and much-needed emotional support. Here, emerging novelist whose unpublished manuscript, The Nancys, was highly commended in the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Rob McDonald, and award-winning novelist whose books include the international bestseller Addition and Our Tiny, Useless Hearts, Toni Jordan, discuss the writing […]
We come to love certain books often because of our attachment to the characters. We talk to Sofie Laguna, author of award-winning novels The Choke and The Eye of the Sheep which are renowned for their compelling characters. Sofie will be teaching how to explore character at a Fiction Writing Workshop at Melbourne’s Faber Writing […]
By Magenta Sheridan After coming in from the cold of Federation Square I was ushered into the dark quiet of ACMI Cinema 1 for my second Melbourne Writers Festival session of the day: ‘Death in the Digital Age’. Radio broadcaster Vanessa Toholka was to lead discussion between Elizabeth Tan, author of the puzzling but brilliant […]
Sally Abbott is the author of novel Closing Down, published by Hachette. Michelle Wright is the author of Fine, a collection of short stories and a forthcoming novel both published by Allen & Unwin. Here, they chat with Faber Writing Academy on how they got their publishing contracts. What were the key turning points in […]
By Public Record Office Victoria They say truth is stranger than fiction. Often there’s no better place to look for a good story than one’s own family tree – the intricacies of which writers Sheila Fitzpatrick, Bram Presser and Henry Rosenbloom will explore in the MWF event Writing Family Histories. For many writers, a good […]
Janet Mock transcends the memoir genre in her new book, Surpassing Certainty, by reminding us of the power of storytelling – and specifically, the power of telling one’s story. By Bhakthi Puvanenthiran Surpassing Certainty is a multicoloured light show of a book. Sold as an early adulthood memoir, but serving as a self-help guide, a trans story […]
By Georgia McIntosh Up until last January, I had never stepped foot in (or really been intrigued, for that matter) in a literary festival or event. Yep. And here I am today – coming off the back of volunteering at the biggest free literary event in the world in India and now interning for a festival […]