Writers Festivals Australia

Young and emerging writers are supported via the annual Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne, Victoria and National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle, New South Wales. Both festivals boast large gatherings of young and innovative writers working in both new and traditional forms including zines, comics, blogging, screenwriting, poetry, spoken word, hip hop music, journalism, autobiography, comedy, song writing and prose.

In 2013/14, a new grant was offered to the major established Australian writers festivals to promote mid-list and Indigenous Australian writers in new and innovative ways. A successful literary roadshow project was developed for the North Coast region by the Byron Bay Writers Festival titled the ‘Five Writers, Five Towns in Five Days Tour’. On board the tour bus were the writers Craig Sherborne, Nick Earls, Samuel Wagan Watson, Ashley Hay and Zacharey Jane. Accompanying the writers to record and recount the tour were filmmaker Tim Eddy and blogger Angela Meyer. The writers visited Tweed Heads, Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Grafton and Lennox Head and conducted a series of lectures, talks, workshops, readings and entertaining pub nights.

As part of the Australia Council’s new strategic plan, one of its aims is to promote Australia as a fearless, culturally ambitious nation. International writers festivals provide a platform on which to do this.

In May this year the Australia and New Zealand Festival for Literature and the Arts was held in London for the first time. Showcasing fifty Australian writers, the festival presented the flourishing contemporary writing scene in Australia, attracting over three thousand attendees over four days. The festival opened to a sellout crowd with a welcome by Maori writer Witi Ihimaera and Australian Indigenous writer Bruce Pascoe, followed by Tim Winton in conversation with Kirsty Lang.

The festival enabled writers to meet new readers, sell books and develop opportunities to promote their work in the United Kingdom and beyond. Some of the featured artists also took the opportunity to attend other events in the region, including the Dublin, Hay and Charleston literary festivals.

These festivals provide wonderful opportunities to build awareness, recognition and markets for Australian writers.

The Australia Council for the Arts provides funding for festivals through its grants infrastructure. Support is available for the promotion of Australian literature and activities that foster greater awareness and appreciation of Australian creative writing.