Emerging Writers Festival Q&A: Connecting Author Communities

^{Image source: Emerging Writers Festival}

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If you’re a writer in Victoria, you’re no doubt familiar with the Emerging Writers’ Festival. As one of Australia’s most established and well-respected literary festivals, the Emerging Writers’ Festival is all about supporting and connecting writing communities and their audiences. EWF’s flagship festival unfolds each year in Melbourne - happening this year from September 10 to 18 - along with an annual program of events to engage writers of all levels of experience and interest. 

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At FolioFox, we understand how vital connection to community is when it comes to writing. Whether it be through supporting self-published authors on their journey to print, helping creatives discover new networks, or equipping writers with the tools and resources to find their footing in the industry, we know that emerging writers are the foundation to our country’s publishing and reading communities.

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To find out more about the Emerging Writers’ Festival and the support they offer to writers and audiences across the country, dive into our interview with EWF’s Marketing & Philanthropy Coordinator, Henrietta, below!

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Q&A with Henrietta from the Emerging Writers Festival

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Hi Henrietta! Tell us a bit about the Emerging Writers’ Festival and your role at the organisation.

Hi Tracy! The Emerging Writers’ Festival is a leading, national literary festival, by writers for writers. We are the only physical literary festival in the world that is solely dedicated to fostering community for new writers. 

In my current role, I am lucky enough to get to work with EWF’s community to help our organisation thrive in the public eye, with local and national audiences.

How did the Emerging Writers’ Festival start? What gap in the writing culture was the festival created with the purpose of filling?

Way back in 2003, EWF began as a small zine fair hosted by our friends at Express Media, a local youth literature organisation. A few short years later, we became our own not-for-profit festival organisation, running annually to serve the ever-growing community of developing writers in Melbourne and eventually on the national scale we operate today.

EWF has a long history of servicing industry gaps in Australia’s literary landscape. This extends from our remit to uplift new voices to our Digital Writers’ Festival which started in 2014 - and was one of the first writers festivals to take place solely online. A few years ago we folded the DWF format into our flagship festival to create the hybrid format that allows us to reach emerging writers across the continent. 

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How does EWF help to connect writing communities with their audiences throughout the festival?

The wonderful thing about working with the writers we do is that they may have several books out, or they could be a debut author, or they could have never published anything before and be making their first ever festival appearance. And these people could all be appearing at the same event!

Providing this level playing field, I find, lends itself to a really unique access point to Australia’s creative industries. It breaks down the hierarchy of publishing and strips away PR facades for audiences, allowing people to take in new ideas that they may not have had a chance to access before, without prejudice.

Letting audiences connect with writing and writing communities on this accessible level is part of the reason EWF’s wonderful community remains so vibrant and engaged with each other.

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Why does EWF place an emphasis on supporting writers that are emerging in their craft, rather than established writers?

As the industry gets tougher to break into, it’s so important for new writers to feel that they have a friendly space to connect with each other, as well as share their ideas off and on the page in workshops, at reading events, and in the crowd of a panel event. Being able to provide this space for connection as a leading festival in the industry is something EWF really prides itself on.

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In what ways does the festival act as a meeting point between writers, readers and the publishing industry?

As part of offering professional development in the festival, we work with many publishers and industry organisations each year. These professionals run masterclasses, panels, workshops and more – exclusively at our festival! This means that EWF writers and readers get that exclusive access to the publishing industry in all its facets, across traditional and self-publishing.

While the festival part of EWF comes to fruition each year in September, there are also year-round events and opportunities for emerging writers. Tell us about some of these opportunities and how they help support writers.

You’re right! We run a handful of national literary prizes - including the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers with Hachette Australia and the Speculate Prize for Emerging Writers with RMIT University. These prizes, and the other opportunities we run like fellowships and Masterclasses, provide important opportunities for all writers looking to engage with our organisation’s work, not just the ones who get to appear in our festival.

What do you think makes EWF such a significant event on the annual cultural calendar, especially in the current literature and creative industries climate?

As someone who enjoys attending the festival outside of also working there, I think it’s really special to have a space that is dedicated to platforming ideas from fresh voices and a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. What’s great about hearing emerging writers share their ideas with each other is that attending an event at EWF doesn’t feel like you’re listening to the author delivering their PR-sanitised proclamations; it feels like a real conversation with a friend. It’s a very unique and welcoming space for every kind of creative.

There’s no other festival in the world that does what we do, how we do it, and the calibre of writers who have found their voices with us over the last 23 years - from Christos Tsiolkas, Jane Harper to Maxine Beneba Clarke and more - goes to show just how important creating community space for new writers is in Australia.

What are some of the stand-out events from this year’s program that attendees should check out during the festival?

Well, I won’t give away too much about this year’s festival just yet. But our National Writers’ Conference, which is hosted at The Wheeler Centre and streamed nationally, is returning to this year’s festival. It’s a chance for writers to get an insight into the publishing world and hear from industry professionals on topics like structure, pitching, self-publishing and more.

If audiences want to see our full program of events when it goes live, they can tune in to our Program Launch streamed nationally and hosted at The Wheeler Centre on Wednesday 5 August, 6:30PM AEST.

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A huge thank you to Henrietta from the Emerging Writers’ Festival for kindly answering our questions for this Q&A. We can’t wait to attend EWF this September 10 to 18 and engage with the local writing community of indie authors and readers. 

If you’re interested in checking out some of the incredible events that the Emerging Writers’ Festival has in store for us this September, make sure to pop over to EWF’s website for the full program of panels, workshops, talks and presentations from August 5. Keep up to date on everything EWF is doing year-round by following them on Instagram.

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